It's neighbor vs. neighbor over Santee speed bumps

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Kristen Green
STAFF WRITER

07-Mar-2000 Tuesday

SANTEE -- Her neighbors fought to get speed bumps installed on Len Street
to slow traffic and protect kids playing in the street.

Now Lisa Carroll is waging her own battle to have them removed.

Carroll, who has undergone two back surgeries and is legally disabled, said
riding over each of the five speed bumps on the street that leads to her
home on Len Way sends a sharp pain through her body.

"Riding over these bumps wears me down. It keeps me from going places I
want to go," she said. "I can't drive in and out without being in pain."

What's more, she said, speed bumps aren't safe because they encourage
children to play in the street. And she worries that they will slow
emergency vehicles.

Carroll's complaints are reverberating countywide as residents take issue
with the speed bumps that have become commonplace on many residential
streets. In El Cajon, residents are trying to ward off humps before they
are installed by leading a door-to-door campaign and threatening to sue the
city.

The issue is a divisive one that pits neighbor against neighbor.

In Santee, Nela Contreras, who also lives on Len Street, suffers from neck
problems. She said riding over the humps is painful.

But Contreras hasn't voted on the issue because she doesn't want to make
anyone mad, particularly her next-door neighbor and good friend, Carroll
Lunsford, who feels strongly that the humps should stay. He knows they are
a nuisance, but he also knows they work.

"I voted to put them in here, and I'll vote until the day I die to keep
them in here," he said. "For the people that can't behave themselves, they
need to be in there."

Speed bump proponents find it difficult to understand why others wouldn't
want the humps. Some categorize opponents as self-absorbed and
anti-children.

"The people who oppose the humps just think children should be kept behind
doors," said Nancy Paulis, an El Cajon mother who wants the speed bumps
installed on Browncroft Way to slow traffic.

But cities are taking a new philosophy on speed bumps by requiring that a
community reach consensus about them before they are installed.

In La Mesa, city officials lifted a speed-bump ban, which had been in place
for more than a decade, because residents asked them to. But city officials
brought back speed bumps only with the understanding that to get them
installed, a community must agree on the need for them.

Santee officials recently have amended their speed-bump policy. It now
requires approval from 75 percent of residents of the street in question,
and 75 percent approval from residents who use the street to get to their
homes. Getting the bumps removed requires a 50 percent vote.

The change was made in December after the speed humps became quite popular.
The city of Santee installed 48 of them last year at a cost of $1,800
apiece. and this year there is a waiting list for them.

City Engineer Cary Stewart says speed bumps are popular because they reduce
speeds on residential streets from 35 mph to about 25.

Tom Luxner, who petitioned to have the speed bumps installed on Len Street
nearly two years ago, said he immediately noticed the difference the bumps
make.

"You can stand out here and you'll see the majority of people slow down,"
he said from his front yard. "I think when you watch traffic slow, that's a
good thing."

But Carroll can't be convinced. She says the speed bumps only slow drivers
that find them painful, and she's asking that they be torn up. The city's
traffic committee rejected her proposal, saying she didn't have signatures
from 50 percent of the affected residents, but she is appealing the
decision to Santee City Council on March 22.

Other Santee residents are worried about emergency vehicles being delayed.
Fire Chief Bob Pfohl said the speed bumps force firetrucks to slow down,
but he said they don't dramatically alter response times because there are
so few of them. And he said the speed humps haven't caused any damage to
the firetrucks.

But Sheila Sarkar, director of the California Institute of Transportation
Safety at San Diego State University, said she is conducting a study in
Encinitas that will show that the speed bumps cause damage to emergency
response vehicles and that they delay response times.

"There are much better traffic calming devices that are more effective,"
said Sarkar, who has designed a 20-foot-wide raised intersection she thinks
works better.

Don Mayo, who lives on Pebble Beach Drive in Santee, considers speed bumps
unconstitutional because they punish everyone who has to ride over them.
There are 13 on his road.

He thinks the city should hire more police officers to enforce speed limits
instead of installing speed bumps.

"I'd like to see every speed bump in the greater San Diego area removed,"
Mayo said. "They are an idiot's solution to a problem because everyone must
suffer because of speeders."