Residents Raise Speeding, Developer Concerns

Speeding cars and developer accountability were the top resident concerns at Tuesday night’s Bowie City Council meeting, where more than a dozen residents showed up from Collington Station and The Hamptons at Woodmore to ask for the city’s help dealing with these issues.

Collington Station resident Patrice Murray was particularly concerned with speeding drivers going from Central Avenue to Church Road.

“We have kids living on those streets, we have bus stops on those streets,” Murray said, adding that she felt it was necessary to do something to slow the cars in her neighborhood.

Her neighbor Sydney Watts agreed, and appealed to the city council to come to the aid of the neighborhood with some creative solutions to slow down speeding vehicles.

When discussing their concerns about speeding, several of the community members referred to a traffic study conducted by the city, and stated that the average speed through their neighborhood was clocked at 45 mph. The posted speed limit is 25 mph.

City Manager David Deutsch said there may be some confusion about the results of the study.

“We haven’t had the opportunity to talk with the neighbors about what the data means,” said Deutsch.

This study showed that the average speed for top 85 percentile of cars going through the neighborhood was 45 mph, which means that these cars were going 45 mph or less—not that 85 percent of the cars were going 45 mph, he said.

There were also some concerns about the developer of The Hamptons at Woodmoore. Valeria Tomlin, who was one of the first residents to move into the neighborhood, said she was worried about the lack of signage on the bike trail, and the buffer on her property, which she considers to be too thin.

Tomlin urged the city to withhold the developer's bond until they'd completed all aspects of the project.

Deutsch assured residents that the $210,000 bond would not be released to the developer until they’d finished all of the contracted work, signs and tree plantings included.

The community will be meeting with Deutsch on Sept. 14 to discuss their traffic and developer concerns in more detail. Deutsch is prepared to reassure residents about the bond and make plans for traffic calming if that is what the residents decide.

The city has a traffic calming plan that includes a variety of options—radar, speed humps and traffic circles—though they must show a certain threshold of support within the community before any measures can be implemented.