Why can't people obey the speed limit?

[Southern4sure]

Our community has a 20 mph speed limit for all streets. There are always kids riding bikes, skateboards, roller blading and just being kids. My street is a curvy dead end street but is longer than most cul-de-sacs. There are 7 houses between two curves and I live 3 houses from a curve that leads you out. Vehicles go so fast that instead of slowing down to make the curves, they go into the opposite lane.

Just now, I was outside and heard some unusual noise and I look up to see what it was. A neighbor 3 houses down from me put some small orange cones out in front of their driveway and some partially in the street. I'm guessing they did this because they have smaller kids that play outside. I do not know if this was a boundary for the kids or for drivers to watch for kids playing. This was the first time to see cones. But this mini van comes around another curve on the way out and runs over the cones. She stopped and asked me, "what was the cones for?"

This lady has small kids too and lives in a different part of the community. You would think of all people she would obey the speed limit. I just know a kid is going to get hurt sooner or later.

 

[MAKmom]

I have been know to flag cars down & tell them to slow down in my neighborhood. And I'm not very nice about it.

 

[Christine]

Well, I can be a speeder but I make sure only to speed on major roads. It is a real pet peeve of mine when people rip down a residential street. The posted speed in my neighborhood is 25 mph. I live in the center of the street which is on a hill. By the time people turn into my neighborhood and get halfway down the street (which is out front of my house), I *know* that some are doing 40 mph. While 40 mph is tame on a major road, it is WAY TOO FAST on a neighborhood street.

I used to get really PO'd because our HOA president was one of the biggest offenders.

 

[mickeyboat]

I have been know to flag cars down & tell them to slow down in my neighborhood. And I'm not very nice about it.

Me, too. A car came speeding down the road the other morning while we were waiting for the bus. Our neighbor called the cops. Not that it's going to do any good, but at least it made her feel better.

We also have a transit company which uses our street to turn its busses around. I have written a letter asking them to use an alternate route, and they have not responded. I guess I need to take my request a little higher.

Denae

 

[KristaTX]

I'm not a speeder - not even on the highway. But 20 for all streets even seems a little low to me, depending on what you mean by your "community". I have a hard time driving my stick-shift car at 15-20 mph through school zones. I actually feel like I am driving worse at 20 vs. 30 because I'm too busy looking at my speedometer and trying to keep the car from dying.

But I'd guess you are talking about the people who are driving 35+, not 25 or 30. That would bug me, too. But I also see that normal street traffic (not reckless driving) is just an unavoidable thing that you either have to teach your kids to deal with, or else be with them constantly or make them play in the fenced backyard only.

 

[Southern4sure]

Our HOA says we as the residents need to band together and start writing down the tag #'s but what is that going to accomplish? I think it needs to be public embarrassment to see a list with your tag # on it for speeding in our monthly newsletter. I do not see that happening though. Residents will even pass those who go the speed limit.....

 

[Southern4sure]

I'm not a speeder - not even on the highway. But 20 for all streets even seems a little low to me, depending on what you mean by your "community". I have a hard time driving my stick-shift car at 15-20 mph through school zones. I actually feel like I am driving worse at 20 vs. 30 because I'm too busy looking at my speedometer and trying to keep the car from dying.

But I'd guess you are talking about the people who are driving 35+, not 25 or 30. That would bug me, too. But I also see that normal street traffic (not reckless driving) is just an unavoidable thing that you either have to teach your kids to deal with, or else be with them constantly or make them play in the fenced backyard only.

Our community is still in the building stage but right now we have 600 families and another 396 that are building. When all is said and done we will have apprx. 1000 homes so it is a nice size community with is kid friendly. The streets are county maintained and the county set the speed limit. There are few straight streets or long stretches.

http://www.wildernesslakepreserve.com/siteplan.php

 

[MAKmom]

I'm not a speeder - not even on the highway. But 20 for all streets even seems a little low to me, depending on what you mean by your "community". I have a hard time driving my stick-shift car at 15-20 mph through school zones. I actually feel like I am driving worse at 20 vs. 30 because I'm too busy looking at my speedometer and trying to keep the car from dying.

But I'd guess you are talking about the people who are driving 35+, not 25 or 30. That would bug me, too. But I also see that normal street traffic (not reckless driving) is just an unavoidable thing that you either have to teach your kids to deal with, or else be with them constantly or make them play in the fenced backyard only.

Our speed limit is 15 MPH this is a private community. You agree to the rules before you go to settlement. If your in our neiborhood its as a guest or vendor of a resident so you also must obey our rules. We have speed humps so if you go over 15 your car pays for it.

 

[Southern4sure]

Our speed limit is 15 MPH this is a private community. You agree to the rules before you go to settlement. If your in our neiborhood its as a guest or vendor of a resident so you also must obey our rules. We have speed humps so if you go over 15 your car pays for it.

Same with our community. Getting speed bumps are out of the question I hear so I have not looked into it but something needs to be done about the speeders.

The construction crews are the worse.

 

[Bob Slydell]

I have to admit, I'd be pretty annoyed if I ran over cones because someone decided to set them up in the street. Speed limit or not, you don't put objects into the street.

 

[Christine]

Getting speed bumps are out of the question I hear so I have not looked into it but something needs to be done about the speeders.

Same here. No more new speed bumps will be put in because they damage the road crew equipment (I guess the plows? ).

I did see in one neighborhood, the residents bought this plastic "man". He was flourescent green. If you were speeding it almost looked like something was going to come out into the road. It was actually very effective. When you get closer it says "slow down" or something (written on the man).

 

[FreshTressa]

Our road is used by commuters to avoid the main drag, which gets clogged during commute hours.

People TEAR through here...there are signs, flags, speed bumps etc.

Goes ignored.

Really makes me mad.

 

[auntpolly]

I'll bet the cones aren't any more legal than the speeding, but...I don't know, I just wonder why the cops don't do something more productive than sitting on the side of a highway (like here in Cleveland on 271)with their radar guns, doing nothing except gumming up rush hour traffic, and go into the neighborhoods and nail some of these idiots who sail past our kids on bikes.

 

[golfgal]

We had this problem in one neighborhood we lived in. We were on a dead end street and about half way down the street, but they time cars from the dead end of the road got to our house some of them would be going 40=50 mph in a 30mph zone. We got together with some neighbors, got a speed gun used to track baseball pitches and took down speeds and plate numbers. We then got a petition to lower the speed limit and install a stop sign to slow things down. We went to the city council and our main opponent was, of course, the worst offender. It turns out this woman was the president of the SCHOOL BOARD. We had 70 kids under the age of 5 and while parents were good about watching the kids, you never know when one was going to dart in the street (we have all been there).

The police came out, did a survey and ticketed a few people. They installed the stop sign and that helped, although madam President ran the stop sign all the time until we called the police again and she got ANOTHER ticket.

The whole ordeal was a pain in the rear but there were just too many kids to ignore the problem.

 

[DVC-Don]

We used to get complaints from developments about speeders and would get assigned to hit the developments hard with moving radar. A good 80% or more of those we ticketed lived there and then we'd get complaints about the tickets and be pulled out. Can't win.

 

[Aidensmom]

Our neighborhood has a lot of small children that play and ride bikes outside, and I have worried about their safety also. I made the local police aware that it is uncommon to see drivers going less than 40 on our 25 mph street, and not unusual to see them going about 60, and now they patrol the corner where I live regularly, as they have discovered how much cash it can bring them. Literally, as soon as one car is ticketed, before it can pull away, another one is stopped.

 

[Kae]

I have been know to flag cars down & tell them to slow down in my neighborhood. And I'm not very nice about it.

Me too. I have also been known to toss a few tennis balls. The major speeder in our neighborhood, took dads porchse out & wrapped it around a pole at about 90, last fall. And blew a .22. Now he is on house arrest. Hopefully he learned something, better a pole then a kid.

Kae

 

[cardaway]

I have to admit, I'd be pretty annoyed if I ran over cones because someone decided to set them up in the street. Speed limit or not, you don't put objects into the street.

That's puting it too nicely.

Around here the worst offenders are the delivery companies and the adults that hassle others during the day. Don't speed around my kids, but at night I can whip down the street as fast as I like.

They're pretty bad about parking their cars in the street as well. A street full of parked cars is far more dangerous than a few more MPH.

 

[auntpolly]

We used to get complaints from developments about speeders and would get assigned to hit the developments hard with moving radar. A good 80% or more of those we ticketed lived there and then we'd get complaints about the tickets and be pulled out. Can't win.

Gee and I thought the way to avoid tickets was to go the speed limit. Had I only known I could simply just complain and get the cops to go away!!!

 

[LauraR]

Same here. No more new speed bumps will be put in because they damage the road crew equipment (I guess the plows? ).

I did see in one neighborhood, the residents bought this plastic "man". He was flourescent green. If you were speeding it almost looked like something was going to come out into the road. It was actually very effective. When you get closer it says "slow down" or something (written on the man).

Wow, that's really cool! I'd love to know where to find one. Speeders on neighborhood streets are a pet peeve of mine, too. It's amazing how close people will tailgate when I'm going the exact speed limit. They act as if you're doing something wrong by obeying the law!! And I guess by tailgating they think they can bully you into going faster?

I actually had to hit my brakes yesterday when a kid chased his basketball in front of my car. But I was going slow and paying attention to what he was doing, so I anticipated it happening and it wasn't a close call. Some people just zoom by like their house is on fire, and you can tell they don't see anything on their periphery.