The Old Owensboro Neighborhood Alliance is discussing how to address noise and traffic complaints along 2nd Street, with some initial ideas including suggesting the implementation of speed bumps and radar speed trailers along a portion of the downtown street.
Earlier this month, Owensboro’s “We Are Downtown” group expressed similar concerns regarding heavy traffic on 2nd Street.
According to the Alliance, they’ve spoken with We Are Downtown and other groups about the issues.
During the Old Owensboro Alliance meeting this week, President Schuyler Glahn said the majority of complaints stem from loud, speeding vehicles during the evening hours.
“Consistently during the evening, when people are out dining, we have a lot of issues with people exceeding the speed limit,” he said. “Even on a Wednesday night, it’s been filled up lately, which is awesome to see. But of course, people refuse to follow the speed limit up and down that street.”
Glahn said several business owners have brought up the idea of installing speed bumps along that roadway. Treasurer and Secretary Christara Lee said there were plans to bring up the issue at one of the next City Commission meetings.
Casey Taylor, who works in the Old Owensboro Alliance district, said he agreed something had to be done about the speeding vehicles.
“It’s been a concern for 10 years,” he said.
While We Are Downtown officials have suggested blocking off a portion of 2nd Street during the weekends, City Commissioner Bob Glenn said that was a complex issue because there wasn’t a unanimous agreement between downtown business owners.
Glenn suggested a few other ideas to the alliance, including reaching out to OPD about increasing enforcement in that area, implementing radar speed trailers that would depict how fast cars are going, and inquiring about reducing the speed limit to 10 miles per hour along a portion of 2nd Street.
“You’d probably need the approval of the state, and you’d need our engineers to run a traffic count,” Glenn said.
With the speed limit having previously been lowered to 25 miles per hour, Lee said she worried people wouldn’t comply with a more heavily reduced speed limit. However, she said the alliance would ask Public Works about reducing the speed limit at the next quarterly meeting.
In the meantime, 911 Director Paul Nave said he would ask OPD to increase its presence in the area and inquire about setting up a speed trailer on 2nd Street.
“We’ll do a roll call so there’s extra patrol there,” Nave said. “We can’t do everything, but we will do the best we can.”
