Peachtree City

residents upset with the new stop signs, enhanced speed humps and 20 miles-per-hour

speed limit on Golf View Drive spoke their peace to the City Council Tuesday

night.

But some Golf

View residents particularly those near the "Thrill Hill" section

say they appreciate the changes since they now feel safe enough to walk

on the street again. Golf View is not served by a cart path, so residents

there must use the road to reach the path system.

Council didn't

take any action on the matter, but Mayor Steve Brown said council will

consider "some changes" to Golf View at a later date.

Councilman

Steve Rapson suggested one change immediately, however: "Please stop

honking your horns."

The comment

was directed at motorists who have "honked" their displeasure

about the changes to Golf View as they travel on the road, disrupting

peace in the neighborhood.

As for further

changes council might consider, councilman Dan Tennant didn't want to

raise the audience's hopes too much.

"We want

to be fair to everybody," Tennant said. "That probably means

everybody is going to be a little unhappy."

Even some proponents

of the recent changes to Golf View admitted they don't like the speed

humps, either. But the changes have forced vehicles to slow down, making

the neighborhood safer for the children, they added.

"Now we

don't hear squealing tires. Now all we hear is ... horns honking,"

said Golf View resident Kevin Ford.

Opponents of

the changes to Golf View argue that the city didn't meet its own statistical

criteria for implementing the stop signs and speed humps. In a 45-minute

presentation, Dr. John Henahan outlined these and other concerns of motorists

who want the "illegal" stop signs and the speed humps removed.

The speed humps

are located on what is designated as a primary response route for local

emergency vehicles, Henahan pointed out. The humps slow emergency response

because those vehicles don't accelerate as quickly once over the humps,

and they can lead to related lawsuits against the city, he said.

The city originally

installed "staggered" speed humps, which crossed only one lane

of traffic at a time. That allowed emergency vehicles to "snake"

around the impediments.

But other motorists

took to weaving around the humps, so council decided to extend them across

the entire road.

The humps might

also be in violation of federal accessibility guidelines which specifically

list roads as a public structure that must be useable for people with

disabilities, Henahan said.

Also, speed

studies of Golf View Drive performed by the police department showed that

85 percent of the vehicle drove at or below the former speed limit of

30 mph, Henahan noted.

A national

traffic safety manual dictates that stop signs should not be used to slow

traffic, Henahan said.

The opposition

group wants the city to remove any illegal signage, enact a moratorium

on "vertical deflections" such as speed humps on primary emergency

response routes and require large signs be posted in an area notifying

motorists of possible traffic calming changes to a road. The group also

wants any traffic calming measures to be totally paid for by the neighborhoods

which request them including the repaving of those streets since the state

is unlikely to fund them, Henahan said.

"Please

don't penalize the 97 percent of those who drive a reasonable speed to

penalize the 3 percent who don't," Henahan urged council at the end

of his presentation.

Mike Byrd,

a former Golf View resident, feels differently, however.

"Maybe

it's extreme, but if stop signs and speed bumps keep people from speeding,

it's worth the price."

Rapson noted

that he uses Golf View as a cut-through every day, but only in the past

few weeks has he noticed pedestrians on the street.

"It is

a residential neighborhood and they deserve the quality of life we have

in any other neighborhood," Rapson said.

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