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Driveway U-Turns

Tiberius Jim

Vice Admiral
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Since moving in to my new place a few months ago, I've noticed a few aspects of the place are quite different from when I lived at home. The first issue involved one of the tennants of the apartment complex next door who would play his music at ridiculous levels at nearly all hours of the day. We finally had a talk with him, and the volume was greatly reduced.

This latest issue, while not as serious, is still an annoyance but is much more difficult to resolve by speaking to someone.

To avoid a lengthy explanation of the geography of the area (and because I'm bored) here's a Google Map with some lovely MSPaint annotations.






map.jpg


The problem we have is that people are constantly turning left into our driveway in order to turn around. During the day, it's an annoyance mostly because, well, it's our driveway and not public property. it also makes the dogs go nuts because they know that the sound of a car approaching means someone is here. Factor in that this happens multiple times an hour, likely by cars turning around to park in front of the apartments, and you can imagine how it'd get to be a major pain in the ass. When it happens at night, you can see where our front windows are. If we have the windows open to let cool air in, we also get some nice headlights blasting in through the open blinds, on top of the noise of their cars (which arent always the best running vehicles) and of course, the dogs.

To me, it's just rude to use someone else's property. I was out washing my car one evening and 2 cars did it with em standing right out there. They didn't just inch into the driveway, they put their entire car in there, because they had to wait for another car that was driving from the opposite direction. it was really awkward..I just stood there looking at them like :wtf: as they sat idling in my driveway.

It would be one thing if it were a random thing, once and a while from people taking a wrong turn...but it is all the time, every day by mostly the same cars. In fact, that red truck you see under the word "Office"...that's one of the repeat offenders.

The problem is...how do you talk to people to get them to stop? There could eb at least a dozen cars that do this, and we have no idea who the drivers are. They could even be just visitors of tennants and not the tennants themselves.

I'm considering putting up a sign that says Private Driveway No U or something. We tried parking our cars at the very rear of the driveway, but from time to time we have visitors who need to use the small lot to the right of the driveway and doing so blocks access to that area.

Anybody else ever had this issue? I know to some it may seem like nothing, but when it happens with the frequency that it does for us, it's just ridiculous. As you can see on the map, there are many other options for someone looking to turn around, but we happen to be the first driveway ont he left, so everybody just thinks they can use it as they please.
 
Get a bag of jacks, like the kind kids played with back in the day.

Sharpen the points of the jacks til they are razor sharp.

Spread said jacks in your driveway.

Enjoy!
 
Maybe you could install one of those movable bollard things, that should be doable; just a sort of metal post that can be tipped over by unlocking it. Or a boom barrier. The headlight thing would drive me crazy, I can understand why you'd be annoyed by that.
 
Get a bag of jacks, like the kind kids played with back in the day.

Sharpen the points of the jacks til they are razor sharp.

Spread said jacks in your driveway.

Enjoy!

I don't think that's a good idea. What if they get blown out onto the sidewalk for some reason and a kid or a dog steps on it? Plus, there would be a chance for him to damage his own property if he has an emergency and forgets to remove them or something.

I do think talking to the drivers who do this individually is a complete waste of time, and I doubt a sign will do the job either.
 
Get a bag of jacks, like the kind kids played with back in the day.

Sharpen the points of the jacks til they are razor sharp.

Spread said jacks in your driveway.

Enjoy!

I don't think that's a good idea. What if they get blown out onto the sidewalk for some reason and a kid or a dog steps on it? Plus, there would be a chance for him to damage his own property if he has an emergency and forgets to remove them or something.

I do think talking to the drivers who do this individually is a complete waste of time, and I doubt a sign will do the job either.

Motion-activated paintball gun pointed at the driveway?
 
I'd just put a couple of traffic cones at the end of the driveway. But I'm confused as to why they'd use your driveway instead of the parking lot to turn around. :confused:
 
The main problem with a barrier is that our in-laws, especially my father-in-law, come and go at various times. If it were just my fiancee and I, yeah I'd put something up, but it'd just further inconvenience everyone to have to deal with something blocking the driveway.
 
The main problem with a barrier is that our in-laws, especially my father-in-law, come and go at various times. If it were just my fiancee and I, yeah I'd put something up, but it'd just further inconvenience everyone to have to deal with something blocking the driveway.

Then I think you're just going to have to deal with it.
 
Traffic cones would be the easiest.

So you either have to put up a barrier like the cones (cheap and easy) and inconvenience your guests upon occasion, or you're stuck with people making the u-turns. One or the other.
 
I believe they are turning around in order to park along the street, in front of the complex, where the red and silver trucks are on the right side of the street. This is what leads me to believe they're visitors.
 
^Then I think your answer is to either put up a barricade (of which traffic cones are the simplest form) or to put up with it. Have you tried talking to the complex manager?
 
Pfft. Turnarounds are nothing. I have people parking in my driveway, on my lawn, etc. for the bike shop next door or for the farmer's market they have across the street, or any number of events. (I live in a downtown area.) We have had bike shop guy stand in our driveway signing up people for marathons. Farmer's market person standing in the driveway on his cellphone, Mom went up into his face and he kept talking like she wasn't there. Is there a parade or festival in town? Time to put up the "PARKING $20" signs... those actually work most of the time. Cones we've had middling results with.
 
Traffic cones would be the easiest.

Yep, that would be my suggestion too. A sign wouldn't hurt either; funnily enough, when I need to make a U-turn and there's a choice of two driveways to use, I will pay attention to a sign. Force of habit to follow roadsigns, I suppose, even though it wouldn't be an official one.
 
I pay attention to signs too but you're always going to have some people who don't care no matter what you do. I don't understand what the cones would do, unless you guys mean as an actual barrier? That seems incredibly inconvenient.
 
Maybe I'm alone on this but is this really *that* big of a deal? I get that it's annoying, but people do this all the time everywhere.

An easy solution would be to park your car in the driveway so that no one can pull in to it. Alternatively, park both cars in the driveway rather than having one on the street. You've obviously got the room for it.
 
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