[Minn]

When I was little, our parents told us not to play in the street.

OK, Show of hands. How many here ever played in the street when growing up? Would a motorist doing 40 mph through your ball game have been somebody exercising his rights as a taxpayer, or a negligent ass looking to spend well deserved time for reckless homicide? If you are speeding and end up in some sort of incident with a pedestrian, you deserve fry, whether or not you believe the kid belonged in the street.

[tophat9000]

Hell yes we play in the street and we never got hit.. we just yelled “CAR” when we saw one and got out of it way

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Would a motorist doing 40 mph through your ball game have been somebody exercising his rights as a taxpayer, or a negligent ass looking to spend well deserved time for reckless homicide?

Depends. If the posted speed limit is 40, the negligent ass in question is clearly the parent. If parents moving into a neighborhood seek to interfere with established traffic patterns by lowering the existing speed limits or building speed bumps to enforce this behavior, they want drivers to bear the cost for their inability to parent. Streets are meant for moving traffic - they aren't the neighborhood playgrounds.

If you are speeding and end up in some sort of incident with a pedestrian, you deserve fry, whether or not you believe the kid belonged in the street.

Agreed. But if you're a parent who lets your children play on busy streets (as opposed to walking on the side, which is what pedestrians do), you share in the blame.

[Albion Wilde]

OK, Show of hands. How many here ever played in the street when growing up? Would a motorist doing 40 mph through your ball game have been somebody exercising his rights as a taxpayer, or a negligent ass looking to spend well deserved time for reckless homicide?

Most of the streets in Chevy Chase have a 25- or, at most, 30-mph speed limit. That rarely stops the yuppie SUV class from going 45 in clearly residential areas. Many of the drivers are blackberry-texting professional women with kids in the back.