MANSFIELD — It was a far quieter summer this year on the “Miracle Mile,” likely due to the installation of weekend speed bumps on the area along Park Avenue West between Home and Trimble roads.
Safety Service Director Keith Porch told City Council on Tuesday evening accidents, reported incidents, calls for service, car stops and citations were all down markedly from June 21 to Aug. 22, compared to previous summers.
There were only two car stops and eight citations written during the two-month period in which the speed bumps were installed from late Friday afternoon to Sunday morning each weekend.
The speed bumps, first used June 21, were scheduled to be placed on the stretch of road for a final time this upcoming weekend, but Porch said they will not be used.
The traffic devices, coupled with an “anti-cruising” ordinance City Council approved in May, were part of an effort to reduce lawlessness on the Miracle Mile that law enforcement officials said had become a problem in terms of speeding motorcycles, drag racing and out-of-town visitors.
During 2021, 2022 and 2023, Mansfield police averaged about 600 police reports annually from the targeted section of the four-lane road, an average of 50 per month.
Thus far in 2024, there have been 143 reports taken through near the end of August, an average of about 18 per month, Porch said.
None of the 13 accidents reported from the area from June 21 through Aug. 22 were serious and none involved speed bumps, according to Porch.
He said none of the eight traffic citations were for alleged violations of the “cruising” law, he said.
That law limits repeat vehicle traffic on Friday and Saturday nights between 8 p.m. and 3 a.m. in an area with boundaries of West Fourth Street and Park Avenue West between Home and Trimble roads.
MPD didn’t reduce its patrol efforts in the area during the summer despite the presence of the speed bumps, Porch said.
“We have had officers out working and patrolling Park Avenue,” he said.
“I want to make it very clear that just because speed bumps were placed out on Park Avenue, enforcement efforts were abandoned or we didn’t have officers out on Park Avenue. That is not true,” the former police chief said.
He said the combination of the speed bumps and the cruising ordinance produced “phenomenal” results.
“The traffic was severely reduced out there, resulting in not having those (law) enforcement actions,” Porch said.
Efforts to improve safety on the Miracle Mile began in the fall of 2023 when law enforcement officials began formulating anti-cruising legislation, which was shelved until this spring.
Police Chief Jason Bammann told Mansfield City Council in April that weekend evenings on the “Miracle Mile” are not what they were when he was there in his youth.
“When we were out there, (when) my parents were out there, people were truly out there to socialize,” Bammann said. “This crowd is out there to just wreak havoc. It’s a totally different crowd.
“We’ve had gun calls out there. We’ve had overdose calls out there. So it’s not the social gathering that it once was.”
One of the accidents on the “Miracle Mile” in the summer of 2023 resulted in the death of an Ontario man allegedly traveling at a high rate of speed on a motorcycle.
check out a recent richland source two-part podcast with keith porch
Porch admitted Tuesday the speed bumps were not popular with a segment of the public, many of whom also took to social media to express their displeasure.
“Obviously, there’s two sides of the coin when we’re dealing with speed bumps. I can tell you that the administration … the mayor … we have had conversations regarding these speed bumps.
Deploying and pulling the speed bumps each weekend cost money involving paying city workers, he said.
“We’re trying to be conscious of the budget,” Porch said.
He said city leaders were also conscious of the fact the speed bumps remained on the Miracle Mile during the day on Saturday, impacting daytime traffic in the area.
“When those speed bumps sat out on Park Avenue all through the day Saturday … we were targeting the motoring public that wasn’t causing those (speeding) issues, which didn’t sit good in our soul,” he said.
“I know the mayor definitely heard opinions and we did not enjoy that,” Porch said. “That was not the fun part of it.
“But we have heard both. We had people congratulating us that we took a proactive stance and it’s curbed the nonsense that was occurring and — and then also from the public telling us to do better (and) to get (the speed bumps) off the road.
“So we have definitely heard it from both sides,” Porch said.
