DETROIT (WWJ) -- We’re all familiar with “Hump Day” -- the mid-week nickname for Wednesdays popularized by a TV commercial -- but the Detroit Department of Public Works gave new meaning to the phrase on Wednesday, as crews were out on the streets installing speed humps in some residential neighborhoods.
The city announced an ambitious goal earlier this year to install 4,500 speed humps in residential neighborhoods to combat speeding and traffic incidents, and now the city has expanded the safety initiative, hoping to have more than 5,500 installed by the end of the year.
Not to be confused with speed bumps that may be seen in grocery store or hospital parking lots, speed humps are more narrow and have a longer driving distance than bumps, while aiming to control speed to about 25 mph, according to myparkingsign.com.
Speed humps are rounded raised areas of asphalt or prefabricated rubber constructed across the roadway width, according to city officials.
DPW Deputy Director Caitlin Malloy Marcon tells WWJ the program’s popularity has grown in recent years, as the city has received about 20,000 residential requests to install speed humps.
The department has a specific set of criteria for placing speed humps in residential neighborhoods:
-- Local residential streets with speed limit of 25 mph
-- Priority given to streets adjacent to active schools and parks
-- DPD records of speeding and vehicle crashes
-- Streed used as known “cut-through” to or form a major road
-- Block housing density
-- Significant number of children
-- Resident support on the block and valid request made
One neighborhood receiving a brand new speed hump Wednesday was Tyler Street near Davison and Outer Drive on the city’s northwest side.
Malloy Marcon says most residents have been happy with the speed humps.
“I would say 98% of the residents that receive them are thrilled,” she said. “They say that they are working. We still have people that may be trying to speed over them, but they’ve greatly reduced the amount of residential speeding that’s happening in the city of Detroit.”
Residents can make requests for installation and find out what blocks were selected by visiting the City of Detroit’s website.
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