Ghost town subdivisions

DrBoost wrote: My wife and I looked at a house in a new development back, RIGHT before the bust. I remembwe were talking to the agent about the association fees and she said "If you moved in right now, you'd be the first and could write your own rules, till more folks move in." Well, we didn't want a new clone-a-home so we passed, but there have been no houses sold, so we'd be the only ones there. My association rules would be 1) must have GRM sticker to have car in the neighborhood for more than 24 hours 2) Must have no problem with an unmuffled Turbo-Dodge "tuning" at any hour 3) Front yards were meant tor project cars gimme some more rules folks.....

Homeowners association dues go to centralized compressed air for all homes. All curbs are hereby replaced with rumblestrips.

I've told this story before...

My wife works for a highway paving company as an estimator. As a developer was showing her the plans for a new "traffic calming" feature he's planning to put in, she said "You're going to put in a chicane? People are going to come through this street just to see how fast they can do it!".

He thought she was nuts. My friends have asked me where the development is

Jamesc2123 wrote:

DrBoost wrote: My wife and I looked at a house in a new development back, RIGHT before the bust. I remembwe were talking to the agent about the association fees and she said "If you moved in right now, you'd be the first and could write your own rules, till more folks move in." Well, we didn't want a new clone-a-home so we passed, but there have been no houses sold, so we'd be the only ones there. My association rules would be 1) must have GRM sticker to have car in the neighborhood for more than 24 hours 2) Must have no problem with an unmuffled Turbo-Dodge "tuning" at any hour 3) Front yards were meant tor project cars gimme some more rules folks.....

Homeowners association dues go to centralized compressed air for all homes. All curbs are hereby replaced with rumblestrips.

all stop signs and children at play signs are replaced with braking markers...

Wow, all of those are around wear I grew up. The Floyd rd is just down from my HS girlfriends house.

Kinda weird. I remember most of that being woods

You want a traffic calming device?

Make tree lined streets with no off street parking except for a one car forward entry garage and single parking space in the rear of the property.

Make the street barely big enough for two cars to pass one another when people park along it.

Natural traffic control device that doesn't instigate tomfoolery.

PHeller wrote: You want a traffic calming device? Make tree lined streets with no off street parking except for a one car forward entry garage and single parking space in the rear of the property. Make the street barely big enough for two cars to pass one another when people park along it. Natural traffic control device that doesn't instigate tomfoolery.

That's pretty much how my neighborhood was designed. Add in streets that twist around on themselves in weird ways so no one wants to use them as through-streets, and it works really well.

Mental wrote: Wow, all of those are around wear I grew up. The Floyd rd is just down from my HS girlfriends house. Kinda weird. I remember most of that being woods

It was woods, we used to ride motorcyles back there (great place beside the RR track at Brookwood). I was class of '96 at South Cobb, my brother was class of '91. I went to Floyd Middle and Mableton Elem. Maybe we bumped into each other before.

You don't even really need maze streets to calm traffic. People will avoid narrow street just as often, even more so if they have bumpy road surfaces.

Part of the reason I got into planning and sustainable development was because I grew up next to an insurance company that kept turning beautiful farmland and/or open space into parking lots.

PHeller wrote: You don't even really need maze streets to calm traffic. People will avoid narrow street just as often, even more so if they have bumpy road surfaces. Part of the reason I got into planning and sustainable development was because I grew up next to an insurance company that kept turning beautiful farmland and/or open space into parking lots.

I'm ok with that as long as we can autocross on the lots.

E-

I don't get the cul-de-sac hate. I like not living on a through street. Keeps traffic way down.

Yeah me too, except they put all these damn high curbed islands all over the joint. That and being an insurance company they are very anal about people using their property as a playground.

DILYSI Dave wrote: I don't get the cul-de-sac hate. I like not living on a through street. Keeps traffic way down.

but imagine if everyone lived on a cul de sac. It'd be a nightmare.

PHeller wrote:

DILYSI Dave wrote: I don't get the cul-de-sac hate. I like not living on a through street. Keeps traffic way down.

but imagine if everyone lived on a cul de sac. It'd be a nightmare.

I'm not sure why that'd be a nightmare.

I may have to re-evaluate my plans for a race community, looks like some are all ready to go!!!

The plural of cul-de-sac is culs-de-sac, just sayin.

DILYSI Dave wrote: I'm not sure why that'd be a nightmare.

Well it'd be a nightmare if you were driving a FWD vehicle because every road would end in a large circular areas perfecting for drifting.

So Keith, where is the chicane?

There is a goofy round-a-bout in Madison, WI just west of campus area. Its smaller than a car and you hardly have to go around it as much as dodge.

click here to see it

click on the bird's eye view

I understand the cul-de-sac hate, as they are less efficient; but most people like to live on the dead end. I build subdivisions for a living, and they cost more than a normal street. It is cheaper and more efficient (i.e. more lots) for through streets. The only reason builders push for them is so their buyers have choices - see the people in this thread stating they like living on the dead end. Builders want what people ask for - 3 car garages & cul-de-sacs.

From a layout point of view, I prefer to layout my stuff so I have 1 main entrance but one more secondary entrance; but that does not always happen. Also, some communities prefer cul-de-sacs where others ask us to limit them.

I'm a big fan of a newly opened phase in a project.....especially when it is time to bed new brake pads.

Josh

Maybe somebody should check on the status of the mega bucks racing development outside of Savannah, Ga. You might can pick up a sweet deal.

RossD wrote: There is a goofy round-a-bout in Madison, WI just west of campus area. Its smaller than a car and you hardly have to go around it as much as dodge. click here to see it click on the bird's eye view

there are a lot of them like that in the UK, little more than a slightly raised painted dot in the road, but iirc it'll cost ya two points on your license if you get caught running over the dot.

I purposely bought a house on a dead end street. It can't be a cul-de-sac, because the sign says Dead End. I didn't want a neighborhoods worth of traffic passing my house every day. There are nine houses on the street, all on the same side. Only four of them are past me. We can go a whole afternoon without a car passing the house. A church owns the other side of the street. They make the best neighbors, they are only there one day a week and gone by noon. They even let me park my enclosed trailer on their side of the street.

I live on a big "U" with both ends of the street exiting onto the main road. I live at the dangerous end where it exits next to the inside of a corner on the main road.

Only about a dozen homes on my street, but this road is incredibly busy. What I cannot understand is why people drive to the dangerous end (my end) to enter and leave.. including the guy who lives ALL the way at the other end.

My in-laws live in a cul-de-sac..

Only one way out and all the people are freaks.

Shawn

slantvaliant wrote: My main complaint about the cul de sac I live on, besides having neighbors, is that apparently the city was a little short on cash when buying street names. Imagine living on Grassroots Avenue, which is really a court, and is parallel to and one block from Grassroots Street, a through street which becomes Grassroots Avenue a block down. (Street names have been changed to protect ... me.)

Now imagine that you work for the Fire Department....