Safety should never be compromised.

 At the Annual HOA Meeting on March 21, 2022, the Board of Directors—John DeCastra, Clark French, Ozzie Taylor, Andy Graffeo and Alice Milton (all but Alice Milton still serve today)—announced plans to replace existing speed bumps with speed humps like the ones in Chase Lake. Instead, they eliminated all 11 existing and effective speed bumps, which had been installed following a tragic incident where a speeding driver killed a dog that was being walked on a leash—and replaced them with seven “hiccups.” 

The board never provided a reason for this. After multiple complaints regarding the lack of speed control, they commissioned a survey to evaluate the new speed “hiccups.”

A few months later, the Board shared survey findings that seemed to justify their decision to focus on the 85th percentile of speeds, which averaged 23.2 mph. However, concerns arise from the 15% of recorded speeds exceeding the neighborhood limit, with the highest reaching an alarming 79.8 mph.

The study's findings noted residents' concerns about speeding drivers but highlighted that observing speed from a stationary position may distort perceptions of how fast vehicles are traveling.

Despite the report’s “distorted perceptions theory”, Julie and I are confident most Arbor Hill residents can accurately judge—even from a stationary position—when cars are going in excess of 30, 40, 50 - especially 79.8 mph.