CLEVELAND, Ohio — News 5 continues to Follow-Through on the stories impacting your community.
We’ve covered the extensive installation of speed tables across the City of Cleveland.
RELATED: Cleveland expands speed table program to enhance road safety
Leaders and residents fought for them in high-traffic, high-speed areas, all to slow down and deter dangerous drivers.
The program is now entering a new era.
The City of Cleveland recently installed its 100th speed table in its "First 100 Program" in the Clark-Fulton area.
While some residents don’t always love driving over them, officials say the speed tables have been working effectively.
City leaders confirm drivers can expect to see many more shortly.
"They need these warnings. Yeah. They need these. Slow the f*** down! Excuse my language," Daniel James Woyton, a South Collinwood business owner and resident, said.
Woyton did not mince words when he talked about the repeated reckless drivers, who he says typically speed up and down Waterloo Road.
"They fly all the time," Woyton said.
The bar owner has called the South Collinwood Waterloo Arts District area home his entire life.
But the drivers have been a bit out of control in recent years.
"Car ran into that building twice," Woyton said.
He and his brother-in-law, who owns Studio 158 Hair Salon, are finally breathing a big sigh of relief.
It's thanks to three large asphalt speed tables smack dab in the middle of the road.
"I think they're making a difference because it slows people down," Jim Sharaba, a South Collinwood business owner, said.
"Speed limit. They don't get over 30 miles per hour. And it does work. Definitely works. 100%," Woyton said.
Public Works selected that neighborhood because it's a high pedestrian spot with plenty of businesses, a medium-traffic volume street with no more than 4,000 cars per day, in a 25-mile-per-hour speed limit zone.
"We try to keep them at a regular rhythm so that drivers, as they encounter them don't have incentive to speed up in between—hit the gas, hit the brakes," Calley Mersmann, City of Cleveland Senior Strategist for Transit and Mobility, said.
"We saw almost eight miles per hour of speed reduction across those locations. Heard back from residents that they really liked them and wanted to see more," Mersmann said.
While not all drivers—follow the rules and sometimes maneuver around them, city officials say research shows a one-mile-per-hour drop in speed can cut down deadly traffic crashes by 6%.
Phase 2 of the project is next.
City officials confirm at least 100 more speed tables will be installed across town.
The locations selected will be based on resident submissions and data collection.
"Very well received. Very effective and very popular. We're working our way through all of the requests we have gotten in and using that to inform our program and a list for next summer," Mersmann said.
As for additional noise, some folks have complained about the loud sounds from trucks and trailers driving over them.
Woyton says it's best to pick your battles.
"I hear them non-stop. But sure better than hearing accidents," Woyton said.
The new speed tables are set to be installed next summer and fall.
If you want your neighborhood or a particular street to be considered for a speed table, you can dial 311 to report the area or submit it here.
The Speed Table Program is made possible through the Back-to-Basics Capital Fund, the city's $30 million American Rescue Plan Act.
