Traffic calming devices to be considered for residential neighbhorhoods
By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times
NEW GARDEN — Speed can kill, especially in some of the township’s housing developments.
That why the township’s police chief, Gerald Simpson, discussed options with the township’s Board of Supervisors, Monday night, for traffic calming in some of the township’s neighborhoods. Despite posted speed limits of 25 miles an hour, enforcement of speeds below 36 MPH is problematic, so often speeds in housing developments are above the posted speed limit.
And that difference is key, Simpson said, citing stats that show a car versus pedestrian accident is typically 95% survivable at 25 MPH, but that number drops to little more than 50% as speeds reach 40 MPH. As none of the neighborhoods under discussion have sidewalks, cars and pedestrians (and dogs) must share the roads.
Simpson said complaints at a meeting last month from residents of Bancroft Woods — complaints he admitted he didn’t have a good answer for at the time — really bothered him, so he began to look into options. Direct enforcement, parking a police car in the neighborhood, isn’t an option, in part due to manpower, in part due to lack of effectiveness when the police aren’t around. So Simpson said he began to look for other options.
What he found was a concept called Vision Zero — a process through which predictable hazards are eliminated. He cited the experience of New York City, where cars turning left on arrows were colliding with pedestrians in the crosswalk, accounting for about a dozen fatalities a year. By changing the timing of the turn arrow and the crosswalk light, lives have been saved.
“It’s a predictable event,” he said, noting that speeding in residential neighborhoods leading to collisions with pedestrians falls into a similar category.
Simpson said he looked at various traffic calming options, including speed bumps. The problem, he said, with typical paved bumps is that they can be a problem during snow removal. An option, he said, would be removable speed bumps, made from recycled rubber.
The advantage, he noted, is that the bumps can be removed for snow plowing or repaving — and moved to different locations, depending on need. While not every neighborhood will want the bumps, there can be noise impacts, it could be an option to consider, Simpson told supervisors. He cited costs to be about $5,000.
In other police related news, Simpson said the process to undertake a study on merging the police operations of the township along with neighboring Kennett Square and Kennett Township continues, with the three municipalities gathering information for the state Department of Community and Economic Development, which will conduct the feasibility study.
Recapping the genesis of looking at a regional approach to policing, Simpson noted that combining the three departments would lead to savings in terms of infrastructure and non-uniformed personnel and allow for more effective policing in the three municipalities without higher costs.
When asked about maintaining local control, he assured residents that the township would have seats on a Police Commission, which would oversee the new regional department. Those representatives would be appointed by the board of supervisors. The township would retain having a say on budget matters and the current roster of local police would stay on, augmented by members of the existing Kennett Square and Kennett Township police departments.
Still, it is anticipated that the study will take some time and the process will allow further public discussion before any final decisions are made.
Lastly, the township is just about finished with a project to build a shooting range near the township-owned New Garden Flying Field. While township police will use the facility, they will also share it with police from Oxford, Parkesburg and Kennett Square — those municipalities have helped with the construction of the new facility. Simpson said he expects the new range to operational by the middle of next month and supervisors agreed Monday night to an inter-municipal agreement with Oxford, Parkesburg and Kennett Square on use of the facility.
