A sign on Sylvan Avenue warns of upcoming rumble strips. Photo by Emma Ruby.
You spoke, and the city heard.
Rumble strips that were installed along Sylvan Avenue earlier this summer will be removed next Monday, July 17, weather permitting, city staff said Tuesday.
The removal comes following a late-June community meeting in which a majority of attendees voiced frustration over the strips, which were installed as part of a traffic calming study and emitted what neighbors called “nuisance noise.”
According to city council member Chad West, the strips were installed temporarily as a demonstration “in an attempt to slow down traffic and encourage responsible behavior.” The city proposal to install the rumble strips was approved by the Kessler Neighbors United and East Kessler Park Neighborhood Association, he said.
But many neighbors protested that the strips did not slow traffic as intended. In the meeting, members of the Department of Transportation said they did not have data to support whether or not the strips worked in slowing traffic.
“You could hear people speeding along that street before, and now you can really hear them,” said one meeting attendee.
Sylvan Avenue is a street notorious for speeding, and in a note send to District 1 residents following the strips’ removal West called the Sylvan/Colorado intersection “one of the most dangerous intersections in Oak Cliff.”
In the community meeting, West said he intends to completely re-engineer the problematic intersection in order to make it safer.
“Please note that (the Sylvan/Colorado intersection) is currently undergoing engineering and design studies, and I intend to advocate for 2024 Bond funding to reconstruct and redesign that intersection,” West said.
