Drivers, the Katts said, were going too fast in the Canterbury and Scottson neighborhoods. The speed limit is 25 mph, but the Katts clocked speeds of almost 60 mph in their neighborhood.

On Tuesday evening, the city held a neighborhood meeting for residents of the two streets to ask questions and voice concerns about the traffic calming methods to be installed in their area.

The speed hump and tables are an addition to the Forum and Green Meadows Intersection Improvement Project, said Allison Anderson, project manager and engineering supervisor. The addition of traffic calming was a product of an interested parties meeting at Rock Bridge Elementary School in June 2017.

“The residents came to us with concerns about the cut-through and speeding problems, which we took into consideration,” Anderson said.

The speed hump will be installed on Scottson Way, according to the project design. The two speed tables will be on Canterbury Drive. Speed tables are elongated speed humps and give a gliding effect to cars driving over them. Both speed humps and tables are intended to slow car speed to about 15 mph.

Buck and Norma Katt have lived on Canterbury Drive for 36 years. A few years ago, they borrowed a radar gun and recorded speeds of drivers for three days.

“It was an effort to get the city to realize the speeding issue on our street,” Buck Katt said.

Drivers use Canterbury Drive and Scottson Way as a shortcut to get from Green Meadows Road to Forum Boulevard and vice versa. However, when they cut through the neighborhoods, their speed stays high.

The speed limit in the neighborhood is 25 mph. But Buck and Norma said that drivers would whip through at 50 to 60 mph.

“We have to jump out of the way of these cars,” fellow Canterbury resident Ian Chang said. “It really is that bad. During peak hours, cars just go flying through.”

But the speeding is more than just annoying.

Sydney Pauley, 7, had to call her younger brother out of the road while they were playing so he wouldn’t get hit by a car.

“They don’t care about us kids unless Daddy’s out there, too,” Sydney said.

That’s what it’s come to: parents standing on the street to slow oncoming traffic.

Joel Pauley, Sydney’s father and ride to the meeting, has been working with the other parents in the area to devise plans for protecting the kids.

“We have ‘Children Playing’ signs. I brought out cones. We tried it all,” Pauley said. “At least one parent has to stay out to slow cars down.”

Engineer and project designer Elizabeth Farr strategically placed the speed humps and tables for maximum efficiency. One speed table is at the intersection of Belle Meade Drive and Canterbury. The other is next to Canterbury Circle. In the circle is a patch of land where neighborhood kids are known to play, according to several residents at the neighborhood meeting.

The project team received concerns at Tuesday’s meeting about the number of traffic calming structures to be installed. They’d like to see one more speed hump on Scottson Way, Farr said.

“With the curves and frequent driveways, it would be tough to add more,” said Farr. “But we will certainly look into it.”

The traffic calming will be installed in the summer of 2019. It should take no longer than a week, Anderson said.

Traffic engineer Tayler Shelton remarked on the ease of installation.

“We can install an individual table in a single day,” Shelton said. “We construct them so they sit in the pavement. That way there’s no movement and they can withstand a snow plow.”

Project coordinators will accept public comments through Oct. 3 in the form of email, hard copy, phone call or in-person request.

After attending Tuesday’s meeting, both Buck and Norma Katt were content with the traffic calming plan.

“We think that’s exactly where they’re supposed to be,” Buck Katt said about the speed humps. “We’re glad to see the city doing this.”

Supervising editor is Sky Chadde: [email protected], 882-5720.