GRIDLOCK GURU : Speed table question for candidates
Posted on Friday, July 11, 2008
Don Donner of Fayetteville wants to know what the city’s mayoral candidates think of speed tables.
The Guru ain’t much on politics, but he’ll allow it, once.
After The Guru gets off the campaign trail, he tells Jim Harris of Springdale why gas stations cap pay-at-thepump transactions.
Question: “I have been sacrificing vehicle, body and cargo to stupid speed tables,” Donner writes. “Who authorized them ? Were they voted on by the City Council and, if so, what was the meeting date ?
“ Have any of the candidates for mayor taken a position on the tables ?” Answer: The Guru pored over a 230-page traffic and transportation study approved by the Fayetteville City Council on Dec. 16, 2003. It mentioned speed tables as a way to slow drivers on residential streets.
The consultant who did the study later developed a city traffic calming policy, and the first speed table was plopped on Fieldstone Avenue in 2005.
Now, Fayetteville has 50 speed tables.
At residents’ requests, a traffic-calming committee evaluates which streets need speed tables. The committee reviews speed, accidents, traffic volumes, sidewalk locations and the proximity of school crosswalks to decide which streets get tables.
Mayor candidates Steve Clark and Lioneld Jordan said they like speed tables.
Jordan offers one caveat: He dislikes speed tables that force drivers to dip below the speed limit to cross them without being jarred.
Candidate Walt Eilers said he worries because fire trucks and police cars must slow to cross speed tables.
“We need to rethink speed tables through the Council of Neighborhoods — their impact as a speed moderator or merely a nuisance,” Eilers writes.
Adam Fire Cat, the real name of a mayoral candidate, said he won’t oppose speed tables in neighborhoods although he dislikes them.
“If they can all agree, it’s fine,” Cat said. “I understand their purpose, but I think they are annoying.” Mayor Dan Coody, who announced Thursday that he will seek a third term, thinks speed tables are a good idea, but the city has too many.
“Any good thing can be overdone and this is an example of it,” he said.
Q: “I am a contractor who does inspections for mortgage companies,” Harris writes. “I average 3, 000 miles a month on my four-wheeldrive Toyota Tundra V 8.
“ The problem: My truck holds 22 gallons. It requires $ 80 to $ 90 to fill my tank. I get card approval, and start to fuel, and then the pump cuts off at $ 75.
“ Higher fuel costs dictate that the cutoff point be adjusted.” A: Gas stations often cap transactions based on how much Visa Inc. will reimburse them if a card is stolen.
In April, Visa increased its so-called chargeback protection from $ 50 to $ 75 for atthe-pump transactions. Stations can set a higher limit, but they are only guaranteed a refund on the first $ 75, so many cap it at $ 75.
It is possible to pump $ 75 worth in and immediately start a second transaction to finish filling the tank. Robert J. Smith, aka The Guru, writes on traffic issues in Northwest Arkansas each Friday. He can be reached at gridlockguru @arkansasonline. com or www. nwanews. com / gridlockguru.
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