J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

We live in a cul de sac, in this road live 20 plus kids of Primary school age or therabouts, some of our neighbours and their visitors drive a bit too quickly and I have seen a couple of near misses so I feel I cannot go any longer without doing something, I have sent an email to the Homewatch Coordinator who is also not averse to feeling the need for speed so that might get the point across but I am going to write to the highways agency to try and get the speed limit dropped to 10 mph or some other appropriate signage.

Anyone any experience of this kind of problem ?

Spoon

Educate the little sprogs to play on a field and leave the road to vehicles is my answer.

messiah

We have the same situation mate. There's one local chav family (sorry, but no better way to describe "them") who boot it all around the estate (currently serving a ban BTW and is also tagged). He gets regular ear bashings from my next door neighbour about it but makes no difference. One of the kids (bad little ******) is actually his - I hate to say it, but him running down is own kid would probably trigger a street party to rival VE day...

Dracoro

J4CKO - Have you spoken to your neighbours?

Or a polite note on windscreens of all the cars stating concerns about near misses, alerting them to the amount of young children about. If it carries on, police will be notified etc.

Leslie

I think it is very irresponsible for people to drive fast on an estate or any built up area. The trouble is, if you make too much of a fuss you are likely to get speed humps and other traffic calming measures.

Usually if you mention it to the speeding drivers they just don't seem to understand why anyone should object to their dangerous behaviour.

Its possible that signs warning of young children might do some good, but some people will take no notice at all of course.

Les

hedgehog

In most cases where people ask for "traffic calming" of whatever nature they are usually back in a few years demanding it be removed. It doesn't seem to work well.

Is there any chance that the local police would have a word, in a friendly and educational way, with the drivers involved? If you have contacted your Homewatch rep it might also be worth a word with the local community police. The other possibility is that you have a chat, in a friendly way, yourself. It might be worth a try and you might be able to come up with an angle which means they don't lose face or appear to be giving in.

Unfortunately there is no committment to driver education in the UK and so there is very little scope for help. The people involved, by and large, would probably respond to some education and perhaps a little observed drive with a police driver but the police are, generally, just not in a position to provide that.

The other thing worth being aware of is that people often note that drivers travel too fast in their streets but the same people then go and travel too quickly in other housing areas. I'm not saying that you are doing this but it is something to be aware of, the people involved may not be aware of all the local dangers and of just how kids behave. You may find they would drive at 10mph around the streets where they grew up because they remember shooting across some junction on their skateboard, for example, but they might not see this risk in your area.

Spoon

Pin a child up to a pole by it's hood and teach it to say slow down whilst flapping it's arms. Kids could organise a rota system whereby they each take turns pinned to the various poles that could be placed around the estates.

Only hoodies need apply.

paul-s

the reality is that its going to be a 30mph limit, which is ok to drive at on normal urban streets but is obviously too quick for a cul-de-sac. prob 15 would be the best. Problem is as people are still probably only doin 20-25 it to them is not speeding although it is a bit quick for the kind of road your in. If you get what i mean

Brendan Hughes

Gatso set to flash at 12mph

"Please would you all drive slower, otherwise we'll get speed bumps installed and none of us want that now, do we?"

"I'll teach my child it's wrong to play on motorways, if you stop your high-speed driving past my house."

"After this note, if your car touches my child I'll burn your feckin house down with you in it."

"My nephew Chaos has been playing and might leave one of his "devices" in the middle of the road - please try to avoid it."



I read an amazing piece in the Gruaniad recently. Negotiators get gang members in Birmingham to write a list of the names of all the kids they know whose father has been killed. The lists are usually quite substantial. Then the negotiator asks the gang member if he's prepared to add his own child's name to the list. Sobering.

Diablo

I'm with spoon on this one.

Roads are for cars, not children playing. Thats what gardens are for.

Apparition

We have a similar problem here. We live on a twisty road which leads into the rest of the village. On the close adjacent to our house are a number of young kids who love their skateboards. Very often they scoot out of the close onto the road. Where I sit in my front room , I have a ring side seat to all that goes on. Very often my heart is in my mouth when a car comes careering up the road and a kid comes careering out of the close. How much longer before some kid gets squished ?
And a note to Spoon : Do you have kids? In this day and age, most responsible parents wouldn't like them to be playing out of sight. Who knows what sort of pervo is hanging around the local park?
I think its a joint thing betwixt parents and drivers to do the honourable thing.

Dracoro

It's barely a road though isn't it. Kids should be able to play on the front drive, cul de sac which is away from any 'proper' roads.

Abdabz

I agree with Diablo & others.
I used to play on a culdesac quiet estate road when I was young and when a car came down the road one of us shouted "car" and we all stopped on the pavement till it had gone - whether it was doin 5 or 55mph.
Educating kids to get off the road is the only way to go forward with this. Those cars can drive at up to 30mph, which will probably seem way too fast, without any legal recompense.

Spring Heeled Jack

That's right.

Perverts, murders, rapists.... they're everywhere I tell ya...

Never let your children into the outside world, ever!!

fast bloke

Diablo - Spoon - I take it you don't have kids or else you don't live on a quiet street - Our kids play in the garden - It is plenty big enough, and completely closed in, so they can't get near the road. However - there have been occasions when they were smaller that they would 'escape' either from the house or the garden and head out onto the very quiet road in front of the house. This wouldn't be a big problem, as there is only one drive way after ours on the street, so on average 1 car leaving and arriving 3 times a day. It would have been easier to teach the kids road safety on a busy road, but from what they saw of the road it was rarely used. The main problem was that our neighbour used to drive down the road at 30-35, straight into the driveway, still at 30 and then hammer on the brakes. I asked him a few times to slow down on the street, which he basically ignored. I got a small manequinn and dressed it like a child, with a blond wig - just like his own daughter. Hid it standing up behind his fence and tied a piece of string across the road to a lamppost - He comes hoofing down the road, hits the string, the mannequin 'jumps' out from behind the fence and gets flattened.

No more speeding now

LG John

Do you have any idea how stupidly slow 10mph is!!!? 20 is more than slow enough for any situation anywhere in the world ever!

porkerboy

Theres no gear for 30mph never mind 10mph! might as well get out and push the car.

fast bloke

30 is a bit sharp when you only have 15 feet of road left before you crash into your own house though

Spoon

In that case I'll apply to barely pay road tax. Reckon it'll work?
As answered below, I do.
Wrong on both counts.

It's funny how somebody can hold the view I do and immediately I'm thought to be childless and live on the hardshoulder of a busy motorway isn't it?

Roads are for vehicles end of.

I've never understood that stupid law where you have to give way to pedestrians if they are already crossing the road either. I adhere to it but why on earth somebody should think a car that's turning left, off a main road, and is suddenly confronted by a pedestrian crossing at the very end of the side road should stop and give way, whilst the cars rear end is primed for smacking by the traffic on the main road thinking you have turned in is beyond sensibility.

In my day you'd wave the driver through because intelligence says so. Nowadays pedestrians really do think think they "own" the road and shuffle diagonally in their own pace. Kids see this and copy.

Then there's the supermarkets. Sometimes you can't even park your car for families walking in front. at the side and behind your car, all at once!! They don't think to let cars park then pass, or low and behold walk down the pedestrian walkways provided (most of the time). No, they'd rather surround you so that you are forced to hold everything up just to save running over someone.

So, roads are for vehicles and not for kids or stupid adults for that matter.

fast bloke

So is this a legal requirement or just something you made up?

imlach

Err...because maybe the pedestrian was crossing the road before the car showed any intention of turning/indicating etc. Is one to wait until there are ZERO cars within 500m before crossing any road?

Sometimes you'll be crossing a road on a minor junction of a major road, with no cars around wanting to turn from main road into minor road. Then when halfway across the road, someone zooms along, indicates, and turns sharpish.

I was crossing first, so why should I be the one to hurry???

Think about it.

imlach

The problem with people these days is that everything has to be done in such a ****ikng hurry!!

- driving to work
- going to supermarket
- driving down streets

Calm down everyone! There's no rush!!!

Spoon

You're missing the point Dimlach. Nobody mentioned being in a hurry or having to hurry.

Still, it takes all sorts of interpretation I guess.

imlach

Of course it's related to people's impatience/selfishness. Why else would someone want to drive at 30mph+ in a residential cul-de-sac, or try and mow down pedestrians who were crossing the road before the car driver arrived?

Spoon

Oh so now you've brought in actual speeds to the discussion to bolster your impatient/selfishness claim.

Did I mention there was snow on the ground?

The vehicles are unroadworthy with at least 3 bald tyres too!!

It was a general statement with no details included in case you hadn't noticed.

imlach

I'm just astonised at the blinkered attitude regarding the "roads are for vehicles" statement.

So, just sometimes, yes, sometimes, little Johnny isn't quite as sensible as his dad, who for arguments sake is called Spoon, has taught him to be....

He runs out into the road, and someone, lets say Spoon's twin brother, is driving along with his blinkered "roads are for vehicles" approach, and little Johnny gets hurt.

Is life that black & white to assume nobody should ever be on the road other than a vehicle AT ANY TIME?

Iwan

The street I live in is a modern maze of little cul-de-sacs connected by mini-roundabouts. It's super twisty and honestly any speed above 15mph is dangerous IMO. I say this from the standpoint of someone who regularly maxes out his scooby out in the middle of no-where, i.e where there's nobody or nothing to run into. So i'm not one of the 'speeding is evil' brigade.

The muppets round my way have figured out they can do 30mph+ round the estate if they take the racing line round all of the sharp bends, regardless of the fact that they're unsighted corners. Same with the mini-roundabouts, common practice for a lot of people round here to just go over them or the wrong way round them.

These same fcukwits are happy to let their kids play in the street with all this going on, despite that fact that there's a mahoosive park (like 0.5km by 1km) literally behind their houses.

I've had several near misses, including one where I met a rather plump housewife in a Citroen Xsara coming the wrong way way round one of the roundabouts. I stopped (about a foot from her front bumper) and waited for her to reverse back then pull forwards onto her own side of the road (which was clear), and she had the cheek to burst into a fit of giggles - oh how funny - 'I nearly ran into another car head on'.

I don't have kids of my own, so to be honest as long as these tw@ts don't damage my house/car they can carry on as they like. When one of them kills their own kid, it really won't surprise or bother me. Harsh, but it's natural selection at work.

Spoon

I was little Johnny once and I was as sensible as my dad. That's what I'm saying.

Also nobody mentioned driving blinkered, that's dangerous and asking for trouble.

However driving could be made far less stressful if the roads/carparks were respected by pedestrians more. I reckon it takes more concentration driving through a supermarket than it does at 100mph+ and it shouldn't be the case if people just thought a little.

Mind you, that's asking an awful lot today.

Over to you to interpret.

Spoon

Iwan- That says it all. Trouble is, anybody sensible that runs over the son or daughter of Mr and Mrs Scumboil is lynched for obviously driving too fast or dangerously.

There's never a mention of the child and parents scoring top marks on the retardometer.

Iwan

It's stupidity in equal measure IMO. I strongly believe that road safety should be pushed a lot harder at school and by parents these days. Children shouldn't be playing on roads full stop, whether its a motorway or a 15mph residential cul-de-sac. I was in the tufty club when i was at infants school, anything similar these days? I also remember regular green cross code adverts on TV, these days the only thing drummed into kids is the tw@ttish crazy ******* frog ringtone.

I'm not saying, if i'm a motorist then running kids over if they're on the road is fair game.

But what's needed is a 2 pronged attack. Firstly keeping kids (and dumb adults) off the roads, if they stay on the pavements then hardly any will get run over, QED.

Secondly, making sure people don't drive like total lunatics in high density residential areas where there's a good chance they'll come across cars, house, kids, pets etc. (and dumb adults).