Residents press El Cajon council for speed humps after repeated crashes on Taft Avenue

Residents from the Taft Avenue area told the El Cajon City Council on April 23 that repeated high-speed driving has put children and homes at risk and urged the city to install speed-calming devices.

"We had well over a 100 signatures for speed bumps or slowing measures in our neighborhood," said Steven Martin, who said a car recently ran onto his front yard where his children play. He showed a map of problem locations and told the council the drivers sometimes exceed 80 mph on the cut-through streets.

Barbie Bates, who helped collect signatures, said the neighborhood faces a street dip that launches vehicles and that temporary radar trailers have not captured useful data. "We need something before somebody gets killed," she said.

Mayor Bill Wells thanked the speakers and asked City Manager Graham Mitchell for staff follow-up. Mitchell said staff has installed a speed-monitoring sign and will measure speeds, review the petition and consider next steps, including engineering options and further outreach.

Councilmembers backed a longer-term engineering approach rather than solely relying on enforcement. One councilmember called street narrowing or traffic islands "far more effective than enforcement and education," and the group discussed neighborhood-level processes used by other cities, petition thresholds and possible fees for resident-initiated installations.

Mitchell told the council staff will include policy options and data in upcoming reports, and asked the petitioners to leave contact information so staff can keep them informed.

The council did not vote on a specific speed-calming project that night; residents were told staff will return with measured data and policy options. The city manager said staff will explore both short-term enforcement and longer-term engineering solutions and keep residents informed.