Austin residents revolt against planned speed bumps, say could do more harm than good

KXAN
by: Sam Stark
Posted: May 10, 2023 / 02:59 PM CDT
Updated: May 10, 2023 / 07:18 PM CDT

AUSTIN (KXAN) – Residents in a northwest Austin neighborhood are banding together to stop the Austin Transportation Department from putting in several speedbumps on a busy street. 

The neighborhood is in a part of Austin that is at an elevated risk for wildfires, and Greystone Drive, where ATD plans to add the bumps, would be used as an evacuation route for some during a natural disaster event, neighbors told KXAN. To stop the project, nearly 650 neighbors from around 550 separate homes signed a petition. 

“What are you trying to do here? You know, if the goal is to reduce accidents, you can do that with neighborhood awareness,” Michelle Estrada, a resident in the neighborhood, said. “For the highest [fire] risk portion of the neighborhood, you would have to go through five speed bumps,” she continued. 

Estrada said many neighbors were unaware of ATDs plans until several concerned residents started the petition to slow down ATD. Through their campaign, the residents convinced ATD to reduce the number of speed bumps from 15 to nine, only putting them in parts of the road with no sidewalks. 

“The City circled back with all feedback and came up with an updated proposed speed management plan. This updated plan aims to address feedback while still addressing the egregious speeds on Greystone Drive,” staff wrote in a fact sheet for the residents.

ATD said its plan in the northwest Austin neighborhood is to reduce speeds on Greystone Drive to decrease the likelihood of injury or fatal crashes. The effort supports the City of Austin Vision Zero plan, per the fact sheet, which aims to reduce people hurt or killed in crashes to zero with street improvements, policy changes, enforcement and education.

Estrada did some digging. She said that while she found there were crashes on the road, there have been no fatalities. “So if [reducing traffic fatalities] is their goal, they’ve already accomplished it,” she said. 

Though there have been no fatalities on the street, Anna Martin, the Assistant Director of the City of Austin Transportation and Public Works Department, said that Greystone Drive ranked high on a list of residential roads that pose safety concerns.

“We collect speed data — that is how fast people are going, how many people are going ten miles an hour or more over the speed limit. And we also look at the context of the street. [We ask], ‘Are there homes facing the street? Are there sidewalks? Have there been crashes in the area?’ And with all that information we put together a ranking system,” Martin said. “Greystone actually ranked 11th out of 375 streets that we looked at.”

Still, Estrada thinks instead of adding speed bumps, ATD could trust that the community can adjust its driving to make it safer through a campaign, which would quell concerns about the bumps posing a threat in a fire event.

Martin said that her organization still plans to go through with adding the nine speed bumps, but she hopes the adjusted ATP plan feels more balanced to community members while addressing safety concerns. She also did not share Estrada’s worry that speed bumps will get in the way during an emergency situation.

“In the event of an emergency, when we’re trying to evacuate all residents from an area, they’ll be doing so at the speed limit or below,” Martin said. “Trying to move quickly down the residential street in an emergency is pretty likely to create another emergency,” she continued.