Large boulders seem to me to be cost effective way...your family could be killed. Most insane that they won't put in speed bumps.

I would continue to work with the DOT on coming up with a solution. In today's sue happy world if you put something and then someone hits it and damages their vehicle there might be some liability on your part for placing it there. If you do put something in make sure it is not located on the road right-of-way. My grandfather had the same problem with his mailbox always getting mowed down

Kevin Strader, that is why you'll notice the posts are set back from the road. They are on our property, the area on the road side of the posts is the right-of-way.

Additionally, since my grandmother bought this house when it was new in 1953 my family and our other neighbors have been working with the DOT to resolve this problem for over 60 years now.

That's insane. The people down the road have the same problem. Now they have this make-shift memorial growing out there because someone did, in fact, get killed. Whirlygigs, pictures, stuffed animals, you name it. All placed in their front yard by the drive way. I thought it would calm down after a year but on the anniversary it all went back up again. Motorcycle. Easier to kill yourself on those things it seems.

I have no advice for you sorry to say.

jn3344 I suppose we're lucky that the deaths that have occured in our yard were before this fad of creating shrines. If we were to put a cross there for every death we'd probably have something resembling Flanders Fields.

I'm at a loss here, but here's my suggestion, and i don't like it but something has to work and be DOT approved........But the opposite of a speed bump equals a small ditch. Not going to be pretty, but will it be DOT approved?

Hi Jessica -- I popped onto your profile as I was trying to remember what thread we conversed on recently (I believe it was bulbs/rhizomes), and I'm so impressed that you have blacksmithing skills! Here's my shadowboxed copy of Wadsworth's "The Village Blacksmith."

If you haven't already done so, I'd suggest that a few congenial phone calls to your local press and legislators may get you some action from DOT. Of course then you may get a set of Jersey barriers plunked along the front of your property. (If that were to happen, I'd get ivy going over them from behind, back planted with something attractive from the home view.)

...bit of a crosspost santoshauper -- good ideas, all.

Get your elected official- mayor, senator or rep. to have the speed limit reduced.

See if you can get local law enforcement to step up ticketing. That at least will get the locals to stop speeding around your curve.

Put a boulder in the yard - it would look better than the poles. You do not have liability if someone crosses onto your property & gets killed. Yes, some ambulance chaser might try to sue- but the law is firmly on your side.

I'm not really clear on what is going on with the curve - can you post a sketch?

Jessica,

We have our own issues here with the DOT and a passing lane on a 55mph road with school bus stops. I can't tell you how many near misses we've had with logging trucks not stopping in time to miss the school bus and heading into the ditch instead and at this point I think it will take death to alter the DOT's mandate on this road, SO, I am not surprised by your issue.

While it may not be in keeping with your neighborhood aesthetic, have you thought of either a concrete or steel fence? Either of these would be more expensive than boulders, which I agree would be a good deterrent for keeping cars and their drivers out of your yard, but it's at least another thought. Although, in 60 years you have probably thought of that one, too.








I wish you the best of luck in your dealings with the DOT and hope that you and your family remain safe.
Elizabeth Cabell, ASID, CID
Cabell Design Studio

I would find a litigious happy attorney and get together with your affected neighbors and file a class action lawsuit against the town, county and state. That is ludicrous. I can't believe that your insurance company has not cancelled you altogether. Your homeowners insurance must be going through the roof too.
With all the money that Maryland has spent on building guard rails along Route 50 in the last year, they must have some money and or supplies to help out. Don't let them get off the hook so fast.

santoslhauper suggestion about starting a petition to going above DOT's head sounds good but it shouldn't have to be this way. Here, we got X num of police accident reports in Z amount of time. If X is high and Z is low then corrective action should take place by (whoever) to FIX IT!!! Simple algebra folks

You could also find some company that digs up old concrete and ask them to dump along, inside your property line, the front for free (they don't have to pay at the dump to leave there) then you can cover with some mulch and ivy or something for aesthetics.

Hi Jessica. What a horrible unsafe situation you have. Curt's suggestion for a ditch actually works. When I resided in my city on a street with no sidewalks and on a hill, all the homes, including mine had a grassed ditch about 3 feet deep in front Sure enough ever other winter, cars going too fast downhill would end up in the ditch. Luckily the occupants were unhurt, just their cars banged up, maybe a lesson learned. Our properties were also left intact, except for ripped up grass. The ditches were there, put in by the city long before we purchased this home. I wish you a solution to this unsafe problem.

So many comments, I won't be able to address specific posters in this.

1. Rumble strips are not approved for residential neighborhoods the State has already refused them. Apparently they make too much noise and this is an extremely busy street.

2. My uncle is a master brick and stone mason, the ideas for concrete, brick or stone fencing along the property line have been considered and the idea discarded due to what it would cost to repair every time it gets damaged. Additionally anything substantial enough to do much good would severely block the view as we exit the driveway and it's already dangerous enough!

3. Petitions have been taken to the county and state legislatures on several different occasions the last one being in the 1970s when a liquor store went in and we started having more crashes from drunks making late night runs. The only action we were able to get was having them come out and do a "survey" and then paint new lines and put in more big ugly signs.

4. The speed limit here is 30 mph. People come around the curve doing 60-70 and are often presented with a line of traffic backed up from the stop light at the corner. Especially on game days where everyone is headed to the University of Maryland for football or basketball.

Felixgrantham - I'll post a sketch when I have a minute to make one. On my side of the curve what happens is people build up speed on a straight mildly downhill slope passing a cemetery. At the end of the cemetery, there is a rise that obscures the view of the coming curve and then a steeper downhill slope to the curve which is deceivingly mild in appearance. If the driver misses the curve completely and doesn't try to make it they wind up across the street in my neighbor's yard often hitting the telephone pole there. If they overcompensate once they start losing control, they wind up in my yard. There are wrecks on the other side of the curve too, people coming from the direction of the stop light accelerate, reach the curve and don't make it and slide into another neighbor's yard or hit the cars parked along the street there.

One of the more spectacular accidents occured across the street. We usually hear 1 or 2 crashes when an accident occurs. This one had 3 crashes. The first as the driver missed the curve completely, and tore out their undercarriage on the slope of a neighbor's lawn (like a ramp) the second when they hit the pine tree about 40 feet up in the air, and the third when the car fell out of the pine tree and landed on its roof. I never realized there were actually people who thought they could drive like the dukes of hazard....

IME, to get your point across to your state representative, you need photos, a heartrending story, and three options for them to pursue. Staff in local offices will have been replaced since the 1970's. Try again. A webcam with a time lapse video could also be effective.

Buy an old police car and back it in to your driveway...

Sit out there and take photos of cars speeding, send them to the local law enforcement agency

The ditch idea is the safest and most cost effective. When we live on a downhill portion of a rural road we had 3-4 ft deep ditches for flood control. Many young people ended up in the ditch, but they all walked away, lesson learned.

Fencing is a great idea, would be covered by the drivers' property damage portion of their insurance (provided they have it) and as a last resort, your homeowners policy and then the insurance company would pursue the culprit to recoup the settlement.

Install a "critter cam" that is motion activated....send the data to the police, newspapers, TV stations....

My main concern would be for pedestrians....very dangerous situation.

Attaching a map here (from google maps). The ones who wind up in my front yard are coming down from the top of the map on Riggs Rd. They come around the mild curve between Hughes and 25th, and wind up in my front yard (4th house from Willow Lane on the left side of map), or they wind up in the yard across the street from mine. Sorry this isn't better quality.

Speaking of pedestrians, one of our neighbors was killed while standing at the bus stop shown just above Hughes on the map.

That's terrible!

The ditch along the line of the poles sounds the best solution if it's permissible (I don't know the rules in the US). But it wouldn't have to be particularly wide or deep and should stop cars without to much harm to people or possessions.

Keep complaining to local and state officials. Write or call the local papers. Have the police patrol it often. Do whatever it takes to stop the speeding. The squeaky wheel gets the grease...

Too bad on the rumble strips.
On 3, I understand how frustrating it is, but I was not joking when I said you need to start a political campaign of your own. You need to prove that you're an actual force before any politician is going to give a rat's behind about you. I'm sure you know that given whose suburbs you're in, but it bears mentioning. If they can 1 - feel threatened that not supporting you could cost them, and 2 - feel like helping you helps them get their name in the paper, maybe some form of ribbon cutting type thing, then you stand a much better chance.
Start a civic association, and host your own meetings. Write press releases about them and send them to the Post, Times, and everyone else.
If you can get someone on the phone and instead of saying, 'This is Jessica Soandso of 742 Evergreen Terrace' you can say 'This is Jessica Soandso, President of the College Park Association for Safer Roads' you're going to get more attention paid to you.

Given how long this has been going on and how little action you've gotten I think maybe calling 7 On Your Side now might be a good idea. Then, after you get your civic association started, you can call them back and do a follow up (assuming they pick you in the first place). If you do get on, let the local gov have it. Wonder aloud why they don't care about MDers killing themselves on your bit of road. Or how many people have to die before they do care.
Sorry about your problem, and the monumental amount of work it will take to solve it.

Also contact other groups for support, such as Mothers Against Drunk Drivers.

Many ideas here. I appreciate all the suggestions. While my neighbors and I continue our work with the state of Maryland and the DOT searching for a long term solution, what would you do to improve the curb appeal of the safety measures we are forced to take in the meantime?

I think you just need to stick to what your already doing but maybe try to add a little more curb appeal!

I think the fastest and easiest solution would be one of two things. Either a barrier fence, as Erick suggested, that you could landscape behind to give some curb appeal, or a series of boulders, could be set back from the road as illustrated in the pictures below, and landscaped around. The barrier fence would cause less damage than the boulders to cars hitting, after all speeding or not, you don't want people injured and put up something that may be hazardous. I would be inclined to even post a sign right before the barrier, to warn drivers, sharp curve, barrier ahead, slow down.

i had drag races in my street. i made myself very visible with a camera aimed at cars and they would disappear for awhile. it was a thing i had to do from time to time, but it worked.

You are going to have to agitate your local politicians, they are obviously a lazy bunch. I also like the idea of a fence of heavy posts dug into the soil with shrubbery behind to soften the look.

I would also be tempted to erect (in a prominent position) a couple of small white crosses complete with plastic flowers attached. Anything to gets the morons to slow down.

Didn't read this suggestion... Would it work to pile up an earth berm and cover the top with fence or plants? Hopefully it wouldn't launch cars onto your roof. They build a lot of 4-8 foot tall berms in florida... It cuts down on the street noise and makes for pretty plantings. I hate ditches... They're ugly and I've seen them cause somersaults of vehicles. Keep us posted.

What about getting the city to put a speed indicator?

That gets people's attention and they slow down when it starts flashing indicating they are traveling too fast.

There have been surveyors going up and down the street this past week. No one seems to know why. We're all wondering if they are planning to widen the road to add another lane up to the stoplight.

I had a chat with an engineer friend. His advice, putting a berm on the street side would indeed launch cars at your roof, or at least you windows. He suggested that you build the wall with the posts well dug into the ground and pile the earth up on the house side of the wall. Plant shrubs both on the built up side (the berm) and on the street side to soften the look and for sound insulation.

Lots of great suggestions.

For my clients on steep sites, I have required guide rails along steep driveways. (lawyers don't like the term GUARD, as it implies full protection).

They have some very attractive guide rails available for you, that will careen the cars back onto the road, hopefully without injury to the occupants or your yard. They will replace their car, and you will replace a few sections of fence, thanks to your insurance company.

If you can't find some suppliers, email me and I'll dig some out for you. Don't want them hitting your magnolia.

cascio.offsite@gmail.com

Boulders boulders boulders.

Can the police department help with getting a roadside speedometer? Or a "speed camera ahead" sign?

Move? Sounds like you have a long history with the house but life is short, you want to deal with this for years to come?

I would find out if big boulders on your property, not the town's, could ever result in a liability if hit. If not, that would be the best way to go.

Old post, but....

I'm sneaky, so I would buy rubber commercial speed humps and install them myself with proper signage. Chances are the state won't notice.

Sure they will if they snowplow and their trucks get taken out, which is my guess why they won't install them in the first place.

Hope there was a good solution.