ADA COUNTY, Idaho — Neighborhood associations and local communities in Ada County seeking to slow down vehicles passing through their area will soon have an easier way to go about it.
On June 14, The Ada County Highway District Commission voted in favor of an interim traffic calming policy that makes it easier to request speed mitigation structures like speed bumps and speed humps.
ACHD said the previous policy had individuals collect data to prove excessive traffic speed, traffic volume and perform a cut-through study.
"To see how many vehicles were actually just cutting through the neighborhood and it wasn't just, you know, your local residents," said Ryan Head, Deputy Director of Development and Technical Services for ACHD.
If there wasn't a lot of cut-through traffic, the neighborhood would have to pay for the traffic calming feature. But, with the new interim policy, the cut-through study has been eliminated altogether.
"We don't do that cut through study anymore and ultimately, ACHD pays for the improvements," Head said. "We recognize that if they're speeding in a neighborhood, they're speeding regardless of who it is and it's important to try and address that and address safety in the neighborhood."
Not only have they taken off the cut-through study portion of the policy, requesters will only have to prove either excessive speed or traffic volume not both.
"A cut-through study was really time intensive to for ACHD staff and so it does shorten up that process makes it a little bit easier," Head added.
People like Aaron Olson, a Boise resident who lives on W. Catalpa Dr., know the importance or speed humps in areas that have cars drive through the neighborhood over the speed limit.
"It would be 55 to 60 MPH and they would really rev it up and cut down this street," Olson said. "It was insane sometimes."
Once Olson's street got the speed humps, he said it was a huge difference.
"It's been night and day, the way that improved the neighborhood, it feels totally different here," Olson said. "I mean, you can see as people go by, they really are going 25."
ACHD said that the ultimate goal is to address speed and safety.
"People need to feel comfortable on their street, especially when you have the opportunity for children to walk out and play in the street or you really want to make sure that people are going the speed limit that's there," Head noted.
ACHD says they are also looking at making the process even easier, including dropping the petition threshold from 75% of signatures to about 60%.
ACHD is planning on doing public outreach in the coming weeks and release a more permanent policy sometime in August.
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