City to Install Speed Bumps to Slow Drivers Where Children Play

In an effort to head off collisions between speeding drivers and children at play, the Los Alamitos City Council voted 5-0 to install a series of speed bumps in the alleyways commonly used to bypass traffic on congested thoroughfares.

The move has been years in the making as city staffers and the Traffic Commission attempted to find less intrusive ways to slow down traffic in the alley Between Katella Avenue and Green Avenue. The alley backs up to Apartment Row. It doubles as a play area for the children in the apartments and a bypass for drivers looking to escape the congestion on Katella Avenue. The combination is a tragedy waiting to happen, said City Councilwoman Gerri Graham Mejia.

“Kids in the apartments don’t have backyards to play in as many kids do, so they play in the back parking pads,” said Graham-Mejia. “One loss of a life when we have been looking at this for two years would make me feel like we have been negligent in our duties.”

Graham-Mejia’s own nephew, was nearly killed playing in the alley when he darted out to chase a ball and was hit by a car, she said.

Reyna Rios, who owns an apartment building on Walnut Street was able to convince the council to install speed bumps in her alley as well. Rios said she worries about the children who live in the apartments and the children who cut through the alleys on their way to and from Oak Elementary.

“My own grandkids moved in, and when they want to go out and play, I worry about them,” said Rios.

City leaders also considered adding stop signs to the alley, but City Engineer David Hunt quickly shot hat down.

“It’s against the law to put up a sign in the middle of an alley just to slow down traffic,” he said.

After testing out speed humps, which are wider and flatter than speed bumps, and a series of signs warning drivers to slow down, city leaders decided that speed bumps would be the best way to deter drivers from speeding down the alleyway.

The city will install speed bumps in the Walnut Street alley and another nine speed bumps in the Green Avenue alley between Los Alamitos Boulevard and Lexington Drive.

Between 300 and 400 cars pass through that alley every day, said City Engineer David Hunt.

The city stopped shy of adding speed bumps to adjacent alleyways, instead opting to add more signs and other less intrusive measures elsewhere.

“I wouldn’t want to see every alleyway in the city plastered with speed bumps, said Mayor Troy Edgar.

Councilman Kenneth Stephens said he’s glad to see the speed bumps installed especially because they won’t slow down emergency vehicles, which are generally too big to maneuver through the alleys.

Stephens lives in Apartment Row, backing up to the Green Avenue Alley. The sound of cars passing over speed bumps might be a nuisance, but it’s worth it, he said.

“If I have to have the noise of a speed bump, I’ll take that in second.,” said Stephens. “I’ll take that over a crash or a scream any day.”

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