Call it a cheap fix: no speed bumps or tables, no "bulb out" curbs, no signs or flashing lights — just some paint.
Lancaster City and East King Improvement District officials are claiming speeds of passing traffic were lowered as much as six miles per hour on East King Street simply by painting lines along five blocks of the street.
The lines narrowed the traffic lanes to 11 feet by visually separating the parking area along both sides of East King Street from the lanes. Pedestrian crosswalks were also painted at intersections between Lime and Franklin streets.
The cost was $11,000. The result was a lowering of the average speed from 32 mph in the north lane of the two-lane, eastbound street to 29. In the south lane, the speed was lowered from 34 mph to 28.
The speeds were measured in traffic studies done before and after the changes. The speed limit on the street is 25 mph.
Before the lines were painted, pedestrians crossing East King Street and people getting in and out of parked cars along the street were concerned about their safety, said Melody Keim, of the East King Improvement District.
Recently, Keim said she has heard a lot of positive comments about the changes.
"It's a simple project. It's all about paint. ... It's a very inexpensive way to slow down cars," she said.
And, based on the East King Street experience, the project is likely to be replicated elsewhere in the city, said Mayor Rick Gray.
Broad, Prince Walnut and Chestnut streets immediately came to Gray's mind as wide streets that may benefit from painted lines.
Changes to those streets would require approval of the city Traffic Commission.
The line painting could be used in conjunction with back-in angled parking, which the city has also considered, the mayor said. That type of parking narrows the street and reduces speed along with providing more parking spaces than traditional curbside parking.
Gray said the lines are another tool that could be used to narrow lanes and lower speeds, along with the "bulb out" curbs at intersections and speed tables that have been used in other parts of Lancaster.
"Lowering the speed a few miles per hour can have a dramatic effect on fatalities," said Gray. "Not to mention the serious nature of the injuries."
He referenced National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that show the risk of fatality increases exponentially with the speed of the striking vehicle.
The NHTSA references a 1997 study done in England that showed that 5 percent of pedestrians died when struck by a vehicle traveling at 20 mph, 45 percent died when struck by a vehicle at 30 mph and 85 percent died when hit by a vehicle going 40 mph.
Keim said there was an unintended benefit from the line painting in April: increased parking in the 200 block of East King Street. Neighborhood residents began to park their cars on the south side of the street because they felt safer doing so, she said.
"By narrowing the lanes for traffic, it really defined the space for parking the way that it hadn't been defined before," Keim said of the solid white line between the traffic lane and the parking lane.
The $11,000 cost of the painting was shared by the city, the Lancaster Alliance, a downtown redevelopment group, and the East King Improvement District from funding contributed by the Wachovia Regional Foundation. The ELA Group did not charge the improvement district for the traffic studies.
Those traffic studies were done at Franklin and East King streets so they would not be affected by the construction several blocks away from the Marriott hotel on Penn Square and a parking garage in the 100 block of East King Street, Keim said.
Staff writer Bernard Harris can be reached at bharris@LNPnews.com or 481-6022. 
