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Comment by x3iv130f | Hacker News Reader

If you can physically drive 50+ mph down a street signed for 25 mph then whoever built the road may have been thoughtful but they certainly weren't thinking about safety.

Signs and warnings rank very low in the hierachy of engineering controls.

The safest option would be to physically prevent vehicles able to travel at greater than 15mph from being in areas with children.

The next safest would be to redesign the street to prevent high-powered vehicles from being able to travel at greater than 15mph.

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> If you can physically drive 50+ mph down a street signed for 25 mph then whoever built the road may have been thoughtful but they certainly weren't thinking about safety.

Here's a nearby example road: https://www.google.com/maps/search/39.20251909603638,+-76.82...

We have regular speed bumps. They drive 50+mph, slow down, go over them, and then accelerate back up to 50+mph like it's NASCAR or something.

but sadly most subdivision builders like to make nice straight roads, which means that one of the more effective tools to control speed (having the road turn, or snake) won't work. That leaves having frequent intersections with either stops or roundabouts.

Stop sign planning usually says to avoid 4 way stops and to give give preference to one of the streets (usually the busier), meaning that if those are used one street at any interspection will probably be one with few stops, allowing cars to build up speed.

Roundabouts (preferably with a physical center median) are the right choice for residential streets, but in most of the US they are still considered "weird", so subdivision developers don't make much use of them.

One trick that works is get your neighbor a few houses down to buy an absolutely huge RV they leave parked on the street.

And the neighbor across something similar, that narrow gap between them slows people down naturally.

My town, which is pretty lenient on parking in general, has a rule that an RV may not stay in the street for more than 24 hours. An oversize pickup truck would do the job though and not be subject to the same time limits.

In some neighbourhoods in Copenhagen, the streets suddenly narrow to only allow 1 car to pass (in a two way street) with a small bump, which is very effective from my perspective as a driver.

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