Do it yourself traffic calming
I tried a little social experiment last night. After watching too many kids dodging speeding traffic last Halloween on my street (no sidewalk on my side of the street), my wife and I decided to slow the traffic down ourselves, since the city won't. Who wants to see a 4 year old in a lion suit getting yanked out of the way of a car, just before being hit?
Parking on the Hanna Ave racetrack, slightly staggered, we managed to get traffic down to residential speeds. This gave birth to the anger of many. Oddly, quite a few were parents with cars full of kids on their way to got trick or treating. I guess that it's only important to keep their kids safe.
Also in my unscientific survey of irritation levels, I found that people with Jesus Fish on the back of their cars are the most susceptible to residential road rage. The irony has not gone to waste.
The worst of all of this is that the people who speed by in the evening are, for the most part, people who live here. Again, I guess it's a case of only worrying about your own street/child/pet. If you were one of the people irritated by my efforts last night, well, I'm not going to appologize. And please slow down, I shouldn't have to make you.
9 comments:
Good on ya, Mal! Which part of Hanna? I am always amazed at how well a car parked on the street can slow people up.
I'd leave a car parked permanently in front of my house if I could, but there is a fire hydrant there!
Another great idea to protect our kids from speeders. Maybe we could do this on Henry as well. Thanks Mal!
we've been doing this on Idlewild for the past 4 years. Too many near misses, and unlike parts of Hanna, we have no sidewalks.
I do park my truck in the street full time for this reason. I've had it egged, bottles broken over it, and code enforcement called. (no violation) People get angry enough at having to be slowed down that they can get violent.
This year, for some wonderful reason, the majority of drivers were reasonable, polite, and slow. Best Halloween in the 'hood in years.
Here's another suggestion for slowing down traffic: http://tommyosh.blogspot.com/2007/07/finally-solution-to-slowing-down.html
Dandy, but do try to stagger your obstructions. Sometimes, with a monstah truck on one side of the street and a famblymobile (big-ass SUV) right across from it, there's no room for anything but a smartcar to get through.
Now Joe, I explained my policy on appologies.
If a McNatts van can serpentine through there at 25mph on it's way to yet another dry cleaning emergency, it's a bit of an exageration to claim that only a smart car could fit through.
You don't happen to have a Jesus Fish on the back of your car, do you?
nope, no jesus fish here. I'm all for keeping idiots from speeding on Hanna, and I don't mind having to serpentine around parked cars. Just be intelligent about it - I hate squeezing slowly between two humongous parked vehicles only to find a McNatts van or ABC Auto test-driver barrelling down on me.
I only wish I could park on my side of Hanna. The speeds between Nebraska and 15th St. seem to average about 50 mph. We haven't had TPD out here ticketing in a while. We lost the fire hydrant at Hanna and 13th do to an accident last week in addition to the totalled vehicle!
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