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'Rumble Strips' Installed Along 'Canoga Speedway' To Combat Illegal Street Racing
The installed "rumble strips" along Plummer Street (Photo courtesy of Councilman Mitch Englander/Facebook)
A stretch of Plummer Street between Canoga Avenue and Topanga Canyon Boulevard in Canoga Park has been installed with a series of "rumble strips" to deter street racing on what has become known as the "Canoga Speedway".
On Wednesday morning, Los Angeles City Councilmember Mitch Englander (who represents the area) as well as representatives from the LAPD and LADOT held a ceremony premiering the strips that were installed a week ago.
"Illegal street racing is dangerous and has resulted in the injury or death of both participants and bystanders," said Councilmember Englander, according to a press release. “These new ‘rumble strips’ have the potential to prevent such activity before it begins by making the road unsuitable for racing without impeding the regular flow of traffic. We are also sending a message that our neighborhood streets are not race tracks and that we will not tolerate the kind of reckless activity that puts people’s lives at risk.”
According to the Los Angeles Daily News, the half-mile section of Plummer saw two people killed and one seriously injured in February 2015, when an illegal street race between a Ford Mustang and Nissan GTR ended with one of the drivers, Karen Balyn, hitting spectators.
"Today we are sending a message that our streets are not racetracks," Englander said during Wednesday's event. “We are not going to tolerate this activity any longer.”
As the Associated Press notes, the strips were installed as part of a pilot program that was unanimously approved by the City Council in May to test the method's efficacy in stopping illegal street racing. Rumble strips act similarly to speed bumps, and cause disruptive vibrations and sounds to vehicles.
Note: an earlier version of this story misstated the effect of rumble strips on vehicles; they cause vibrations and noise but are not actually more destructive to vehicles than speed bumps.
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