Speed humps coming to some Charlottetown streets

Some residential streets in Charlottetown will soon be outfitted with speed humps.

The portable humps, which are lower, longer and more forgiving than speed bumps, should arrive in mid-July, said Coun. Terry Bernard, the city's public works committee chair.

The city is buying 40 of the humps at a cost of $50,000. Bernard noted $10,000 of that will pay for signage to alert drivers.

Residential speeders 'difficult for police to nab'

Police will determine the locations, but Bernard said the humps are built for areas with a 40 km/h speed limit.

"You get the odd speeder that's difficult for the police to nab because there's not that many on the street and there's the odd car that goes by," Bernard said.

Only 10 of the humps are coming in the first shipment because no vendor could meet the deadline for all 40.

"We're building up some inventory. We don't plan on putting 40 speed humps down this year," Bernard said. 

Streets to be approved by police

How many will be installed right away will depend on requests from the public, he said.

"The police will have to go out, look at the street and see if it meets the criteria they have for speed humps to go down."

Once they arrive, they should be deployed quickly, Bernard said.

"It won't take staff long to get them out. The next step would be what streets have been approved by police."

That process is already underway, he said.

Costs up to $1,200 per street

Five to seven units are required to assemble one speed hump, which costs about $1,000 to $1,200. They span the entire street to ensure drivers can't avoid them, Bernard said.

The humps were included in the city's budget this year after several councillors asked for them, following requests from residents.

They will be removed come winter to avoid creating problems for plows.

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