Residents: Speed bumps, not sidewalks, needed to slow down speeders

City officials claim no formal requests made for traffic calming on Arroya Vista

SAN ANTONIO – Residents in a North Side neighborhood said they're disappointed that sidewalks are being installed on their street.

They claim they've been asking the city for two years to install speed bumps to slow down drivers who speed in the 1600 block of Arroya Vista Drive.

"A bunch of cars start speeding. They don't stop. Not at night. Not at 1, 2 in the morning," said Megan Valles, who lives in the neighborhood.

Valles and other residents said multiple traffic accidents have occurred in their neighborhood because of speeding vehicles crashing into a neighbors garage, hitting parked cars and trash cans. 

Mary Meek, a resident, said a neighbor was forced to install wooden bollards and reflectors on trees after someone hit their garage.

"It does make me very nervous when my son is outside playing," Meek said. 

Residents said they were left confused when construction for sidewalks started two months ago. They were hoping for speed bumps.

They said they made multiple calls to 311 requesting speed bumps. When the construction started for the sidewalks, they say they called 311 again and were told by the city that the sidewalks were going in as a street-calming factor. 

Paul Berry, spokesman for the city's Transportation & Capital Improvements office, said the city has yet to receive a formal request.

"Within the last two years, TCI has received no applications from residents to conduct a traffic-calming study in this neighborhood. The sidewalks that are being constructed are part of the voter-approved 2017 Bond Pedestrian Mobility and Improvements Project, and have nothing to do with traffic calming. Speed humps are only one method of calming traffic.

"To install speed humps, two-thirds of the property owners in the area must agree to having them installed. Then a traffic-calming study is conducted to see if speed humps or any other traffic calming measure is required. 

"In 2016, we received a request to do a traffic-calming study in this area. At that time, the requesting resident was unable to get the required signatures from two-thirds of the property owners, so a study was not performed. TCI will be glad to consider another traffic study in the area once a new application has been submitted."

Meek said she hopes that whatever happens, drivers will eventually slow down.

"There's too many kids in the neighborhood. We are just worried about someone getting hit," she said.

Read below for more information about traffic calming:

Traffic Calming Handbook by David Ibanez on Scribd

Traffic-calming request application:

Traffic Calming Study Request Form by David Ibanez on Scribd


About the Author:

Sarah Acosta is a weekend Good Morning San Antonio anchor and a general assignments reporter at KSAT12. She joined the news team in April 2018 as a morning reporter for GMSA and is a native South Texan.