How Do You Make People Slow Down On Residential Streets? [Block Talk]

Linda, a Concord (California) Patch reader, asked for advice on handling a dangerous problem in her neigbhorhood in an email to Block Talk, Patch’s exclusive neighborhood etiquette column.

What do you do about people who drive “way over” posted neighborhood speed limits?

Linda has been working on this problem for almost the entire time she’s lived in her neighborhood, but speeding “has only gotten worse,” she said. At least three young people that she knows of have died over the years because of drivers who drive too fast through the neighborhood.

“I even organized a community meeting in the past with other neighbors, including a traffic engineer and policemen from two cities,” Linda said.

Some street redesign work helped but didn’t eliminate speeders. More distracted drivers looking at their cellphones and more development exacerbate the problem.

“What does it take to address this situation? Are those electronic speed signs very effective (‘your speed/speed limit’)?” she asked. “What should our next approach, as a community, be? Maybe contact our newly elected mayor? Another traffic engineer meeting? Ideas?”

So Block Talk hive mind, what does it take slow traffic on residential streets and make them safer for everyone? Just fill out the form below. As always, we don’t collect email addresses

About Block Talk

Block Talk is an exclusive Patch series on neighborhood etiquette — and readers provide the answers. If you have a topic you'd like for us to consider, email beth.dalbey@patch.com with “Block Talk” as the subject line.

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