Downtown business owners along Main Avenue in Ashtabula are fed up with speeders and wondering what it will take for something to be done by the city.
"The cars have to park parallel, and if they get out of the driver's side of their vehicle, worried about speeders potentially hitting them," said J.R. Tubbs, the owner of True Till Death Tattoo Co.
He's owned his parlor for 11 years, and he said speeding has always been a problem.
With the Salvation Army and YMCA nearby, Tubb is worried about the older and younger commuters.
“The beauty salon next door -- I know they have problems with elderly people getting out of their vehicles. You know, they’re not able to move as fast -- or get out of the way as fast," he said.
Councilman Michael Speelman said the speeding is nothing new.
He is also the chairman of the safety forces committee and said the city doesn’t have any plans to add signage, paint crosswalks or add a red light camera.
News 5 looked at the number of citations handed out on Main Avenue provided by the Ashtabula Police Department.
There were 95 tickets issued in 2016. In 2017, there were 103 speeding tickets issued. For the street being a small portion of the town, Chief Stell said that is a chunk of the city's tickets, but he didn't have an exact percentage.
Stell said he doesn’t have enough officers to have someone on Main Avenue at all hours.
Back in 2011, the city had red light cameras in a few locations.
“One of them was placed on Main Avenue, and we did at that time notice a dramatic improvement on speed," Stell said.
The lights were voted out that same year.
For now, folks are just asking and hoping for change.
“Adding another crosswalk - maybe making the crosswalks more visible would be a big help," Tubb said.
