5 ms·

I did have an issue with drivers coming around a blind curve too quickly to be safe, though, so I did what these homeowners ought to be doing and contacted my l

by e40 10y ago

I did have an issue with drivers coming around a blind curve too quickly to be safe, though, so I did what these homeowners ought to be doing and contacted my local government about getting my street assessed for a traffic calming project. I hope what happened in my neighborhood doesn't happen in yours. One person vetoed a stop sign that would have made our street much, much safer due to the blind curve and how fast people take it. The one home owner that objected scuttled the entire thing. Very frustrating.

sandworm101 10y ago
One trick that I discovered was to hang not a sign, but simply something that looks like a high-visibility jacket. Drivers for a half second think it's might be a cop doing speed enforcement and slow down. I remember while at university seeing people slow because of an orange garbage garbage caught in a hedge 400m away. That bag was better at enforcing the speed limit than photo radar.
- Spooky23 10y ago
  One of my parents neighbors took this a step further -- he bought a surplus blue Crown Vic, put a yellow day glow strip on one side and parked it on his land near the curb. At a glance, it looked like a state police cruiser.
  - massysett 10y ago
    I once saw a full-size, flat plastic dummy that looked like a police car from the side. Slowed everybody down too. It was only clear it was a dummy as you passed it.
drauh 10y ago
I've seen one instance where homeowners in the neighborhood vetoed a proposal to have a centerline painted on a broad street through the neighborhood. Total width was probably about 3 lanes, and many people used it as a "cut through", and going pretty fast. However, painting a centerline would have made property values go down, the homeowners argued, as that would have meant that the street was no longer a residential low-traffic street.
- jchrisa 10y ago
  Centerlines encourage faster driving, so lately the fashion is to remove them where possible.
- driverdan 10y ago
  Studies have shown that traffic is slower on roads without lines. If your goal is to slow down traffic you don't want a line.
  - drauh 10y ago
    Ah, I was not aware of it.
  - 24gttghh 10y ago
    Conversely, painting lines, and narrowing the "american standard" lane width will slow drivers down, as the more narrow lane makes drivers feel like they are going faster. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14668160 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14668160 http://nacto.org/publication/urban-street-design-guide/street-design-elements/lane-width/ http://nacto.org/publication/urban-street-design-guide/stree...
    - AnthonyMouse 10y ago
      Of course it also makes collisions more likely at a given speed because there is less margin for error in estimating how much space you need on either side of your vehicle. I still can't understand this logic of "let's make the roads safer by making them more dangerous" as if the only factor is how fast people are going. Wouldn't it be better to make roads that are safe at the speeds people want to drive? Build sidewalks so pedestrians don't have to be walking in the street etc., and let bicycles use them because a bicyclist is clearly more like a pedestrian than a car?
      - bostonvaulter2 10y ago
        Have you looked at any studies, many point to wider lanes being more dangerous because people drive faster on them. Don't just assume that 'wider == safer' without any data. http://usa.streetsblog.org/2015/05/27/compelling-evidence-that-wider-lanes-make-city-streets-more-dangerous/ http://usa.streetsblog.org/2015/05/27/compelling-evidence-th...
CamperBob2 10y ago
These "if it saves just ONE CHILD" arguments can often be clarified with hard data. How many accidents have occurred to date due to excessive speed on the blind curve? If the answer is zero, and the curve otherwise meets traffic-engineering best practices, well... stop whining. If the answer is nonzero, maybe there's a solution other than putting up unnecessary stop signs that will just discourage respect for traffic laws in general. But we don't have enough data to say for sure in this thread, and emotional appeals don't help at all.

by e40 10y ago

sandworm101 10y ago

One trick that I discovered was to hang not a sign, but simply something that looks like a high-visibility jacket. Drivers for a half second think it's might be a cop doing speed enforcement and slow down. I remember while at university seeing people slow because of an orange garbage garbage caught in a hedge 400m away. That bag was better at enforcing the speed limit than photo radar.

Spooky23 10y ago
One of my parents neighbors took this a step further -- he bought a surplus blue Crown Vic, put a yellow day glow strip on one side and parked it on his land near the curb. At a glance, it looked like a state police cruiser.
- massysett 10y ago
  I once saw a full-size, flat plastic dummy that looked like a police car from the side. Slowed everybody down too. It was only clear it was a dummy as you passed it.

drauh 10y ago

I've seen one instance where homeowners in the neighborhood vetoed a proposal to have a centerline painted on a broad street through the neighborhood. Total width was probably about 3 lanes, and many people used it as a "cut through", and going pretty fast. However, painting a centerline would have made property values go down, the homeowners argued, as that would have meant that the street was no longer a residential low-traffic street.

jchrisa 10y ago
Centerlines encourage faster driving, so lately the fashion is to remove them where possible.
driverdan 10y ago
Studies have shown that traffic is slower on roads without lines. If your goal is to slow down traffic you don't want a line.
- drauh 10y ago
  Ah, I was not aware of it.
- 24gttghh 10y ago
  Conversely, painting lines, and narrowing the "american standard" lane width will slow drivers down, as the more narrow lane makes drivers feel like they are going faster. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14668160 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14668160 http://nacto.org/publication/urban-street-design-guide/street-design-elements/lane-width/ http://nacto.org/publication/urban-street-design-guide/stree...
  - AnthonyMouse 10y ago
    Of course it also makes collisions more likely at a given speed because there is less margin for error in estimating how much space you need on either side of your vehicle. I still can't understand this logic of "let's make the roads safer by making them more dangerous" as if the only factor is how fast people are going. Wouldn't it be better to make roads that are safe at the speeds people want to drive? Build sidewalks so pedestrians don't have to be walking in the street etc., and let bicycles use them because a bicyclist is clearly more like a pedestrian than a car?
    - bostonvaulter2 10y ago
      Have you looked at any studies, many point to wider lanes being more dangerous because people drive faster on them. Don't just assume that 'wider == safer' without any data. http://usa.streetsblog.org/2015/05/27/compelling-evidence-that-wider-lanes-make-city-streets-more-dangerous/ http://usa.streetsblog.org/2015/05/27/compelling-evidence-th...

CamperBob2 10y ago

These "if it saves just ONE CHILD" arguments can often be clarified with hard data. How many accidents have occurred to date due to excessive speed on the blind curve? If the answer is zero, and the curve otherwise meets traffic-engineering best practices, well... stop whining. If the answer is nonzero, maybe there's a solution other than putting up unnecessary stop signs that will just discourage respect for traffic laws in general. But we don't have enough data to say for sure in this thread, and emotional appeals don't help at all.