Chickamauga resident Julie Watson has lived on West Eighth Street for 25 years. About 10 years ago, she began complaining about the speeding problem she said she sees there. In July 2015, she took the issue to the City Council.
“I gave them the petition [to lower the speed limit] at the Chickamauga City Council meeting, with 100 percent of [West Eighth Street] residents’ signatures on it,” Watson said. “Councilmen met with me at the meeting and said the matter would be taken care of.”
The petition asked for signs to be put up designating the area as a school zone and to reduce the speed limit to 10 miles per hour.
“I was told signs telling people to slow down would be put up,” said Watson, referencing the July council meeting. In August, she said, she was told signs urging motorists to slow down would arrive in two weeks.
“They planned to get flashing school zone signs, but they were too expensive,” Watson reported just before the new year, adding that she was told flashing school zone signs cost $1,000 to $1,500 apiece. “Later, I was told by the police officers that I would not get the [basic ‘slow down’] signs. I feel like if I were to pay for the signs myself and put them up myself, then there would still be a problem. I found out that metal signs don’t cost that much.”
City Manager Micheal Haney said when citizens voiced their concerns back in the summer, he recommended that Police Chief Ronald Roach monitor the speed at the intersections of West Eighth and Gordon streets and West Eighth Street and Wilder Avenue.
The speed limit in both locations is 25 miles per hour.
“He got there every morning and monitored traffic between 7 and 8 a.m.,” Haney said. “Chief Roach monitored it for 18 days, from Aug. 12 to Sept. 4. He monitored in the afternoons between 3 and 3:30 p.m. The average speed was 25 to 26 miles per hour and some went 35 miles per hour. Out of all the cars, about eight did 5 miles an hour over the speed limit.
“Chief Roach went back to the council in September and recommended that the speed stay the same based on the study. I told them [police officers] to go monitor the street again.”
Roach will present the results of his most recent speed study at the council’s meeting Feb. 1.
“They’ve watched that area for quite a while now,” Haney said. “Since the road is narrow, it looks like they are driving faster than they are.”
Watson is not alone in believing the area is dangerous due to speeding cars.
“They kick it to go fast over the hill and that’s a problem. I don’t ever go out this way,” said resident Bobby Teems, pointing to the one of his driveway’s double entrances that flows onto West Eighth Street. “If you back out, a car will be over the hill and on you before you can get away.”
Watson said her mailbox has been hit several times, as recently as the fall of 2014.
She and Teems agree that the issue is worse than broken mailboxes. People walk the street in the evenings, Teems said, and Watson said she notices Gordon Lee Middle and High school band students walking home from band practice.
According to Haney, Roach did not observe children walking to school or any other pedestrian traffic when he monitored the intersections.
“To change it to a school zone, you have to have children walking through there,” Haney noted.
Jimmie Cameron, who lives on Gordon Street, said sight lines are a problem, regardless of motorists’ speed.
“You have to be out in the middle of the road and the cars coming over the hill can’t see,” she said in reference to residents, like herself, who have to back onto West Eighth Street. “The tree at the intersection of Gordon and West Eighth streets is also a problem. When the leaves fall and it rains, cars slide down the road and so do motorcycles. They don’t service the tree and cut the limbs off. The garbage man can’t pick up leaves because the limbs hang down in the truck. We’ve had several wrecks at the bottom of the hill because they slide on the limbs and the leaves. The tree is a hazard to the children really too.”
Teems believes the best solution is a four-way stop at the intersection of Gordon and West Eighth streets.