Sort of Rant: Unsafe street

"BvdV - The Dutch Engineer" (dutchengineer) 02/24/2016 at 14:40 • Filed to: None

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So, I just heard that a car crash happened right in front of my (parents’) house on Saturday evening. Someone crashed his/her car into a tree across the road from my house, hitting it that hard that the car was unable to drive off. The weird thing is that my brother and I were both sitting on the couch in the living room (which is about 7 meters from the street, and 15 meters from the accident) didn’t notice a thing, even though the Police and a tow truck have been there, and we kinda always notice everything, since we live in a quite small town. We didn’t hear anything, no squealing of tires, no crash, nothing.

The thing that however bothers me most, since I can’t really be bothered with someones car being scrapped (as long as it is not a rare car), is that people are driving way to hard in our street. Our street is a residential street, with a speed limit of 30 km/h, around 4 meters wide and some mean S bends, which would be more fitting on a race track and are partially blind due to trees and houses.

However nobody drives the speed limit, and due to this speeding cars go through the S bends with approx 40-50-ish km/h which is doable, but means you have to drive in the lane of oncoming traffic. This often causes dangerous situations, in these bends, and we just happen to live in one of these S-bends, the one in the picture. So if one of these people looses control, due to shitty skills, or due to having to steer out of the way of oncoming traffic, there is a chance they end up in our front law, and guess who parks his car there? Yep, I do, so if people oversteer coming into the direction of my house they can crash into my car. The chances are slim, I know that, but this is what someone managed to do in the other S bend:

He just missed the Golf by the way, and only took out a street lantern, a cable TV distribution point and a few hedges.

Meanwhile all our municipality is considering is making the car a bicycle zone, which means cars may drive there, but only if necessary and the bicycles always are the main users. While this may be safer, it is not sure this will eliminate the speeding, so I’ll see what happens, as long as the situation improves, I’m fine with it. Somebody got a good idea for a solution?

Urambo Tauro > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer 02/24/2016 at 14:37

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The best solution is for drivers to voluntarily change their driving habits. I hate it when extreme measures are put in place that punish the innocent. For example: SPEED BUMPS. I don’t speed through residential areas, but speed bumps piss me off in a way that kinda makes me WANT to speed between bumps.

I’m afraid the easiest solution to implement would be speed cameras or a patrol car babysitting the area.

DrScientist > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer 02/24/2016 at 14:47

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oh jees, don’t get me started with bicyclists.

not the athletes who are using the roads for training. they almost always pay attention to the rules of the road.

the entitled hipsters on their fixies, and the hapless tourists who follow neither the rules of cars nor of pedestrians, imagining they can just slip through the cracks and follow their own made up personal guidelines. and the tourists are also only half paying attention to their riding at all, spending the other half of their attention sight-seeing.

jariten1781 > Urambo Tauro 02/24/2016 at 14:47

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Some busy bodies down the street from me at my old house bitched enough to get speed bumps installed. Then they bitched about the noise (specifically from our cars) because we had to go up and down the tach in between them...resonator can't do its job. Can't win with some folks.

G_Body_Man: Sponsored by the number 3 > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer 02/24/2016 at 14:58

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Canada?

BvdV - The Dutch Engineer > G_Body_Man: Sponsored by the number 3 02/24/2016 at 15:00

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Nope, the Netherlands.

Shane MacGowan's Teeth > DrScientist 02/24/2016 at 15:05

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Are you joking? The people in spandex are the worst. At least the hipsies are doing it in town, where speed limits are lower. Out in the exurbs and close country, those “athletes” are the people riding 4 abreast on 50-60mph two-lanes with blind corners, and REFUSE to move over, because “they have as much right to the road”.

DrScientist > DrScientist 02/24/2016 at 15:05

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oh... i see the netherlands. your bicyclists get a full pass.

DrScientist > Shane MacGowan's Teeth 02/24/2016 at 15:08

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oh boy, i’d trade a clueless tourist on a bike-share-bike for a dozen of the spandexers.

slower speed limits just means the whole episode lasts longer!

Little Black Coupe Turned Silver > Shane MacGowan's Teeth 02/24/2016 at 15:09

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...They do have as much right so... If the road has that many blind corners, you won’t be able to pass a car either.

Short-throw Granny Shifter is 2 #blessed 2b stressed > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer 02/24/2016 at 15:20

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Well, you could get a giant landscaping rock, or one of those monstrous cement planters to protect your property in case of a car going up on the lawn. Unfortunately, there isn’t much you personally can do to make other drivers drive better/slower/faster. If there was, OPPO would probably be the first to know.

'Wägen, EPA LOL > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer 02/24/2016 at 15:27

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You, sir, need some landscaping boulders.

Shane MacGowan's Teeth > Little Black Coupe Turned Silver 02/24/2016 at 15:34

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The cars won’t be doing 40 mph under the speed limit and blocking both lanes....

TheRealBicycleBuck > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer 02/24/2016 at 15:37

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I live near the beginning of a 1/4 mile drag strip, otherwise known as a residential street. We bought when the neighborhood was under construction (ours was the 4th house built), so most of our neighbors lived close to the front and there wasn’t enough room to get some speed.

After it was completed, we had to deal with speeders on a regular basis. Our solution was to park cars at the curb. With my truck on one side and my neighbor’s car on the other side (one house down), people were forced to slow down in order to navigate the impromptu chicane.

Problem solved.

BvdV - The Dutch Engineer > DrScientist 02/24/2016 at 15:56

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Yeah, they do, however that does not mean they are responsible parttakers in traffic.

Illegitimus Prime > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer 02/25/2016 at 13:40

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I can verify this. It depends on the town but for the most part they’ll fling themselves out wherever they please.

Also, about that bend, that’s pretty nuts. Meanwhile, while people speed through that neighborhood, I try to pass a truck on the autosnelweg going 130 and that same driver will pull out in front of me going 85 km/h.