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On Tuesday, a contingent of residents from Edgewood Avenue spoke at the LaGrange City Council work session asking the city to place speed humps on the road to slow down traffic.

The residents stated that they have been battling the issue for many years, and people continue to speed down Edgewood Avenue, causing wrecks, running over mailboxes, and nearly hitting houses and children.

They said that they can no longer allow their children to play outside because people speed so badly that wrecks literally end up at their front doorsteps or come within an inch of hitting a child.

It’s not the first time residents from the neighborhood have asked for speed humps, but as City Planner Mark Kostial outlined, there is a process to go through for approval of speed humps because they tend to be noisier and louder than one imagines. The standard concrete ones are also expensive, and need to have multiple placed in a row to be effective. 

Kostial added that multiple speed studies have been done on the roadway in recent years, and the average speed is around 36 mph. Edgewood’s speed limit is 30 mph and policy only recommends speed humps if the 85th percentile speed is 10 mph over the posted speed limit.

Edgewood Avenue did have 12 wrecks reported in three years, but none of the reports indicated speed was a factor, Kostial said.

There is also a petition requirement to the city’s speed hump policy where the requesting party is asked to petition the neighborhood. All of the residents that live adjacent to the speed hump must support the installation and 80% of the overall residents on the road would also have to support the installation. 

Kostial said Barge Design Solutions and other professional engineers typically do not endorse the installation of speed humps because the noise component generated by speed humps and rumble strips is often overlooked.

“That’s why this particular policy was crafted in such a way that, if there is going to be one in front of your home, you need to know about them, and you’ve got to approve it,” Kostial said.

The residents said that they have done petitions in the past in support of speed humps but nothing has been done.

Kostial did note that, while this is the city’s speed hump policy, ultimately it’s up to the city manager’s discretion to place them. Assistant City Manager Bill Bulloch said if the city council directs them to place the speed humps, they would do so, regardless of the policy.

Councilman Mark Mitchell noted that the cost of traditional concrete speed humps is high, but recommended staff look into placing smaller speed bumps that can be metal or even rubber.

“Let’s look at it and evaluate,” Mayor Jim Arrington said. “What I’ll tell you is, we’re going to do something, and we’ll see what we end up with. We’ll let them go back over there and reevaluate, knowing that the council is open to putting those speed humps in the road, and let’s see what we can come up with.”