At the last Town Council meeting, Administrator Steven Contente and Lt. Roman Wozny of the Bristol Police Department presented a new policy that would establish a process to request, approve, and install traffic calming devices intended to reduce speeds on roads where residents are concerned about traffic safety.

Noting that actively trying to adopt a policy to reduce speeds in residential areas is an effort that has been going on for years, Contente said that Wozny has immersed himself in traffic policies in an effort to come up with a plan that will slow drivers’ speeds without the expense and manpower of writing pickets.

The solution? The once-maligned speed bumps, now with breaks in between. Though variously called speed bumps, speed humps, and chiclets at different times during the nearly hour-long discussion, for our purposes, we’ll call them speed humps. Which are apparently different from speed bumps.

The humps have been rolled out on Peck Ave., an east-west residential road off Hope Street with an established history of resident complaints about excessive speed.

Traditional speed bumps, while effective against speeders, presented problems for plows and trash trucks.

“This is not your father’s speed bump,” joked DPW Director Chris Parella, pointing out that these humps do not interfere with routine DPW operations.

In practice, residents can request traffic calming humps from the town, which would trigger a survey of some kind ensuring that 70% of the people on the street (and within a certain radius) agree. Then a traffic study would be done, confirming that 85% of the recorded speeds are more than 10 miles per hour over the limit. If that criteria is met, traffic calming engineers would be consulted to determine the number and placement of the humps.

Other criteria for a hump include a road with a speed not over 25 mph, it cannot be a road on a RIPTA route, nor can it be a road that sees high emergency vehicle traffic.

“I’m in total support of this,” said Councilor Aaron Ley, noting that the $16,000 price for the work on Peck Ave. was nominal in the scheme of the $1 million paving project that it was part of. “If you think about the safety of the kids, it's a small cost.”

Not everyone supported the proposed traffic calming efforts. Mason Brooks of 50 Peck Ave. spoke in opposition, saying “….you railroaded Peck Avenue with speed bumps without consulting any of the people who live there…I personally don't want a set of speed bumps in front of my house.”

Brooks asserted that his neighbors were furious, though the two who spoke, both fathers of young children, expressed reserved enthusiasm for the policy, with one telling of a time he used a net that shows ball speed to show cars how fast they were driving down Peck Ave.

For his part, Contente objected to the “railroad” comment.

“It was my decision as the Administrator; part of my job is public safety,” he said. “I got complaints from your neighbors. I viewed the area, I saw children playing in the street. I think the majority of the residents in your neighboring streets are in favor of it from the information I'm receiving in the Town Administrators office.”

After further conversation about the details of the policy, specifically the process that will be used to identify and survey the people who will be consulted in each neighborhood, a decision was made to continue the issue to the January council meeting.

“I think this policy in front of us makes sense. I also would suggest possibly another conversation,” said Calouro.

“Thank you all for the efforts and the feedback. It's appreciated.”