Speed bumps come to the Warrendale neighborhood

Speed bumps on Artesian Street - Photo by Frank Nemecek

Some people love speed bumps. Others hate the things. Regardless which side of the divide you are on, speed humps have come to the Warrendale neighborhood.

Regular readers of the Warrendale Detroit Blog may recall that I reported back in May of this year about how the Department of Public Works was introducing speed humps as a means to combat excessive and dangerous speeders.

I even included details in my original post about how residents could request one of these speed bumps on their street. That information, by the way, is still available on the City of Detroit’s website.

Earlier this month, Artesian Street from W. Warren Ave. to Ford Rd. became the first street in the Warrendale neighborhood to get these speed humps. They are installed in regular intervals along this mile-long stretch of road.

Artesian, of course, is one of only four residential streets that connects from W. Warren Ave. in the north to Ford Rd. at the southern border between the cities of Detroit and Dearborn. Most of the residential streets in Warrendale come to a dead end somewhere near Kirkwood Ave, which is just north of Ford Rd. This makes it a more attractive stretch of road for speeders.

Artesian is also the only place that has a licensed day center. One is located at the southeast corner of Artesian and Whitlock Streets.

It’s not clear at this time if any other residential streets in Warrendale will get speed humps in the next few months. The one thing, however, that is abundantly clear is that speed bumps do cause motorists to slow down.

While photographing the new speed humps on Artesian Street, I witnessed several people drive over them. No one appeared willing to do so any faster than 5 m.p.h.

Now that we have one of the speed bumps in our neighborhood, I believe we as a community will have lots to talk about in the coming months about the pros and cons of having speed humps on our residential streets. As always, those conversations will be reported on by the Warrendale Detroit Blog.