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This is my king pet peeve. I live on a street that has 8 houses, no sidewalks. The entire neighborhood has 40 houses. Our street cuts out 3 red lights and a Wal-Mart entrance. The speed limit on our street is 25. Absolutely no one goes 25, I estimate the average speed is 45. I have complained to the city, law enforcement, city council. They set up a speed trap in the worst possible location and a "Your speed is:" radar sign for like a day several years ago. I have circulated a petition to install speed humps that went nowhere. I'm apparently the only person that cares about this.
If the short-cutters would simply go the speed limit and not endanger the dog walkers, joggers and children in the street I wouldn't care. But the *** **** 30 seconds they save cutting through our neighborhood is the most important thing in the world.
I'm made myself angry again.
Methinks you exaggerate.
Bypassing 3 red lights and a Walmart entrance is going to save a lot more than 30 seconds.
I've never seen cars consistently going down any neighborhood street at 45mph. If you can go that fast then there must not be very many cars on the road. Those must be some really frustrated drivers to drive so recklessly. I know, let's frustrate them some more! Then you can see what happens when they hit a speed bump at 45mph and careen across a yard and into a house.
How is a permanent barricade on a public street legal or what this a private road? What would have been the ramifications of a driver plowing through it or removing it to pass through?
It is the same legality as abandoning, closing, or simply deciding to cease maintaining a public road. They do this on a regular basis
It is not that one person using a residential street as a shortcut that it’s a problem. It is when there is a multitude of drivers taking those shortcuts that can cause a myriad of issues. For example, local roads are not usually designed for heavy traffic. Additionally, people using local roads as shortcuts will typically go above the speed limit potentially putting people in danger.
Yes, there are a couple of residential streets here that had so many trucks cutting through to avoid a light that the city had to put signs up specifically barring trucks from those streets, as well as putting barricades up that cars can get by but not trucks.
This is my king pet peeve. I live on a street that has 8 houses, no sidewalks. The entire neighborhood has 40 houses. Our street cuts out 3 red lights and a Wal-Mart entrance. The speed limit on our street is 25. Absolutely no one goes 25, I estimate the average speed is 45. I have complained to the city, law enforcement, city council. They set up a speed trap in the worst possible location and a "Your speed is:" radar sign for like a day several years ago. I have circulated a petition to install speed humps that went nowhere. I'm apparently the only person that cares about this.
If the short-cutters would simply go the speed limit and not endanger the dog walkers, joggers and children in the street I wouldn't care. But the *** **** 30 seconds they save cutting through our neighborhood is the most important thing in the world.
I'm made myself angry again.
You should try for speed bumps being put on your street, much more effective than speed traps IMO.
I think the real question is: are the shortcuts really that short? Meaning do they really save you time and/or distance, or because you’re not stuck in traffic, you feel like your saving time and/or distance.
It is the same legality as abandoning, closing, or simply deciding to cease maintaining a public road. They do this on a regular basis
But they are still maintaining it. The reality is it would not be illegal to squish by the barricade, they cannot really make it illegal for only some people to drive down Public road. Several years ago there was almost a year of construction over a little bridge that I had to take to work. The detour was several miles out of my way it was ridiculous. There was a rural residential street That allowed you to get by the bridge without taking the ridiculously long detour. The people on that street before the construction even began campaigned to keep people from coming down their street as a detour. Many people did it anyway including myself, Despite a barricade at the top of the road Saying local traffic only or whatever it said.
They were even articles about it in the newspaper because the people on the area kept complaining but in the end there’s really nothing you can do about it. It is a public street taxpayers pay for that street it is not a private street.
I was respectful enough to go the speed limit but I was not about to add 15 minutes each way to it already hour long commute for an entire year.
Adding to the problem, is that once you bypassed the bridge, Waze and Google Maps instructed you to go down that road.
It's not a "short cut" but I take a less congested street with a lower speed limit than the mains to cut across town. 95% less traffic and fewer lights with long cycles. It may only be a bit quicker but I mainly do it for less frustration.
Bypassing 3 red lights and a Walmart entrance is going to save a lot more than 30 seconds.
I've never seen cars consistently going down any neighborhood street at 45mph. If you can go that fast then there must not be very many cars on the road. Those must be some really frustrated drivers to drive so recklessly. I know, let's frustrate them some more! Then you can see what happens when they hit a speed bump at 45mph and careen across a yard and into a house.
Fine. Google Maps says there is a 2 minute difference. 2 minutes. What are you (a generic person, not oceangaia) going to do with your whole 2 minutes?
There is a reason the red lights are there. Traffic. If the traffic just reroutes around the red lights it just moves the problem elsewhere, namely off major roads and onto residential streets.
Again, I would not care if they drove the speed limit, or close to it. I am going to get a radar gun and sit there and count for an hour so I have real data.
I think the real question is: are the shortcuts really that short? Meaning do they really save you time and/or distance, or because you’re not stuck in traffic, you feel like your saving time and/or distance.
In my experience, yes. Google and Waze are pretty accurate in estimated drive times. If they say the route on the clogged freeway is going to take 35 minutes and your detour gets you there in 30 minutes, then it's pretty easy to conclude it saved you time.
Now the question of whether 5 minutes or 2 minutes or whatever amount of saved time is insignificant or "worth it" is subjective and something each person must decide for themslef.
Fine. Google Maps says there is a 2 minute difference. 2 minutes. What are you (a generic person, not oceangaia) going to do with your whole 2 minutes?
There is a reason the red lights are there. Traffic. If the traffic just reroutes around the red lights it just moves the problem elsewhere, namely off major roads and onto residential streets.
Again, I would not care if they drove the speed limit, or close to it. I am going to get a radar gun and sit there and count for an hour so I have real data.
In my experience, when the main roads are moving smoothly people stay on the main roads. Most detours to avoid traffic are not the problem, they are the symptom of the problem. In most cases, I think we would all be better off trying to address the root problem.
Perhaps the traffic at those lights is unavoidable and not easily remedied. But I've seen too many intersections where the lights were poorly timed or on a fixed timer (what works at 2pm doesn't necessarily work at 5pm). Or where many if not most people were turning right and could do so on the red except there they are blocked by the one guy going straight and there is no turn-only lane. Or where one direction is stacked up 3 or 4 light cycles while the cross-direction is virtually empty. Too often I (and 60 others) will be stopped at a red light while virtually no traffic is crossing the intersection.
I find it ironic that traffic is consistently one of the top issues within a community and one of the main sources of complaints yet virtually no one could name even the office tasked to dealing with it much less the person in charge of it. You might know your mayor or your police chief or your county judges but who is your traffic chief?
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