Can 100 rubber speed cushions help eliminate cut-through traffic and lower speeds on the streets of Santa Clarita? That's what the city has set out to decide. Santa Clarita has tried speed humps in the past to make local roads safer. But humps are generally too obtrusive to emergency vehicles, delaying their response time to emergencies. When city residents again requested traffic calming to decrease the volume and speed of vehicles on their streets, the City decided to try a pilot program with rubber speed cushions. Speed cushions are a series of small humps installed across the road. The break between the cushions allows emergency vehicles to straddle them without significantly slowing.
Staff began by issuing a request for bids. Three companies' products matched the specs, and the bid was awarded by the city council to Traffic Logix, the lowest bidder. One hundred cushions were purchased from the company.
So far, the rubber cushions have been installed in series of 4 at 17 locations. Volume and speed counts were taken prior to the installation. Two follow up traffic studies will be conducted, one at 3 months and another at 6 months. Once the actual data has been collected, a survey will be sent out to affected residents to evaluate their opinions. The traffic counts and resident feedback will be assessed by the city council, who will then decide if and where the cushions will stay.
While the cushions have only been recently installed, and the council has not yet issued a verdict on whether they will be welcome for the long term, the city is already happy with them. Gus Pivetti, senior Traffic Engineer for the city, commented on the Traffic Logix cushions: 'They're a really solid product. I like that they are made from recycled rubber and that they can be installed and removed easily. We were able to do the installation with our in house crews, who found the system of interlocking the units and bolting them down extremely easy to use.'
The initial test locations were chosen based on resident complaints. The neighboring streets were then assessed to determine where traffic would redistribute to. Cushions were placed on those alternative routes as well. In total, the speed cushion installation will affect 1,000 city residents.
It will be six months before the Council decides whether the cushions will stay or go. But in Santa Clarita, the cushions are already making a difference. The city has already received feedback from residents who feel that the speed cushions have improved the conditions on their streets. 'We are very happy with the Traffic Logix products,' said Mr. Pivetti, 'and the company's customer service is really excellent. A company representative actually came down to help us with our first installation.'
Now only time remains to decide whether the cushions are what the city needs for its streets.
