Speeding cars on Riggs and around Grove Park

I can't understand how these streets are so close to the police station yet I never ever see cars being pulled over and ticked for speeding down Riggs Place, Fairview and around Grove Park. Instead I do see tickets being issued for the no turn on red from SO ave on to Riggs - which in my humble opinion is a useless place to have a no-turn-on-red law since the street dead-ends into the park.

There are lots of young children living on these streets and often teens like to walk on the street, and people tend to walk around the park on the streets rather than in the park and I'm just waiting for someone to get hit....

Anyway - what is the best way to request more police presence in these areas to enforce the speed laws? Any suggestions? It is something I could ask about during National Night Out?

I agree it's ridiculous how fast people drive on Riggs. We had one of those "your speed is" signs for maybe a week, and it was broken for half that time, as well as placed in a hard to see spot. Would love the police to take some action here. Someone's going to end up hurt or worse.

even yelling "slow down, *****!" doesn't seem to work. i've tried it.

Except that Riggs does not dead-end into the park. Not that that would have any bearing on the usefulness of no-turn-on-red, even if it were true.

Agree that there's some out of control speeding on Riggs from time to time. And I'm talking 50mph at least, not just ten miles over the 25mph speed limit.

And with all the young children coming into this neighborhood -- and more to come soon -- this problem is just going to get more dangerous. I want this to be a neighborhood where kids can run on the sidewalks and from yard to yard.

Stop signs in both directions at the intersection of Gardner could help, and I've heard a couple neighbors mention speed bumps. (Which I would hate to have within earshot of my house.)

Truth be told, I have seen a couple cars pulled over in recent months, but have no idea what for.

When I was a kid, my mother solved this problem on our suburban street by standing in the middle of the road and throwing a brick through the front windshield of the perpetual offender. Not that I'm recommending that solution.

By the way, agreed that the ban on right turns from and onto Riggs is inane.

The only times I've seen police enforcement on Riggs are inspection sticker checks. This is a motor vehicle violation but not as dangerous as the 40-50 mph drives I've witnessed.

truth said:
The only times I've seen police enforcement on Riggs are inspection sticker checks. This is a motor vehicle violation but not as dangerous as the 40-50 mph drives I've witnessed.

Did they set up a roadblock or something?

Going back to the OPs question -- how about just calling or emailing SOPD directly and requesting to speak with a higher-up? I'd imagine they're willing to hear specific concerns from citizens . If they're not, they should be.

laudisi646 said:

Anyway - what is the best way to request more police presence in these areas to enforce the speed laws? Any suggestions? It is something I could ask about during National Night Out?

According to the Village Calendar, the next Public Safety Committee Meeting is Tuesday at 6:30pm. You could email the Chair, Trustee Dubowy, asking this to be added to the agenda, or you could just show up at the meeting.

It is absurd how fast people drive in a South Orange in general. They seem to have more control in towns that enforce traffic laws. I saw a guy last week going about 50+ down Academy and honking his horn every couple of seconds as if to say, "Look at me being an *****!" I yelled, "Slow the ***** down!" To which he gave a merry little beep beep beep and sped up... SMH..

Student_Council said:
Going back to the OPs question -- how about just calling or emailing SOPD directly and requesting to speak with a higher-up? I'd imagine they're willing to hear specific concerns from citizens . If they're not, they should be.

From other threads I've followed, it's not as simple as this, unfortunately. I'm sure the SOPD is willing to heard concerns, but getting speed-limited measures in place seems to be more of a process.

But the measures (speed limits) are already in place, it seems the request is for more police awareness and enforcement of the issue. Akin to hey I've seen some trespassers on my block recently, SOPD can you keep a closer eye on things. Is there a process needed for this?

Student_Council said:
But the measures (speed limits) are already in place, it seems the request is for more police awareness and enforcement of the issue. Akin to hey I've seen some trespassers on my block recently, SOPD can you keep a closer eye on things. Is there a process needed for this?

Don't think it works like that. It's a chronic problem and can't expect an extra squad car now and then to solve it.

There are way too many 'No Turn on Red' (for no good reason) intersections around here. In my travels, I rarely see them anywhere else, but they are nearly ubiquitous in this area.

We live in a walking town with too many people who like to cross against the light. It a minor pain but I think they exist for a reason.

sac said:
There are way too many 'No Turn on Red' (for no good reason) intersections around here. In my travels, I rarely see them anywhere else, but they are nearly ubiquitous in this area.

bog said:
We live in a walking town with too many people who like to cross against the light. It a minor pain but I think they exist for a reason.

sac said:
There are way too many 'No Turn on Red' (for no good reason) intersections around here. In my travels, I rarely see them anywhere else, but they are nearly ubiquitous in this area.

I don't think that this is justification at all for this and it's not like there aren't plenty of pedestrians elsewhere.

Cars turning right on red (where permitted) are still lowest on the 'right of way' pecking order (even lower than pedestrians crossing against the light, I believe.)

OK but going back to the OP's question "What is the best way to request more police presence in these areas to enforce the speed laws?", I think my suggestion is a feasible one.

People can still move forward with putting a process in place, meetings, petitions, etc. to have speed humps put in or whatever the solution is, but this could take years. In the meantime, contacting SOPD directly is better than doing nothing.

mbaldwin said:

Student_Council said:
But the measures (speed limits) are already in place, it seems the request is for more police awareness and enforcement of the issue. Akin to hey I've seen some trespassers on my block recently, SOPD can you keep a closer eye on things. Is there a process needed for this?

Don't think it works like that. It's a chronic problem and can't expect an extra squad car now and then to solve it.

My grandmother used to live in a town called Walker. When driving and hitting the town border, immediately every car would hit their breaks and go the speed limit. It was known for aggressive enforcement of it's speed limits. People would say, "Make sure that you "walk" through "Walker"". Our town needs to get a reputation like that, where we aggressively target speeders.

What you describe is almost always a revenue generating scheme. Going 25 isn't any safer than going 26. What we need is to drop tickets on the people going 50.

I would love to but my son has surgery Tuesday AM so I'm pretty out of commission that day to attend that meeting - maybe the next one??

michaelgoldberg said:

laudisi646 said:

Anyway - what is the best way to request more police presence in these areas to enforce the speed laws? Any suggestions? It is something I could ask about during National Night Out?

According to the Village Calendar, the next Public Safety Committee Meeting is Tuesday at 6:30pm. You could email the Chair, Trustee Dubowy, asking this to be added to the agenda, or you could just show up at the meeting.

laudisi646 said:
I can't understand how these streets are so close to the police station yet I never ever see cars being pulled over and ticked for speeding down Riggs Place, Fairview and around Grove Park. Instead I do see tickets being issued for the no turn on red from SO ave on to Riggs - which in my humble opinion is a useless place to have a no-turn-on-red law since the street dead-ends into the park.
There are lots of young children living on these streets and often teens like to walk on the street, and people tend to walk around the park on the streets rather than in the park and I'm just waiting for someone to get hit....
Anyway - what is the best way to request more police presence in these areas to enforce the speed laws? Any suggestions? It is something I could ask about during National Night Out?

Unfortunately speeding just doesn't happen in specific neighborhoods. It happens all over and residents sometimes think they're the only ones affected. There are also children in all neighborhoods. Having a posted 25 mph speed limit throughout South Orange is a start but not a complete solution. A larger conversation is warrented

Agreed - but I find the irony here in the proximity of the police station....I will see if I can lodge a complaint with the PD first and hopefully can ask to address the speeding in SO as a whole at the next appropriate meeting....Thanks all!

annielou said:

laudisi646 said:
I can't understand how these streets are so close to the police station yet I never ever see cars being pulled over and ticked for speeding down Riggs Place, Fairview and around Grove Park. Instead I do see tickets being issued for the no turn on red from SO ave on to Riggs - which in my humble opinion is a useless place to have a no-turn-on-red law since the street dead-ends into the park.
There are lots of young children living on these streets and often teens like to walk on the street, and people tend to walk around the park on the streets rather than in the park and I'm just waiting for someone to get hit....
Anyway - what is the best way to request more police presence in these areas to enforce the speed laws? Any suggestions? It is something I could ask about during National Night Out?

Unfortunately speeding just doesn't happen in specific neighborhoods. It happens all over and residents sometimes think they're the only ones affected. There are also children in all neighborhoods. Having a posted 25 mph speed limit throughout South Orange is a start but not a complete solution. A larger conversation is warrented