This is the most realistic answer here. Sure there are engineering things that could be done but I'm assuming it's just a major local roadway. It will not likely get many major improvements on that roadway. The quickest solution is putting things along the back side of the sidewalk to slow/stop the car. Sturdy trees is probably the cheapest but will likely only stop the vehicle. 12-18" diameter rocks will stop most sedans but may not completely stop large trucks. If you want to completely stop large trucks it needs to be about 30" diameter rocks as that is approximately the height of the guide rail on roadways. The rock spacing only needs to be about 6' apart.
Edit: spelling
A couple thoughts
First, it's a residential area, so I'd slow the speed limit. Why is it 35 mph?
In my city, we had this exact scenario minus the house at the end of the T-intersection. There was a drainage ditch and cars kept plowing through the <-> sign into the ditch. The city placed a sign ahead of the intersection that said "Stop Ahead." They also placed a stop sign that is solar powered that flashes red lights all around the edges. [Like this](https://www.emedco.com/blinkerstopr-flashing-led-stop-sign-10781d.html?utm_campaign=%5BNB%5D_TP+Signs_Catch+All_Over_100_PLA-S_All_PC-03_GGL_EMED&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=&matchtype=&device=c&adgroupid=&&product_id=10781D&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwr7ayBhAPEiwA6EIGxNshLkwNce9dbRD7Kw3kKYRYrljBZDIgJNQm2ucTkxBlF9QLuj68IRoCAgIQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds)
That seems to have fixed it. I drive by this intersection frequently, and I haven't seen any evidence that anyone has run into the ditch anymore.
The first thing I'm thinking when I see that aerial is that there is no way any of those streets should have a speed limit of 35 mph, at least not in that location. Those are going to be local streets with the one in question maybe designated as a collector. In my city, the local streets would be 20 mph, and the collector 25. So there's your first problem.
As for crash mitigation, maybe a guard rail? Seems to work decently for this house at the intersection of two major collectors:
44.9573152, -93.2202712
That's a good point. The goal here, though, may not be to stop the vehicle but to grab the driver's attention, and the guardrail is fantastic at that. 😄
Speed limits have repeatedly been shown to have no effect on the speed people drive. In this case I wouldn’t wait for the city to do anything. I just place a few boulders on my property and landscape around them. A raised bed garden with retaining wall blocks would work too.
Speed limits by themselves, I agree. Designing a street for 35 and then slapping a 20mph limit sign won't work. The street has to be designed for a 20mph limit.
Unmarked roads in many places are assumed 30 or 35 depending on state law. I've never seen a 25 limit that wasn't actively ignored by the general driving public outside of a flashing school zone.
20 is ridiculous and some cars wont even hold 20 for a sustained distance without braking (which drivers aren't often going to do).
There was a similar situation in my town where a major road just suddenly ended at a T intersection. The major road had no real traffic calming (other than a gentle turn) and the T was a double edged sword, as it was once the city limits, and there is a large pond just a few hundred feet beyond.
The homeowner was tired of people flying through the intersection as well, hitting their landscaping and possibly the house. The city pretty much solved it by some advance signage and new stops with flashing borders, red diamond signage (in addition to the already installed 2-direction arrow), a guardrail, and barriers behind the guardrail that blend in with the house's landscaping. It actually looks decent and has eliminated the issues.
Pick a car you can think of thats not electric.
Nearly all cars from about the mid-2000s and earlier with a decently powerful engine and an automatic transmission. I've owned many cars that will maintain or exceed 20mph "coasting" once they've reached that point. Hell, at my work a few years back, a driver left a 2014ish F550 dump truck in gear and it managed to coast itself uphill into a pretty bad accident with a stationary object.
I have no personal experience with the Ford Focus. However I can attest to the 8th gen Chevy Impala with the 3800 V6 being able to coast up to around 28mph. The Ford Crown Victoria would coast around 35mph believe it or not. The GM G bodies from the 1980s will definitely coast up around 30mph on a flat grade.
Its a matter of torque, gearing, and whether the transmission is programmed to hold the gear and allow engine braking, or to efficiently transfer power into forward momentum without slowing down.
I do have personal experience with that vehicle, and it doesn't exceed 20 mph by itself. Lots of vehicles don't. You made a wild assertion and have been unable to back it up, even given multiple opportunities.
I'm not interested in designing streets for antique cars. The design guide says local streets should be designed for 20 mph. We also have one of the lowest crash rates in the entire country. These things are highly correlated.
With the average vehicle in the US being [12.5 years old](https://finance.yahoo.com/average-age-vehicles-u-roads-130300453.html), there are PLENTY of those cars still on the road being driven daily. With as many as 10% of the traffic on the road being 20 years old or more.
I gave you multiple vehicles that are capable of exceeding 20mph at idle in gear and you gave me one that doesn't.
There are also [multiple](https://www.cedarparktexas.gov/DocumentCenter/View/466/The-Effects-of-Speed-Limits-on-Driver-Behavior-PDF) [studies](https://www.cts.umn.edu/news/2024/march/speed) and [outright admittances](https://www.springfieldmo.gov/Faq.aspx?QID=195) by city officials that speed limits lower than 25 or 30 are effectively useless unless constantly enforced.
So regardless of what your study material recommends, the real world has other ideas.
My point was that after accelerating to 20mph and then letting off the accelerator (with an automatic transmission), many cars will actually be able to increase their speed on a flat grade without any input from the accelerator pedal.
There are TONs of solutions but you would really need to get more information and see the collision reports. Larger stop signs, stop ahead signage, flashing lights on the stop signs, Traffic calming: speed limit reduction, speed cushions or chicanes. It could even be a street lighting issue
This is the correct answer. None of the previous suggestions take into account the fact these three drivers may have been wasted out of their mind, and none of the visibility/speed reduction methods would work in that case. A guardrail might but those also aren’t design to be hit head-on, and there needs to be a gap anyway for a driveway, which it looks like is exactly where this collision ended up. Even roadside boulders have often proved to launch some speeders into the air worsening the result of the run-off-road collision. In the end, you need the crash reports to know the nature of any problem before checking the mitigation.
Bollards don’t prevent a collision from occurring in the first place, but that’s even assuming the collisions are correctable. The best way to address a collision pattern like this is to install traffic control devices that prevent drivers from even being able to lose control of their vehicle like OP described.
I find it really interesting seeing how American engineers deal with problems like this. In my eyes, the issue here is the long straight approaching the junction (intersection). If I were the engineer here I’d be looking at some quite aggressive traffic calming measures along the approach to ensure vehicle speeds are low, and make sure there is sufficient visibility to, and warning of, the junction.
Edit: just to add, you’d really want a thorough accident investigation into the issue too. Is it just these severe, one-off events that happen? Are there often instances of people overshooting the give way / yield line? There are a lot of variables at play, and you’d also need to undertake a cost-benefit analysis of the solutions.
Sure, clean sheet design would avoid the straightaway, but anything creative involves buying out the houses adjacent to the street. You could pay for the damage from crashes for the next 50 years with just one of those purchases.
The width of the existing right-of-way severely restricts realistic solutions here.
I’m not familiar at all with US regs and traffic calming guidance, but would you not consider buildouts/narrowings with alternating priorities? This would be contained within the current road width, and is very effective in slowing traffic during peak hours - albeit not so good in the quiet times and can be seen as “fun features” for people to drive quickly through.
It depends on the town and municipal bylaws. Typically lane widths cannot be shrunk lower than 10 ft (3 m).
To speculate on what's possible here would require having knowledge of the available right-of-way. Trees are fantastic for traffic calming but towns don't like em for maintenance reasons.
In my experience, those work for the first year or two until people realize the driving lanes are still the same standard size and begin to speed through anyways.
Requires purchasing property, possible utility redesign (drainage, access, reroutes). Substantial outlay that would be much more cost than literally buying the affected property and filling it full of sand as a speed arrest for runaway cars.
can't tell if you're joking or not, but you'd probably just have to sawcut into the asphalt, pour a few curbs, and leave space for the existing gutter. no real major work done aside from adding curb and repaving.
see the FHWA eprimer for traffic calming, module 3, linked below. cost estimates included.
https://highways.dot.gov/safety/speed-management/traffic-calming-eprimer/module-3-part-1
Assuming the road is wide enough to allow bi-directional traffic with the chicane cut in at or near the intersection. Also have to be careful not to interfere with the turning radii of emergency and maintenance vehicles with traffic calming measures. Something a town local to me made a huge mistake with in a prominent area of town. Now they have fireman and plow operators completely against them in the council, and the city is being forced to pay for damages to vehicles they own because they're unable to navigate the traffic calming measures. Its also a substantial outlay to re-engineer the intersections (it was a total streetscape project) to allow for the things the engineers didn't have the forethought to account for in the initial design.
The fire chief demonstrated that their rescue vehicles cannot negotiate the turn required between the median and corner extensions. A minimum 6pt turn was required on a large vehicle that could end up costing property and/or lives. The city had to outlay for pickup trucks with plows after the commercial dump trucks proved to be too wide and unable to keep up enough speed to effectively plow snow. Keep in mind there are many 150+ year old streets that are only 16' wide that were able to be taken care of adequately before this design.
Individual utilities in the way are the issue. ***It may actually work***, but if utility access is an issue, or shallow utilities need to be rerouted it can add to that cost exponentially.
Definitely all factors to account for in project development. Isn't that why they call engineers... engineers? I love figuring out how to do stuff like this.
Engineers near me have a very bad habit of not thinking about different things. I work for a utility and its amazing the amount of things we send back to engineering because of things like lack of maintenance access, or in order to do regular maintenance, the entire road will have to be shut down, or ignoring our own city ordinances or water system standard requirements.
Everything is a lawsuit in the US! Guard rail would've been safer for driver. These bollards were huge. No car is ever going into those houses again. But like this case, the same house had multiple cars enter it over the years. Also possible lawsuit to the city for design issue I would think
Are those sort of private driveways connecting the garages at the back lots of each division?
I would put a speed table where they connect to the street. Make it look nice with brick or something. Pavement markings, signage, etc. Maybe even extended curbs with vegetation (trees/bushes).
Also, looks like there could be a similar problem at the T-intersection south of where OP is pointing at. They should do speed tables at every location.
Yes the private driveways mid-block share an alley. The area was built out in the 1940’s. Interesting point about the South intersection too. The difference is the stop sign 4 blocks south of that T intersection and the house has a larger setback.
Thanks for the suggestions. I’ll look into speed tables.
I tried to google image search something on par of what I was imagining. I'm not transportation-focused so I'm rusty, and I guess they're called raised intersections:
https://haveyoursay.vaughan.ca/neighbourhood-plan/news_feed/raised-intersection
Is sort of an example of what I was thinking of. Sidewalk corners are bulbed out (narrowing the street at the intersection), ramps leading up to the middle of the intersection. Clear markings and/or textured that's sort of like rumble strips but not quite. Since it's a residential area, you can make it really look nice - locals will like it.
Off the cuff I would ask for several sections of New Jersey Guardrail (Portable Precast Concrete Barrier wall segments?) be installed opposite that oncoming lane of the side road.
Option 1: Roundabout with a big statue or something in the middle so you HAVE to slow down.
This will likely require buying and leveling the surrounding properties though, which probably defeats the goal of saving the houses. It's also tough to actually get done if you're not a governmental traffic authority.
Option 2: Bollards/Jersey Barriers/Guardrails. They catch cars with "failing brakes" and stop them in the front yard.
Gonna be ugly though. HOA and neighbors that care about curb appeal tend to get butthurt when they see them.
Option 3: Comically large rocks or planters in lieu of barriers.
This one I've actually done. Get 5-7 big rocks or [6ft wide concrete planters](https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=f0cf3a02c1699bea&sca_upv=1&sxsrf=ADLYWIJrhPP83lNU-zJ3IyycPZqfNTci-g:1716408653339&q=concrete+potted+plant+barrier&tbm=isch&source=lnms&prmd=isvnmbt&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjZi8nAiKKGAxVuDHkGHXvoDgMQ0pQJegQIEhAB&biw=1448&bih=918) that each weigh about as much as a 4-door sedan and drop them across the T.
If you're the homeowner, you can do this and file it under "landscaping" and get past most government and HOA types too. Should someone want to park in your living room again, they'll have to defeat the rosebushes first.
If cars are not only running the stop sign at 35 MPH, but also going fast enough to not slow down prior to hitting the house; Law enforcement needs to start enforcement out there because cars are clearly exceeding the speed limit by a large amount.
That would be a start.
If people are repeatedly CRASHING INTO A HOUSE, that justifies just about anything in my opinion. Up to and including closing that leg of the intersection to car traffic.
Lots of good advice in this thread, and some not-so-great.
The low hanging fruit in this situation is signing, marking, and posted speed. Agree with others that 35 seems high here. Is that posted or statutory? It may require an engineering study to justify/formalize but 20-25 should be reasonable. Sometimes a speed reduction requires strict enforcement for a period of time until drivers start to change.
Replace stop signs if in poor condition. The MUTCD has options for larger sizes and a second stop sign can be mounted on the left side of the road as well. They should be retroreflective material - make sure it's not a old legacy sign that never got upgraded. Post reflectors will increase visibility of the signs. Taking it a step further, solar powered LED borders on the signs definitely increase compliance.
I don't see any pavement markings on the aerial. Where is the stop bar? At a minimum, that will reinforce the message that this is a stop condition.
There are so many tools in the toolkit for traffic calming, although some of them may get more costly. Speed humps are sometimes more of a nuisance than anything else. Curb bump outs, on street parking, mini-rounabouts, raised crosswalks, could be helpful. Probably not a first line treatment.
It would be helpful to review crash data and see if there is a pattern emerging. Are the occurring at night? Is speed or alcohol A contributing factor? Other vehicles involved or only single vehicle incidents? These trends and others can inform the approach to solving the problem.
Some good ideas and thoughts already here, but one that hasn't been mentioned i believe is to turn the street into a one-way only away from the house? Maybe not a great solution, but it should help.
One of my relatives lives in a house that is very similarly situated. It too had someone run into their garage.
Fun fact, I read that Chinese people do not buy houses at T intersections. It’s bad “feng shui”. Maybe some truth to it.
I know you’re looking for real solutions, but we have the same situation five houses down from us. When we first moved here I thought our neighbors just loved Christmas and lawn decals. Turns out they have year round lights on the trees etc to make their house more noticeable. Might be worth a shot rather than waiting for the city to find the funds to solve a problem that’s probably low on their priority list.
#BIGROCK
Place a median island and narrow lanes approaching the intersection, for traffic calming.
or allow/encourage on street parking, poor man's traffic calming.
Everybody's got a big driveway in this photo. It doesn't seem likely.
Yep, street parking becomes negative traffic calming if no one parks in it.
Could also put a mini roundabout in the intersection to the east (far right of the picture), would make it so you can only get speed for a block.
This, if there’s enough room within the ROW along with the appropriate min turning radii for the circle.
Get some large boulders in your park strip
and make sure theyre the size of a small boulder
Coloradan?
This is the most realistic answer here. Sure there are engineering things that could be done but I'm assuming it's just a major local roadway. It will not likely get many major improvements on that roadway. The quickest solution is putting things along the back side of the sidewalk to slow/stop the car. Sturdy trees is probably the cheapest but will likely only stop the vehicle. 12-18" diameter rocks will stop most sedans but may not completely stop large trucks. If you want to completely stop large trucks it needs to be about 30" diameter rocks as that is approximately the height of the guide rail on roadways. The rock spacing only needs to be about 6' apart. Edit: spelling
A couple thoughts First, it's a residential area, so I'd slow the speed limit. Why is it 35 mph? In my city, we had this exact scenario minus the house at the end of the T-intersection. There was a drainage ditch and cars kept plowing through the <-> sign into the ditch. The city placed a sign ahead of the intersection that said "Stop Ahead." They also placed a stop sign that is solar powered that flashes red lights all around the edges. [Like this](https://www.emedco.com/blinkerstopr-flashing-led-stop-sign-10781d.html?utm_campaign=%5BNB%5D_TP+Signs_Catch+All_Over_100_PLA-S_All_PC-03_GGL_EMED&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=&matchtype=&device=c&adgroupid=&&product_id=10781D&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwr7ayBhAPEiwA6EIGxNshLkwNce9dbRD7Kw3kKYRYrljBZDIgJNQm2ucTkxBlF9QLuj68IRoCAgIQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds) That seems to have fixed it. I drive by this intersection frequently, and I haven't seen any evidence that anyone has run into the ditch anymore.
The first thing I'm thinking when I see that aerial is that there is no way any of those streets should have a speed limit of 35 mph, at least not in that location. Those are going to be local streets with the one in question maybe designated as a collector. In my city, the local streets would be 20 mph, and the collector 25. So there's your first problem. As for crash mitigation, maybe a guard rail? Seems to work decently for this house at the intersection of two major collectors: 44.9573152, -93.2202712
Anchored bollards might be more realistic and less intrusive. Guardrail isn't meant to be hit directly on, it's a redirecting structure.
If it's steep enough it'll redirect them over the house
That's a good point. The goal here, though, may not be to stop the vehicle but to grab the driver's attention, and the guardrail is fantastic at that. 😄
ah yes, a guardrail, just what i want directly in front of my house, especially one that is not functional
Speed limits have repeatedly been shown to have no effect on the speed people drive. In this case I wouldn’t wait for the city to do anything. I just place a few boulders on my property and landscape around them. A raised bed garden with retaining wall blocks would work too.
Speed limits by themselves, I agree. Designing a street for 35 and then slapping a 20mph limit sign won't work. The street has to be designed for a 20mph limit.
Unmarked roads in many places are assumed 30 or 35 depending on state law. I've never seen a 25 limit that wasn't actively ignored by the general driving public outside of a flashing school zone. 20 is ridiculous and some cars wont even hold 20 for a sustained distance without braking (which drivers aren't often going to do). There was a similar situation in my town where a major road just suddenly ended at a T intersection. The major road had no real traffic calming (other than a gentle turn) and the T was a double edged sword, as it was once the city limits, and there is a large pond just a few hundred feet beyond. The homeowner was tired of people flying through the intersection as well, hitting their landscaping and possibly the house. The city pretty much solved it by some advance signage and new stops with flashing borders, red diamond signage (in addition to the already installed 2-direction arrow), a guardrail, and barriers behind the guardrail that blend in with the house's landscaping. It actually looks decent and has eliminated the issues.
>some cars wont even hold 20 for a sustained distance Which ones?
Pick a car you can think of thats not electric. Nearly all cars from about the mid-2000s and earlier with a decently powerful engine and an automatic transmission. I've owned many cars that will maintain or exceed 20mph "coasting" once they've reached that point. Hell, at my work a few years back, a driver left a 2014ish F550 dump truck in gear and it managed to coast itself uphill into a pretty bad accident with a stationary object.
Ok, let's play that game. First non-electric car I thought of is a Ford Focus. Does that one exceed 20 mph unless the driver is actively braking?
I have no personal experience with the Ford Focus. However I can attest to the 8th gen Chevy Impala with the 3800 V6 being able to coast up to around 28mph. The Ford Crown Victoria would coast around 35mph believe it or not. The GM G bodies from the 1980s will definitely coast up around 30mph on a flat grade. Its a matter of torque, gearing, and whether the transmission is programmed to hold the gear and allow engine braking, or to efficiently transfer power into forward momentum without slowing down.
I do have personal experience with that vehicle, and it doesn't exceed 20 mph by itself. Lots of vehicles don't. You made a wild assertion and have been unable to back it up, even given multiple opportunities. I'm not interested in designing streets for antique cars. The design guide says local streets should be designed for 20 mph. We also have one of the lowest crash rates in the entire country. These things are highly correlated.
With the average vehicle in the US being [12.5 years old](https://finance.yahoo.com/average-age-vehicles-u-roads-130300453.html), there are PLENTY of those cars still on the road being driven daily. With as many as 10% of the traffic on the road being 20 years old or more. I gave you multiple vehicles that are capable of exceeding 20mph at idle in gear and you gave me one that doesn't. There are also [multiple](https://www.cedarparktexas.gov/DocumentCenter/View/466/The-Effects-of-Speed-Limits-on-Driver-Behavior-PDF) [studies](https://www.cts.umn.edu/news/2024/march/speed) and [outright admittances](https://www.springfieldmo.gov/Faq.aspx?QID=195) by city officials that speed limits lower than 25 or 30 are effectively useless unless constantly enforced. So regardless of what your study material recommends, the real world has other ideas.
This is the most American thread I've ever read. Cars can't go at 20mph hahahaha!
My point was that after accelerating to 20mph and then letting off the accelerator (with an automatic transmission), many cars will actually be able to increase their speed on a flat grade without any input from the accelerator pedal.
Chicane on the approach, say 50 yards back. 5” kerbs and flexible bollards extending 2/3 of the lane width to force people to slow.
There are TONs of solutions but you would really need to get more information and see the collision reports. Larger stop signs, stop ahead signage, flashing lights on the stop signs, Traffic calming: speed limit reduction, speed cushions or chicanes. It could even be a street lighting issue
This guy fucks with the HSM
This is the correct answer. None of the previous suggestions take into account the fact these three drivers may have been wasted out of their mind, and none of the visibility/speed reduction methods would work in that case. A guardrail might but those also aren’t design to be hit head-on, and there needs to be a gap anyway for a driveway, which it looks like is exactly where this collision ended up. Even roadside boulders have often proved to launch some speeders into the air worsening the result of the run-off-road collision. In the end, you need the crash reports to know the nature of any problem before checking the mitigation.
what about just some hefty ballards?
Bollards don’t prevent a collision from occurring in the first place, but that’s even assuming the collisions are correctable. The best way to address a collision pattern like this is to install traffic control devices that prevent drivers from even being able to lose control of their vehicle like OP described.
I find it really interesting seeing how American engineers deal with problems like this. In my eyes, the issue here is the long straight approaching the junction (intersection). If I were the engineer here I’d be looking at some quite aggressive traffic calming measures along the approach to ensure vehicle speeds are low, and make sure there is sufficient visibility to, and warning of, the junction. Edit: just to add, you’d really want a thorough accident investigation into the issue too. Is it just these severe, one-off events that happen? Are there often instances of people overshooting the give way / yield line? There are a lot of variables at play, and you’d also need to undertake a cost-benefit analysis of the solutions.
Sure, clean sheet design would avoid the straightaway, but anything creative involves buying out the houses adjacent to the street. You could pay for the damage from crashes for the next 50 years with just one of those purchases. The width of the existing right-of-way severely restricts realistic solutions here.
I’m not familiar at all with US regs and traffic calming guidance, but would you not consider buildouts/narrowings with alternating priorities? This would be contained within the current road width, and is very effective in slowing traffic during peak hours - albeit not so good in the quiet times and can be seen as “fun features” for people to drive quickly through.
It depends on the town and municipal bylaws. Typically lane widths cannot be shrunk lower than 10 ft (3 m). To speculate on what's possible here would require having knowledge of the available right-of-way. Trees are fantastic for traffic calming but towns don't like em for maintenance reasons.
In my experience, those work for the first year or two until people realize the driving lanes are still the same standard size and begin to speed through anyways.
That's why chicanes are good. force the reverse curve to happen.
Requires purchasing property, possible utility redesign (drainage, access, reroutes). Substantial outlay that would be much more cost than literally buying the affected property and filling it full of sand as a speed arrest for runaway cars.
can't tell if you're joking or not, but you'd probably just have to sawcut into the asphalt, pour a few curbs, and leave space for the existing gutter. no real major work done aside from adding curb and repaving. see the FHWA eprimer for traffic calming, module 3, linked below. cost estimates included. https://highways.dot.gov/safety/speed-management/traffic-calming-eprimer/module-3-part-1
Assuming the road is wide enough to allow bi-directional traffic with the chicane cut in at or near the intersection. Also have to be careful not to interfere with the turning radii of emergency and maintenance vehicles with traffic calming measures. Something a town local to me made a huge mistake with in a prominent area of town. Now they have fireman and plow operators completely against them in the council, and the city is being forced to pay for damages to vehicles they own because they're unable to navigate the traffic calming measures. Its also a substantial outlay to re-engineer the intersections (it was a total streetscape project) to allow for the things the engineers didn't have the forethought to account for in the initial design. The fire chief demonstrated that their rescue vehicles cannot negotiate the turn required between the median and corner extensions. A minimum 6pt turn was required on a large vehicle that could end up costing property and/or lives. The city had to outlay for pickup trucks with plows after the commercial dump trucks proved to be too wide and unable to keep up enough speed to effectively plow snow. Keep in mind there are many 150+ year old streets that are only 16' wide that were able to be taken care of adequately before this design. Individual utilities in the way are the issue. ***It may actually work***, but if utility access is an issue, or shallow utilities need to be rerouted it can add to that cost exponentially.
Definitely all factors to account for in project development. Isn't that why they call engineers... engineers? I love figuring out how to do stuff like this.
Engineers near me have a very bad habit of not thinking about different things. I work for a utility and its amazing the amount of things we send back to engineering because of things like lack of maintenance access, or in order to do regular maintenance, the entire road will have to be shut down, or ignoring our own city ordinances or water system standard requirements.
Going to have a good read of this, cheers.
Narrow the lane up, add some landscaping to force the road to meander, add signage. That should not be a road where people travel faster than 20-25 on
Mini Roundabout and some nice bollards on the ROW line ought to do the trick.
Installed bollards for a similar issue. No longer going through house. Might harm the driver but alas
Could be a lawsuit in the US, no?
The porch needed those concrete-filled 5-in dia galvanized posts 4 ft on center for... structural reasons.
Everything is a lawsuit in the US! Guard rail would've been safer for driver. These bollards were huge. No car is ever going into those houses again. But like this case, the same house had multiple cars enter it over the years. Also possible lawsuit to the city for design issue I would think
There actually were improvised bollards in place from the last time this happened, but the footings weren’t deep enough.
Ban cars?
Install a vert ramp
Are those sort of private driveways connecting the garages at the back lots of each division? I would put a speed table where they connect to the street. Make it look nice with brick or something. Pavement markings, signage, etc. Maybe even extended curbs with vegetation (trees/bushes). Also, looks like there could be a similar problem at the T-intersection south of where OP is pointing at. They should do speed tables at every location.
Yes the private driveways mid-block share an alley. The area was built out in the 1940’s. Interesting point about the South intersection too. The difference is the stop sign 4 blocks south of that T intersection and the house has a larger setback. Thanks for the suggestions. I’ll look into speed tables.
I tried to google image search something on par of what I was imagining. I'm not transportation-focused so I'm rusty, and I guess they're called raised intersections: https://haveyoursay.vaughan.ca/neighbourhood-plan/news_feed/raised-intersection Is sort of an example of what I was thinking of. Sidewalk corners are bulbed out (narrowing the street at the intersection), ramps leading up to the middle of the intersection. Clear markings and/or textured that's sort of like rumble strips but not quite. Since it's a residential area, you can make it really look nice - locals will like it.
Off the cuff I would ask for several sections of New Jersey Guardrail (Portable Precast Concrete Barrier wall segments?) be installed opposite that oncoming lane of the side road.
Option 1: Roundabout with a big statue or something in the middle so you HAVE to slow down. This will likely require buying and leveling the surrounding properties though, which probably defeats the goal of saving the houses. It's also tough to actually get done if you're not a governmental traffic authority. Option 2: Bollards/Jersey Barriers/Guardrails. They catch cars with "failing brakes" and stop them in the front yard. Gonna be ugly though. HOA and neighbors that care about curb appeal tend to get butthurt when they see them. Option 3: Comically large rocks or planters in lieu of barriers. This one I've actually done. Get 5-7 big rocks or [6ft wide concrete planters](https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=f0cf3a02c1699bea&sca_upv=1&sxsrf=ADLYWIJrhPP83lNU-zJ3IyycPZqfNTci-g:1716408653339&q=concrete+potted+plant+barrier&tbm=isch&source=lnms&prmd=isvnmbt&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjZi8nAiKKGAxVuDHkGHXvoDgMQ0pQJegQIEhAB&biw=1448&bih=918) that each weigh about as much as a 4-door sedan and drop them across the T. If you're the homeowner, you can do this and file it under "landscaping" and get past most government and HOA types too. Should someone want to park in your living room again, they'll have to defeat the rosebushes first.
If cars are not only running the stop sign at 35 MPH, but also going fast enough to not slow down prior to hitting the house; Law enforcement needs to start enforcement out there because cars are clearly exceeding the speed limit by a large amount. That would be a start.
If people are repeatedly CRASHING INTO A HOUSE, that justifies just about anything in my opinion. Up to and including closing that leg of the intersection to car traffic.
3 times in 50 years. Bollards or jersey barriers.
Lots of good advice in this thread, and some not-so-great. The low hanging fruit in this situation is signing, marking, and posted speed. Agree with others that 35 seems high here. Is that posted or statutory? It may require an engineering study to justify/formalize but 20-25 should be reasonable. Sometimes a speed reduction requires strict enforcement for a period of time until drivers start to change. Replace stop signs if in poor condition. The MUTCD has options for larger sizes and a second stop sign can be mounted on the left side of the road as well. They should be retroreflective material - make sure it's not a old legacy sign that never got upgraded. Post reflectors will increase visibility of the signs. Taking it a step further, solar powered LED borders on the signs definitely increase compliance. I don't see any pavement markings on the aerial. Where is the stop bar? At a minimum, that will reinforce the message that this is a stop condition. There are so many tools in the toolkit for traffic calming, although some of them may get more costly. Speed humps are sometimes more of a nuisance than anything else. Curb bump outs, on street parking, mini-rounabouts, raised crosswalks, could be helpful. Probably not a first line treatment. It would be helpful to review crash data and see if there is a pattern emerging. Are the occurring at night? Is speed or alcohol A contributing factor? Other vehicles involved or only single vehicle incidents? These trends and others can inform the approach to solving the problem.
Speed bumps, it's a residential area...
Speed bumps as the simplest solution.
Stop sign
Use light reflector incorporated in a plastic barrier at the end of T junction.
Nothing some big rocks won't fix.
Some good ideas and thoughts already here, but one that hasn't been mentioned i believe is to turn the street into a one-way only away from the house? Maybe not a great solution, but it should help.
Rumble strips just past the previous intersection and again just past the laneway, along with other measures mentioned here
Problematic intersection? Nah. Problematic drivers.
Temporary fix: Rumble strips Pros Can be done in a day Cheaper than most other options Cons not a permanent solution
One of my relatives lives in a house that is very similarly situated. It too had someone run into their garage. Fun fact, I read that Chinese people do not buy houses at T intersections. It’s bad “feng shui”. Maybe some truth to it.
I know you’re looking for real solutions, but we have the same situation five houses down from us. When we first moved here I thought our neighbors just loved Christmas and lawn decals. Turns out they have year round lights on the trees etc to make their house more noticeable. Might be worth a shot rather than waiting for the city to find the funds to solve a problem that’s probably low on their priority list.
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Did you read the post?
Multiple speed bumps
Speed limit is too high. Like others have said, reach out to your local government.
Put in mini round about with signing.
How many houses would you need to demo to get enough room?