SOLID WASTE/Garbage trucks set pace for slower traffic

Besides using garbage trucks to collect waste, Decatur, Ga., is using the vehicles to slow traffic on residential streets. The 4.2-square-mile suburb — located six miles east of Atlanta — has experienced speeding problems in residential areas for years, says Charles Hammonds, director of sanitation and facilities maintenance for the city. “Many commuters [trying to get downtown] cut through the residential areas, and it is amazing how fast [they] drive.”

However, commuters are not the only drivers that speed through residential areas. “We find that when we do selective enforcement — such as cracking down on stop signs at specific intersections — residents are [speeding too],” says City Manager Peggy Merriss.

Merriss asked the Sanitation and Facilities Maintenance Department to participate in a pace car program to combat the speeding problem. According to Hammonds, the Solid Waste Division is a good fit for the program because it has the most vehicles (aside from the police department), and those vehicles are on every residential street at least once a week.

In November 2001, the city partnered with Atlanta-based Pedestrians Educating Drivers on Safety to implement a neighborhood pace car program. The pedestrian advocacy group supplied the city with stickers that identify the city’s 20 large solid waste trucks as neighborhood pace cars.

As part of the program, the Solid Waste Division agrees to drive at or below the speed limit — which ranges from 15 to 35 miles per hour on residential streets — so drivers caught behind the vehicles are forced to do the same. “Drivers have to [obey the speed limit] because there is no way to get around the vehicles,” Hammonds explains.

So far, the program has been a success, Hammonds says. “I think it helps because, if [drivers] can’t save time by going through the residential areas, they will stop doing it,” he notes. “There have been some fingers and some words, but [the drivers] are not attacking anyone. Our guys just smile and keep going.”