SAN ANTONIO, Texas – It can be a quiet street, but New Braunfels residents said that’s only during the moments when cars are not speeding along the now-busy street.
Residents use Wood Road, an extra-wide street near Landa Park, as an alternate route to and from downtown New Braunfels, avoiding traffic congestion and traffic lights on some of the main thoroughfares, including Landa Street.
“You almost have to look twice each way,” said Tommy Daum, describing what it is like trying to back out of his driveway. “(Speeding drivers) think, ‘Ooh, this is a nice straight street.’ Boom!”
Daum and his wife, Ceretta, have called Wood Road home for 47 years.
They said they remember when the now-busy street was the perfect place for family fun.
“We’ve raised our children here, and, of course, years ago, they could play in the street,” said Ceretta Daum. “We don’t let the grandchildren in the front yard because it’s too dangerous.”
Even with the risk, Dolores Bosquin still makes an effort to get in her daily exercise.
“I walk it all the time, but I have to be careful,” Bosquin said, noting how there are no sidewalks in the area.
She and the Daums are among a group of neighbors who have been calling for change for decades, a way to make drivers slow down on their street.
Recently, Kelly Jackson and her husband, relative newcomers, took up the baton and led the charge for change.
They and other neighbors called on the city council to help them install speed bumps on their street.
Jackson said she had tried unsuccessfully to fight the battle herself.
Among other things, she said she installed signs in her front yard telling drivers to slow down.
“I’ve walked out in the middle of the street to try to flag people down,” Jackson said. “Usually, they’re not even paying attention, or if they are, they flip me off.”
On Monday, city leaders listened to their pleas and voted unanimously in favor of installing speed bumps.
Councilman D. Lee Edwards, who oversees the district where Wood Road is located, told KSAT that the city recently got a grant that allows the project to be fast-tracked.
He said speed bumps would not only be installed on Wood Road but also be installed two blocks away on Howard Street.
Edwards said the next step in the process is to submit the project for funding.
If all goes as planned, he said the installation could begin by the end of the 2025 fiscal year.
While her neighbors give Jackson a lot of the credit for the progress, she said it was more of a group effort.
“I’ve just been that squeaky wheel trying to do what I can,” Jackson said.