Huntersville holds public hearing on Delwood Drive traffic calming; engineers recommend speed humps

Huntersville officials on April 1 heard a public hearing and staff presentation on traffic calming for Delwood Drive after a resident petition prompted a formal study.

Laura Mastro Francesco, the town’s transportation engineer, told the Board that the study area — Delwood Drive from Central Avenue toward Vermilion — has an 18-foot pavement width, no continuous sidewalks and a posted speed limit of 25 mph. She said the 80th-percentile speed measured in field studies was 35 mph, above the town’s 31-mph threshold for advancing traffic-calming measures. "The 80 fifth percentile of drivers were going 35 miles per hour," Mastro Francesco said.

The engineering team presented five options ranging from a single speed hump to a mini-circle at Central plus multiple speed humps. Engineering and police recommended two or three asphalt speed humps (not portable rubber mats); fire staff raised concerns about a mini-circle because a fire hydrant…