Of Paintballs and Speeders

Residents threaten to shoot paintballs at speeders.

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/5814998/

So far, it's just a sign that's going around.

Not a good idea, I think. Random thoughts:

1. Pointing what looks like a weapon at people is generally a bad idea to start with. Try it on a cop.

2. I suppose they'll have calibrated eyeballs, or Hot Wheels radar guns to tell which cars are speeding, or which just look fast.

3. Speeders who have been surprised and blinded are not safer.

4. I can see the local teens getting carried away ...

5. I can see some ugly responses to getting paintballed.

Thoughts?

Yeah...I get a little hot headed when someone goes blasting down my street while there are kids playing nearby.

As much satisfaction as I would get out of plastering a few splotches on the side of one of those cars...I don't think it will lead to good things.

I've had some ugly confrontations just for hollering at jerks driving too fast...

Clem

I love the fact the damn cars slow down for the neighbors dog that never moves, but accelerates by the kids

I've been know to toss old bikes into the street. BTW, I live on a side street of a subdivision...no direct in or out. 2 blocks long.

You should not be doing better than 30. we've had kids going 60 easy. Yes. I will throw E36 M3 at them.

What they need is more construction barrel monster.

EastCoastMojo wrote: What they need is more construction barrel monster.

Peaceful and logical solution....too bad it would never see the light of day.

I am pretty sure that firing a paintball at a car would result in a "ballistic" confrontation sooner or later. Pun intended. I know I have been furious at people flying thru my neighborhood but reversing the role - I would go absolutely off the scale at someone shooting my car with paintballs. I picture a news story like "Driver charged with rectal sodomy involving paint ball gun after altercation over speeding".

Maybe they could just roll a ball across the road in front of the car... that should lead to a rapid application of brakes.

I have to ask you older-father-in-a-kid-dominated-neighborhood types something...

I have a ten over speeding habit. As we both know, ten over on the highway is hardly noticeable, but ten over in a residential "25" zone is significant.

Whenever I see any kid on my road, which is often, I will do between 15 and 20. Often though, before I get there, I am doing 30-35.

As a father, what goes through your mind if you see someone doing 35 down your street, and then consciously slow down to 15, smile and wave, and purposely go to the opposite side of the road to make the moving car vs child distance as big as possible?

Is that better or worse than just doing 25 the whole way and acting oblivious?

Taiden wrote: Whenever I see any kid on my road, which is often... ...

I'm going to have to say that is enough reason to slow down all the time on your road. After all, you are already aware that kids are often there.

The kid you see is not the kid you will hit, it is likely the kid you don't see.

slantvaliant wrote: Residents threaten to shoot paintballs at speeders.

hilarious, and justifiable, but dumb with regards to the results that will be obtained

someone shoots a paintball at my car = certain physical harm to them or their property

[edit: ECM summed up the point I was really trying to make much more succinctly than I did in the time I was typing...well done!]

My thoughts...since having a bicycle with no kid on it (the kid jumped off the bike for fun at the top of a hill in a nearby yard) smash into the front corner of my car, while driving, when I was 17...you cannot be careful enough in a subdivision.

To the oblivious driver, it's a stretch of asphalt that goes in the direction they need to travel. To the trained eye...it's a community of folks who enjoy their neighborhood and peace.

Taiden...you're certainly trying...but realistically, just like deer...if you don't see a kid playing in the neighborhood on a day or evening when it's nice out...you simply aren't looking hard enough. They're there. And the thing with kids is that they ARE oblivous sometimes...and they're excused. Drivers aren't.

In my case (mentioned at the beginning of the post), the kid was at fault and fortunately wasn't hurt. Had he been on the bike, it still may not have been my fualt, but that would not have changed the fact that a child was killed or severely injured in a wreck with a car driven by a 17 year old kid.

My kids have been trained to be aware of their surroundings while playing in or near the street and to behave appropriately and with respect.

You just have to know that all kids aren't like that...

Clem

"Hit em with your best shot! Fire away!!"

I think the velocity of a paint ball would make a dent in a car, depending on where it got hit.

I get riled when I can't turn into my street off the main highway because some knuckhead from the other direction is blocking the side street. There's a sign right there "DO NOT BLOCK SIDE ROAD". Some little blondie girl gave me the finger Saturday, I wish I had a paintball gun.

I wouldn't do well in jail...

Well, I guess the first step to solving a problem is to realize you have a problem... I'll slow down in neighborhoods.

I actually find a certain enjoyment in driving slowly down neighborhood streets. Like exaggeratedly so. The folks outside will respect you for it. It also gives folks an opportunity to look at your cool car ;)

Clem

ClemSparks wrote: I actually find a certain enjoyment in driving slowly down neighborhood streets. Like exaggeratedly so. The folks outside will respect you for it. It also gives folks an opportunity to look at your cool car ;) Clem

I like to pretend I'm driving a lowrider. Slow and low, that is the tempo.

my road is 50mph except where I live, where it drops to 25 due to the housing on it. MOST people do 60mph the whole length of the road. I intentionally do 25 EXACTLY just to piss these people off. Quite a few of them will pass me on the double solid yellow line.

I have taken a few pictures (I turn on my camera when somebody tailgates me when I 25 and have tickets written out against them. I have only had to go to court once.. and I did lose (my speedo is not calibrated obviously) but most people just pay the fine.. and now the cops know there is a problem. I even offered to let them park on my side yard while they are running radar.

mad_machine wrote: my road is 50mph except where I live, where it drops to 25 due to the housing on it. MOST people do 60mph the whole length of the road. I intentionally do 25 EXACTLY just to piss these people off. Quite a few of them will pass me on the double solid yellow line.

This is also one of my favorites. I'll do the speed limit because it's right, but if I know I'm irritating some genius in a sports car, I'll do one under to really piss them off.

As for shooting cars, around here that's cause for a drive-by later. Not good.

A couple of thoughts... There are alot of places people need to slow down, but im not comfortable driving slow enough to cause road rage incidents. I was rearended (fortunatly it only stratched the paint a little) by a lady in a late model mustang that had an attack of road rage becasue i was only driving 40 mph on a 35 mph road and she was behind me.

Also, in neighborhoods, if the speed limit is 25, to a bystander you are a dangerous and reckless driver if you drive 20mph in first gear, but you are being safe and responsible driver if you are driving 30 mph in 4th. Im guessing judging the speed at which someone would shoot a car with paintballs would be difficult. I know if that happened to me whoever did it would be paying for the damage to my car.

I always slow down to 10-15 mph if there are people, especially children aroun din a neighborhood though. Even if it wasnt found to be your fault, no one wants to hit a child, and it would probably mean years in jail (judging from an incident in my town a couple of years ago where a driver had a seizure, and the charges were eventually dropped).

Taiden wrote: I have a ten over speeding habit.

That'd be a good habit to break.

Taiden wrote: ... consciously slow down to 15, smile and wave, and purposely go to the opposite side of the road ...? Is that better or worse than just doing 25 the whole way and acting oblivious?

Not really. It'd make me wonder if he did it only because he saw me watching. Also, driving on the wrong side of the street is not a good thing. Drive smoothly and predictably everywhere, slowly where you should. And don't be or act oblivious - actually BE alert.

OTOH, I hate driving around neighborhoods where kids are not oblivious, but instead seem to feel entitled to play in the street, traffic be damned. Military housing areas seem particularly bad in that respect.

I'm a pretty careful driver everywhere, more so around neighborhoods and places with obstructed views near the road/street. On the highway, I'm looking for deer and hogs. In the neighborhoods, I'm looking for kids and dogs.

ClemSparks wrote: I actually find a certain enjoyment in driving slowly down neighborhood streets. Like exaggeratedly so. The folks outside will respect you for it. It also gives folks an opportunity to look at your cool car ;) Clem

And every kid in the neighborhood thinks you are a creepy pedophile.

ditchdigger wrote:

ClemSparks wrote: I actually find a certain enjoyment in driving slowly down neighborhood streets. Like exaggeratedly so. The folks outside will respect you for it. It also gives folks an opportunity to look at your cool car ;) Clem

And every kid in the neighborhood thinks you are a creepy pedophile.

I wonder if it isn't more attractive then to paintball the slow moving cars... they are easier to hit, ta boot!

ditchdigger wrote:

ClemSparks wrote: I actually find a certain enjoyment in driving slowly down neighborhood streets. Like exaggeratedly so. The folks outside will respect you for it. It also gives folks an opportunity to look at your cool car ;) Clem

And every kid in the neighborhood thinks you are a creepy pedophile.

Well...I'm not ringing a bell and selling icecream or anything...

Taiden wrote: As a father, what goes through your mind if you see someone doing 35 down your street, and then consciously slow down to 15, smile and wave, and purposely go to the opposite side of the road to make the moving car vs child distance as big as possible?

I think they obviously realize they screwed up and are over-compensating. And I hope they learned and don't do it again.

Around here it's very difficult to be a fast driver. The roads tend to be short and twisty, and they make lousy through-streets, since most of them don't go where you think they're going to go. Still, some people try and blast through here. Not often, thank God.

I remember when I was 8 or 9 I got it into my fool head to see how fast I could go down the neighbor's steep driveway on my bike. Down the hill I went, as fast as my little legs could push that old Schwinn Sting-Ray, roaring out of the driveway into street and right into the side of a Ford LTD.

The driver was furious, I was shaken up, but there was no real damage. I think, though... if I had just started down that hill a split second earlier, I would have been in front of that car instead of t-boning the side.

The point is, kids are stupid and neighborhoods are full of them. If you're a driver in a neighborhood, you have to be smart for them.

ClemSparks wrote:

ditchdigger wrote:

ClemSparks wrote: I actually find a certain enjoyment in driving slowly down neighborhood streets. Like exaggeratedly so. The folks outside will respect you for it. It also gives folks an opportunity to look at your cool car ;) Clem

And every kid in the neighborhood thinks you are a creepy pedophile.

Well...I'm not ringing a bell and selling icecream or anything...

Doesn't say "Free Candy" on your white unmarked van?

I agree with 1. and 1., but not neccessarily 1., 1., and 1.