Speeding

Common sense would also say not to speed on residential streets. AND it is the supposed adults who should know better AND should be practicing said common sense.

 

The reason it always comes up is because it's a valid argument. That's like saying 'Every time there is an election, someone always brings up the Republicans!'

Look, kids should know/be taught better than to run blindly into a street after a runaway ball and they shouldn't be on the street with their bikes regardless of what sidewalk ordinances are in place (Nice logic there: 'Can't use the sidewalks? Lets put them into traffic!'). This is common sense...

 

I'm not making an argument FOR speeding...I just think that using the 'kids playing in the streets' excuse is a load of crap. My main concern with speeders is that one of them will knock the***off my car as I'm backing out my driveway.

 

I will bring it up again a child was ran over by a vehicle in the Regency and died. The driver was not at fault.

I agree with brim and others and I have children and they never played in the front yard let alone in the street.

I saw parents sitting in lawn chairs in the cul de sac watching their very young children ride bicycles tricycles on the street just last weekend these kids were under 5 years old or about. The parents would give anyone a dirty look when you drove thru to turn around. And this was right down the street from where the first child died. Large backyards common area and community play area right behind these homes, yet they were all in the street.

God help me I have agreed with Brim twice in a couple of days, to make matters worse he had a better solution the first time.

Lee J Buividas

 

There's a huge difference between crossing a street or getting a rare ball that's gone into the street and actually playing in the street with a basketball hoop or street hockey or skateboard ramp set-up. You don't play kickball in the cul-de-sac either.

There's also a huge difference between a bicycle keeping to the side of the road and one that's in the middle of the road, crossing from the left side to the right side and back again. Traffic laws consider a bicycle to be a vehicle which means they ought to be keeping to the right (and for safety as far over to the right as possible). I have no idea what the law says concerning skateboards so no comment there other than my kids aren't allowed to have them.

You don't have to have kids to have common sense. Nor do you have to lose whatever common sense you may have had just because you have children.

Common sense says that kids should not be playing in the streets.

 

Common sense also says you shouldn't speed on residential streets.

Playing in the street isn't illegal. Speeding is.

 

Actually, basketball hoops in the street are illegal ... VDOT regs. As far as playing in the street .. I was always taught as a child NOT to play in the streets. Streets are for cars, backyards and sidewalks are for kids.



Neil Z.
Resident since 1999

 

Yesterday, while waiting at the 4 way STOP SIGN, some idiot woman, who was going over 45 mph ran the stop sign at that same speed and didn't even notice. I agree, you would think people would be cautious around here but they aren't, and trying to say that if the kids don't play in the streets, the problem would be less of an issue is absurd. As mentioned before there are several reasons why kids and adults (for that matter) go into the street. It's a dangerous situation and I hope we all agree it needs to be dealt with.

 

Well, if you aren't in the street, the likelihood that you'll be hit by a car is greatly diminished....

 

What's your point? You still shouldn't be speeding down residential roads, regardless if people are in the street or not. So slow down.

 

I'm amazed at the lengths that some people would go to in order to deflect their own responsibility.

I mean, how could it possibly be your fault if you are speeding down a residential road and a 3-year old runs into the street to fetch a ball and you run them over? Sure, maybe you were driving at an unsafe speed only 30 feet from the front doors of your neighbor's homes, but that parent should have had the kid on a leash. Better yet, they should have kept the kid inside the house! (Maybe in a crib so that the kid can't get into any trouble.)

Of course it wasn't your fault. You should even sue the parent for the damage the kid's body did to the front end of your BMW. Maybe you could get enough of a recovery to trade up from a 3-series to a 5-series!

 

Many residents of these $3/4 million+ homes have no backyard to speak of. The front yard of our home in the Courtyards was 10x the size of our back yard. Should we not allow our kids to play in the front yard so our neighbors can conduct the LeMans in our neighborhood without fear of wayward kids chasing balls?

 

It goes both ways. Yes something needs to be done about speeders, stop sign runners, etc. and yes parents should advise their children not to play in the street. A car at 25mph can just as easily kill a child. Here in the Overland Park section the streets are the playgrounds. There are basketball hoops setup in the street, (a violation obviously not being enforced by the HOA) kids riding skateboards, bikes and roller blades in the road and many of the parents condone this. I see them on the front porch watching the kids but that's not going to prevent them from getting hit. It's a fatality just waiting to happen. I realize the yards here are tiny but I just can't believe how cavalier some of these parents are. I have no problem with kids playing in a cul-de-sac or at the dead end of a street but this is taking place on through streets.
In addition I have even witnessed parents walking in the road while pushing strollers even though every street here has a sidewalk. I just don’t get it.

 

everyone should come over and visit sweet bay terrace in southern walk, and if you can't find a spot to park during your visit it will probably be because there will be a mini electric hummer or a bicyle parked in the open spots. and if you do find a spot you can expect your car to be hit by a ball or rear ended by a mini electric car, and i don't think the kid will have his insurance card with him.

 

I would like to address another issue that was brought up by OP, about basketball hoops and that not being enforced by the HOA.

As you can imagine basketball hoops, trash cans and many other HOA violations happen throughout the community everyday. However, currently there are only 1 or 2 people that are able to drive the streets of this community to look for these violations. While these people try to get out into the neighborhoods as much as possible, this is not their main responsibility. On any given day there are well over 100 violators, however finding them and following the notification policy and procedure takes a lot of time.

If you have time, and see these violations and are concerned about them being enforced my suggestion would be to join one of the VOLUNTEER committees that oversees these issues so the enforcement of these issues can be dealt with on a more constant basis.

If you can't help out, then respect the amount of time the VOLUNTEERS do put into looking for violators and accept that this is how it is.

As you can imagine many people have issues, many people have suggestions and many people take issue with how things are handled, but until it is realized that only a few of us actually do VOLUNTEER our time to help, then these problems will continue to happen.

So OP, how about joining the convenance committee to help find these violators.

 

Donna,
I understand the VOLUNTEER thing and I am not being disrespectful of those who volunteer their time. I will not go into detail here out of respect of the other forum readers (getting off topic) but I have reported specific basketball hoop violations to the HOA in the past but nothing was done.

 

Op_dude-
Please sent in the information again. We have notified dozens of residents about basketball pole violations, and many have been rectified. If some have not, we need to know. The information will not be ignored.
Also be aware how long it takes to go through the HOA process: violation is reported, letter goes out giving a week or two to rectify the problem. If problem is not resolved, another letter goes out. If still not rectified, a Board hearing is scheduled. These hearings are once a month. If still not resolved, fines can begin and attorney notified. This process can take several months.

 

Cliff,

Can we also send in reports of our neighbors who park 2 cars in their driveways and block the sidewalk? on our street the kids are forced into the streets while riding bikes/etc, they can't go through the cars.

---------------
Got Broadband?

 

This is also a violation ... they should not be blocking the sidewalk at all.



Neil Z.
Resident since 1999

 

Geez - what is wrong with you? Kids are kids - they make mistakes or get excited /forget. How would you feel if the parents of the child from Regency read your quote? You are basically blaming them. By your logic, we should increase the limit up to 65 mph and have survival of the fitest. The reason the county set the limit to 25 is because it suggests that drivers would have sufficient time to react to common occurances in a residential area - like children going into the street for whatever reason. The solution is to conform to the speed limit - not deflect all the responsility so you can haul a55 down the street to get to work 30s sooner.