At the intersection of Monte Sano Avenue and Henry Street, drivers are occasionally caught speeding and driving through the four-way stop sign. This area is called the “Monte Sano Speedway” by residents.
Attention all drivers! The “Monte Sano Speedway” is open for business and traffic patrol is answering complaints in the neighborhood.
In the Summerville Area near Monte Sano Avenue and Henry Street, patrolmen have recently been keeping an eye out for speeders and the classic “roll stop” at the four-way stop sign.
Charles Moore, a resident of the community and retiree, said that he hasn’t seen the patrolmen every day, but they do come from time to time.
“I’ve seen them periodically, not on a consistent basis,” Moore said. “They will either park half a block away to check to see if you’re going to do rolling stop or if you stop at all.”
Moore said the traffic in the area is normally an even flow, but became much heavier when the construction on Walton Way began.
That construction pushed a lot of traffic on his street causing a build up.
Other than the flow of consistent traffic, Moore said he has seen some fender benders on his street because of people talking on cellphones or because they didn’t yield to oncoming traffic.
“For whatever reason, they are going to do surveillance on this area,” Moore said. “This is the tip of the hill, so they are checking traffic that flows from Walton Way down to Wheeler Road and back.”
According to Maj. Richard Weaver of the Richmond County Uniform Patrol Division, the division doesn’t commonly target certain areas.
“The thing is, if we get complaints from a particular street then we will go out and work it for a while,” Weaver said. “Periodically we will go back and check it again.”
For Mark Fissel, a professor of history at Augusta State University and resident of Monte Sano Avenue, he said traffic has always been heavy, and the joke is that neighbors call it the “Monte Sano Speedway.”
“This section of Monte Sano from Henry Street to Walton Way is referred to as that, because people are
He also mentioned there is a lot of speeding that goes on and the traffic on Monte Sano is heavier than a normal residential street.
Having been in the neighborhood since 1998, Fissel said he hasn’t noticed the increase in patrolmen; however, one day he said he did see where they ticketed a lot of people at the four-way stop.
“I don’t think it’s necessarily because of the construction, but enrollment has gone up,” Fissel said. “We got more people coming through here and it’s just more traffic and there are more opportunities to give out tickets.”
According to Fissel, a lot of people do the rolling stop but he said there are times when people drive right through the four-way stop.
“Either they don’t see the stop sign or (they are) just in a hurry,” Fissel said. “I see (drivers run) that stop sign all the time.”
In addition, Fissel also said that while traffic is heavy on his street, it is not as dangerous as Monte Sano Avenue and Walton Way, where many accidents have occurred including a fatality.
The main thing now, according to Maj. Richard Weaver of the Richmond County Uniform Patrol Division, is that drivers should be tentative to their driving. He said they have a major problem with people on cell phones and texting while driving.
Weaver said that it’s not against the law yet to talk on cell phones while driving, but it is against the law to text while driving.