An attempt to slow down cars in a suburban neighborhood resulted in a father of four getting cited by police.
Vance Larimer was ticketed by Lone Tree Police for an "obstructed street" when he put a "Kid Alert visual warning sign" in the middle of his street on Carriage Club Drive, near Lincoln Avenue and Yosemite Street.
"The police came by and they confiscated the sign and issued me a citation," said Larimer. "For me, it's just some way to control the speed coming down, at least coming around this turn."
He said he was ticketed because the sign was more than four feet from the sidewalk.
His neighborhood has a 25 mile per hour speed limit, but he and his neighbors feel the curve of the road and the downhill in front of their homes leads to cars going too fast, even with kids playing in front of the houses.
"I agree they shouldn't be playing in the middle of the street, but they should have the ability to ride their bikes down to the park and feel safe," said Larimer.
"No one wants to live in a neighborhood where there's been a fatality in the street," said neighbor Lesley Casillas.
Casillas had never met Larimer, even though they live just a few houses away from each other. After learning that he was the one who had put up the Kid Alert sign, she thanked him.
"What that was trying to do was protect children," said Casillas. "Maybe it was an inconvenience for some people having to go around it."
Larimer showed 7NEWS emails that date back to July complaining to the city and police about the concern of speeding in the neighborhood.
A Lone Tree Police spokesman told 7NEWS that police did respond multiple times.
He said police have a speed limit counter sign that shows a digital display of the driver's speed. At 30 miles per hour, the sign changes to the words, "Slow Down." Even faster than that, the sign shows red and blue flashing lights.
7NEWS did see one of those signs about one half mile before Larimer's neighborhood.
"They have nothing where it needs to be. Everything is going up the hill where it doesn't really need to be," said Larimer, regarding the digital sign.
Police also told 7NEWS they put a radar trailer in the neighborhood to show drivers their actual speeds.
Police also had volunteers use radar guns to test the speeds of drivers on seven different days. The spokesman said about 20-40 cars were monitored each of those days. Police also did increased patrol in the neighborhood.
The city also put a car counter right near Larimer's home. The car counter consists of two tubes being placed across to road, to count the number of cars that drive by. The purpose was to see if the neighborhood had enough cars to warrant a speed bump or stop sign.
"I've offered to pay for the speed bump and the city hasn't responded," said Larimer.
7NEWS used a radar gun to test speeds of cars coming into the neighborhood after work on Wednesday. We caught one driver going 35 miles per hour. Two others were clocked at 29 miles per hour. The majority were at the speed limit or slower.
