Amid all of the construction going on around Beacon, which have been planned projects as part of Beacon’s Capital Project, speed “humps” just popped up on Wilkes Street. These minor traffic calming interventions were not as talked about as the new sidewalks and pipeline that came to Fishkill and Teller Avenues, but they do have significance here in Beacon, and seem to be slowing traffic on a kid-filled street.

Beacon’s City Administrator Chris White updated Beacon’s City Council during the September 3, 2024 meeting saying that the speed humps had been installed prior to school staring on September 4th.

Wilkes Street has a history of speed “bumps,” where the yellow bumps were set down during the Spring/Summer/Early Fall season, and lifted up for winter snow plow season. But they aren’t always put down each year, and from time to time, residents try to advocate for them to come back. Elsewhere in the city, if a speed bump is requested, it is not entertained. At least as far as the public City Council Meetings are concerned. Wilkes Street has been the exception for undefined reasons.

Elsewhere in the area at Memorial Park, speed bumps (as opposed to “humps”) were put down in similar fashion around the baseball and football fields. However, as ALBB has noted before, the laying down of these temporary speed bumps was inconsistent. They were not put down this 2024 year, or in 2021, for instance.

Last week, Beacon’s Highway Department could be seen on Wilkes Street near the skateboard park, crunching some pavement. At first, they dug trenches in the ground. A few days later, these speed “humps’ popped up as well as new yellow signs warning of the speed hump. Said one ALBB reader: “I for one liked the day before when they dug out the holes for the speed humps and cars had to come to a crawl to traverse them.”

Now the question is: will the speed humps be painted yellow? Because as we saw with the Dummy Light, people just don’t see black pavement or black traffic light foundations until they are painted yellow.

There are a variety of “traffic calming” measures as they are referred to in traffic industry circles.

• Speed Bump: tends to be a sharper obstruction that is short - not as wide as the street. Usually reduces traffic to 5-10 mph but can more easily damage shocks. Usually are bad for snow plows.

• Speed Hump: tends to be as wide as the road, are rounder, and more forgiving. Might be better for snow plows, but still awareness is needed when plowing over them.

• Speed Lumps: similar to speed humps, but are broken in the middle to allow for the tires of emergency vehicles to pass through.

In conclusion, the permanent speed humps probably make former City Councilmember Terry Nelson satisfied, as he used to close his City Council Meeting Reports with: “don’t speed.”