My grandparents live on a private lane. There are several houses before them because they live at the very end of the lane. I never drive above 20mph, and usually stay below 15mph while driving up the lane, but the neighbors continue to complain that I’m driving too fast. I’m not sure if it’s because my truck is bright yellow or because it’s loud, but this does not seem to be an unreasonable speed to me. Does anyone know if there is a general speed limit for private roads of this nature in Pennsylvania? I did some looking online and found that the general unposted speed limit for populated areas is 25mph… I just want to be sure I’m in the right before I tell them to mind their own business.
As someone who has driven a few loud cars (and one loud yellow car), I’m guessing it’s a combination of these, but mostly the loud thing.
I get dirty looks in residential neighborhoods all the time accelerating to 20mph. You’d think I was doing a full-speed pass in a top-fuel dragster, the way these people glare. If I was in a stock Camry accelerating or driving along at the same speed, they wouldn’t even notice.
Loud exhaust = “DANGER! DRIVING TOO FAST!” to a lot of people.
If it’s a private road, then the owner of the road (which might be a neighborhood association or some such) should have the right to set the speed limit at whatever they want it to be. Whether they could get their speed limit enforced by the police might be another matter. If it’s truly a private lane and they haven’t posted a speed limit, and if you are driving at a reasonable speed (and 15-20 mph certainly sounds reasonable to me), then I wouldn’t think they have anything to complain about. If they hassle you for driving too fast, you might want to suggest that they post a speed limit at the beginning of the lane.
I once asked a cop I was friendly with a similar question about ticketing on private property like parking lots. He said that they couldn’t write moving violations in private lots but they could make arrests for criminal complaints like DUI and reckless driving. He gave an example of someone doing ‘donuts’ in a lot or kids hood surfing.
They also enforce handicapped and fire lane parking violations on private property.
This was in Illinois and about 15 years ago so treat it as an anecdote of limited relevance.
When I worked in a grocery store we had cops as security guards, and I asked them the same question. I got essentially the same answer - they couldn’t ticket me for running the parking lot stop sign, but they could find reasons to harass me if they were in the mood.
One more anecdote.
Your car or truck is unusually loud and apparently bothersome. What do you expect? These people live in and pay for privacy. If you want the dirty looks to stop, try quieting your truck. It’s only cool to you. Nobody else gives a damn. Don’t you get it?
Now if you want to play spiteful, try driving down the road at 5 mph. See what happens. Keep doing it every time you visit. They can’t blame you for speeding, but I bet you still get the dirty looks. Oh, by the way, lower the volume of your sound system so you can at least hear an emergency vehicle approaching. It might save a life.
Relevant PA Laws;
(1) 35 miles per hour in any urban district.
(1.1) 65 miles per hour for all vehicles on freeways
where the department has posted a 65-miles-per-hour speed
limit.
(1.2) 25 miles per hour in a residence district if the
highway:
(i) is not a numbered traffic route; and
(ii) is functionally classified by the department as
a local highway.
(2) 55 miles per hour in other locations.
AND furthermore: Are those neighbors complaining to you directly, or are they complaining to the police? That’s a relevant detail you haven’t told us.
How it is in California: California recognizes publicly accessible parking lots as being, effectively, public property, and all traffic laws are enforceable.
(It’s kind of similar to the hotel law: Hotel lobbies, where anybody can walk in off the street, and other publicly accessible private places, are treated as public property for certain law enforcement purposes. If anybody can just walk in, then so can the cops. No warrant needed or anything like that. They just pop in and start looking around. They do this at private rooming houses around college campuses all the time.)
Now, this leaves the question (at least in my mind): What exactly is an enforceable traffic law? Nowhere in the Vehicle Code is there an explicit catalog of all streets, showing the speed limits on each, and where every stop sign is. The law simply says you gotta obey all those that you see.
So, if a private parking lot owner puts up some speed limit signs and stop signs on his own lot, are those enforceable? No actual law says those signs are there. If they are enforceable, does that mean the police (and the courts, and the power of your insurance company) are all using government police power to enforce, effectively, private law on private property?
I don’t know the answer to that. But I’ve often wondered about it.