Clay Burgh

Eng 102

Project 2 DRAFT

Parking Lot Problems

The looming issue in the community of Surprise is that a major local road, Bell Road, has been
the cause of an increase in motor accidents. One of the biggest causes of the lack of safety on the road is
the multiple shopping centers and food places that are scattered along it, so drivers are often seen using
adjacent parking lots to cut through traffic to try and save time. The problem with doing this is not only
is it illegal, but the parking lots have little to no traffic signs at all, causing the drivers to speed through
parking lots with nothing telling them to slow down or stop. The community is filled with seniors and
growing families who use these parking lots daily, as well as kids that are getting out of school and going
straight to these places for food and entertainment, while drivers are speeding through with no limits.
The high amount of foot traffic in this area is another reason why it is so important to try and make a
change; the parking lots in the community are not safe for people that use them, the city needs to
implement safety features to make it a safer place for drivers and pedestrians.

When looking into road safety issues regarding Bell Road, the problem may not always be a
problem to everyone, but after interviewing five other people who drive through these parking lots
everyday it is evident that a change needs to be made. Out of the five participants, all five said that they
felt unsafe in the parking lots along Bell. When asked who has used these parking lots to skip traffic, four
out of five of the participants admitted to doing so. The last question that was asked was how the city
could improve the safety of these parking lots. The participants had a lot of great suggestions for safety
features including speed bumps and rumble strips, but the one that everyone agreed on needing was
speed signs and stop signs. Regardless, it seemed like everyone needed some type of change.

There are multiple ways that we can fix the parking lots to help the overall flow of traffic on Bell
Road, while also protecting the pedestrians that use the parking lots alongside it. One of the things that
are most evidently needed in the parking lots are stop signs. Stop signs should be the first line of defense
against reckless drivers, and many of these parking lots haven’t even had them installed while others
have just empty posts with no sign. In a parking lot filled with multiple different lanes with cars entering
and exiting from a busy road, stop signs are a necessity. According to an article about improving parking
lot safety on www.safetysign.com they say, “According to the National Safety Council (NSC), more than
50,000 car accidents occur in parking lots, resulting in over 500 fatalities and more than 60,000 injuries.”
Parking lots are responsible for one in every five car crashes in America, and with the since it is such a
large problem everywhere, the statistics have resulted in some solutions that have proven to be helpful
in improving parking lot safety. There is much more that can be done than just adding stop signs, and
there are multiple other features that can be added as well.

The largest issue in these parking lots is people driving much faster than should be allowed in
parking lots. With a constant stream of foot traffic, there needs to be a feature implemented to slow
these drivers down. These parking lots lack speed limit signs, so nobody really knows what is legal and
what is not. Even when these signs are implemented some drivers will still ignore them. The most
effective way to stop people from speeding in parking lots is adding speedbumps. According to an article
done by an asphalt company who specialize in parking lot safety they stated that, “Speed bumps are the
best way to ensure that drivers aren’t speeding in parking lots. Placing them near walkways in your
parking lot will help to protect pedestrians and other drivers” (Alphametic). Implementing these will
require drivers to slowdown even if they do not want to. Going high speeds over these bumps can cause
significant damage to cars which most drivers want to avoid.

There is not much of an argument for not trying to make the parking lots safer besides the
aspect of money. Some drivers that are impatient will be annoyed with implementing the changes, but
their only real argument is making it home faster while risking their own and others’ safety. The money
argument is a valid one, but also the implements needed are not relatively expensive for a city to pay for.
According to an article on www.Trafficsign.us they say the cost of installing a stop sign is only $125, which
seems to be cheap, but the city is missing them in important places. The more expensive solution would
be adding speed bumps, which according to an article done by the city of phoenix over the price of the
speed hump program, “Each speed hump, together with required signing and striping, costs
approximately $3,500 to install. Residents pay a portion of the cost, depending on a street's average
speed after a traffic study” (Speed Hump Program). This is more expensive than it should be, but the key
concept is that the people are already paying for these to be implemented. If a large majority of the
community thinks it is needed, then it should be added.

An example of a time the community got together to make a change for Bell Road happened in
2018. The community is constantly growing, so with the increase of people Bell Road was seeing some
absurd levels of traffic. According to a news crew in Phoenix, “Bell Road is exceeding 60,000 and is close
to reaching freeway capacity which is 72,000 vehicles a day. The county says drivers could see a 20-
percent reduction in travel time because of the real-time traffic lights” (Pazera). This fact shows that the
city can act and has the power to make these parking lots safer. The price for something like real-time
traffic lights makes implementing traffic signs and speed bumps look cheap. Knowing that the city has
budgets, there should not be much holding back the community.

Overall, Bell Road just has too many people every day that are using the parking lots to skip
traffic. The city of Surprise needs to implement more traffic signs in parking lots such as stop signs and
speed signs to reduce the dangers of this issue. The community is filled with too many families and
senior citizens to not try and reduce issues as best as possible. Cracking down on parking lots safety will
directly affect the fluidity of traffic on Bell Road as well as the overall safety of the road. These are
parking lots that are used by our community every day if there is something that can be done it should
be. Only you can prevent parking lot crashes and the more people who care about the issue the better
chance the city will change it.
 WORK CITED

Alphametic. (2022, April 5). How to improve parking lot safety [infographic] -. Southern
Asphalt Engineering. Retrieved April 20, 2023, from
https://www.southernasphaltengineering.com/ways-to-improve-parking-lot-safety/

Costs of traffic signs. Manual of Traffic Signs - Costs of Traffic Signs. (n.d.). Retrieved April 21,
2023, from http://www.trafficsign.us/signcost.html

It, & It. (2023, February 23). How to improve parking lot safety. Safety Sign News. Retrieved
April 20, 2023, from https://www.safetysign.com/blog/how-to-improve-parking-lot-safety/

Pazera, J. (2018, July 26). Sensors aim to reduce wait times at lights along Bell Road. ABC15
Arizona in Phoenix (KNXV). Retrieved April 20, 2023, from
https://www.abc15.com/news/roads/sensors-to-reduce-wait-times-at-lights-along-bell-road

Staff, F. (2020, December 18). Methods to improve road safety. Retrieved April 20, 2023, from
https://kiowacountypress.net/content/methods-improve-road-safety