James Rice, who has lived on Maple Street for 26 years, said he’s tired of seeing cars racing in front of his home in East Columbus.
Since a June 2020 accident where a man died after losing control of a vehicle on the road, Rice has been concerned for the safety of his grandchildren playing in his front yard when they come to visit.
Rice said he also regularly fears for his own safety when driving home from work.
“I got off work one day and … I turned left and a car (was) coming down the street, he tried to pass me on the left side and (nearly ran) into me,” Rice told The Dispatch. “… I kept calm but stuff like that creates problems.”
And he’s not the only one frustrated.
More than 30 residents gathered inside East Columbus Gym during Monday’s Ward 2 Community Meeting – organized by Ward 2 Councilman Roderick Smith – with several voicing concerns about neighborhood speeding and road conditions.
In response, city officials floated the idea of constructing speed humps along the roadway if enough property owners sign on, an idea some residents supported.
“They’ll come down this street, make that turn, … and they (will) be racing,” Bobby Berry, a Maple Street resident, said during the meeting. “So we need those speed breakers. I don’t know what we can do, but that’s what we need.
During the meeting, City Engineer Kevin Stafford told residents additional speed humps could be requested for Maple Street, but it would take 75% of property owners on that street signing a petition to get the ball rolling on the project.
Stafford noted there is already one section of Maple Street, between Poplar Street and Lawrence Drive, which received a speed hump in February 2025. The rest of the roughly half-mile street does not currently have speed humps.
Stafford told The Dispatch there are about 50 properties on the remaining three strips of Maple Street, with about 38 owner signatures needed to achieve the 75% threshold.
Stafford said the requested roadway must average less than 3,000 vehicles a day to be eligible speed humps.
After reaching those thresholds, Stafford said the city’s Traffic Calming Committee, which consists of Stafford, Police Chief Joseph Daughtry, Fire Chief Charles Yarbrough and Chief Operations Officer Jammie Garrett, would meet and discuss if the proposed speed humps pose any policy or emergency response challenges.
Those discussions typically take about a week and then the recommendation is presented to the council member whose ward originated the request.
If a speed hump can’t be added, Stafford said there are alternative options for mitigating speeding in the ward, including potentially narrowing lanes of the road or constructing speed feedback signs.
Then the request is brought before the city council, where it’s decided whether to fund the project, Stafford said.
Neighborhood safety
Stafford told The Dispatch the construction of speed humps typically costs roughly $500 a hump. To cover the remaining strips of Maple Street, Stafford said an additional six to seven humps are possible, which would cost roughly $3,500. After that, construction of the speed humps by Columbus Public Works could take anywhere from about a month to six months.
During the meeting, Smith handed Berry a petition for him to begin collecting signatures.
If the petition meets all the thresholds required and is brought before the board, Smith said he would support the construction of the speed humps and believed other council members would likely also support the initiative as well.
“Safety is my No. 1 priority in all of Ward 2, and speed humps do prevent those speeding down the road, so anything to help create safety around our community, I’m all for,” Smith said.
In the meantime, both Berry and Rice said they would like to see some additional speed enforcement measures returned to the area by Columbus Police Department to help mitigate speeding in the neighborhood.
Daughtry said CPD officers have been stationed in the area before to monitor for speeding, but when that’s been done, residents have also come forward with complaints of the additional enforcement.
“I heard you talk about the speeding … up and down the street,” Daughtry said. “We (have come) down here a couple times and set up radar and ran radar, then we got complaints that we are targeting this neighborhood.”
Smith said he has discussed additional speed enforcement measures with Daughtry, but he isn’t sure if it is possible in the area because of the limited resources CPD has during its regular patrols.
“One thing I want the residents of Ward 2 to know is that our (men) and (women) of the Columbus Police Department (do) what they are told to do,” Smith said. “We also have to realize that different times of the season we have different things going on, so we can’t just have just one officer just riding or sitting. So I kind of want everyone to be patient and work with us.”
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 29 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
