A Colorado Springs neighborhood is taking matters into its own hands to curb speeding

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) — The Road Warrior has learned that for the past ten years, residents of the historic Old North End neighborhood have installed their own signs asking drivers to slow down because of speeding.

It follows a growing trend across the state, where residents in Boulder and other communities are taking similar action.

The Road Warrior often hears from many citizens who say that they're frustrated police and the city aren't doing more to install speed bumps or conduct speed enforcement.

A website map, http://myneighborhoodupdate.net, shows a fairly high concentration of traffic violations this month in the middle of the Old North End, along a 1.6-mile stretch of Nevada Avenue, between Fillmore and Uintah streets.

However, the map doesn't indicate how many of the violations were for speeding.

Peter Frantz, a neighborhood organizer, said that speed bumps aren't a practical solution because there's simply too much traffic on Nevada.

"We have a group that has been involved with the city for 13 years, trying to implement conventional traffic safety measures," he explained. "And it's just been very difficult to do that."

There's often negative feedback from drivers, Frantz said, that may slow down traffic too much and increase congestion.

"Studies have shown that's not the case," he said.

The neighborhood's collaboration with police resulted in the city installing speed monitoring signs several years ago; the signs inform drivers how fast they're going relative to the posted limit.

"But I haven't seen a significant decrease in speeding," said Jennifer Lewis, who was walking her infant in a stroller across Nevada. "People fly down this road all the time. My husband and I are runners. We cross every street in this neighborhood, but Nevada is the hardest street to get past, and the one I'm most cautious on."

One strategy that has worked, however, is when the city reduced the number of lanes from four to two on two streets parallel to Nevada — Cascade Avenue and Weber Street.

As part of a sign campaign this fall, organizers provided ten signs labeled Someone Died Here, Slow Down and placed each sign at a location where a victim died.

Frantz said that there have been ten deaths over the past 20 years, and police reports confirmed that speeding was a factor.

Because of the holiday, police and city traffic engineers were unavailable for comment on the matter.