PRINT THIS PAGE | E-MAIL THIS PAGE

Thursday, March 20, 1997

Crusader against road humps gets one in front of his house

HOUSTON (AP) - Harold Barbin has spent much of time in recent years crusading against speed humps.

Now he's getting one more to crusade against. It's right in front of his driveway on a Houston street.

The retired J.C. Penney salesman calls or write the city of Houston every day and calls or writes the Houston Chronicle every day, he sayd.

Barbin has borrowed technical manuals on speed humps from university libraries. He corresponds regularly with the British Transport Research Laboratory and recently received its 50-page manual, "Road Humps for Controlling Speed."

He dedicates at least eight hours of his day to his anti-speed hump crusade.

Most of his neighbors don't agree with him, so Houston is giving him a speed hump in front of his Spring Branch-area home whether he likes it or not.

"I presume the purpose is, 'We'll show this guy.' It's right at the driveway," Barbin said Tuesday.

But Susan McMillian, the city's speed hump manager, says it's pure coincidence.

"My field people had no idea where Mr. Barbin lives. I could not drive out and identify his house," she said.

McMillian says the street in Afton Village has enough speeding vehicles to qualify for speech humps. A study indicates that one in five drivers exceeds 35 mph in the 30 mph speed zone on the street.

The neighbors wanted humps and they are getting them.

Barbin, 71, served in the Navy during World War II and made a career of the Air Force before turning to retail sales. He and his wife have lived in the same home since 1969, raising two daughters and now enjoying grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

When the civic association in his subdivision tried to close off streets in the neighborhood, he got riled about that and now he's riled about speed humps.

"He crusades against just about everything that the civic association works for. That's his right, of course," said Harold Kaufman, who got 75 percent of Northampton Way homeowners to sign a petition in favor of the humps.

The city switched from street-closing programs to the speed humps following allegations that the street closing were a way for subdivisions to separate themselves from deteriorating apartment complexes.

The city has spent about $1,200 for each of the nearly 750 speed humps it has constructed.

Barbin says the humps spoil perfectly good public roads. By state law, the legal speed is supposed to be 30 mph, but humps are posted at 20 mph.

"They are merely decorative, and they are requested because of their faddish nature," Barbin said.

"The silent majority, if you will, still likes them," McMillian said. Send a Letter to the Editor about This Story | Start or Join A Discussion about This Story
Send the URL (Address) of This Story to A Friend: