At what point do you take responsibility even when it's not officially yours to take?

[Smee]

I saw this on the news tonight:

Foliage may be blamed for wreck - Live, Local, Late Breaking news, weather, and sports

Apparently, there are some stop signs that are blocked by overgrown shrubs and they're believed to have caused at least one serious accident. I agree that the city should do something about it. However, when you watch the video, you see several people in the neighborhood complaining about how many people run these stop signs daily and expressing concern about children who play in those streets being hit by a stop sign running car. Here's what I do not get: If all these people are aware of this and every effort has been made to contact the city (it doesn't say that; that's just me giving benefit of the doubt), why on earth would residents in the neighborhood not just grab some snips and cut back the shrubs? I get that it's not their job, but dang, if I were so worried about accidents and children being hit, I'd rather just grab a pair of hedge clippers and do it myself rather than wait around for the sake of being right. It appears that we are becoming an increasingly apathetic "it's not my job or my problem" society. I just saw that on the news a few minutes ago and it really irked me. This is the kind of thing that makes me understand where the people who say "when people count on the government to take care of them, they forget how to take care of themselves" are coming from. It's hedge trimming, people, not rocket surgery!

Would you cut back the shrubs or find someone to do it, or would you just shrug it off as not your job (assuming you've pestered the city about it already)? Am I just really off my rocker for thinking it's absurd that the residents did nothing about it? I reject any, "maybe it's against the law to cut city shrubs," or, "perhaps it's a rare species of shrub that must be preserved," argument. If I feel strongly enough that something is a danger to neighborhood children and other residents to get on tv and complain about it, I'm willing to take my chances cutting back shrubs from stop signs. It's not like cutting down an aesthetically offensive shrub in a city park. I would feel like such a tool on tv after an accident talking about how dangerous I've always known it to be.

[CW&M Mom]

I'd go cut the shrubs/vines what not...

I personally like pruning...

and when little kids are in the street it's not a stop signs fault it's the parents fault that are not watching their children.

[thorrocks1]

funny you posted this .. I spent about a half hour cutting back the overgrowth at the top of our street yesterday .. we live off a busy street that people LOVE speed on. there is a telephone pole and huge oak tree on each side of our road at the top where the 2 streets meet .. you literally need to pull out into the road a bit to make sure the coast is clear

we have been clearing it for years (with the neighbors consent) .. honestly I never even thought of calling the town to do it .. 1/2 hour out of my life to keep the families on my street safe is well worth it to me ..

[Smee]

and when little kids are in the street it's not a stop signs fault it's the parents fault that are not watching their children.

I don't disagree with that, but I'd much rather be happy than right, and minimizing risk to children, supervised or not, playing in the streets would make me happier than not. And I don't even especially like kids!

[aimeebee]

Around here it would be cut by a person in the neighborhood. I recently was driving down my road and found one of my neighbors doing exactly that at a stop sign. The sign wasn't covered, but the weeds were so high on both sides of the road that you had to inch out into the intersection to see if a car was coming. This little old guy is a retired farmer, has to be every bit of 80...but here he was trimming back the weeds with his big ole Cadillac parked all wonky to protect him from getting hit by traffic that couldn't see him. Go Gramps!!

[meggers]

It's called the "not my job" syndrome. It's the same illness that makes people leave their shopping cart wherever they should please & walk past a beer bottle in the middle of the road & think..."boy, that could cause a flat" and yet do NOTHING.

[CW&M Mom]

I don't disagree with that, but I'd much rather be happy than right, and minimizing risk to children, supervised or not, playing in the streets would make me happier than not. And I don't even especially like kids!

I just mean I don't consider it safe for kids ( in particular young kids) to play in the street's anyways.... stop signs, yield signs, speed limit signs don't make the street a better street for the kids to play in...

[Smee]

I just mean I don't consider it safe for kids ( in particular young kids) to play in the street's anyways.... stop signs, yield signs, speed limit signs don't make the street a better street for the kids to play in...

In a residential neighborhood with traffic control vs. a road with traffic flying through uninhibited, it has to minimize the risk at least some. It's a residential neighborhood; even if they're not playing in the streets, I imagine that there are kids who bike or walk to school and back home. Either way, I believe stop signs should be highly visible and that the residents are jackasses for not figuring out how to get the job done. I just cannot imagine.

[434Teresa]

Cut it down.......I might call the road crew about it first for I dont think I have what I need to cut it on hand but if they dont get it done in a day or two I would see what I could do about it myself. I mean it is my life and my kids that I put on line every time I drive down the street where the stop sign is covered with weeds/vines/what not...

Myself I think it just being lazy more so than anything to say its so and so job not mine.

[loaslaen]

After seeing the video and watching a car quickly pass by, I'd be scared to be driving around that neighborhood if I wasn't familiar with it and not see the stop sign. The shrubbery was clearly obstructing the sign. It looks like a very residential neighborhood and I would think some if not the majority of responsibility would fall on the owner of the property that the shrubs is on (assuming there's a house on that corner and it's not vacant). How could someone live on that corner and NOT take notice and do something about it? Having kids, if I lived there, I'd most certainly have my husband do something about it or do it myself. In fact, I probably wouldn't trim it, I'd pull the whole thing out of the ground, roots and all. Why would shrubbery even be that close to a stop sign? It's not like it's out in the boonies on less traveled roads and less manicured/maintained property. Heck, why didn't the news crew just do everyone a favor and cut it themselves instead of just "reporting" on it?