Traffic humps coming to Montgomery and Princeton avenues.
By: Jill Matthews
ROCKY HILL Be careful how fast you drive in Rocky Hill.
That is the buzz that has been hovering around Rocky Hill since the borough began implementing various traffic-calming measures over the past few years, including the hiring of South Bound Brook police officers for additional traffic monitoring.
Now drivers will have eight more reasons to heed that warning the addition of traffic humps on Montgomery and Princeton avenues.
At its meeting last week, the Borough Council approved a proposal to add four new traffic humps on each of the two roads.
The speed humps will consist of 6-foot-long entrance-exit ramps and an 8-foot-long center area that is raised three inches above the roadway surface. Pavement striping and signage will be added to warn motorists approaching the humps.
The speed humps are identical to those installed by Princeton Borough on Mercer Street several years ago, said Rocky Hill Mayor Brian Nolan.
Mayor Nolan also said the goal is to get the speed on many of the borough’s roads down to 25 mph, but that the state Department of Transportation reduces speed limits based on a survey of the average speed of 85 percent of drivers on a particular road. The speed humps would help reduce the average speed of the drivers and, as a result, help in getting the speed limit lowered.
But not all at the council meeting were in favor of the new traffic humps.
Resident Peggy Lamb spoke out against the traffic humps, particularly the ones that will be located on Montgomery Avenue. Ms. Lamb, citing the speed limit in Montgomery on Montgomery Road at 40 miles per hour, said motorists would have a difficult time lowering their speed limit to 25 miles per hour once they crossed into Rocky Hill.
"It’s a bad place to have any speed hump," said Ms. Lamb.
But other residents voiced their support for the new speed humps.
John Yuchmow, a resident of Merritt Lane, said the speed humps recently constructed on his street reduced the volume of traffic and as a result, he supports the addition of speed humps on Montgomery and Princeton avenues.
The humps on Merritt Lane differ from those to be constructed on Princeton and Montgomery avenues. The Merritt Lane humps are designed to keep traffic flow at 15 miles per hour, 10 miles per hour slower than those to be constructed on Princeton and Montgomery avenues, and are only 12 feet long, as opposed to a total of 20 feet on the other streets, with a maximum height of 4 inches.