City ranks streets for speed bumps

AUSTIN (KXAN) - The city of Austin is delivering good on a promise made back in January -- speeding up the process when it comes to slowing down drivers in neighborhoods. Now, nearly 40 streets across Austin are a list to eventually get speed bumps and roundabouts.

A 30 mile per hour street in the Agave neighborhood in East Austin is ranked number one on the list. Homeowners and renters have been banding together for a while and pleading with the city to do something about the speeders cruising up and down Sendero Hills Parkway.

"They will come through here like it's a highway, 55 miles an hour plus," said Jack Iffinger who lives on the street.

A while back, Jack says his partner was side swiped by another driver who was trying to go around him while pulling into their driveway.

"If we can have some speed bumps in some key locations to slow some of the people down, I think that would help," said Iffinger.

The city allowed anyone to submit a request for speed bumps and roundabouts. Engineers clocked drivers and counted the number of cars using each one in a 24 hour time period.

A section of Rockwood Lane near Steck and Burnet Road came in second.

"It's always been a big concern that someone will eventually get hit," said homeowner Scott Smith who submitted the request for his neighborhood.

He had heard the road was in the running, and came home Wednesday to find a letter from the city in the mail.

It informed him the project has been funded and said he will be contacted in the coming weeks to set up a meeting with a traffic engineer, design team and project managers.

The total estimated cost of all 38 street projects is about $2.7 million.

Leah Fillion, a spokesperson with the city's transportation department, said streets toward the top of the list will get their projects paid for first. Those toward the end will have to wait until more money becomes available.

For Smith, the good news could not have come at a better time. Two weeks ago, a driver hit his teenage son while riding his bike home from Anderson High School.

"Fortunately he was fine, it just bent his front wheel, but it kind of shook him up," said Smith. "And it just made me realize that what I'm trying to do right now is for the right reasons."

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