Speeding along Sycamore Avenue in the Waterfront is a well-established concern. Here are three potential and practical fixes, all of which could be done immediately at low cost…

(1) Install a stop sign along Sycamore at the Tsushima intersection. This only makes sense. How often have you driven down Sycamore only to see the creeping cars coming from Bayside, or others who roll-stop through the intersection, only noticing on-coming traffic when they are already in the intersection. Obviously, these are moving violations, but the Hercules Police Department cannot afford to have a cruiser parked at that intersection. Also, the installation of a camera is sheer lunacy. Lastly, as traffic picks up along Sycamore — with the construction of Sycamore Downtown and Sycamore Crossing — this is a measure that is likely to be necessary anyway.

(2) Install a stop sign along Sycamore at the Willet intersection. The construction of Frog Pad Park (where children will be at-play) makes this necessary on its own. But it will also serve to slow down inbound and outbound traffic along Sycamore. Have you ever crossed the road at the top of the hill at the entrance to Promenade? Have you feared for your life as a silver F-250 flies toward you at 45 miles per hour, only to slow down at the last second because the sight distance is poor? If that driver was forced to come to a complete stop at Willet, the entrance speed into Promenade would be greatly reduced. (By the way, that F-250 parks at the corner of Sycamore and Railroad. Just an FYI.)

(3) Install rumble strips along Sycamore adjacent to the wetlands in-between the Bayside and Baywood neighborhoods. This is always the least popular option, and that is why I listed it third. My favorite complaint for this one is the inevitable, “But it makes me slow down.” But look at the other possibilities: Speed bumps or humps are out of the question; they add risk and hazard for emergency vehicles. Setting-up a speed-radar print-out and increased patrol is continuously costly. Noise is a potential sticking point, but there is no development on one side, and on the other, the homes are thirty feet higher in elevation. Plus, those homes have fences. That seems like a small cost to substantially slow down traffic on Sycamore and make the Waterfront safer.

I think the first two choices are obvious, and the City must have the four stop signs in storage to make that work right away. The third one, I’ll consider that optional at this point. If (1) and (2) work, then that one isn’t all that necessary… for now. Increased patrol is always an option as well, although some say that is too costly. Enforcement, however, does pay for itself with the issuance of citations. Either way, slowing drivers down is the chief issue, and these three options would seemingly require less patrol.