RICHMOND, Va. -- On Clarence Street in South Richmond, yellow signs alert drivers to speed humps on both side of the road. But, neighbors said drivers don't heed the warning and rarely slow down.
They're fed up with speeding in their community.
When CBS 6 Problem Solvers visited the neighborhood, cameras captured car after car whizzing by, hitting the new speed tables without slowing down. Some vehicles lifted off the ground in the process.
"You don’t need to be flying down our street at 40 miles per hour," neighbor Laura Posthumus said.
Laura Posthumus
Posthumus said she has been fighting her neighborhood's speeding problem for about three years.
Clarence Street, she said, is used as a cut through for drivers who hope to avoid Forest Hill Avenue.
Initially the city put in speed cushions, which have gaps in the middle, in an effort to slowdown drivers.
"Cars would cut through so that they did not have to slow down and they would drive through the middle where the gap was," Posthumus explained.
She said she saw her share of other cars getting banged up on her block when out of control drivers hit the speed cushions the wrong way.
She said she believed people who park on the street are in high danger of their cars being totaled because, she said, they've had numerous accidents and most are hit and run.
Last week the city installed speed tables to replace the speed cushions.
Speed cushion in South Richmond
Laura does not think they will work either.
"It is so far up the road that people are usually at 40 mph before they get here," she said. "If the speed tables were closer to Jahnke Road, it might be more prohibitive."
She said she also wanted to see reflective stripping or paint added.
"Your headlights will hit it day or night," she explained. "You'll see the reflection and it is a clue to slow down. If you run over it, you will feel it in your suspension."
Richmond City Councilmember Kristen Larson, who represents that area, said she was hopeful that once the project was complete, it will be more effective in slowly down speeder.
"However, if it is not, I am committed to working with the community and traffic engineers to come up with a solution to ensure that we have safe streets," she said in a statement.
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