PORT NECHES, Texas — Riverfront development in Port Neches has brought about new concerns for families in a nearby neighborhoods.
Residents of Llano Street in Port Neches said their side street has turned into a speedway.
Llano Street residents are upset about drivers cutting through and putting the lives of their kids in danger.
Residents have put up several signs telling residents to slow down.
Several residents will not let their children play out front because it has gotten so dangerous.
“My grandson almost got hit out here,” Kathy Duncan, Llano Street resident, said. “It is scary whenever you cannot let your pets or children play outside. You have to watch yourself when you are pulling out of your driveway because you do not know who is speeding through."
The signs have provided little help as drivers continue to speed past their way to the waterfront.
Depending on where a driver is from, certain route sometimes route people down Llano Street instead of more major streets, Duncan said.
Duncan fears the problem will only get worse with new homes and restaurants coming to the water front.
Duncan and other residents want the speed to be reduced from 30 mph to 25 mph. She also wants police to more patrols in the area.
Port Neches Police Chief Paul Lemoine said local law enforcement is working towards a solution.
“We have been targeting several streets for traffic enforcement and also doing our own internal studies on the traffic flow," he said.
Officials have hired an engineering firm to study traffic flow in the area of Llano Street and have also increased police patrols.
“We want to try to make it as easy as possible, either with signage or redesigning intersections, so we can eliminate the vast majority of those problems,” Lemoine siad.
Residents in other Port Neches neighborhoods have also complained about speeding drivers threatening the lives of their children.
Due to speeding cars, the residents of Armstrong Avenue in Port Neches are worried about the safety of their children.
Michael Roam, a Port Neches resident who lives on the street, said that the speeding issue caused him to live every parent’s worst nightmare.
“I watched my son get hit by a car,” he said. “If the lady had not been doing the 30 mph speed limit, odds are we would not have been going to the hospital. We would have been going to the cemetery.”
Roam approached the city council last week for a speed limit reduction on Armstrong Avenue. The petition that Roam presented had a signature from every resident on the street.
“We are getting a lot of children moving into the area,” Roam said. “I want the streets safe and for people to slow down.”
On Port Neches Avenue headed toward Magnolia Avenue on Highway 366, the speed limit is 40 mph. But, there is a cut-through area near Armstrong Avenue that drivers take to avoid the traffic light.
On this cut through, there is not a single speed limit sign on display.
“I am hoping that we get the 20 mph speed limit,” Roam said. “We will get radar enforcement.”
Port Neches Police Chief Paul Lemoine responded by conducting an eight-day study using a stale stat box, which records time, cars speed and direction.
“It did not indicate they had a serious problem out there at all,” Lemoine said. “As a matter of fact, it was probably some of the lower volumes of cars on any of our streets we have been doing studies on.”
More than 6,000 vehicles were counted. Of those, 339 were speeding. The lowest speed recorded was 13 mph, and the highest speed 56 mph.
Lemoine said he does not think reducing the speed or putting more signs out will help make a difference. However, he said it is not out of the question.
“They do not care about what signs are out there,” he said.