Tracy Press

Columnist Jon Mendelson writes about a speeding success story.

When I first met Ron Pounding in March, he was sitting on his front porch, smoking a cigarillo. From the shaded perch overlooking Lincoln Boulevard, we took in the weekday afternoon show of cars speeding through the S-curves like racers at Monaco.

White Mustang, 41. Blue Camaro, 34. Black Beemer, 39.

Pounding rattled off the speeds of passing cars like he was tracking pitches at a baseball game. As I didn’t have a radar gun, I took the veteran speed sleuth — the man who’s recorded nearly every accident on his stretch of 30 mph asphalt for the past three years — at his word when he told me they were all breaking the law.

When I talked to him Thursday, though, he didn’t have nearly as much to complain about. Since the city put a stop sign on Lincoln Boulevard at Richard Drive, he says the “muscle car maniacs” aren’t troubling his neighborhood nearly as much.

“I gotta tell you,” he told me, “I couldn’t have wished for anything more beneficial than what’s happened.”
Evidently, the stop sign is actually stopping drivers. Aside from a few night-time rollthroughs, Pounding says the City Council’s action has changed his neighborhood and, perhaps, made frequent accidents a thing of the past.

“I am truly amazed it did that much good,” he said. “I was expecting the worst.”

But there are plenty of areas without dedicated activists that could use a little TLC.

Every city has its speeders, but Tracy’s status as a commuter town makes the problem more pronounced, in reality and appearance. Even if the number of scofflaws is relatively low, we spend so much time in our cars that we see more reckless driving.

That high visibility means there’s no shortage of voices seeking intervention.

Enforcement, however, is not always effective. A quick glance at the daily police blotter reveals spates of traffic stops in the morning and evening. But only so many police can track down speeders at once. And dedicated demons avoid spots known for hiding police motorcycles.

Those hoping a stop sign will appear on their nearest T-intersection shouldn’t hold their breath, either. A red octagon on every corner would turn already congested areas into giant parking lots. What worked on Lincoln Boulevard won’t work everywhere.

Still, Ron Pounding’s is a success story for activists frustrated by Tracy’s bureaucracy.

Though it took several years and dedication bordering on obsession, Pounding is proof that concerned citizens can make a change in Tracy, even if it means becoming a bee in the City Council’s bonnet.

It’s also proof that the city doesn’t need grand gestures to regain the trust of residents who have dismissed the local government as insulated from the concerns of the everyman. A sensible sports park plan would be nice, but we’ll settle for a few more well-placed stop signs.

For all its problems, Tracy is small enough to change. It might come slowly, but it comes, poked along by those still willing to brandish their verbal cattle prods.

In an election year, that’s reason enough to hope.

• Visit the blog of columnist Jon Mendelson for more Second Thoughts, or e-mail him at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .  

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written by Eric OBrian , April 26, 2008

Nice Jon, but the modulation?? This ends like a song from the Happy Flowers. A dissonant sounding college radio. You remember those songs. The ones without lyrics that make sense. And notes that fit together. My advice. Write one article at a time.