Recent discussions about the proposed Ellman development on former state land did make one thing clear – residents who live along Boulder Drive, which is adjacent to the west boundary of the Ellman site, are not comfortable with the way traffic is in their neighborhood.

Ed Wilson has only lived on Boulder Drive for about six months, but in that short time he says he has learned first hand the concerns of his fellow residents.

“People are going criminal speeds, 25 miles per hour or more over the speed limit,” Wilson said. “We feel our rights and our quality of life are being impacted.”

Wilson describes a situation in which a neighbor with three small children has gone to great lengths to make sure his kids cannot get to the street from the front of the house.

The conditions are apparently not new, although discussion about the Ellman development heated things up. Residents do not like the idea of any amount of additional traffic on the streets where they live.

According to town Public Works Director Tom Ward, residents in the area of Boulder and Richwood drives first contacted the town in October 2005 to discuss what could be done.

Staff met with the neighbors about a year later in November 2006. There were 13 people at that meeting, where the town had sent notices or invitations to more than 50.

The focus of the discussion was about level 1 traffic calming measures, Ward said. These items would include striping narrower lanes, increased law enforcement, a radar trailer and higher visibility crosswalks.

The town added new signs along the street to indicate curved roadways and a “no outlet” sign. Narrower lanes were also striped on the pavement.

Traffic engineers say narrower lanes will slow traffic. It also provides a marked lane for foot or bicycle traffic.

Neighbors are not convinced the striping has worked.

“So far (residents) are not satisfied with the outcome,” Wilson said. “Studies have indicated it has gotten worse.

“(The town) does seem to agree there is a serious problem, but they don’t view the problem as severe as (residents) do.”

Preliminary results indicated the striping did not have the desired impact on speed, according to Ward.

“Science throughout the country shows that this methodology reduces speeds nearly all the time,” Ward said.

Sometime in the next month the town will be installing raised, reflective pavement markers on Boulder Drive.

“These markers will not only provide reflection at night, but provide an audible effect if a driver veers out of their lane during day or night,” Ward said.

“(This) is another level of effort to calm traffic in this area, as we take a stepped approach to solving this problem.”

Wilson said he does not think law enforcement is taking the problem seriously, either. He believes the Sheriff’s Office should make a greater effort to enforce the speed limit in the area.

Sheriff’s Capt. John Kleinheinz, commander for the Fountain Hills Sheriff’s District, said he is well aware of the situation on Boulder Drive.

“There are areas in town that seem to consistently deal with issues related to speed in their neighborhood,” Kleinheinz said. “Boulder is one of those.”

According to records supplied by the Sheriff’s Office, citations written in the area have been on the rise since January of this year. Kleinheinz said deputies are in the area patrolling as manpower and other duties allow.

Kleinheinz also wants to make it clear that Boulder Drive is not a street that allows for cut-through traffic.

“The vast majority of the traffic is residents and visitors,” Kleinheinz. “If the neighborhood is being plagued by speeders, in my opinion it is the residents who live in and around the area that drive it every day.

“The more you drive a route the more comfortable you become with it and are more likely to speed.”

Kleinheinz has suggested that a Block Watch program in the area would allow residents to get to know their neighbors and they would recognize who is speeding, and he believes that would have an impact on the problem.

Other areas

While Boulder Drive is a recent example that has attracted some headlines with the controversy over the Ellman development plan, it is far from the only problem area in Fountain Hills.

“We have approximately 25 open traffic calming cases,” Ward said. “These range from minor to major concerns.”

Hampstead and Trevino drives are two examples of pending cases.

Engineered traffic calming devices can be the most difficult to work with. They can be expensive, and the town policy requires significant agreement among neighbors as to how to proceed.

The town’s policy calls for 75 percent of the neighbors who are impacted to agree with what is planned.

Speed humps are among the most effective for slowing traffic on the street where they are located, but they also are the most controversial.

Residents don’t like to drive over them and emergency responders do not like them either, saying they slow response and can make it uncomfortable for a patient in an ambulance.

Kleinheinz believes speed humps have the effect of moving the problem from one street to another as motorists figure out how to avoid the street with the speed humps.

Solutions are not simple. Tougher enforcement requires a greater commitment in time and manpower to be balanced with other budget considerations. Engineering solutions are effective only to the extent they impact driver behavior.

Boulder residents, on the other hand, take extraordinary measures to keep their children off the street, and have even gone so far as to post the speed limit on their mailboxes.