Trespassing

If you don’t want to significantly alter the landscaping, maybe you could just do it temporarily.

I’m thinking that a huge majority of people who are doing this are people that drive that way on a regular basis. So it’s them you have to target most.

Get one of those fake video cameras that look real. They are actually quite cheap. Get the biggest one you can so folks don’t miss it.
Put it up with a large sign indicating violators are subject to a minimum fine of $5000 AND 90 days imprisonment. No points off for lying. After a while you can take the sign down but leave the camera up. Then eventually take the camera down.
Repeat as necessary.
Personally I would try for an official solution first. Maybe if some people got real tickets and such this crap might stop.

Not the OP, but I can see that, if traffic gets backed up three or four cars at the light, that a driver passing on the right might go over a portion of driveway and a portion of lawn, if the driveway accesses the road within a few car lengths of the light.

My parents put boulders on their corner, and called it landscaping. One of their neighbors built a concrete wall right where a T intersection ran into his property…he got tired of removing the large trees that the drivers ran into.

Where my parents lived, there were no curbs. There was the road and a ditch on either side of the road. Lazy people habitually cut the corner, and accepted the up and down of the ditch. However, they didn’t seem to appreciate running over the boulders.

Place some flagpoles with American flags at strategic spots on your lawn.

If the authorities try to get you to take them down, call Fox News.

You don’t need boulders. Just some rocks big enough to make people think twice. You could also call your town and ask for curb. I think you can sue them if they don’t act, which would be about 1000 times more of a problem than letting cars use your lawn. This has come up around here recently, some of the roads are so old that no one kept track of where they were supposed to run. Sidewalks installed a couple of years turned an intersection from a Y into a T after a wide gravely section had the sidewalk and curb installed. Another one on the town (and state) line now has a big white L painted out on the road after a homeowner discovered a good section of his property had been paved over the years. Another road was closed down after the town found out what they had been maintaining for years wasn’t on public property.

Boulders.

They look nice. And they ARE allowed unless you’re in some crappy HOA, but if you don’t have a curb, I’d guess you aren’t.

Some moderate sized rocks on a strip about 2’ deep, then a bit of a drop on the other side of them. Nothing but a persistent landscaping project that never quite gets completed…

Watch some dummy try to drive over the rocks and come to a stop, front wheels off the ground.

Double-check your local laws on this. Many jurisdictions have explicit laws, prohibiting drivers from cutting across private property to evade traffic control devices. (You said there’s a light on the corner? But I think even a stop sign counts as a traffic control device.) This might be distinct from any run-of-the-mill generic anti-trespassing laws. These laws are meant mainly to prevent people from cutting across parking lots at gas stations or shopping centers to avoid a light. See if your area has a law like that.

ETA: As always, there’s already been a thread on this (laws about cutting across parking lots, that is). I think it was about 3 weeks ago or so?

ETA: Here’s one such thread (although not so recent after all): Is it illegal/ticketable to cut through a parking lot to avoid a traffic light? - Factual Questions - Straight Dope Message Board

How about some landscaping with some planters? They also have some nifty benches to relax on and watch the traffic pass by.

Unless there are laws against plants and relaxing… :wink:

Thanks guys. I’ll likely end up planting some shrubs in strategic locations. This is perhaps the most reasonable solution.

Marijuana and loitering?:stuck_out_tongue:

Traffic control devices? We ain’t got no traffic control devices for 10 miles! No parking lots, stop signs, gas stations, shopping centers or intersections, either.

One neighbor put large boulders near the edge of the road. Whether it was for a traffic control reason, I doubt – probably landscaping – but the county came by and said that they couldn’t put them on the right-of-way, which is defined as 33 ft from the centerline. The property owner moved them back.

Trespassing is not illegal in your jurisdiction? I don’t disbelieve that is what you heard, but in many cases cops and government officials are woefully ignorant of the law.

Maybe since it’s not posted, there is no criminal liability, but trespassing is strict liability in tort law.

This doesn’t sound like avoiding a traffic control device, it sounds like getting by stopped cars so you can reach the intersection and obey the traffic control device, stop then procede with your right turn.

It’s at a minimum illegal passing on the right or driving on the shoulder, or whatever statute makes you drive on the actual roadway and not off to the side.

Can’t believe this didn’t get at least a <rimshot>. :smiley:

That sounds like a good idea; people might still drive into shrubs, though - I’d second the suggestion of concrete planters. If you get your real property report and figure out exactly where your property lines are, I don’t think anyone can tell you that you can’t put concrete planters on your own yard.

I’m not sure I’d be able to relax in an area that people treat like part of the road.

We’ve got suggestions that run the gamut from calling Fox News to acting like hippies. It’s not often you see that in one thread.

I saw some bozo on the NJ Interstate in a Mercedes, hung up on the body pan. Apparently he tried to jump the curb into the local lanes from the express lanes and did not realize there was a 1-foot drop on the other side. Tipping back and forth, neither wheels touching…

No need for shrubs, or big rocks. A nice 18-inch high ridge of hard-packed dirt 2 feet wide, with grass, is innocuous enough that nobody will miss it but would hang up any car that did not take it at jump speed. If necessary, a solid rock code. Soft enough that it is not a danger to cars like a rock, so the city / county won’t make you take it down. Plant small shrubs to emphasize it but not tall enough to block the view, or else you will be told to take it down. See who’s the first bozo to end up needing a tow truck.

That’s an expensive see-saw.

I wonder if the curb significantly damaged the under body of his car. :eek:

I’ll really have to consider some of the solutions in this thread. Plants seem boring in comparison. Unless they’re marijuana plants. So far, I have, in consideration, for my home improvement plans:

  1. tire spikes
  2. marijuana plants
  3. lawn chairs, bag of fertilizer
  4. building a curb
  5. video surveillance
  6. warning sign
  7. chain
  8. fence
  9. gnomes
  10. bird feeders
  11. selling part of my property
  12. obama and romney yard signs
  13. calling the police
  14. a boulder (I don’t live in Colorado though)
  15. flag poles
  16. lawn benches