City of Detroit puts in its own speed bumps after ripping out the ones neighbors did themselves

DETROIT (FOX 2) - Things are a quieter and moving a bit slower on Lichfield Street in Green Acres. The city of Detroit installed speed humps, or cushions as they call it, Tuesday morning.

This comes three weeks after removing a set of speed humps that neighbors crowdfunded, bought, and installed themselves after their requests were denied year after year.

"We decided just to fund ourselves and raise the funds for speed humps in our street," said Ismael Lucas.

"You just can't go onto city streets and make determinations on your own to alter the roadway," said Ron Brundidge, Detroit Dept. of Public Works.

The city initially told FOX 2 this stretch of Lichfield did not meet the qualifications to have the Department of Public Works install speed cushions.

In a statement Wednesday Press Secretary Nicole Simmons said:

"The DPW traffic engineering assessed this location and determined that it did meet the standards for our program. Now, the residents on Lichfield have a speed cushion that meets our city specifications and is consistent with the other 1,200 speed cushions we're installing across the city this year."

"I am just grateful, hopefully, this will combat the speeding on the street," said Shkyra Finley. "And just keep everybody safe."

Neighbors say speeding drivers have long been a problem on Lichfield, a street that provides a straight shot to Eight Mile. Several young children live there and daycares there as well.

"(I hope drivers) slow down and treat it like it is their own street," said Gwen Burton. "Like their own children are living on the street, or their elderly parents or just people in general."

Andrew Krok who helped with the neighborhood DIY speed hump installation has mixed feelings about it all.

"I am kind of happy, but I am kind of bummed, I am happy because obviously the neighborhood is going to be a safer place and fewer people are going to be speeding, that will be great," he said. "What concerns me or kind of makes me sad, is that it did get to the point where we ended up taking city resources to get the speed bumps back in, which was kind of the idea of us doing it ourselves in the first place - so that we didn't put an undue strain on the city."

MORE: This Detroit neighborhood bought and installed their own speed bumps. The city took them out

Speed humps are needed across the city and on Conner Street on Detroit's east side where an 8-year-old girl died after being struck by a car in August.

"Hopefully no one else has to lose their life in order for this situation to get taken care of," said Denice Henson, who lives in the area. "

Residents like Henson are pushing for the city to install speed humps and crackdown on reckless drivers. So far, she says nothing has been done.

"A lot of the Detroit people are driving recklessly," she said. "Like on the next block this morning my post office lady told me she almost got hit by a (driver) doing 120 miles an hour up the street. She happened to step to the side and he went whoosh up Algonquin Street up to Jefferson."

A spokesperson for the city of Detroit said that area of Conner is being evaluated for speed humps in the near future. Police say they have submitted a warrant to the prosecutor for that 16-year-old driver in the fatal crash that killed the 8-year-old.

The city of Detroit said it can only install about 1,200-speed humps this year despite getting about 7,000 requests. Residents say the humps are only part of the solution, asking for more police traffic enforcement and also people need to slow down when they are driving down residential streets.

According to the city, any residents interested in having speed cushions installed on their street should submit a request at detroitmi.gov/dpw.