Me against the world

I think I might be turning into a grumpy old man. I was heating up some dinner tonight when the doorbell rings. I stroll over expecting to see one of the neighborhood kids, when I see an older gentlemen holding a clipboard. I know it's going to be long Presidential election process, but this soon? "Hi, I'm so and so representing so and so who is trying to get speed bumps installed along the street to slow down traffic. I was wondering if you would be willing to sign my petition?" Immediately, I repond with a "I like like speeding." He seems a little shocked and slightly offended, but quickly leaves. Now, after my wife pointed out that my response may have been a little rude, I defended myself to her by saying I was honest.

Now, the interesting thing is that I do like speeding, but I do live in a neighborhood that has a lot of kids, and I have noticed that people do seem to speed. The posted speed limit is 25 mph, buy myself and many other people seem to be doing 30-35 mph. I do see the gentleman's point about wanting to slow down traffic, so I started thinking, as I like to do. I'm a car guy, and I HATE speed bumps. Driving a lowered car over speed bumps just plain sucks.

There are a few side streets in Lafayette, that would actually allow people to cut through neighborhoods from one major street to another, but their are speed bumps installed, so traffic avoids those streets like the plague.

Why not install a couple stop signs instead of speed bumps? There are quite a few intersections that could be set up with a 3-way stop. This would definately slow traffic down. People almost completely stop at the speed bumps anyway, and you would be completely without the annoying up-down motion. There might be a little additional wear on people's brake systems, but there would be less wear on the suspension. Is it just me, or is it the world? Maybe it's just the engineer in me searching for a better solution.