Life near the fast lanes

A stretch of Mount Auburn Road resembles a raceway, plagued by speeding motorists and crowded traffic lanes, some neighborhood residents and Cape Girardeau City Council members say.

"They do go awfully fast through here," said Doris Lumsden, who lives at 602 N. Mount Auburn Road. She and her husband, Ronald, said the city's decision to make the former two-lane road into a four-lane street has added to the problem because traffic in the outside lanes now comes dangerously close to the curb.

The Lumsdens said it makes it dangerous for residents along Mount Auburn Road from Hopper Road to Themis Street who have to step out to the curb to retrieve their mail from the mailboxes.

The speed limit is 35 mph, but Ronald Lumsden said most motorists zip by at faster speeds. "If you do 35, you get run over," he said.

In August 2002, a 42-year-old Cape Girardeau woman died in a one-car accident in the 600 block of Mount Auburn Road after her car ran off the road and struck a tree. Doris Lumsden said the car first struck her mailbox before swerving across the road.

A traffic study by the city -- conducted the week of Sept. 24 -- found that 85 percent of motorists were driving at an average speed of 43 mph on Mount Auburn Road near Themis Street. Farther north near the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce office, a majority of drivers were clocked at speeds of 36 mph, barely above the speed limit, police traffic Sgt. Jack Wimp said.

But the Lumsdens and other residents along Mount Auburn Road believe motorists are driving far faster than the speed limit on many stretches of the street.

The Lumsden home is at the corner of Mount Auburn Road and Wisteria Street. Their driveway is actually on Wisteria. Still, they worry about being rear-ended when they slow down to turn onto Wisteria.

"We hold our breath when we turn in every time," Doris Lumsden said.

Norma Shipp, who lives at 634 N. Mount Auburn Road, said she and her husband installed a mailbox that opens on two ends. That way they don't have to step in the street to get their mail.

At a meeting of a committee of the planning and zoning commission earlier this year, it was even suggested that the city consider buying mailboxes that open on two ends to make it safer for Mount Auburn Road residents to get their mail.

"That would help," Ronald Lumsden said. But he and city officials agreed that won't keep people from speeding.

"I think it is something we are going to have to address," said Councilwoman Marcia Ritter, who has voiced concerns repeatedly about speeding traffic on the busy street, which has become a major north-south route on the city's west side.

Police response

So far this year, police have issued 246 speeding tickets and responded to five accidents on Mount Auburn Road from Kingshighway to Independence Street, the police department's Wimp said. Only a dozen speeding tickets have been issued on the widened stretch of Mount Auburn Road from Independence Street to William Street, he said. But there have been 24 accidents on that stretch of road, many of them at the William Street intersection, Wimp said.

As many as 15,500 vehicles a day travel on the section of Mount Auburn Road from Independence to William. Farther north, near Hopper Road, the traffic count is about 14,000 vehicles a day, said Tom Wiesner of the city engineering department.

The city in 2001 transformed Mount Auburn Road from a two-lane to a four-lane street from Kingshighway to William Street.

The change was made by restriping the road to make more lanes as opposed to physically widening the street. The move has helped ease traffic congestion but has added to the safety problem because the traffic is closer to the curb, some neighborhood residents say.

Last year, the city widened Mount Auburn Road from Independence Street to William Street to provide a center left-turn lane. That section of Mount Auburn Road is bordered only by businesses. Traffic lights also were installed at the Independence Street and Mount Auburn Road intersection as part of the nearly $378,000 project.

City officials are considering widening sections of Mount Auburn Road between Independence and Kingshighway to provide some turn lanes. The road would be widened from Independence Street to Themis Street, and from south of Hopper Road northward to the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce office, and from Kingshighway to Kage Road. Traffic signals would be installed at the Hopper Road intersection. The intersection currently is a four-way stop.

The $840,000 project is one of the road improvements that city officials hope to do over the next five years if voters extend the half-cent transportation sales tax. A vote on the tax measure could occur next August, officials said.

But city planner Kent Bratton said none of those improvements will deter speeding.

Bratton doubts the situation is any worse on Mount Auburn Road than on the city's other major streets.

Police chief Steve Strong said stop signs and traffic signals don't keep people from driving over the speed limit. Sometimes motorists speed up both as they approach and leave an intersection, he said.

But Martha Howard of 618 N. Mount Auburn Road said her busy street isn't any more of a traffic problem than the city's other thoroughfares.

Howard said she's lived in her home for more than 30 years. She remembers when it was a gravel road bordered by farm land. "There were cows and horses all over the place."

Over the years, it's been paved and traffic has increased dramatically as more homes and businesses have been built in the neighborhood.

But Howard isn't complaining. "I see it no worse than any other street," she said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123