Crown Candy Kitchen owner Andy Karandzieff is tired of seeing drivers blast through the four-way stop at the intersection by his restaurant in Old North St. Louis.
“People drive with no regard for anything but themselves,” he said. “I tell people, ‘You shouldn't worry about getting shot in St. Louis, you should worry about getting T-boned.”
Karandzieff has been working for years to get traffic calming measures installed at St. Louis Avenue and North 14th Street.
“Even if it’s not speed humps, I will take a flashing red signal, I will take bumpout curbs,” he said. “I want something to slow people down and maybe provide a little more safety for my customers, the people who live in this neighborhood.”
The 14th Ward, where Karandzieff’s restaurant is located, recently received approval for new speed humps. Ward 14 Alderman Rasheen Aldridge told St. Louis on the Air that humps will be installed in the neighborhood in 2024, though he added that the project still needs approval from Mayor Tishaura Jones. He said the speed humps should lead to traffic slowing the westbound and eastbound lanes of St. Louis Avenue near Crown Candy Kitchen.
Speed humps are one of many tools that cities can use to calm traffic and reduce speeds, said CBB Principal and Transportation Engineer Shawn Leight. “We can design intersections that are harder to blow through,” he said, pointing to traffic calming measures like raised crosswalks and curb bumpouts. The shape of the street itself can be changed using chicanes, which create curves in streets, or chokers, which narrow them.
“The good news is, we've been doing traffic calming in this country for decades, so we've known about this for a long time,” Leight added. “And right now, we actually have some funding in the region, especially in the city, to do some implementation of these in a consistent manner that's going to have a positive impact on these neighborhoods.”
Leight joined St. Louis Community Mobility Committee Co-Chair Liz Kramer and St. Louis Complete Streets program manager Scott Ogilvie on Tuesday’s St. Louis on the Air for a roundtable discussion on speed bumps and other traffic calming measures.
Listen to the conversation on Apple Podcast, Spotify or Google Podcast, or by clicking the play button below.
“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer. Ulaa Kuziez is our production intern. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr. Send questions and comments about this story to talk@stlpr.org.
