93% of drivers on one El Mirage residential street exceed the 25 mph speed limit. One vehicle was clocked at 84 mph northbound.

The El Mirage City Council on June 2 voted 4-3 to approve two construction contracts with Hawk Contracting, LLC to install speed cushions on El Mirage Road, a street that carries between 1,937 and 2,426 vehicles per day depending on the segment.

What the data shows

Speed cushions are raised sections of roadway — wider than speed bumps, with gaps that allow emergency vehicles like fire trucks and ambulances to pass through without slowing down. Cars, which are narrower, have to drive over them.

El Mirage hired Kimley-Horn, a traffic engineering firm, to study two segments of El Mirage Road. The findings are documented in the agenda packet and traffic engineering reports:

On the segment between Well Street and End Street (Item 5), traffic engineers recorded 85th percentile speeds of 35 mph northbound and 33 mph southbound — meaning 85% of vehicles were traveling at or below those speeds, and 15% were going even faster. The maximum recorded speed was 84.4 mph northbound. 93% of all vehicles exceeded the posted 25 mph limit. Average daily traffic: 2,426 vehicles.

On the segment between Santa Fe Lane and End Street (Item 6), 78% of vehicles exceeded 25 mph, with 85th percentile speeds of 33 mph northbound and 31 mph southbound. Average daily traffic: 1,937 vehicles.

Both segments met all four warrant criteria for installing speed cushions: the roadway functions as a collector street, the posted speed limit is 25 mph, the 85th percentile speed exceeds the limit by more than 5 mph, and daily traffic exceeds 400 vehicles.

How the program works

Residents initiated the process by submitting a signed petition to their councilmember. The city's engineering department then studied traffic volumes and speeds, and if the data meets the warrant criteria, designs and installs the speed cushions.

The contracts approved June 2 include one speed cushion with signage and striping on the Well-to-End segment, and a speed cushion plus raised crosswalk on the Santa Fe-to-End segment. The design plans show the speed cushions are two 17.25-foot exterior devices spaced so emergency vehicles can bypass them.

The projects are funded through El Mirage's Neighborhood Traffic Calming Program, a $1 million capital investment in fiscal year 2026. The program has received 18 resident requests for speed cushions since it began. Of 15 locations studied, five met the city's criteria. Previous completed projects include installations on 127th Avenue, Varney Road, and A Street.

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