INDIANAPOLIS (WTHR) – Even more people have jumped on efforts to slow down speeders in their neighborhoods Tuesday.
Last week, residents of the Devonshire neighborhood on the city's northeast side resorted to lining their streets with 100 bright yellow "please slow down" signs as they pursue speed bumps for two residential streets.
Some residents of Community Heights near 10th and Arlington are doing the same but it's not easy.
A Department of Public Works spokesman said of the 60 requests they had had last year for speed bumps, few went anywhere.
Why? Because of the requirements, including getting affected property owners to sign petitions in favor of the measure.
Still, Laura and Dean Johnson, who live along Bolton Street are hoping their street is the exception.
They say they've recently had a handful of drivers lose control as they sped down the street.
Pointing to skid marks that go over the curb and into a yard, Laura said, "You can see the tire marks right here as he rolled out and came out on the street. It's luckily no one was out playing. We have 15 children in the neighborhood."
Dean said, "We're talking about a two-block stretch of residential street where we've had speeds in excess of 50 to 55 miles per hour."
In fact, Dean has had not one, but two vehicles struck while parked along the curb in front of the couple's house.
One was his truck which he said, "was sideswiped all the way down with the running board taken off" and the other his work vehicle.
The Johnsons and others have put up signs that say, "drive like your kids live here."
What they'd really like? A speed bump or two.
But they've discovered it's not guaranteed. According to the city's Street Change Policy, residents first have to submit a request through the Mayor's Action Center.
Then they have to get 75 percent of affected property owners to sign a petition in favor of the speed bumps so a traffic study can be done.
And as Laura knows, that's where it gets challenging.
"Eighty-five percent of vehicles that travel on this street have to be going 35 miles an hour or exceed that in order to get anything done on the street," she said.
While the Johnsons know the city has bigger things to deal with, Dean said, "We're just hoping the next time something happens it's not one of the kids in the neighborhood on a bicycle or something like that. That's the bigger issue here."
The Johnsons said they and other neighbors will be pursuing a petition drive to get things going.
According to city policy, if you want a new stop sign or speed limit changed, it's the same process with some additional legal requirements.