Cars racing through neighborhood

[Cheburashka]

Has anyone ever successfully dealt with this problem? I just moved, and it turns out that every late afternoon and evening, and sometimes early mornings, a group of racers in small cars that they've decorated to look like race cars race around the neighborhood. There is a long, wide road two blocks from my house, and that road seems to be their main drag. They've cut holes in their mufflers to make the cars sound like race cars, and it's loud. I hear it in the house every single day, often multiple times per day, sometimes upon waking up in the morning while I'm still in bed. I regret buying my otherwise nice house, due to this one issue.

This is not a rural area. I live in a crowded suburb of a sizable city. The road they race on always has some mild traffic, which they weave & speed through unsafely. There are stoplights, which makes it worse as the race a bit, then stop & idle, then peel out & race some more, etc. My neighborhood has an HOA, and they said they complained to the police about the daily racing a few months ago, that the police did a "speed study" & concluded it is not a speeding issue. Which is b.s. I called the police once & the dispatcher told me they'd send someone out, but nothing changed.

Any suggestions for what I can do besides sell the house (which will be a loss given the expensive work I've put into the house & rising interest rates, plus I'd have to move my sick child & elderly mother, as well) or spend several thousand dollars on sound resistant window inserts that might be ineffective. I'm actively considering both options & I spend as much time as I can at work, to avoid being at my loud home that I'm paying through the nose for (home prices are crazy).

I'm wondering if this is a recent problem only, because the HOA commented about going to the police 3 months ago. I wonder if maybe they'll stay only a short time & move on. Wishful thinking, no doubt. To clarify, I'll explain that I bought the house 5 months ago, but only moved in 2 weeks ago. I never heard this racing when visiting the house a couple of times prior to purchase. The ambient traffic noise is no big deal, minus the racing. It's the loud, frequent racers that make it miserable.

 

[kymom99]

Have you made videos?

 

[Cheburashka]

Have you made videos?

I've taken some photos while waiting behind one of them at a stoplight. I don't know how to make videos while I'm driving & I couldn't keep up with them without racing myself.

 

[MillauFr]

Get your local city council member involved. Is this a private HOA street or does the city own it?

 

[bcla]

I've taken some photos. I don't know how to make videos while I'm driving.

Dash camera. But there are ways to get the police to respond - especially if sent to local TV stations. We had a local reporter who had a segment called "People Behaving Badly" that would accept video showing this sort of thing and where often local authorities were forced to respond because it made them look bad like they didn't care.

 

[sam_gordon]

I'm not one who advocates calling the local media, but this could be one. It will be an "easier" sell for a story if it's always at or around the same time. Getting your own video would help also. But I am confused... you say you see/hear these guys at your house, but then say you can't get video because you're driving. Stand on your front porch and get video.

 

[Colleen27]

Photo and video are probably your best option. A dash cam or a dash mount for a cell phone with your camera running will do the trick, and this is one of those rare situations where social media shaming and/or getting local media involved is likely to get good results.

If the wide road is also part of your neighborhood and covered by your HOA, you might be able to rally your neighbors around installing speed bumps on that street to put a check on higher speeds and swerving in and out of traffic, but that won't work if the road is a city road or has a higher-than-residential speed limit.

 

[kymom99]

You can also involve your legislators

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

When this has happened most of the time it's just people making complaints to the police.

There's the highway not too far from my house that people use that I can hear and then a stretch of a road not too too far from my house although I can't hear it it's a common complaint.

I think most of the time it's just occasional increase in patrol but it can be hard to just have them go completely away since the police can't be there all the time and these racers know it.

Depending on where you live the modified muffler could be a big problem to the police or not. I knew someone who modified theirs (don't know why) but did it to where it was still within legal decibel limits and he had the ordinance down to a T but where he lived at that county was all up on the modified mufflers and so he would get pulled over often enough but knew he wasn't technically against the ordinance.

You could ask on Nextdoor or some similar social networking site if you have it if people have any ring cameras or similar that show the racers (along with sound if they can) that might help submit to the police.

One of the other things is wintertime with the leaves gone and the air crisp can amplify the sounds if you live in an area with winter weather. We've had some posts on Nextdoor about the 1 train horn crossing that is within the area (most are silent crossings) sounding louder but it's really just the lack of trees and tree clearing that led to increase in sound not that the horns were actually emitting a louder sound.

 

[cvjw]

I can‘t imagine what you are living thru. Your quality of life has to be so low when you can’t even get peace and quiet in your own home. I think videos and bombarding your local news with them is your best shot. The police can stop it if they want to, you have to light a fire under them somehow.

If nothing worked, I would move. I couldn’t stand living like that. Good luck to you.

 

[tvguy]

Sounds like something to discuss with your local elected officials to see if laws need to be changed since it appears the police have determined nothing illegal is happening. Annoying, yes, illegal, no.
We had an issue with speeding on the main road that passes my subdivision. Speed limit was 25. The Highway Patrol was asked to do radar enforcement but under the law here, radar can only be used on a street with a speed limit of at least 35. Nobody wanted the speed limited raised, so the "compromise" was putting in speed bumps. So folks still go 40 in a 25, and they hit the speed bumps at 40.

 

[China Expat]

We have had this issue for a decade in my So Cal neighborhood. Nothing has changed over the decade despite all of the above suggestions. Counting down the next two years until we leave So Cal.

 

[penn19]

We have a road behind us and there are electronic speed signs. So it tells you how fast you’re going. There’s some people who take that as a challenge. It’s difficult to sit out back and watch tv or swim. Very annoying. People complain and nothing gets done.

 

[JimMIA]

Does Amazon sell spike strips?

 

[Princess Oma]

If it is in the neighborhood- ask HOA to install speed bumps on the road if police will not do anything.hth

 

[NotUrsula]

We just got 2 speed bumps installed on my block. (Ironically, the most common speeders on our block were actually fire engines and ambulances; they have a station across the main road from the top of the block, and cutting through our street is the shortest path to a highway on-ramp. I guess someone with a relationship to an alderman got tired of the noise; the number of sirens screaming down the street has been reduced considerably since the bumps were installed.)

Anyway, the key to dealing with speeders isn't the cops, it's the Alderman (or whatever they are called in your district); they can direct the street dept. to install speed bumps.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Usually they are reluctant to put in speed bumps in my area unless it's deemed absolutely necessary and usually traffic studies are done because of winter weather. They get destroyed with the plows or they make it more difficult to clear or treat the roads. So usually they are a last resort in our area.

City council or mayor of the city don't get involving street racing or muffler issues. If it was like an intersection where accidents were happening or some other safety thing yeah but not just because of nuisance stuff they have more serious things to deal with, it's a police matter here.

 

[Lilsia]

Dash camera. But there are ways to get the police to respond - especially if sent to local TV stations. We had a local reporter who had a segment called "People Behaving Badly" that would accept video showing this sort of thing and where often local authorities were forced to respond because it made them look bad like they didn't care.

Are you talking about Stanley Roberts? I love that guy and used to watch his videos before he moved.

 

[Lilsia]

OP, I feel for you. We live close to a Harley Davidson dealership and people like to "test" the bikes out in our neighborhood. I am pretty sure the dealership tells people not to, but you really can't control everyone. The issue that we have is that there are some that have modified bikes that are extremely loud, I am talking where your ears hurt, and these guys will come to the dealership to "hang out" and they will go back and forth through our neighborhood until someone calls the dealership and they tell them to knock it off. Some people are so inconsiderate. I really do not get the appeal of having an ear drum bursting loud muffler. What does that even do for you?

 

[slo]

If it is in the neighborhood- ask HOA to install speed bumps on the road if police will not do anything.hth

Our town did this in a couple subdivisions that had people speeding and racing down their streets - it solved the problem instantly.