ALPHARETTA, Ga.,None — Alpharetta's assistant city administrator is apologizing to concerned homeowners over a problem with reckless drivers in their neighborhood.
People living in the Park Forest subdivision off Park Bridge Parkway tell Channel 2's Mike Petchenik they've been dealing with speeders and drivers blowing through stop signs on their street for years. They said drivers have been using the road as a "cut through" between Old Milton Parkway and Webb Bridge Road.
"They come barreling down the hills and blow through the stop signs," said Gaylain Fife, who showed Petchenik home video of a car speeding through a stop sign and briefly going airborne over a speed bump.
Neighbor Jill Noens told Petchenik she's concerned about the safety of her kids because the intersection in front of the neighborhood also serves as a bus stop.
"It's not safe anymore," said Noens. "We hold our breath in the morning when the kids go out to the bus stop, wondering if they're gonna get hit by a speeding car."
Noens and Fife both said Alpharetta Police do a good job patrolling the stretch and ticketing reckless drivers, but they said there's only so much enforcement that can occur.
"They would have to sit here 24 hours a day to really make any difference," said Fife.
Assistant city administrator James Drinkard said even though police were aware of the situation, they didn't communicate the problems to traffic engineers.
"We're sorry we didn't get it right the first time," Drinkard told Petchenik. "We're sorry we didn't have the internal communication operating in a way we like it to operate."
Drinkard said after he received an email Petchenik forwarded from Fife, he immediately notified traffic engineers about the issue.
"What is going to take place from this point forward is to put out traffic counters to see what sort of traffic is flowing through there," he said.
Drinkard said once the traffic study is complete, city officials will decide whether to put in more stop signs, extra speed bumps, radar controlled speed limit signs, or a mixture of them. He said speed bumps likely wouldn't work on the road because of "nature" of the traffic there.
"Now that everybody's aware of the situation, now we can take appropriate measure to address their issue," he said.
Neighbors told Petchenik they're hopeful the city will take action.
"I hope that they listen," said Noens. "I don't think they want to wait until somebody gets killed."