Cul de sac living

[CyberdyneSystems]

We would like to live in a cul de sac in the near future as we live just off a fairly busy 30mph road. The thought of no constant passing traffic and noise is very appealing

To those of you that live in a cul de sac, is there any negatives?

We would want a driveway, I know parking can be hard in some without

Everyone in my parents road uses the bulbous bit at the top of the road with the most houses (6 houses) around it to turn in. The road leading up to the circle isn't really wide enough for people to turn around in.

@Starseeking yep and heaven forbid they use their own driveways!

I live in a cul de sac but it is not on estate, it is more of a no through road which is mainly 1930s houses, there are probably about 60 houses and road is quite wide and straight, mainly older people so not so many DC have lived up here, when DS was young there were only a couple of other DC he played with. I quite like it though as the only people that come up here are those that live here or the odd dog walker.

We live in one and it’s nice . There are only 5 houses with a green space in the middle which connects to another small cul de sac.
No parking issues at all

We live in one and it has proved amazing on every level for us as a family. It’s quite small only 13 houses but we all have a large garage, private driveway and additional spaces for extra cars and visitors. Safety wise, it’s great especially for smaller kids. Noise levels are low, no through traffic so birdsong is ever present. We are grateful to have a really fab bunch of neighbours who we got closer to over lockdowns as our sense of community solidified. It won’t be for everyone but we certainly don’t live in each other’s pockets but a cul de sac can lend itself to better neighbourly relations...if you want that!

I lived at the far end of a quiet cul de sac and not sure if I would again. Although no passing traffic, it's impossible to avoid nosey neighbours. And in cul de sacs there's always at least one 'queen bee' neighbour who thinks they are better than everyone else there and who has the most 'look at me' front garden which everyone must stop and pay homage to upon passing by.

Kids
Bad parking
The longest resident thinking they own the road
Everyone knowing your business
Curtain twitchers
Upset one you upset half of them
Feeling forced into every stupid money raising event/Street party/ birthday etc etc, because it's the community thing to do.
The top of the road constantly used for turning vehicles.
Residents making out its safer cos of 'community' when in truth house thieves love it as its so secluded and easy to escape through adjoining gardens.

Nope, never ever again.

I love it and haven’t experienced any problems.

We are quite well spaced and have plenty of parking. There’s restricted parking in the day as we’re close to a station so good parking is essential.

Our close is quite mature so we don’t have children issues.

I love the quiet.

[quote RandomMess]@Starseeking yep and heaven forbid they use their own driveways![/quote]

My parents and two of the other neighbours in the bulbous bit have been there almost 40 years. None of them have expressed a dislike of people turning there, it's genuinely never been an issue, given it's part of the public highway.

Saying that, their end circle is big enough that a car can turn the circle without having to reverse, unless people have double parked extra cars outside their driveways. Generally everyone in their cul-de-sac is very considerate, and their road is so so quiet compared to the main road I currently live on! I really appreciate having been able to grow up there, and want the same for my DC.

Everyone knows what's happening in our cul de sac. For example, last weekend I called an ambulance because my DH had a head injury. Within 30 mins of the ambulance arriving I think I had texts from most neighbours asking if we were ok.

@Starseeking I have never complained about it, tbh the big issue is the speeding and the crap parking make a narrow street sometimes too narrow for an ambulance to get through!

It's certainly not as quiet as you would expect it to be IYSWIM considering everyone has long drives and garages.

Nowt like trying to reverse into your own drive with neighbours visitors nearly hitting you/being cross that you dare to be delaying them!!

When something happens in our house I email my neighbour over the road so she gets the truth from the horses mouth 😂

It has made me weird our street is so quiet if someone walks past I wonder who they are, why are they here!

But like every street the key issue is neighbours. Also be mindful of parking, our cds has ample, my niece lived on one where the drives were tiny and the turning head tiny = constant issues.

We used to live at the bottom of a cul de sac. The negatives I found were all the DC congregating and playing right at the bottom in front of our house. Very noisy, all day in the school holidays. My DC were babies so I would have preferred quiet.
Also the sense of living in a fish bowl with everyone watching your comings and goings.

I guess it depends on what kind of person you are because my negatives could be somebody else's positives if they had young DC and were sociable.

Suits some people and not others.

Of course they vary in size from a couple of houses to huge numbers. Very different.

Smaller ones are good for limited traffic. Good for children to play out. Not so good if you dont want children playing out.

Essentially if they are a no-through road with limited traffic it encourages people outside and the road/grassy areas become a bit more communal than in a through road. You might like that or not. It’s very personal.

I've not really thought about it before but I guess we are on a cul de sac. We live on an estate technically but really it's a cul de sac as it's a private road off the estate with 4 houses. No parking issues as we all have double garages and ample parking space. Very friendly neighbours, all moved in same time as new build, don't really notice anyone else's comings and goings nor feel watched for mine.

Love that we don't have passersby and the kids play out front. No passing traffic and we overlook an attractive water feature.

It's perfect for me really, DH goes away a lot for work so I like feeling part of a community and close to people but ample enough plots that I don't feel we're in each other's pockets. We are at one end of the cul de sac, more preferable that the two in the middle I guess.

Have to say I'm quite surprised by some of these comments.

We live in one, about 40 houses. Mixture of families, older couples. Everyone has drives for at least 2 cars, the odd family has 3 cars so parks one car outside their house but road wide enough the pass, not a big deal.

A couple of children play out but nothing more, no nosey neighbours or queen bees. There's a WhatsApp group for messages (people offering help in lockdown, or when one neighbour had a car broken into she let everyone know to be more careful) but noones in your face. We have made good friends with some of the neighbours, really enjoy living here.

It's like anywhere though isn't it - you can't say all culdesacs are the same (good or bad). Ruling them out (or in) on account of people's experience online is silly.

Go and visit the house you like at different times of the day, see if you can get chatting to a neighbour.

I moved to one a couple of years ago, never lived in one before. I love it. So safe for the children and tucked away so that even people who've lived around here all of their lives said they had no idea it was here. Beautiful big gardens that are hardly overlooked, big driveways so hardly anyone ever parks on the road, very quiet and safe for children. People here were so welcoming and friendly but no nosiness.

There are about 50% older couples who bought 30-40 years ago and the rest are young families who've moved in in recent years. I only know this though because a group whatsapp was set up during the first Covid lockdown so have got to know my neighbours better through that, especially the older ones, so we can look out for them. There is a big effort from everyone for Halloween, Christmas etc and everyone is so nice to the children but not intrusive. It's great here.

To those of you that live in a cul de sac, is there any negatives?

No, none at all. All but one of the houses we have lived in has been in a cul de sac. I'm not paranoid about neighbours seeing our comings and goings.

We are tucked away and in normal times don't get trick or treaters. We also manage to avoid a lot of door to door scammers.

One of the reasons we always answer our front door (such an unmumsnetty thing to do ) is that it is always someone who has made a specific journey and has a genuine reason to call, not just a passer by. Last week a surprise parcel arrived for me (a Mothering Sunday present from DD), and this morning a friend came round with some daffodils from his church - again for Mothering Sunday.

Ugh just no. If you don't mind the cliques and the street party noise levels whatever the weather or temperature (even during lockdown) it's fine. Add your car's being used to deflect footballs and parents not batting an eyelid because the cars aren't theirs and you've got yourself 'community spirit' in a cul-de-sac.

Ours only has 6 houses.
They are all well spaced out and have driveways.
Luckily all our neighbours are lovely.

I live at the end of a cul-de-sac. It’s wide and everyone has parking for 2 cars so no parking issues. My 3 kids and dog play out in the street and it feels really safe. We know the neighbours to say hello to but we don’t have WhatsApp groups or anything. I don’t think anyone particularly knows my business and I don’t really give a shit if they do

I live in one, we all have a parking space and a visitors (2) between 7 reeraced houses.
Parking issues early on, now everyone shares visitors spaces

I live in a cul de sac of five. The next street has parking behind and use the turning bays as additional parking. We have finally managed to get the council to agree to a "keep clear" and yellow lines. As it stands, we often can't turn our cars around and have to reverse onto the main road.... People often take the corner at speed

It's an absolute pain in the arse.