More Speeding in the Tree Streets

[David and Jill LeRoy Frazier]

I just witnessed the partial fulfillment of a hypothetical fear many of us in the neighborhood have held for a long time. While out walking my dogs, I heard a car approach rapidly, then stop abruptly at the stop sign at the corner of Pine and Boyd. A child on a bicycle was riding down Boyd toward the car. I turned to look, and while the person in the car (a black sports model) did wait until the child had begun to move his/her bicycle toward the curb, she then accelerated rapidly through the intersection and drove up up Boyd equally rapidly, even though the bicyclist was still in the road right next to her. She then turned up Locust, where I saw the car parked a couple of minutes later when I walked down that block. What if the child had lost his or her balance and fallen while the driver was punching her accelerator? What if the driver had lost control of her car when she took off so fast? Especially since she was almost to her destination anyway, would a few extra seconds in the way of less speed have made such a difference?

The situation had all the makings of a tragedy that fortunately didn't happen tonight, but it could have, and it has somewhere, even if not in our own neighborhood (at least in recent memory--I've only lived here 9 years). Given the number of speeders I see on my own block daily, though, that thought never seems to occur to those who are in such a hurry they can't be the grownups and be mindful that children and animals are not necessarily always going to get, and be able to stay, out of the speeders' way. Is it really too much to ask that the residential 25 mph speed limit is observed? You'll get there anyway, even if you slow down. Or you can risk killing someone.

I know there's a sense in which I'm preaching to the choir here, but I am so weary of little being done about this problem. I hear of tickets being written on Maple Street, but I've neither heard of nor seen any action on this part of Pine or the side streets. And Pine Street resembles a speedway far too often for my taste. I would love to believe that individuals will come to realize on their own their responsibility to drive safely and reasonably, but perhaps a little deterrence is needed to enable that enlightenment more quickly.