Why is this allowed? Why is this not considered dangerous? Now the kids are playing out in the street where the cars drive.
The route I take home every day has one such house, as the second house on the corner. The road is a 30 mph road. It’s residential, but it’s right off a busy 40 mph road.
Now these kids have obviously been instructed because they always get off the road. And I’ve lived there a while now so I am hyper-aware of them in the summer.
But if you don’t know they’re there, I can easily see an accident happening. And I see this all over suburbia, every day, with the kids playing in the street.
The really funny thing is, in our neighborhood is also a small playground with a basketball hoop that is off the main road (as in, not anywhere near a road)! But I don’t know if the kids are not allowed to go there or something - it’s not farther than I was allowed to play when I was a child but I’m not really in touch with kids these days.
What say you guys? I say these things are a nuisance and a hazard. Play in the back yard, or do what we did, and hang the basketball hoop off the garage door so you’re playing in the driveway. Oh, but then the parents can’t park with ease. :rolleyes:
Well, at least they are in the street and not on your lawn, amirite?
Seriously, I don’t think it’s a danger at all. They are going to be clearly visible playing basketball, as there will probably be several kids, a bouncing orange ball, and a ten-foot tall hoop. Kids are practically sealed in protective foam these days, let 'em have a little fun.
It seems like it’s more of a hazard than a hoop at the other end of the drive but I think kids are going to end up in the street regardless of what sport they’re playing and where. I always find the basketball from my across-the-street neighbor in my ditch, and their hoop is near the house. The kids next door don’t have a hoop but they are always running across the street after a football.
I wonder if your kids are more aware than other kids that aren’t actively playing right next to the street?
Just be thankful they don’t live right next door to you.
When we first moved into our new home some other neighbors with 3 sons moved in a couple months later. They set up an end of driveway hoop and it became basketball central along with boom-box rap music ALL SUMMER LONG!
I can’t say I felt too bad when their house was foreclosed on a year and a half later and they moved away.
I like the idea of kids playing outside. I like the idea of kids playing near home. I’m happy to have them playing basketball in the street. Driveways in our neighborhood tend to be on an incline, whereas the street is more level. Usually at least one car is parked in each driveway.
We have basketball hoops like this all over our neighborhood. In 17 yrs here, I’ve never heard of a kid being hit. I have never had a kid fail to move for my car when I’ve turned onto the street. I’ve never had my car hit by a basketball.
I was surprised to learn that some Home Owners Associations are beginning to ban having a hoop mounted to the house/garage. The permanently installed goals alongside a driveway are the only option in some communities. Some HOAs even forbid the moveable goals and will confiscate them if they’re discovered.
I’m surprised the cities and individuals allow this level of intrusion into their choices of what to do with/on their property, but it seems HOAs can do pretty much anything these days, and charge you for it.
I know! And riding bikes without helmets, and climbing in trees, and running on asphalt, and digging in the dirt oblivious to the dangers of flesh-eating bacteria.
The problem is when the petty fascists with too much time on their hands take over the HOAs, and push through their own pet rules, while the people with actual jobs are unwilling to give up their hard-earned free time to stop them. I wouldn’t live in an HOA house if it was given to me as a gift.
Ditto. We’re only RENTING a condo, but the ridiculous HOA rules are beyond annoying, and these are just tiny apartments; can you imagine being told what you can and can’t do with your lawn or driveway? FUCK THAT.
Moving soon, thank goodness, into a house where I can do whatever I want.
I live on a cul-de-sac with 2 portable basketball goals set at the end of driveways, so people play in the street. Another goal is set at the edge of a driveway, so the driveway is the court.
The street goals are much more popular, and don’t cause any problems. I’m sure there have been accidents from time to time over the years, but I don’t remember anyone getting hit by a car while playing basketball in the street.
By the way, I live in a part of the midwest that is basketball crazy–I’m less than a day’s drive from the University of Louisville, Univ of Kentucky, Indiana Univ, Univ of Cincinnati, and so on. Basketball is a way of life in this region, so it’s expected.
I wonder what the OP would think about NYC kids playing stickball in the street? It seems like the same problem, just a different sport (and different sort of location–inner city vs suburbs).
In my neighborhood in DC, a lot of houses have hoops set up in the alleyways. It’s the same thing, kids playing in an area also used by cars. It doesn’t seem to be that big of a problem (now, the noise from the games is a different issue).
I don’t think these things are the same, really. And I can’t say I go into a blinding rage or anything. It just seems foolish.
I’ve also seen basketball hoops in much quieter neighborhoods, and in cul-de-sacs, which actually make a little more sense to me. The only reason this one particularly sticks out to me is because as I said, it’s directly off the main road. Someone got hit and killed on the main road only a year or two ago. Granted, he was drunk and crossing the street at 10 pm against traffic, so entirely his fault, but people do go fast enough to kill.
At least the kids know to get out of the way.
If they were playing on my lawn I might consider aiming for them.
Oh, and I am very grateful they’re not playing next to my house, but the noise of kids just playing doesn’t bother me that much. (Kids, especially little girls, screaming, is a different matter). Nothing is worse than a college kid incessantly bouncing a basketball on his floor above you or next to you for upwards of an hour at a time and once you’ve had to deal with that, kids sound blissful.
I’d bet cash money that they number of kids seriously hurt in bike accidents or by falling out of trees is much, much greater than the number of kids hit by cars while playing basketball. Probably orders-of-magnitude greater.
Yes, it is possible. Lots of things are possible. It is not remotely likely.
Well, not to be the grumpy old man (ASIDE) Hey, get offa my damn lawn!! (/ASIDE)
Sorry, where was I? Oh yeah, basketball goals. One of my neighbors stuck one of the portable ones at the edge of her yard last year. Since then, it has become the beacon crying out across the land for kids to come clog up our street. I don’t mind when it’s kids, like 10 year old style kids, cause they tend to move out of the way. (CAR!) What I’'m not so keen on are the teenagers who don’t move. Well they move in that they “allow” you to go by, but they don’t clear the path by any means. They just move over " a little" while glaring at you for bothering their game.
I’ve been tempted to do a little late night visit to the object in question with a wrench. It’s a cheap crappy Wally-world basketball goal, one or two nuts loosened, and the next bricked jump shot would bring it down. None of these kids looks like they have the initiative or knowledge to actually fix something, so I think our little NBA (Neighborhood Basketball Antagonists) would come to an end.
Like Wayne and Garth’s hockey game? This on-the-street basketball happens in my neighborhood, too. There isn’t an actual basketball court nearby and everyone’s driveways are too sloped to make in-driveway basketball a reality. I think every kid should be able to go outside and shoot some hoops whenever he/she wants. I’m not aware of herds of children being squashed on the roads playing basketball. So, I’m for it.
