MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Speeding and in some instances, drag racing is plaguing some Memphis neighborhoods. As a solution, the City of Memphis allows residents to submit requests for speed bumps to be installed in their neighborhoods.
There are certain criteria though, that each street has to meet before being considered for speed bumps. People who live in the Normal Station neighborhood know all about the process. Adam Hogue has lived on Echles Street for three years.
Hogue told FOX13 that when he first moved to the neighborhood, speeding was too much of an issue.
“It was very, you know standard little slow neighborhood,” said Hogue.
That was right at the COVID-19 pandemic was crippling the nation. Schools and businesses were closing, so there was less traffic along Hogue’s neighborhood road. When everything started opening up, Hogue told FOX13 that’s when traffic picked up and people were ignoring the posted 30 mph speed limit.
“All of a sudden you saw a lot of speeding. I don’t know if it was students, people getting back to normal, but it became a problem,” said Hogue.
Hogue says many of his neighbors don’t feel safe doing their daily activities like walking pets or just going for a stroll around the neighborhood because of the number of speeders.
“Mowing the yard out here, walking the dogs it’s kind of just one of those things that you say welp, I’m just going to cross my fingers and hope I don’t end up on a news story,” said Hogue.
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Neighbors along Echles street have been trying to get speed bumps installed along the road since 2020. Hogue sent a request to the City of Memphis in June of 2020. Hogue told FOX13 the push for more safety measures along their street intensified after a man was killed in a car accident at Echles Street and Carnes Avenue at the end of August. Neighbors believe speed was a factor.
“When it comes to your doorstep, what are you supposed to do?” Hogue asked. “You file petitions. You enter in whatever information you have to have and you hope that the process comes back to you and you sit and wait until it comes.”
Hogue and his neighbors have been waiting for 2 years to hear from the City of Memphis on if their street will get any speed bumps. Hogue told FOX13 he understands there are probably a lot of requests from other neighborhoods, but he wishes the communication was better.
“We don’t want to blow them up and hit them up and stuff, but you kind of want to get an update every month or every so often,” said Hogue. “Two years go by, you think you might hear something.”
FOX13 decided to get involved and see what answers we could find. In a statement, a spokeswoman for the city told FOX13 that the city does have at least one request for Hogue’s neighborhood. That request is still being reviewed by the Memphis Fire Department and the request is still in the evaluation phase two years after being submitted. FOX13 asked how long the evaluation process usually takes. We haven’t heard back.
For anyone who wants to request speed bumps in their neighborhood, these are the criteria or conditions, your road has to meet according to the City of Memphis’ website:
- Condition 1 – Speed The speed criterion considers the difference between the posted (or regulatory) speed limit and the measured speed of vehicles over a 24-hour period. To be considered, the 85th percentile speed along the street must exceed the posted (or regulatory Speed Limit) by 5mph if the posted Speed Limit is 25mph or below. If the posted Speed Limit is greater than 25mph, the 85th percentile speed must be greater than the posted Speed Limit.
- Condition 2 – Volume To meet this condition, the 24-hour volume must exceed 300 vehicles or the hourly volume must exceed 50 vehicles during a single hour. The 24-hour volume cannot exceed 7000 vehicles. Streets that exceed this volume are considered major collector or arterial streets and not eligible for speed humps.
Condition two deals with the volume of cars on the road. This is what the city’s website says are the exact criteria, “To meet this condition, the 24-hour volume must exceed 300 vehicles or the hourly volume must exceed 50 vehicles during a single hour. The 24-hour volume cannot exceed 7000 vehicles. Streets that exceed this volume are considered major collector or arterial streets and not eligible for speed humps.”
There are some instances where the city will make an exception, the city calls these variances. The city says the “variances supersede the evaluations of conditions 1 and 2.” Here are the variances the city considers:
- Collision Variance A special variance will be granted for any requested segment that has exhibited 3 or more crashes per year over the past 3 years that can be corrected by the installation of speed humps.
- School Zone/Park Variance A special variance will be granted for any request that runs adjacent to a school or park. This variance is limited to the bounds of the school/park property.
- Excessive Speeding Variance A special variance will be granted for any eligible street that exhibits excessive speeding. This variance will override the minimum volume criteria listed in Condition 2 (Volume). Excessive speeding shall be defined by the measured 85th percentile speed exceeding the posted or regulatory speed limit by 10 mph.
The city says that a street must meet both conditions or be eligible for a variance or else the
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