City of Birmingham placing more speed strips to counter exhibition driving

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) - If you live downtown, you know the issue of exhibition driving plagues Birmingham. The city is still working on ways to combat the deadly driving and that includes portable speed strips. You have likely driven over some of the old ones down on 3rd Avenue and at City Walk.

City leaders said more are coming to the central city neighborhood.

You live near 1st Avenue North, you’ll hear the roars and revs from these supped up vehicles almost every weekend. Central City Neighborhood residents have made their feelings known about the issue for years, and while city leaders hope legislative changes make the issue easier to tackle, they are attempting to discourage the deadly driving in the meantime.

The city just installed new speed strips at the intersection of 1st Avenue North and 24th Street. This group of strips is a part of the second order placed by the department of transportation.

“They ordered 50 to start with. After they put those out they said we could use more so there has been another order of somewhere between 50 and 100 that have been put on order. Those will come in as well, just so we can expand where we put these speed bumps throughout the city,” said City Communications Director Rick Journey.

While they are on both 1st and 3rd Avenue North right now, that can easily change in the months ahead.

“We don’t necessarily advertise where they are going to go from time to time but people obviously see them when they are driving in an area. The one thing and the advantage for us with these speed bumps is that they are mobile.”

That feature allows BPD and the Birmingham Transportation Department to coordinate, and move the strips to hot spots where the dangerous driving pops up consistently.

“We don’t want to put one on every intersection in the city but we are trying to find places where we know there are common concerns and common complaints about it. So we can address this and further curtail the amount of reckless exhibition driving in the city.”

Several of our state legislators are working to increase the punishment for those caught participating in this driving. The increased punishments could include having your vehicle impounded and even jail time.

Get news alerts in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store or subscribe to our email newsletter here.

Copyright 2023 WBRC. All rights reserved.