Robert Quick has resorted to desperate measures to keep motorists from speeding down his quiet street.

There is a 20 mph speed limit sign in front of his house on Hickory Drive in south Slidell, but motorists who use the street as a short cut between Pontchartrain Drive and Old Spanish Trail don’t pay any attention.

So Quick, who has lived on the street since 1988, thought up a unique way to get cars to slow down. He bought an old store mannequin, put clothes on it, and placed it in a wheelchair right next to the speed limit sign. He found some old speed limit signs in a roadside ditch and propped them up on the wheelchair.

A resident of Hickory Drive in south Slidell is hoping this mannequin in a wheelchair will keep motorists from speeding down the street endangering the children. (Staff Photo by Erik Sanzenbach)

The sight of the mannequin has offered some relief. Those motorists who slow down do so just to see the dummy in the wheelchair. Quick said that once the drivers see what it is, they just speed up again.

Quick has good reason to be frustrated. He has a 5-year-old child, and there are about 22 other children on his block. He said children play on the sidewalks and ride their bikes, and he is concerned there will be a tragedy on his street if the speeders are not controlled.

The Slidell police are aware of the problem, Quick said, and he doesn’t blame them for what is happening.

“They are doing a good job and writing a lot of tickets,” Quick said. “But once they leave, the drivers go back to their old ways.”

Police spokesman Capt. Kevin Foltz agreed. He said the department sends out cars, and the officers do issue tickets.

“There is compliance for awhile, then they start to speed again,” Foltz said.

The captain said strict enforcement is one answer, but that would mean having police on the street 24 hours a day, seven days a week. That isn’t possible because of manpower and other streets in the city that need policing, Foltz said.

“We could send five cars out there all the time, but that would mean five other areas in town would have a speeding problem,” Foltz said.

Quick has gotten the Slidell Engineering Department to do a traffic study on his street, and the numbers bear out his concerns. The study watched traffic on Hickory Street from Dec. 7, 2007, to Dec. 13, 2007, from 1 a.m. to 11 p.m. The study showed that at least 95 percent of the traffic went over the 20 mph speed limit.

Quick said speeders were not a problem for years when Hickory Street ended at Lopez Street. Then the city opened Hickory Street onto Lopez, and the drivers started using Hickory as a cut through to Old Spanish Trail.

With the Summit Fremaux project now under way near Old Spanish Trail and Interstate 10, Quick is worried there will be even more traffic on his street.

He said he has gone to the city and suggested speed bumps be placed in the street, but he was told that would hinder emergency vehicles. Quick thinks the police department should put cameras on their “speed buggy” that would photograph cars that exceed the speed limit.

Foltz said it is a good idea, but that would cost the department money it doesn’t have.

“Not only do you have to buy the cameras, but the software to operate them, and then hire people to watch the tapes and read the license plates,” Foltz said. He added the department has only one speed buggy, and it is in constant demand in other parts of the city.

So, Quick hopes his mannequin will slow motorists down before there is a bad accident on his street.

“It’s definitely a new approach,” Foltz said.