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Enforcement: towing, booting, and beyondLesson 15 of 23

Academy/Parking, Roads & Vehicles

Traffic calming

Your board can decide to slow traffic down. It cannot decide who gets to approve it.

No federal or state law sets a uniform standard for installing speed bumps, humps, or other traffic calming on a private road; permitting is set locally, and some jurisdictions require none at all. The one real constraint: if the road serves fire apparatus, the fire code official can require approval, alteration, or removal of anything that obstructs emergency access.

01

There is no standard permit rule

Speed bumps, humps, and tables are the classic traffic-calming tools, but no federal or state law tells you how to install one on a private road. Permitting is set at the county or city level, and some jurisdictions require no permit at all for a private parking lot or access road. A few associations have learned this the hard way: they installed a speed bump without asking, then had to tear it out once the municipality flagged it. Before you order concrete or a rubber module, call your local public works department and ask what, if anything, they require for a private road.

"There are no federal regulations governing speed bump installation on private property. State and county requirements vary, and some jurisdictions impose no permitting requirement at all for privately owned parking lots and access roads."

Source: Speed Bump Regulations on Private Property: Permits and Liability, LegalClarity

02

Fire access roads override your board

If your private road is designated as a fire apparatus access road, the fire code official, not your board, has final approval authority over anything that could slow or block a fire truck: a gate, a barricade, and arguably a speed bump. The same authority can require a key box (often called a Knox Box) so responders can get through a locked or gated entry without delay, and can require an approved lock on any gate placed across the road.

"The installation of security gates across a fire apparatus access road shall be approved by the fire code official. Where security gates are installed, they shall have an approved means of emergency operation."

Source: International Fire Code §503.6, International Code Council

The International Fire Code is a model code. It only has legal force once your state or municipality has adopted it, often with local amendments, so confirm the actual version your local fire marshal enforces before you design anything.

03

Check your governing documents too

Installing a speed bump is also a decision about your common area, so treat it like any other change to the property: check whether your declaration requires an owner vote, a supermajority, or a specific board procedure before altering a private road, and record the vote in your minutes. Some declarations set a dollar threshold or approval process for capital changes to common elements; yours may or may not. Getting the permit right and skipping this step still leaves you exposed to a challenge from an owner.

Check yourself

Answer before you read the explanation, recalling it is what makes it stick.

Your board wants to install a speed bump on the community's private road. Before ordering the materials, what's the most important step?

A private road in your community is also used by fire trucks to reach the buildings. Who has final say over whether your board can put a gate across it?

An association in a state with no traffic-calming statute installs speed humps and never hears from the city. What does that most likely mean?

Sources

Parking, Roads & Vehicles

Planning a gate along with your speed bumps? Read Gates and access control next.

Whether a permit is required for a speed bump, and who has authority over gates on your private roads, depends on your city or county ordinance and on whether your road is a fire apparatus access road under the locally adopted fire code.