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“(I am) glad to see common sense prevailed (and quite the outpouring of emails, I’m sure) in having the (Park Avenue West) speed bumps removed after only one day.“
MANSFIELD — Sorry, but the speed bumps on the Miracle Mile will be back Friday night.
Again every Friday (and Saturday) night through Sept. 15, according to City of Mansfield Safety Service Director Keith Porch.
The temporary traffic control devices, part of an effort to reduce excessive speed on a section of Park Avenue West between Trimble Avenue and Home Road, worked as expected this past weekend, according to Porch.
“We had three officers working patrol on Park Avenue West (Friday and Saturday nights) and there was a severe impact on the traffic — no shenanigans,” said Porch, the city’s former police chief.
“I looked at the activity logs of the officers out there and the main thing the officers did was issue warnings for equipment violations,” he said.
“We didn’t have the typical traffic citations for speed up and down Park Avenue that you often see,” Porch said.
Plans for the speed bumps were announced by the city in May, when City Council also approved a new ordinance aimed at cutting down on “cruising” on the Miracle Mile. The impetus for that legislation began in September 2023.
That law limits repeat vehicle traffic on Friday and Saturday nights between 8 p.m. and 3 a.m. in an area with boundaries of West Fourth Street and Park Avenue West between Home and Trimble roads.
Mansfield police Chief Jason Bammann told City Council in March that weekend evenings on the “Miracle Mile” are not what they were when he was there in his youth.
“When we were out there, (when) my parents were out there, people were truly out there to socialize. This crowd is out there to just wreak havoc,” Bammann said.
It’s a totally different crowd. We’ve had gun calls out there. We’ve had overdose calls out there. So it’s not the social gathering that it once was.”
Bammann said the department saw in 2023 the problem in the area was motorcycles, drag racing and out-of-town visitors.
“We found we had an influx of people coming from out of county as far away as around Cleveland and down around Columbus. The word was out on Facebook. We found that there were some Facebook groups kind of underground that were promoting this.
“So it was bringing people into our community for one purpose, and that was to just wreak havoc and act out-of-control,” Bammann said.
The fact the public was warned about the speed bumps didn’t stop many from jumping onto social media over the weekend to voice their displeasure over the devices.
The safety service director disagreed with social media complaints that motorists needed to come to almost a complete stop before going over the speed bumps.
“The speed bumps (height) are not aggressive,” he said.
City of Mansfield engineer Bob Bianchi recommended motorists slow down when approaching the speed bumps.
“You have to slow down significantly below the speed limit to traverse those,” Bianchi said.
He said the signage about the speed bumps is in line with the Ohio Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices in terms of advance warning and also placed at the bump itself.
Porch added that people driving vehicles built lower to the road may want to slow down further.
The safety service director said signs were placed along the four-lane street to mark the presence of the speed bumps.
“When I was out there, the city engineer was with me. I wanted to make sure we had the proper signage legally required for speed bumps,” Porch said.
The speed-bump program will last 13 weeks, he said, taking it through the end of summer.
