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Calming the Cars
What Folks are Saying...
Some Athens-Clarke County homeowners want
to see stronger enforcement of speed limits in
their neighborhoods—and to see UGA “better
educate their students how to drive in Athens,"
ACC Transportation & Public Works Director David
Clark told a committee of ACC Commissioners
July 18. That's what Clark heard from the public
about a proposed traffic-calming program that
might charge citizens half the county's cost for
installing speed humps in their neighborhoods.
The humps are popular, but cost about S4000
each to install, Clark said.
The county's three movable radar trailers
(that show drivers how fast they're moving) are
also popular in neighborhoods, Clark said, and
there are permanent signs that can do the same
thing. And drivers do tend to slow down—at
first, but then the speeds "creep up" again.
"It certainly doesn't have a long-term kind of
impact," he said. And although citizens often
ask for more police enforcement of speeding in
their neighborhoods, ACC Manager Alan Reddish
wasn't so sure citizens really want that. People
who live in the neighborhood will get ticketed,
too. he said, and then they'll complain about
that. "If you don't live on my street, then you're
'cut-through' traffic in a lot of peoples’ minds,"
he said. "You might be going a little faster than
you think in your own neighborhood," agreed
Commissioner Alice Kinman.
Since the county can't afford to put speed
humps everywhere (and some people don't want
them), 75 percent of the homeowners who live
within 1000 feet should have to favor them,
Clark's department proposes—and they should
also bear half the cost. The number of residents
who would split the cost could vary widely from
one neighborhood to another, Clark told Flagpole.
but costs would be unlikely to exceed S200 per
homeowfier. But at a May 31 public meeting on
the proposal [City Pages. June 7). that wasn't
what citizens wanted to hear, he admitted: “They
don't want neighborhoods to pay at all," Clark
said. On the other hand, if the county pays the
whole cost, "you're not going to see much work
done." Commissioner Tom Chasteen told the
committee, because money for speed humps is
limited.
The proposal (which commissioners may ap
prove or alter in September, and will discuss at a
work session Aug. 8) also would require eligible
streets to average at least 750 vehicles a day,
with average speeds over 35 miles per hour.
(If traffic is going slower than that, the humps
won't slow it much, Clark said.) Neighborhoods
willing to pay 100 percent of costs could get
speed humps right away, Clark proposed. He said
renters should not be polled about installing
speed humps, because they don't have a long
term stake in their neighborhoods. And "traffic-
calming" measures other than speed humps (like
narrowed roadways, or obstructions that drivers
must steer around) should be considered, he
said, although residents usually want the speed
humps.
"The most effective way to slow traffic on
Springdale is to park cars on both sides of the
street," wrote one resident in his public com
ments. Another citizen suggested allowing
unlicensed "art cars" that remain parked just to
slow traffic. "I lived on Snapfinger and saw what
a huge [positive] impact speed humps made,"
wrote a resident. "My son and myself have almost
been killed or hit," wrote a Boulevard resident,
who continued, "My cat was killed in front of
us." Said another, "Speeding motorists are creat
ing serious threats to the people in my com
munity!"
Some citizens suggested one-way streets
and others said other departments—especially
the police—should be involved in public forums.
"Consider user fees and impact fees for student
cars," wrote another. "Make it inconvenient to
drive, convenient to walk/ use transit." Others
asked for a wider, "holistic" study on traffic-
calming; transportation director Clark told com
missioners that was "not warranted" and would
only delay solutions. But commissioners could
consider a public ad campaign to educate drivers
("both residents and non-residents") about driv
ing in neighborhoods, he suggested.
John Huie jphuie@speedfactory.nel
Red-Light Cameras
Another One On Its Way
Meanwhile, Athens' first red-light camera on
Lexington Road "has proven to be an effective
deterrent to drivers" since it was installed in
2004, Police Chief Jack Lumpkin told commis
sioners in a recent memo, and the $101,000 in
fines it brought in its first year may help pay for
more cameras at other locations. Not all "techni
cal violations" result in tickets; photos and speed
data are reviewed by police, with tickets mailed
to serious violators. Drivers who are "still doing
a pretty good speed" at the stop line will have
their tag photographed, Captain Mike Shockley
told Flagpole last year. Nearly 1800 tickets were
mailed out during the red-light camera's first
year. Chief Lumpkin wrote, and accidents at the
Lexington Road intersection fell by 21 percent.
Plans call for eventually installing 10 or 15
red-light cameras around the county. Given its
young population, Athens-Clarke "consistently
experiences high levels of complaints" about
speeding and red-light running, Lumpkin said.
County staffers advised commissioners in July
that the next red-light camera should go at the
intersection of Broad Street and Alps Road (a
decision they will make this week). That's fine,
said Commissioner George Maxwell, but he had
other questions about the Broad-Alps intersec
tion at the commission's agenda-setting meeting
July 20. "What are we going to do to eliminate
that traffic congestion?" Maxwell asked. And
Commissioner Carl Jordan wondered how effective
the Lexington Road camera really is at discourag
ing red-light runners. "It is our hope that people
will catch on," he said, but the number of tickets
doesn't seem to be declining. "There are lots of
ways to increase safety at intersections, and this
is just one of them," Jordan added. He suggested
lowering speed limits. That approach, however,
has been a difficult one, according to transporta
tion director David Clark, who has said recently
that he has trouble getting state officials to see
the need to reduce speed limits on major streets
that are also numbered state highways.
John Huie iphuie@speedfaclorynet
Summer Smog
How’s Our Air?
It’s that time of year again: headline stories
in Atlanta decry the city's air pollution and detail
for readers just how bad the air is that they're
breathing this particular summer. With this sum
mer shapinq up to be one of the hottest and
driest of the past several years, the news is bad:
Atlanta has had 25 "smog alerts" so far this year,
days when air forecasters saw a combination of
ozone, fine particulate matter and hot weather
coming together to make the air unhealthy for
sensitive breathers and, some days, for every
body. (The actual number of days observed to be
that bad this year is even higher than the fore
casted one: 33.)
Athens doesn't get its own smog fore
cast—Atlanta, Macon, the Aiken-Augusta area
and Chattanooga do, because they frequently
enough violate the federal eight-hour standard
for ozone, a major ingredient in smog. So what
about Our ozone? We do have some numbers on
that.-thanks to the same folks who put out the
smog alerts from the Air Protection Branch at
the Georgia Environmental Protection Division
(EPD). Atlanta's ozone numbers line up pretty
closely with its smog alerts: 23 times this year,
it has exceeded the eight-hour ozone standard.
Second in Georgia right now—a distant second,
though—is Athens, with five exceedances for
ozone this year. (Next comes Columbus with
three, then Augusta and Macon with two apiece.)
Vehicle exhaust is the main source of the
chemicals that form ozone, but how much of our
ozone comes from our own cars here in Athens,
and how much comes down on the wind from
Atlanta? That's hard to say. "It's probably a com
bination," says Susan Zimmer-Dauphinee, who
puts the data from EPD's Ambient Monitoring
Program on the web at www.air.dnr.state.ga.us/
amp. Of Athens' five ozone exceedances this year,
three have been in June—when they're expected,
that is. On those occasions, hot weather under a
stable high pressure system made for high ozone
numbers everywhere in the state.
Athens' first two exceedances of the year,
however, were in late April, a full month before
even Atlanta had exceeded the federal standard
for ozone this year. How could that happen?
Zimmer-Dauphinee explains that it takes time
under the heat of the sun for the complex chemi
cal faction that forms smog to occur. In sum
mer, for instance, with longei, hotter days and
because of typical wind direction, she says she
often sees high ozone readings on the southeast
side of the metro Atlanta area.
On those two days in April, however, it seems
that ozone was forming in the air en route from
Atlanta to Athens as the sun cooked it up; the
level didn't get high enough to register an ex
ceedance until it arrived here. "Those two days
we saw exceedances in Athens in April, the wind
was coming from Atlanta." Zimmer-Dauphinee
points out.
That wind was bringing smog-forming chemi
cals with it, but of course there were some al
ready here. "What we think was going on," she
says, "was transport from Atlanta, with maybe a
little production in Athens." By midsummer in a
year like this one, however, it's hot enough that
each city in Georgia—and Athens is no excep
tion—does its own part to create its own smog.
Hence Athens' exceedances of fede-al ozone stan-
THIS MMfcKM W@tL»
YOU WERE WRONG ABOUT IRAQ
BEING A CAKEWALK. YOU WERE
WRONG ABOUT HOW L0M6 IT WOULD
TAKE, AMD YOU WERE WRONG
ABOUT TRE PRICE WE WOULD PAY
im both dollars and lives.
by TOM TOMORROW
YOU WERE WRONG TO TRUST THE
PRESIDENT NOT TO LIE TO YOU.
YOU WERE WRONG TO TRUST THE
ADMINISTRATION NOT TO ABUSE THE
EXPANDED POWERS CONGRESS AP
PROVED AFTER q/ii.
AND MOST Of ALL, YOU WERE
WRONG, WRONG, WRON6 TO
IMAGINE THAT THIS WAR WOULD
SOMEHOW LEAD TO A FLOWERING
Of PEACE AND DEMOCRACY ACROSS
THE ENTIRE MIDDLE EAST.
SEAN HANNtTY SAYS WE FOUND
THE WMD’S, BUT THE MAINSTREAM
MEDIA WON'T REPORT THE TRUTH.
6 FLAGPOLE.COM • AUGUST 2, 2006
NEWS & FEATURES
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