“Serving Orchard Ridge for Over 50 Years”
Information Posted December 2, 2003
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Revised Orchard Ridge Community Club Bylaws-duties of ORCC officers, expansion of ORCC Board from 9 to up to 15 members, consecutive terms, updating of boundaries
The City of Madison’s Traffic Engineering Division informed Ald. Cindy Thomas last month of the outcome of the “vote” that Gilbert Road residents cast in October for some kind of speed control on the street. (As of this writing, residents of the street had not been informed officially by Traffic Engineering about the outcome of the vote.)
The final result: 64% of residents favored a series of four speed humps on Gilbert Road, between Hammersley and Raymond; 5% favored one speed hump, at Orchard Ridge Elementary; and 24% opposed both options.
If there is 60% support by residents for a traffic calming project, the City will proceed. The speed humps will be installed sometime in 2004. (See map for proposed locations of the humps.) They will be exactly like the humps found on Saybrook Road. Residents of that street grew tired of their neighborhood being used as a shortcut between Whitney Way and Schroeder Road, and they hope the humps will do more than reduce speeds. According to both local and national data (supplied by the City traffic engineers), speed humps tend to discourage drivers from using streets with humps, and drivers will stay on streets designed for more traffic and higher speeds.
How much traffic will be diverted from Gilbert Road because of the humps remains to be seen. A lot of the traffic on the street is school-related, and it’s unlikely parents dropping off their kids at Orchard Ridge and St. Maria Goretti will “divert” to an alternate street. But drivers speed down Gilbert Road day and night, and we can only hope that once they are installed, they do the job they’re intended to do.
Revised: December 2, 2003