Kelsey Drive resident says speed bumps have helped ease traffic

It’s been one week since the City of Columbia finished installing speed bumps on Rice Road and Kelsey Drive with a goal of easing traffic, and ABC 17 News is checking back on the project’s success.

Joyce Schulte, who has lived on Kelsey Drive for nearly a decade, told ABC 17 News that the speed bumps have made a difference.

“I don’t hear as many engines speed up when they turn the corner as I used to. Don’t see as many cars just racing like they used to,” she said. “I think we had cars going 40 to 45 miles per hour here in a 20 to 25 mile per hour zone.”

While no major accidents have occurred, Schulte said she has seen a number of close calls.

“There’s just a continuous hope it doesn’t happen running through the mind. Luckily, we have not had a major problem out here with someone getting killed but we’ve held our breath,” she said.

I asked Schulte if she’s satisfied with the city’s response. She said she would like to see better long term planning.

“I would say to the city long-term, quit planning these straight streets. There’s some cities that if you had a street this long it would have two or three curves in it.”

The city approved the Rice Road/Kelsey Drive traffic management project back in November. At the time, Rice Road was listed as No. 3 on the city’s neighborhood traffic management program priority list.

The entire project cost about $72,000 with the funds coming from the capital sales improvement tax.