Timberbank Boulevard is one of those Scarborough streets most people see only when they blow through it to drop kids at school or avoid traffic somewhere else.

But at the west end of its S-shaped course between Birchmount and Warden, Timberbank has a sharp curve where drivers have lost control.

"It's just become a speedway," said resident Richard Heslop, adding it's a wonder no one's been seriously hurt. "People pile into trees, go up into driveways."

But unlike residents of many similar streets, Timberbank homeowners convinced the city to pay for a permanent solution.

Seventeen concrete speed humps will be built along the street, making it impossible for most vehicles to go over 30 kilometres an hour.

Common in parts of Toronto and Markham where residents have wanted to discourage shortcut-takers and speeders, the humps are still relatively alien objects in Scarborough - but maybe not for long.

City councillors in Agincourt say they are being flooded with requests for speed humps, bigger and gentler than the speed bumps used in parking lots, as local traffic congestion worsens.

That's unsettling news to Gordon Wright, a Timberbank resident who said seniors like himself tend to look for the less-travelled alternatives to main roads.

Going over so many humps, on his street or elsewhere, he said, is "going to be unpleasant. If you're in pain, it can be very tricky."

Wright said he only heard about the street's speed hump plan when it came time for homeowners to vote.

"When I went around to my neighbours, none of them had seen it," he said last week. "When one group wants to do something that affects other groups, it's important that everyone is involved."

Wright's neighbour Anna Galloway, however, said she signed the petition to study the speed humps and also read about the issue in letters and reminders the city and Ward 40 Councillor Norm Kelly's office (Scarborough-Agincourt) sent to residents.

After the city's traffic-calming policy was explained to her, she supported the humps, she said.

"I thought 17 is a lot, but I voted yes."

But Galloway agreed with Wright there should have been a meeting to discuss the street's traffic problem or a list of frequently asked questions included with the poll.

Heslop, who was first to start knocking on doors to initiate a study, said he's convinced speed humps were the only answer and they were mentioned at least 10 times over three years in flyers homeowners received.

Timberbank was a textbook example of city policy at work, but had Wright or others objected before the decision was made, there would have been a meeting, Kelly said this week.

The only street in Agincourt with humps is Scarden Avenue , a straight road from Birchmount almost to Warden. "I have not received any complaints since," said Kelly, suggesting many speed hump requests are being shot down by the city's strict standards.

"I'm not a fan myself and I don't think many Scarborough councillors are. For that reason we go by the book," he said of speed humps.

But where Scarborough Community Council follows the rules, downtown Toronto councillors find ways around them, and humps have also sprouted in nearby Markham , Kelly said.

Ward 39 Councillor Mike Del Grande (Scarborough-Agincourt) agreed.

"There aren't any in my ward, but everybody's asking for them in my ward," said Del Grande, adding he believes humps should surround all schools not on major roads.

"They're popular because people don't see traffic enforcement by police."

Local councillors may need to re-examine how the policy works, Del Grande suggested.

City policy forbids speed humps on streets carrying TTC buses. Other solutions seen in the old City of Toronto include narrowing streets at certain points, boulevard planters and raised intersections, but those are expensive.

Meanwhile, Cannongate Trail residents, concerned their U-shaped north-end street is being used to avoid the often-clogged Kennedy Road and Steeles Avenue intersection, await the result of their own vote on speedhumps, said Denis Lanoue, president of the Heathwood Ratepayers Association.