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Last Fall our quiet street started to be visited by young men on skateboards. These are not regular kids using their skateboards to go from point A to point B, but individuals in their late teens and early twenties hijacking the street as their personal training ground going down the hill innumerable times, speeding, sliding and jumping. The skateboards they use are called longboards or speedboards. This is a sport that is becoming more and more popular in hilly areas of Long Island. For months we have put up with them coming every week -some weeks every day- and flying down the hill occasionally in excess of the road speed limit. I worry about hitting them when coming in and out from the driveway, the possibility of them causing an accident as they could slide too far downhill into a heavier traffic road and about cars turning the corner and failing to see them. These kids make unbearable noises with their special gloves fitted with a hard disk which they scrape on the asphalt as they bend down and slide. They have a special name for this activity; it is called “bombing hills” and “shredding”. I was wondering if someone had any similar experience.
Ughhhhh. Not yet. What town are you in where this is happening? I was all set to call the town about the lousy condition my road is in -- not anymore.
Three Village. I call the office of Suffolk County Legislator Vivian Viloria-Fisher and I asked about the legality of this activity. I was told there is nothing I could do because skateboards are considered self-propelled vehicles and they have a right to be on the road; so we have a tricky to control self-propelled vehicle allowed to circulate without brakes, in some cases above speed limits. If longboarding-or speedboarding- is a sport, since when do we allow dangerous sports to be practiced regulary on public residential roads? I think it needs to be regulated and these kids need a place to practice. I am not against the sport or these young men.
Three Village. I call the office of Suffolk County Legislator Vivian Viloria-Fisher and I asked about the legality of this activity. I was told there is nothing I could do because skateboards are considered self-propelled vehicles and they have a right to be on the road; so we have a tricky to control self-propelled vehicle allowed to circulate without brakes, in some cases above speed limits. If longboarding-or speedboarding- is a sport, since when do we allow dangerous sports to be practiced regulary on public residential roads? I think it needs to be regulated and these kids need a place to practice. I am not against the sport or these young men.
Just like how we need to regulate kids playing basketball and hockey in the streets! Don't even start about playing "catch"!!!
The last thing we need is more government control telling us what we can do, where and when.
While I sympathize with kids just trying to have fun and not hurting anyone else, I also sympathize with people who buy a house not expecting to have constant noise and ending up with it. You and your neighbors should put your heads together to come up with something that makes your street a little too... "uncomfortable" for them to consider coming back. I've seen kids walking around with these longboards and I was wondering what the heck they are doing.
Considering most of them have the half cocked "I"m want everyone to know I'm a d***" hat style going, I'm thinking trying to reason with them isn't going to work.
Throw some pea gravel in front of your house on the road. Problem solved.
Or refuse to yield. Where I live there are kids that skateboard right down the middle of the street and some refuse to move to the side. After my first few times being patient I resorted to swerving around them without slowing - it freaked them out and now they know there's a real chance they might get clipped. I'm sort of the same way with cyclists.
Or refuse to yield. Where I live there are kids that skateboard right down the middle of the street and some refuse to move to the side. After my first few times being patient I resorted to swerving around them without slowing - it freaked them out and now they know there's a real chance they might get clipped. I'm sort of the same way with cyclists.
Or lean on your horn....I've done that with teens who won't get out of the road - the look on their faces is priceless...goes right from gangbanger stare to "OH MY EARS!"
Or refuse to yield. Where I live there are kids that skateboard right down the middle of the street and some refuse to move to the side. After my first few times being patient I resorted to swerving around them without slowing - it freaked them out and now they know there's a real chance they might get clipped. I'm sort of the same way with cyclists.
imo a potential manslaughter charge is not worth it.
my question stands: did the OP ever even talk to the kids, or is this just another passive aggressive request?
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