Speed hump being installed outside Crown Candy Kitchen to curb dangerous driving

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) -- A speed hump is being installed outside a historic St. Louis business because drivers keep running through a stop sign.

Traffic cones and orange markers show where the hump is being installed outside Crown Candy Kitchen in North City. Drivers keep speeding, going through a stop sign, and sometimes even hitting people.

READ: SLMPD issues tickets as people keep running stop signs outside Crown Candy Kitchen

The city hopes the traffic calming device will curb dangerous driving.

For Andy Karandzieff, it was a sweeter Friday than normal at Crown Candy. Just outside his iconic Old North diner, three black lumps of asphalt sat curing leading up to his street corner.

“Our humps are here,” Karandzieff said. “Five years has been a long time coming, but it’s actually happened out there.”

Karandzieff had advocated for the installation of the bumps prior to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Last fall, when a man was injured outside his store by a careless driver, Karandzieff renewed the push.

He said he has felt that traffic problems in St. Louis have held back business in some neighborhoods, including his.

“Are these going to solve it? No. Reduce it by 30 to 40 percent? I think so, and that’s a significant improvement,” he said.

The St. Louis Board of Aldermen is considering a number of other proposals for similar installations around the city. Currently, the BOA’s site lists 15 different requests for speed humps and a number of other traffic calming projects.

For example, Anne Schweitzer, the alder for Ward 1, has also proposed a plaza at the Ivory triangle in the Carondelet neighborhood.

The project would shut down a short section of Schirmer Street to allow for additional seating and pedestrian use rather than the intersection’s currently complicated triangular design.

“It’s not something that’s plug and play like a speed hump. It’s something that you need to study traffic conditions on, where people are using the road for parking, where they’re running stop signs, what can change on a street can make it better for everyone,” Schweitzer said.

The city has installed several other pedestrian paths and traffic-calming projects in recent months, too. Rasmus Jorgensen, a spokesperson for the city, pointed to the bike path on 22nd Street as one example. He said the city is also incorporating road diets into several other corridors, such as the Kingshighway resurfacing.

“Right now the city is developing its first mobility plan in decades,” he said. “That’s making sure we’re taking a comprehensive look at how we’re making it better for everyone.”