[RP TownTalk] Children in streets - Ravenswood Road area

Thu May 12 19:05:34 UTC 2016

I live on Ravenswood and don't find any extra cars down at this end speeding or cutting through.  However I do object to the children playing in the street.  Its a tragedy  waiting to happen.  The street was made for cars, not children on low to the ground toys.  Many drivers have to stop for these children (both ways) and then they really can't see them since they are "driving their toys" between parked vehicles and you don't know where they are and can't see them that low to the ground.  There are no parents in sight.  I totally agree something needs to be done and I believe talking to the parents is a first step.  The children up on that corner can ride their trikes in the dead end street where there are no cars and/or on the sidewalk where they won't get hit.  We already have speed bumps on Ravenswood.  I do believe when we had the "secret" outlet back by erco we did have some cut through traffic.  However, with the closure of that I don't see many cut through anymore.  When I see children playing in the street I always tell them to get on the sidewalk.  I have gotten yelled at by parents telling me it is none of my business.  My answer to them is "Yes it is my business.  I am responsible for keeping children safe.  Especially when no one else seems to be watching over them"  I raised children here in Riverdale and they were not allowed to play in the street.  I took mine to the bike trail to ride bikes or trikes.  Its safer.  Roads really were made for cars.  I plan to go to the public safety meeting tonight, too.
Audrey Bragg

-----Original Message-----
From: adrian limmen <adrianlimmen at gmail.com>
To: TownTalk at riverdale-park.org <towntalk at riverdale-park.org>
Sent: Thu, May 12, 2016 2:31 pm
Subject: Re: [RP TownTalk] Children in streets - Ravenswood Road area

I sent this before but I received an auto message that the moderator had to review it first.  Looks like it never made it to the group.

Asmuch as the kids and parents should be aware of traffic we should also focusmore of our attention on the growing number of cars abusing our neighborhood asa cut through. We are seeing more and more traffic especially on RavenswoodRd.  Cars that cut through don’t stop at the stop sign on Ravenswood and48th where all the kids seem to be playing.  I think manyare people are using our area to circumvent traffic on 410 and cutting throughRavenswood to get to their destination outside of our neighborhood.  WithWhole Foods coming the potential cut through traffic will increasedramatically.  Could we do something to make it much less attractive tovehicles trying to save a few minutes?  The kids should be able to ridetheir bikes and play on our neighborhood streets without worry. Hyattsville and University Park have some interesting ways of managing theirneighborhood traffic.  They have more one way streets, speedbumps, concrete blockades and traffic patterns thatmake it annoying to try weaving through their neighborhoods to get aroundbusier roads.

Here are a few things I think Riverdale coulddo to make it safer for the children on our streets.

1.       Letters to the neighbors. Not everyone is on thislist serv. We should hand deliver a letter to all the houses in the area withrequests to inform their children to be more careful as well as neighborhooddrivers to keep their eyes open. I would volunteer to do this for all housesstarting on Lafayette and heading east to the park.

2.       More speed bumps. People race throughthe neighborhood at high speeds especially at night. More speed bumps wouldslow them down.  Some kind of enforcement would also slow them down.
3.       Children playing signs. Something that couldhelp keep people alert.
4.       Stopping people from usingour area as a cut through. How can we make it less desirable to use our area toavoid 410 traffic or as a quick way to get to the new Whole Foods? Maybesomething like the “do not enter” signs on Queensbury road in Hyattsville thatdo not apply to residents but people just passing through at certain times ofthe day.  A few more one way streets and police to enforce it. Imagine if Ravenswood road was a one way street that you could only traveleast.  Cars would be much less likely to want to go through the area sinceit makes it that much harder to get to their destination, and possibly detertraffic from cutting through the neighborhood overall.

SinceI am not a traffic specialist I am only making suggestions based on what I seein the area that seems to work.  I would love to see the city make astronger effort to consider what Wholefoods could be doing to our area in termsof traffic and our children.  How can we make it less attractive to useour area as a cut through?  How can we inform the parents and children ofthe neighborhood to be more careful as we work on making the town safer forthem to play in?

Itwould be great if someone could add something like this to the agenda to thePublic Safety Committee Meeting on Thursday, May 12, 2016, at 6:30p.m. in the Conference Room of Town Hall (5008 Queensbury Road). Cananyone come?  Did they ever send out an agenda?

Thanks!
Adrian
RavenswoodRd

On Fri, May 6, 2016 at 8:27 AM, S Collins <ugglywump at yahoo.com> wrote:

  There'd been 2 posts last months about kids playing in the street on Ravenswood Road; just a note to say I've noticed a bunch of kids playing in the streets as well, don't know if it's the same group or not (about 8-10 elementary school-age kids).  I don't drive and when I get a cab to come home from the store, several times the cab has had to slow down to a stop in the 4700/4800 block of Ravenswood, as this group of children is out in the street on bikes or playing.  They make no move to get out of the way of the cab.  Yesterday, I left my apt. and saw this same bunch of kids walking from Ravenswood up Lafayette, in the street w/ their bikes and scooters, just goofing around.  They were almost under the EW Highway overpass and a pickup truck came around the corner at speed and had to swerve way to the left to avoid hitting the children.  I yelled at them to get out of the street or they could get hurt, but either their English isn't that good or they were just ignoring me, as they made no effort to get out of the way.  I know kids need a place to play, I know children tend to be careless, but if this keeps up, sooner or later one or more of these children is going to get hit by a car, or cause an accident if a vehicle has to swerve around them and ends up hitting another vehicle.  Can't say what should or could be done, I know the police cannot 'babysit' a particular area all the time. Perhaps the school could send out a flyer, telling parents to watch over their children, or maybe handouts at the Farmers' Market or the "Night Out Against Crime" event?  Esp. with summer vacation coming up, children will be out and about more than ever.  At any rate, drivers in the area, please, please be careful.  

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-- 

Adrian

-- 

Adrian

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