Speed lumps for Daniels Street between Fishback Road and Junction Drive are up for approval tonight when the Manteca City Council meets.

The speed lumps —  basically four smaller speed humps spaced to allow buses and emergency vehicles to straddle them by going down the middle of the road or toward the side of the road — are already in place on Hacienda Avenue and Walnut Street.

They were the first speed lumps deployed in Manteca.

In the past, it has taken the city a year or more to go from citizen complaints, assessing various options, and finally installing speed lumps.

This time around, the city heard concerns at the Oct. 3 council meeting.

Now, seven weeks later, the council has a staff report that outlines how various options were considered with the recommendation  to go with speed lumps.

It is an impressive turnaround for the city.

But it is also a bit grating for residents along Mission Ridge Drive as noted in a letter in today’s Bulletin on page A5 submitted by Robert Fennell.

Fennell and a group of neighbors more than three years ago pushed month after month for speed lumps for the same reason Daniels Street residents have.

They were told Mission Ridge Drive — just like Daniels Street — was designed as a wider collector street therefore speed lumps weren’t a practical option.

Instead, they got radar speed signs warning drivers when they are exceeding the posted speed limit.

They also got bike lanes moved out more into the roadway with the general operating theory the narrower travel lanes usually slow most traffic down.

But as of today, the narrower lane concept has been basically obliterated due to the second stripe added to create a narrower travel lane and a designated path for bicycles having faded.

It is virtually invisible at night.

Daniels Street is also wider like Mission Ridge Drive.

It also is a fairly heavily used route from emergency vehicles as it is used to access other residential streets just like Mission Ridge Drive.

Yet, the city now appears to have no issue with the use of speed lumps being a major problem for emergency vehicles.

Daniels Street and Mission Ridge Drive also share another common concern.

Both, as Mayor Gary Singh and several council members have pointed out, have become de facto bypass routes for the 120 Bypass.

When traffic backs up, freeway drivers will often exit at one interchange and travel a mile to the next interchange via surface streets to leapfrog stalled traffic.

Several elected officials have commented that they fear the coming ground breaking next spring of the first phase of a three-phased endeavor to upgrade the 120 Bypass and Highway 99 interchange that may take 10 years to complete will result in more drivers using Daniels Streets and Mission Ridge Drive to get around jams on the 120 Bypass.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com