Traffic trouble: A paving crew recently installed seven new speed cushions on Southampton Road between the Roosevelt Boulevard and Endicott Street. Hundreds of citizens have flooded Facebook with complaints. WILLIAM KENNY / TIMES PHOTO
Everyone seems to agree that traffic in Somerton gets out of hand sometimes. Some say it’s more like all of the time. But there apparently are a lot of different, even conflicting ideas about the solution.
Countless contrasting views of common sense began to surface about a week-and-a-half ago when a paving crew began carving up the Southampton Road asphalt to install seven new speed cushions between Roosevelt Boulevard and Endicott Street.
What’s a speed cushion, you ask? Think speed bump without the bump, a so-called “traffic calming” device that is supposed to allow motorists to maintain the posted speed limit without carving up their undercarriages or twisting their suspensions into a pretzel.
Within days of their installation, dozens of citizens picked up their telephones to call the city or the offices of City Councilman Brian O’Neill, who endorsed the road modification. The Streets Department is in charge of the citywide speed cushion program.
Hundreds more, perhaps thousands, used social media to comment - — primarily the Somerton Civic Association’s Facebook page. The vast majority of comments were critical of the cushions, which can also be called “humps” or “tables” merely to distinguish them from their dreaded cousin, the speed bump.
Not relying on Facebook alone, the Northeast Times polled a few Somerton residents after a meeting of the neighborhood’s civic association last Thursday afternoon. The group met at Walker Lodge on Southampton Road, ground zero for the controversy.
“I don’t want the speed bumps,” said Karen Ojeda, obviously referring to the newly installed traffic devices. “I live on Endicott Street. I go through there 20 times a day. I have a ’98 Honda. It’s gonna hurt the suspension. And with the traffic on the Boulevard, people get stopped and they get backed up morning and night.”
“If you want to do something, put a stop sign at Kovats (Drive) and Southampton,” said Phil Ferrara. “People complain about getting out of Endicott, at least they have a stop sign there.”
Others weren’t so opposed to the concept. Resident Al Hoffman doesn’t think the speed cushions go far enough to force motorists to slow their roll.
“They’re too low. It’s very easy to go over them,” Hoffman said. “(But) they’re an improvement because they make traffic go slower. I think they need to expand it to near the (Boyle) Playground.”
Judging by the enthusiasm of leaders in the Streets Department and the councilman for the new and burgeoning speed cushion program, Hoffman may get his wish. Within the last several months, crews have installed the devices at several Northeast locations and elsewhere in the city. Richard Montanez, the city’s chief traffic and street lighting engineer, said that East Falls has some, as does Chestnut Hill. In the Northeast, there are humps on Medford Road in Parkwood, Winchester Avenue in Winchester Park and Susquehanna Road in Fox Chase. Somerton has other speed cushions, too, along Station Road near the Somerton Train Station.
“Somerton got two separate speed cushion areas and they counted it as one. There have been a ton of requests from people who want them on their streets,” O’Neill said. “I’m thrilled the streets commissioner gave Somerton such a high priority.”
Montanez described the devices favored by the city as shorter and wider than a traditional speed bump. The cushions are three inches tall at their highest point, rising and falling on gradual inclines. They are at least 10 feet wide and designed so vehicles don’t have to stop on a dime and can maintain legal speed. On Southampton Road, the speed limit is 25.
There are gaps in the humps spaced at a width to allow large emergency vehicles like fire trucks to pass at higher speeds without taking a jolt. The gaps are generally wider than the wheels on a standard car or small truck.
Police are emergency responders, too, and have standard-sized vehicles. But Philadelphia police union leader John McNesby doesn’t foresee any serious problems.
“I think they’re a positive thing,” said McNesby, who lives in Somerton. “They slow traffic down. It’s safety for kids around the ball fields. It’s a good thing all around.”
Although it takes only a couple of days to install them, people shouldn’t have been surprised about the sudden appearance of the devices on Southampton, according to Somerton Civic President Seth Kaplan. Last September, Streets Commissioner David Perri attended the monthly SCA meeting and said that the city was studying the use of speed cushions on Station Road and other spots around the city.
Two months later, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation allocated $1 million in proceeds from the Automated Red Light Enforcement Program to the city for the installation of “traffic calming devices such as speed humps and signage.”
Last April, O’Neill said during the monthly Somerton Civic meeting that he had been consulting with Perri about installing speed cushions on Southampton Road.
“These speed cushions were discussed at various meetings with the streets commissioner and I encourage individuals to be proactive and attend meetings so their voices can be heard on these types of issues,” Kaplan said.
This is not to say that more couldn’t have been done to involve neighbors in the process. In response to public criticism, the Streets Department is adopting a new protocol where it will require the signatures of most residents of a block before it installs speed cushions in front of their homes.
O’Neill and Montanez agreed that people seem to want the traffic calming devices in front of their own homes, but not anyplace they use to commute. It’s like a reversal of the old “not in my backyard” concept.
“The calls we’re getting now are people from Somerton who want them on their streets,” O’Neill said. “The (negative) calls we were getting were from people based on their first experience. … I think it’s something that takes getting used to. It’s a driving behavior change. The ultimate goal is safety and you have to rely on the traffic engineers.” ••
