WEST SPRINGFIELD — Another cut-through street is getting speed humps, after an Oct. 7 vote of the Town Council.
Chester Street residents made their case for the traffic-calming measure to councilors, who responded with an 8-0 vote in favor. They said drivers seeking a shortcut between Amostown and Piper roads are making their residential street dangerous.
“Many times, when I go out to get my mail, I have to be very careful, because of the people going over that hill,” Chester Street resident Maureen Richard said. “I’ve almost gotten hit, quite a few times.”
Speeding traffic is also a hazard to property, Valerie Frazier said.
Living near the turn onto Amostown Road, “I always have the pleasure of having my mailbox run over,” she said. “They come over the hill at 45 mph and they hit my mailbox.”
She also said her front lawn has been torn up by speeding cars and buses that run over the curb while swerving to avoid parked cars or oncoming traffic.
Frazier said there was talk, years ago, about making Chester Street a one-way street, westbound only toward Amostown Road. Councilor Daniel O’Brien said that could be the long-term solution if speed humps don’t work.
“Your feedback, from the residents, is critical,” he said. “In the future, if it was deemed necessary, we could put on an agenda a discussion of making it one-way. Look at this as a first step in trying to curb the problem.”
Marco Basile, who lives on Chester Street, said he’s “definitely for it,” but he wants the speed humps to be less steep than the ones on Amostown Road. He said he drives a truck and has to slow far below the limit to get over the Amostown speed humps.
“If you go the speed limit, you’re going to get some air,” Basile said. “I almost stop to go over it.”
Richard also said she supported speed humps, but wanted to make sure they weren’t in front of her driveway, which would make it difficult to back in with her camping and landscaping trailers.
Councilor Brian Griffin, who chairs the council’s traffic committee, said the exact locations have not yet been decided, but there will likely be two humps, about 400 feet west of the top of the hill and 400 feet east of the bottom.
District 2 Councilor Michael LaFlamme, who represents the Chester Street area, noted that while most of the street is residential, there is a convenience store that serves the neighborhood, near the intersection with Piper Road. He said people may not realize “how much pedestrian traffic is on Chester.”
He also said the town DPW had studied traffic speeds on Chester Street, and it was “one of the worst reports we’ve received.”
Chester Street is the latest in a string of side streets where the council has approved speed humps this year, responding to residents’ complaints about drivers using them as shortcuts. Other streets getting speed humps include Chestnut and Pine streets (both of which connect Westfield Street and Kings Highway), and Circle Drive (between Morgan Road and Fausey Drive).
