Traffic Engineering

General Information

The County of Monterey’s speed hump procedure is used to evaluate all requests for speed humps on County maintained roads.

Since speed humps can be controversial, prior to considering an application for speed humps, a petition showing the support of at least 60% of the homeowners on the street where the humps are proposed must be submitted. To obtain the Speed Hump Petition Form, please call (831) 755-4800.

The County does not fund the placement of speed humps. All costs to install the humps will need to be paid for by the homeowners on the affected road.

Requirements for Installing Speed Humps

The County’s Speed Hump procedure also requires the following for a road to be eligible for speed humps:

• A maximum roadway traffic volume of 1500 vehicles a day. 
• Meeting the definition for a residential neighborhood as defined in section 515 of the California Vehicle Code. 
• The ability to post the speed limit for the street at 25 mph. 
• This condition exists where 67% of the motorists are exceeding the 25-mph speed limit. 
• There are no objections from local fire and ambulance emergency responders. 
• The road is not on a Monterey- Salinas Transit service route. 
• Property owners are willing to have the speed hump installed in front of their property.

Staff Review

Once a petition is received, County staff will evaluate the road to determine if it is eligible for speed humps.

If it is eligible, the County staff will notify the appropriate neighborhood association such as an HOA or local CSA  to gather comments prior to making a final decision.

The County may deny the request for speed humps for any of the following reasons:

• One or more of the requirements are not met. 
• The request is for an alleyway.
• The road has vertical or horizontal alignments that would affect the visibility of the humps.
• The road has sustained grades of over 6%.
• The humps would cause traffic to divert to another residential neighborhood.
• Or determines that the humps would present a hazard to the safety of the general public.

Approval of the Humps

If speed humps are approved, then County staff will schedule a field meeting to discuss the final speed hump locations with interested members of the affected neighborhood. 

The applicant making the request to install the speed humps will need to apply for a County encroachment permit at the appropriate County department. Said County department will review the encroachment permit, and if deemed acceptable, will issue an encroachment permit to a contractor with a class A or C-12 license than has been hired by the neighborhood to install the humps and signs and markings. The requesting party will pay all costs associated with the humps. 

Questions

If you have questions, requests, or suggestions concerning traffic please call the Traffic Engineering Section at:
(831) 755-4800.