How to start a debate

Traffic in the Greater Hansville Area has increased dramatically since we moved here, almost 20 years ago.

When we first arrived, you knew who was driving that dark green Ford pickup and who that was with the top down on their Audi convertible. If you didn’t know them, you waved anyway because they were a neighbor and probably new to the area. You knew you’d meet them at the Hansville Neighbor Luncheon or at the Driftwood Key Marina or monthly potluck, or maybe just out walking, and if you came to an intersection and had to wait for two cars to pass someone was bound to exclaim, “A traffic jam!” and laughter would follow.

Now, however, it seems our area has been discovered. Traffic is heavier, not like living in a big city like Kingston or Poulsbo, but definitely heavier. Of course, there are the construction workers busy building and enlarging and refurbishing, and the service people that go along with people on the move, either in or out of Hansville, but there are also more cars going places within GHA. There are boats to tend to at the DK marina, luncheons to go to and bridge to play at various homes. There are model boats to make, coffee to pour at the Hansville store to both the Solitarian Group on Fridays at 10 a.m. and the Better-Half Ladies that meet to chat on Tuesdays at 10 a.m., and even a sandwich to pick up from the store to eat outside while watching the boats in the bay.

And with all this traffic and comings and goings, there comes the speeders: the ones that feel the speed limits posted are not for them – only for the rest of us. There is a reason Hansville wants traffic to slow to 25 mph just before and on the curve from Twin Spits to the Hansville Highway. It’s called safety. Safety for the people trying to leave their driveways or turn into the Hansville Church, or safety for people who want to walk to the post office, or just walk. And on Cliffside there are hills and people need the speed enforced for all of these same reasons too.

Therefore a solution to all this I-DON’T-HAVE-TO-GO-THE-SPEED-LIMIT attitude was found. It’s called SPEED TABLES.

In Europe some countries call these intrusions in the road the Dead Policeman – ever vigilant as he lays in the path of a speeder. Some call them speed humps or bumps. In Mexico they call them topes (toe-pays) and they put a sign at the site of the BUMP with no warning beforehand. It’s hard on a car and your dental work when you hit it above the posted speed limit. The use of speed bumps is widespread around the world, and they are most commonly found where vehicle speeds are statutorially mandated to be low. Although speed bumps are very effective in keeping vehicle speed down, their use is sometimes controversial, like in Hansville.

We’ve had meetings at the GHA center and brought in authority-type figures to explain and try to pacify the heated members that HATE them, and tried to bring them together with and into the thinking of the people that NEED them. Trying to find a meeting of the minds. Is it working? Have the HATERS mellowed and are the NEEDERS giving in to the idea of removing the speed tables?

Well, I don’t think any major decision has been made (but might have been by the time this is printed). In any case, speeders need to take note of the signs, walkers always need to be aware, and … are the speed tables really that bad or just another sign that Hansville is growing? And why wouldn’t everyone that sees this area want to live here. We did.

Contact Donna Lee Anderson at welltoldtales@aol.com.