Linebaugh Estates

Wow! This is great! Now that we have community organization, let's get moving ASAP to improve of the issues with traffic safety surounding Forest Hills Elementary. For too long we have had to deal with speeders when we walk our children to and from school. Let's have some input from some other neighbors and get together this week, before some child is killed or maimed by a careless driver! Please leave comments about this subject on this website, so that we can review everyone's ideas about how to make things better, before we talk to the city traffic control department. If we can improve the issues related to school traffic,  our issues with general neighborhood traffic will surely follow. We all have little pet projects within this community that we'd like to see addressed, but let's begin with safety.

Thank you to all who organized this Neighborhood Watch!!

Hi,

Thanks for your post. Yes speeding is a HUGE issue in this neighborhood. We formulated a petition, 99% of the neighbors signed it as well as all of the local school principals and a  county commissioner, it was submitted to the Mayor's office who responded w/a bunch of reasons as to why we aren't able to get speed bumps right now. Budget, priority, on and on.  This is a serious issue and unfortunately it's going to take a tragedy to get it fixed. If anyone has ideas, please post them!

Well, to begin with, I think we shouldn't be afraid to let people know that we are watching out for our community. If we see someone driving down the street and they commit some rule infraction, we shouldn't try to hide the fact that we just saw them speed, litter or run that stop sign ( we should also pick that litter up -- if we don't, they'll think we don't care about our community so why should they). We shouldn't ignore them or stick our heads in the sand, we should look them in the eye, although we shouldn't be confrontational. Maybe look them in the eye and wave hello -- that would let them know that you witnessed their behavior and that you might even be able to identify them at some future date. People who know that they are being watched tend to not break the rules of society (although like everything else, of course there are exceptions to this). If they are bold enough to commit the rule infraction, we should be bold enough to let them know that we witnessed it; after all, they -- not we -- are the one in the wrong. We shouldn't be ashamed to be seen taking down the tag number of a suspicious vehicle. In fact, I have heard that if we take tag numbers of people who repeatedly speed and call TPD that the police will go speak to that driver -- not ticket them, of course, since the police wouldn't have witnessed the rule infraction -- especially if they live in our neighborhood. Is that true?? I mean, the police can't be everywhere, so it only stands to reason that if we take part in policing ourselves and our community that we can help ourselves in the long run.

Thanks for discussing this with me. I'm really anxious to see an end to these speeders. I hope we can put our heads together to find a solution.

I called Lisa Timmer, our District 2 Community Liason officer this morning and then sent her an email detailing this issue. She's going to get with her supervisor and see if we can't come up with a plan of action regarding this issue. I had a parent this morning shoot me the bird and holler obscenities this morning as I walked across the street!!