COLONIAL HEIGHTS, Va. — Residents living along Meridian Avenue in Colonial Heights are finally feeling safer after the city installed speed bumps to combat years of dangerous speeding through their neighborhood.
The residential street, which runs alongside two ball fields and Historic Shepard Stadium, has long been plagued by drivers using it as a shortcut and ignoring posted speed limits.
"The traffic around here thinks it's a speedway," said Kim Carwile Tanner, who lives nearby.
Christy Palmer Archileti, who drives on Meridian Avenue daily, agreed: "It's like a raceway through there."
Previous attempts failed to slow traffic
The city had previously attempted to address the problem by adding stop signs, eventually making most intersections four-way stops. However, residents reported that these measures were largely ineffective.
"There are so many stop signs on this street. Do they help? No," said Dwight McKinney, a resident fed up with speeders. "They'll run that stop sign like it's not there."
Colonial Heights Police Lieutenant Jared Brandeberry explained the underlying issue: "They're trying to avoid the Boulevard and so they're not abiding by traffic laws, stop signs, speeding."
New solution shows promise
After about a year-long approval and installation process, the city recently added two speed bumps on Meridian Avenue.
"I was impressed because I hadn't seen anything like that. If anywhere deserves it, that's where it deserves it, that's where it needs to be," Archileti said.
Early feedback from residents has been positive.
"I think it's helped a lot to slow down drivers, especially when there's kids around here playing," Tanner said.
However, some residents believe more speed bumps are needed to fully address the problem.
"Putting a few more speed bumps, slow them down a bit, I mean that one's nice but once they pass that one, Katie bar the door, they'll fly down here going 50, 60 mph and miss that stop sign," McKinney said.
Police said speeding and drivers running stop signs are the two biggest complaints in the area. Officers regularly patrol and issue tickets, and they hope these latest traffic calming measures will keep drivers at a safe speed.
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