Neighborhood Road Speeding
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My street, along with many other neighborhood streets, are the scene of speeding motorists.
Over the years, stop signs have been installed. But these signs are often read by the motorist as "slow down and drift through the intersection". Other motorists just ignore them completely. At least 100 a day.
I have noticed many communities have installed "speed humps" on their residential roads. Cranberry, Hampton, Oakdale, Robinson has them and even South Park has installed them on Corrigan Drive.
Here is a link to one.
http://ci.muscatine.ia.us/pw/images/hump.jpg
Should we have these on our streets to slow down traffic?
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ronjamin,
We have already had two bad accidents and a dog run over on our street in the past couple of years from speeding cars. It's a downright miracle that we have'nt had any of our kids run over. We holler at speeders everyday, we call the police with license plate numbers alot, we have also gotten into verbal matches with speeders on our street. Nothing will help until the police get in their cars and sit on these streets and start patroling.
Me along with some of my neighbors also brought up the speed bump idea along with lowering the speed limit at council meetings. No one wants to do speed bumps because it's hard on the snow plows and the removable ones are too much work. If you find any resolution on this matter, please let all of us know. Something needs to be done about it.
I am not surprised to see all the reasons why we can't do things...... It's really an attitude problem more than anything.
The answers are easy to find....all Council has to do is look at the communities where they have done it. Cranberry, South Park, Seven Fields, and even in the City of Pittsburgh. Isn't that what we pay a solicitor to do....to tell us how to do things?
The issue of snow plows is legitimate, however, when you build a speed hump correctly, you can plow over them easily. And I can tell you that Cranberry does it, and they get a little more snow than we do.
Take Wainwright, Burdine, and Bauman Avenues, for instance. These are not major arterial roadways but residential streets. However, there is an inordinate amount of traffic. Not an issue if they followed the rules. But they don't. All three of these streets should have speed humps. It's not unreasonable.
I hate to say this, but I don't even thing speed humps will help. A family down the street from me was involved in a hit and run lastnight. From what I was told by fellow neighbors was that a kid in a black car came tearing down Hillson last night around 9 pm when they were taking their son to the carnival, he hit the drivers side of the door, paused for a second and then tore off down Perry and was lost. So if someone could hit a car knowingly with a family in it and take off speeding, I don't think a speed hump is going to slow them down. Now this poor family has to pay for the damage done to their car because of some punk kid.
There are also Penndot issue's with speed bumps. You just cant put them anywhere.And as I have stated awhile back in another blog, if there are no speed control devices in place, i.e. vascar lines, radar(which local cops arn't aloud to use, thank god), there is no way you can tell how fast A car is going. You can call in all the plates you want, the cops still are not going to write A ticket. Best solution is keep your kids off the street, its not A playground!
We already have vascar lines on our street, after it was repaved the residents insisted that the borough paint vascar lines before someone was run over. When they were first painted the police came and sat maybe three times, but we have'nt seen them since.
My neighbor has a radar gun that was purchased at Dick's sporting goods. It's amazing to see how fast people are actually traveling down our 25 MPH residential streets.
My kids ride their bikes on our street just like I did as a kid, but I would never let them ride unless I am standing right there with them. Most times with a pen and note pad.
Where else do we have to let them ride???? I have already had to walk out in the street and slow them down. I will continue to do so for however long is necessary to keep my kids safe while riding their bikes.
It's really a shame that it has come to this!
The issue is easily fixed with speed humps . . and they can be put almost everywhere, especially on residential streets. We aren't talking about Brownsville Road, although I bet you could do that too (see Corrigan Drive and other roads in South Park).
We all know that the cops can't be everywhere at the same time.
We all know that kids shouldn't be running roughshod in the street.
But our back streets, our residential streets, they aren't made for the type of driving that they are getting today. Wainwright, Burdine, and Bauman are like highways. I can count on any given day at least 100 traffic violations at the stop signs on these streets. I can video-tape it and put it on YouTube if you would like to see!!!!
Don't be an obstructionist and a naysayer. These are our streets. We only demand that the rules be followed. Law enforcement can do some part, but speed humps will definitely stop the majority of the speeding on our streets.
How about the sidewalk- just a thought! Just what are you going to do with your note pad and paper when a car comes at your kids going TOO fast? Jump in front of that car and yell SLOW DOWN!? Gee now you and your kids get hit. It is a shame that we have to resort to this but times are changing and there are a lot more people with cars on the road today. A police car could be planted outside your house everyday for 3 hours and slow traffic down for those 3 hours and the minute that police car is gone, the speeding will start back up again. I am not making excuses, I know how you hate excuses, I am just being realistic!!!!! I am all for finding a fix for this problem but you can put as many signs and plant as many police cars as you want, it is society that doesn't want to obey those rules every second of every day. Honestly, do you?
Sorry Hawk, we don't have sidewalks on our street. Anymore ideas??
I would take them ANYWHERE they are safe to ride. If your street is too unsafe I would not take the chance of them getting hit. I know that answer stinks but it is better to be safe than sorry!
The reason I moved here hawk is because this is a nice community where the neighbors are friendly and the streets were safe. I am not moving any time soon, I am here to stay. I just want my street to be patrolled.
You can blog until the cows come home, but the bottom line--we need to have a police department that gets out into the community and talks with the people and finds out where the problems are (including the chief). Talk to people and be available when we need them. No one is asking for them to give 110%, but maybe 85%-90% would be nice. They don't wave, they don't get out of their cars, etc. It used to be that the police would stop and chat with the kids. They even knew some of them by name. They were out and visible. This is the problem. Not the sidewalks.
I am a parent and I get out and talk with other parents in this borough. There is a concensus among ALOT of us and we all feel the same. The speed limits and STOP signs are NOT being enforced. We pay a decent wage to these patrol officers, so why the problems? Everybody sees it. So many people could not be wrong.
I was born and raised in Brentwood and I do remember the days when the police officers stopped to talk to the kids and adults. It was nice to know every police officer by name. I remember when there were enough police officers to have two in a car!!! It hasn't been that ways for YEARS! You know since the "Good Ole Boys" retired. It seems today that most police officers have BIG chips on their shoulders that wasn't there back when I was young or if it was, we didn't notice. It just isn't the Brentwood Police officers either, again it is in every community. No one is just nice anymore. I hope for our kids sake that things change back to the nicer times in life. I don't see that happening but hopefully it does.
I do have to disagree with you though, not having sidewalks is a problem when kids HAVE to ride their bikes in the street. Sidewalks are safer period. BUT you don't have them so...
Yes Wiz, In the 20+ or so years that I have lived in this boro, I can remember a time that the "Patrol Officers" actually did spend some time waving to people and talking to kids and such. Something went wrong somewhere down the pike. I noted a subtle change sometime after the "Gammage Incident". It seemed like the PD began to shy away into the shadows. Also, it seems that the new breed to come along also seems a bit aloof and really don't seem to be a "part of the community". They ride down the street with their cell phones pasted to their ears and windows usually closed, or hide behind the buildings along Rt 51 under the guise of speed enforcement. Actually, it seems as if they are afraid to talk to people sometimes. It's as if they feel that someone might pose a difficult question that they are not permitted to answer. Morale maybe? Anyone else observe this, or am I off base?
Your absolutly right Iron, they do not want anything to do with public relations. And as I have stated before, it all starts with the chief and mayor. Lead by example. Well thats not entirely true though, if it was, they would be golfing, gambling, out at starlake, at the bar, etc.
I sympathize with all of you, believe me. I live in Brentwood on the border of Whitehall Borough and the speeding on this street has become a regular occurrence, as well as motorists blowing through the stop signs on this street. I addressed this matter with the police department and for several weeks, an officer would come once or twice a day for a half hour or so, sit in my neighbors' driveways and nail several people per day running the stop sign at my corner. There hasn't been an officer over here for over a month and the speeding and stop sign problem has become even worse. There have also been several cars vandalized in just the past week on this street. While I realize the importance of building the Brentwood Towne Square to boost Brentwood's economy, the traffic through this street has quadrupled and the dangers to the many children on this street has greatly increased. I am considering going to Brentwood Council and plead my case directly to them, as obviously the police department has abandoned their efforts. Many of the parents on this street are terrified to allow their children to ride their bikes and scooters on this street and as taxpayers and long time residents, they shouldn't feel that way, in my opinion.
I know memory serves me correctly, and most of the streets in Brentwood do have sidewalks. When my children were growing up there, they would ride their bikes and rollerblade on the sidewalks, or play in their own back yard.
PGHLADY, you can go to council and plead your case until the 8th of never falls on a Sunday. You and I both know that speaking at a council meeting in that borough is like trying to breathe the breath of life back into Lazarus, for crying out loud. As you're fond of saying, "been there and done that." The police officers cannot possibly be everywhere, especially considering the fact that 1. there are only 11 officers and 2. the taxbase is considerably smaller because of the land area concerned with the borough. So, given just those two facts, there isn't going to be enough money budgeted for any more officers to be hired to monitor the speeding situation. Heaven knows that the school taxes were boosted enough for the addition to the high school and the teachers who didn't do my younger son a particle of good. Now how do you think that the borough can tack on more tax when people will scream about the high school taxes?
When I lived in Brentwood, not so long ago, I addressed a letter to council, as well as going to a council meeting concerning a neighbor with a high profile vehicle parking in front of my house, which blocked my view while backing out of my driveway. And that was on top of living on a main road, which made backing out of the drive a task unto itself, without having my view blocked. Know what happened? The vehicle owner accused me of "having a vendetta against her and her family." Needless to say, not a damned thing was done about my grievance. Not the police department's fault, of course, but that of narrow-minded people. Oh, and speeding is and was a way of life on that road. Tractor trailers blew through there in the wee hours of the morning at 40+ miles an hour.
I think that this whole problem needs addressed on a higher platform than that of that borough's council. Do you seriously think that council is going to give a tinker's damn about speeding when one is allegedly accused of criminal activity and others are concerned about a witch hunt concerning the police chief?