Community speeding up the process to slow down drivers

ABC/WSB-TV's Mike Petchenik in Atlanta, Georgia reports on a metro-area community which is working to give neighborhood homeowner associations more leeway to install radar speed signs to slow down drivers. ______________________________ Roswell leaders are partnering with neighborhoods to speed up the process to slow down drivers. Willow Springs residents were fed up with speeders. To slow traffic, they purchased several Radarsign driver feedback signs which tell motorists how fast they are going. The city of Roswell wants to encourage communities to manage these issues, within the law and without burdening taxpayers. "Earlier this year we had a guy hit by car. Last year, we had a lady pushing a stroller hit by a car," explained Frank Hasty, a Willow Springs resident. Drivers tend to speed as they cut through Hasty's neighborhood. "The traffic is really bad in the morning," says Hasty. "And they cut through in the morning, and that's exactly when our kids are waiting for the bus. The Willow Springs HOA paid for crosswalk signs and installed solar-powered radar signs throughout the subdivision. "We were the first ones in the city to have those too, and those work very well," Hasty reports. Roswell's Transportation Director Steve Acenbrak says that the city welcomes the idea of subdivisions paying for their own traffic calming devices at no cost to taxpayers. "But they are in our public right-of-way," Acenbrak explains. "So we had to address what do we do when we have an HOA that wants to do a traffic control device in our public right-of-way." The city wants to update its ordinances to accommodate homeowners associations that want to purchase their own equipment. "If the personality of that subdivision is that they think that this is an appropriate solution for their situation," Acenbrak says, "we are very much in support of that." www.wsbtv.com