To speak to my new neighbours about their driving/speeding?

[Akrotiri1]

We live down a rural private lane, on the site of an old farm, where there are a small number of properties.

The road to reach the properties is a unadopted lane, that has a 90 degree blind bend, which all existing residents are very respectful of. The lane is also used frequently by dog walkers, cyclist, joggers, families etc as leads onto a popular canal path, as well as being populated by a lot of wildlife including hedgehogs.

We have always had a problem with speeding delivery drivers who don't know the lane, but a new property has been built on the farm site, and unfortunately the owners consistently drive too fast round this bend too - our house is just set back from it and have witnessed several near misses.

I have just seen the wife roar down the lane and round the corner, dust flying, for the umpteenth time and feel something needs to be said. Part of me thinks let them learn the hard way, but we have some elderly residents on the farm and am so worried they will get hit.

The options I am considering:

• speaking to them directly (but am crap at confrontation)
• writing a letter expressing our concerns (cowardly but possibly easier)
• erecting some sort of signage eg 'Slow down, blind bend signs'

As the lane is unadopted there is no point in speaking to the council, but if I had the money I would love to put speed bumps in myself !!!!!

What would you do?

Thanks

How many properties and could you do something with the other neighbours?

I'm quite wary of starting 1-1 discussions as they sometimes go badly.

How fast are they actually going do you think?

I wouldn’t say anything, if they’re are the type of person who drives in an unsafe way at speed knowing there’s blind bends, they are not the type of person to listen to someone (very reasonably!!) asking if they could go a bit steadier. The only real outcome you could expect would be ongoing bad feeling between you.

They will hate a letter so not that.

Do you know of anyone recently killed in country lanes? It’s not all that unusual. Perhaps mention as local knowledge.

e.g. Go over, have a friendly chat about many things, mention delivery drivers speeding and how everyone locally hates that because …

We put in a couple of sleeping policemen. Helped a bit, but current speeding neighbour has a 4x4 do it makes no difference.

Letting my bushes get overgrown has helped a bit.

Or you could try a gate at the critical spot.

Signs up. “Dead slow”. “Blind bend”.
Worth a try.

Sadly this is what I suspect.

I am also very wary of causing ill feeling.....we don't have much to do with them but we are a close knit community on the farm and they have been invited to social events and hate any awkwardness.

5 other properties, all long standing residents.

I have no idea of their actual speed, but too fast to brake in an emergency in my humble opinion.....

could you put a gate for pedestrians on one side, it would narrow the road and I find racing drivers don't like their cars scratched

Unfortunately arsehole drivers tend to remain arsehole drivers. Completely sympathise with your situation though. Perhaps the one thing that might carry some weight is a group letter from all the residents of the road.

Thinking along those lines......have found a good one that says 'Slow, blind bend' and has a picture of 2 cars colliding.

Talk about pointing out the obvious though 😟

Are they actually speeding? Or just going faster than you think is safe?

Definitely signs are a great start!

I don't think letting hedges get overgrown if you have them or putting gates in would be helpful right away, if anything that might cause issues for the other residents who are respecting the speed!

It's probably a tricky one if you don't actually know how fast they're going, cars can seem faster than they are and it's tricky to judge speed (especially if you're comparing it to speeds someone else does) so if you normally do 10mph round the corner them doing 25mph would look mega speedy!

It'll be a heck of a lot more awkward if they kill someone

A 90 degree blind bend should only ever be driven at a very slow speed. There’s a couple on my school run (I use the rural backroads) and although the limit is 60 as it’s a derestricted road, anything more than around 10mph is too much.

Do you have a community watts app group?
Perhaps a non personal group reminder for everyone to take care on the bend as you've seen a few near misses and drivers having to stop suddenly ( make it up) and you'd hate to see an accident.

I'd approach with all neighbours including the new ones, addressing it generally not directed at new people. As you can say that you have witnessed some scary near misses, you wondered about putting a sign up and link to the one you've mentioned.
Do you have email or WhatsApp contacts to message as a group? Or will you all be meeting in person socially at some point soon?

I don't know if it's handled properly a chat is worth doing first - I would say something like die to some previous incidents you've all tended to go very slowly around that bend and so everyone would not be expecting such a fast car - if they say no way, at least everyone knows to be super careful there.

Could you try a few strategically placed traffic cones?

Our our private rural lane it isn't sealed, so it degenerates in winter to huge pot holes etc, That slows everyone down. They all moan about damage to their suspension, which wouldn't happen if they drove slower, I don't engage in talk about repairing it, because I prefer people driving slowly more that I prefer a smooth road

Totally with you op.
I saw some signs yesterday saying “SLOW, Please Respect Our Community” which might work, along with something indicating pedestrians, signs with elderly people and a blind bend.
And yes, get your other neighbours onboard first too if you can.

I agree, writing doesn’t work, (pleading, requesting, asking you nicely) having done this myself….the recipients just angrily try to justify themselves (responding in my case with ”we won’t be told by you or anybody….”)

no we dont, only a few of us and we chat freely so no real need

If I was putting up a sign it'd be something more cutting, like....

Kill Your Speed
Before You Kill A Person.

“Something needs to be said”. Jesus 😆

You could set up a fake memorial site, with plastic flowers, teddies, half deflated balloons and random crosses pushed into the ground. Big banners “ Remembering XXXXX , taken too soon” “ Sleep tight forever XXXXX,” “Speeding kills”

Thanks. Actually made me laugh and that is some achievement!