The streets of San Jose seem to be getting more unsafe as people take more liberties with their speed control when driving motor vehicles.  The current practice is to call the San Jose Police Department, provide them with time and dates when this is a prevalent problem and then hope that the understaffed department can find time to work the issue.  In many ways it is an incestuous problem since people don't get caught, see other people abusing the system, therefore think that this is the accepted practice.

Many traffic calming mechanism are available, road narrowing ($$$), police patrols ($$$), radar speed signs ($$$), traffic circles ($$$$) to name a few but only one mechanism is permanent, doesn't require someone on-site to monitor, can't easily be ignored by the offender and that is the use of Speed Humps.

The street that I live on had a pedestrian fatality in the early 2000's.  Nothing has changed on the street as far as signage, speed controls or the tendency of people to ignore common sense driving.

While it would be great to have the city put speed humps in place, it is acknowledged that this would also place an large burden on the city.  So why not provide a mechanism where under proper control and permitting, neighborhoods and communities could pool their own dollars to have speed humps installed.  Included, below, are two links that provide some data about the effectiveness of speed humps.

Not every street and not every neighborhood will want to participate, this program would be voluntary by street, neighborhood or community.

By signing this petition, we are asking the City of San Jose to implement a process to allow its citizens to install speed humps on residential streets.  The installation would need to follow guidelines set forth by the city which would include appropriate signage.

Respectfully,

Your Neighbor - Michael Gabler

Study on the effectiveness of Traffic Calming strategies​

Speed Humps discussion from the Institute of Transportation Engineers