Residential Raceway Update

We've had a responsive week on our traffic problem on the residential raceway.  We've had Caddo Commission member Matthew Linn out twice, Gerry May from KTBS out several times, and we've had a radar cop for two days for a total of about five or six hours.

And yet, they speed on.

KTBS did a story on our checkered flag campaign.

The radar box that SPD attached to a utility pole is still hanging out, gathering data.  I sure wish I could see the reports it generates.

The officer sat out and ran radar Thursday afternoon for about three hours and he wrote tickets as fast as he could.  He didn't sit idle more than one or two minutes between tickets before another zoomed by.  Same on Friday: he was here about two hours on Friday. I don't think they run radar weekends or after five because he hasn't been back.  We hope he returns tomorrow -- with friends.  I know how shorthanded SPD is and we appreciate their response and hope it continues.

We've backed off the checkered flag action now that SPD is running radar.  I think most people generally don't realize how fast they are going but there are a few that speed by incredibly fast and when we wave at them or yell at them to slow down, they just go faster to prove they can.  The only negative comment we got on the KTBS piece is that we are control freaks.

I'm continuing my efforts at slowing people down in absence of the radar man. I thought about traffic shaming.  This car, for example...

...is going well over 40.

So is this one.

And this one.

And this one.

And this one.

I could do that all day long.  All of those (and more) were taken in one hour's time this morning and they're all over 30.  But you can't tell how fast they're going in a still photo, and you really can't tell in the videos I did, either.  That's what that data box is for that SPD installed.  And that's why I sure wish I could see those reports!

In the end, I guess people are just going to continue to use the street as a raceway.  I hope that it doesn't take a tragedy to get them to slow down.  One of my neighbors puts orange traffic cones a couple of feet off his curb when his kids play outside, just to warn people to slow down.

I'm doing more research on traffic calming and various ways to get people to slow down.  The biggest factor will be getting my neighbors to stand up and fight this battle with us.  The old Squeaky Wheel rule, you know.

Meanwhile, the race is on.