Probably a no-brainer to most folks - you'd want to live in a quiet cul-de-sac if given the choice of that or on a busy road. But having lived in/on both, I most certainly prefer living on a busy road!
Yes, the traffic noise can be annoying at first and especially noticeable when you've just moved in (and have a speed hump plateau right outside too), but after a couple of weeks you get used to the noise and don't really notice it anymore.
Compare the above to a "quiet" cul-de-sac with screaming kids playing football out in the road, yelling at each other at the top of their voices, balls bouncing on your car bonnet/roof or landing in your garden pond every 5 minutes....
I would choose a cul-de-sac because I'd like my kids to be able to play out the way I did. I actually like the sound of the children playing in the street (the kids on our street are incredibly well behaved, I guess I wouldn't like it so much if they were vandalising little b*******s).
Theres about half a dozen kids on my cul-de-sac - most under 10. They're no problem now - just hope they don't grow up into troublesome teens! I do have to drive carefully onto the cul-de-sac though - as they tend to use it as a playground & leave their toys strewn all over the road
Cul de sac for me, though preferably not one with kids playing out all the time, though if I were in a cul de sac I'd probably have a driveway and be set back from whatever they are doing in a road.
BIG booboo I made having moved from the quietest of quiet cul de sacs (no children in the road at all) to a terraced house not on a main road but the doors straight onto the street none the less, is to forget that with lights on nets/voiles can be seen through by houses opposite whilst you are pottering about in your undies!
I just didn't think until a neighbour roughly my age mentioned to his mate, who happened to be the boyfriend of one of my mates, that he was finding it quite interesting to watch me getting changed and parading around the bedroom.
Geez I must've looked like an exhibitionist!
*It is not necessary to understand things in order to argue about them. -- Pierre De Beaumarchais
Originally posted by queenstomper: BIG booboo I made having moved from the quietest of quiet cul de sacs (no children in the road at all) to a terraced house not on a main road but the doors straight onto the street none the less, is to forget that with lights on nets/voiles can be seen through by houses opposite whilst you are pottering about in your undies!
I just didn't think until a neighbour roughly my age mentioned to his mate, who happened to be the boyfriend of one of my mates, that he was finding it quite interesting to watch me getting changed and parading around the bedroom.
Geez I must've looked like an exhibitionist!
Quality! Where do you live queenstomper, and what street and house number?
Best move I ever made. Not exactly a busy road, although the A1 is only a stone's throw away, but a street with gardens of a reasonable size front and back, brick walls and driveways, and every house has a tree at the front.
Apart from the odd boy racer, I hardly notice the traffic, and my back garden has a gate through to a park, so no problems for kiddies.
Aaah, bliss, no teenager's out until midnight hanging around in the street, no kids playing football and constantly hitting your car with the ball. And no more driving at 1 mph in case some 2 year old runs out into the street. (some parents!!!).
100% busy road. No doubt in my mind, I would never live in a cul-de-sac again if you gave me a free house.
I used to live in a quite nice cul-de-sac, very picturesque but it just became a playground for all the kids and all of their friends. It was ridiculous, my garden and drive became an adventure playground, my car an obstacle and they thought they were the Kings of all they surveyed.
Load shouting and screaming, damage to property, cheek if you told them to be quiet!
In addition to this Cul-de-Sacs don't give much room for parking so getting off my drive became a nightmare as Cars were everywhere.
When I moved I bought on a quite busy road. Yes there are Cars at most times of the day and occasionally you get people walking past late at night, this is all bearable. There is no screaming, no cheeking, its great!
Another no to cul de sacs. I hate feeling hemmed in, especially with people I don't know well and having to pass them every time I want to go out. I'm not especially paranoid but the whole curtain twitching, mind my car, that's my hedge, close mind set does my head in. I won't be happy till I get that house on its own at the end of a long track. So unlike my late mother whose idea of heaven would have been a house in the middle of a busy roundabout. Hell is indeed other people.
Cul-De-Sac (or "banjo" as they call them in Dagenham) inhabited entirely by gay men.
No kids, no yobs, and certainly no football - just the occasional techno party and odd pair of bedraggled Calvins having blown from the line into the drive.
------------------------------ 35% constitutes neither a majority nor a mandate
Originally posted by TrevGo: Cul-De-Sac (or "banjo" as they call them in Dagenham) inhabited entirely by gay men.
No kids, no yobs, and certainly no football - just the occasional techno party and odd pair of bedraggled Calvins having blown from the line into the drive.
No prizes for guessing what kind of road you live on
Everything everybody has already said about kids etc PLUS inconsiderate neighbours who live between you and the entrance and who leave their cars strewn about so you can't get by (one location) or who are forever having HGVs delivering stuff so you can't get by (the other location).
Wondering whether I'd be able to get to the main road every day without aggro turned me into a nervous wreck!
behind every successful man is a disbelieving mother-in-law
Originally posted by bclark1: 100% busy road. No doubt in my mind, I would never live in a cul-de-sac again if you gave me a free house.
I used to live in a quite nice cul-de-sac, very picturesque but it just became a playground for all the kids and all of their friends. It was ridiculous, my garden and drive became an adventure playground, my car an obstacle and they thought they were the Kings of all they surveyed.
Load shouting and screaming, damage to property, cheek if you told them to be quiet!
In addition to this Cul-de-Sacs don't give much room for parking so getting off my drive became a nightmare as Cars were everywhere.
When I moved I bought on a quite busy road. Yes there are Cars at most times of the day and occasionally you get people walking past late at night, this is all bearable. There is no screaming, no cheeking, its great!
Originally posted by TrevGo: Cul-De-Sac (or "banjo" as they call them in Dagenham) inhabited entirely by gay men.
No kids, no yobs, and certainly no football - just the occasional techno party and odd pair of bedraggled Calvins having blown from the line into the drive.
No prizes for guessing what kind of road you live on
If only!
Was 6 houses in a row when I lived in Bow though. Didn't get on with any of them!!
------------------------------ 35% constitutes neither a majority nor a mandate
Originally posted by TrevGo: Cul-De-Sac (or "banjo" as they call them in Dagenham) inhabited entirely by gay men.
No kids, no yobs, and certainly no football - just the occasional techno party and odd pair of bedraggled Calvins having blown from the line into the drive.
No prizes for guessing what kind of road you live on
If only!
Was 6 houses in a row when I lived in Bow though. Didn't get on with any of them!!
It's not a given that cul de sacs have kids though.
Since I lived here, there's only been one under 10 and she was regarded as everyone's little girl .
Cultural factors also impact. The teens we do have are all girls (as we only have a girls school). And they are from ethnic backgrounds that encourage reserve and modesty in their kids.
Been living on quite a busy road now for a number of years. Yes, you do get used to the traffic noise, true. And busy roads could be seen as safer than quiet ones (apart from traffic safety): they are well lit; the walk home is often a short one thanks to nearby transport.
But still, I sometimes dream of living on a nice, peaceful, leafy village street where your kids can happily play. Where people actually talk to each other. Where you actually know the names of all your neighbours and they know yours. Where......
But then I wake up and think: naahhh, give me the innercity anytime.
(It is a recurring dream though, so maybe when I'm old and wise....)
I've lived in 2 cul-de-sacs, both very different. Yhe first was inhabited by mostly older people and just a few families with young kids. They were no bother altough one old lady didn't agree and promptly moved out again after only being ther about 2 years, she said she couldn't stand the noise of the kids.
The one we live in now is MUCH noisier, and more troublesome as far as kids are concerned. What gets me is kids on bl**dy skateboards and their bl**dy ramps all over the place, I'll be glad when sketeboards and rollerblades go out of fashion (if they ever do).
I have never lived on a main road though, but would not rule it out in the future as long as it was not a fast road.
Our new neighbours have two boys who are both bmx / skateboard nuts and are out in the street practicing until 9pm. They are both in local teams and compete at county level (wtf?) So I don't think they will go out of fashion here. The parents don't supervise them in anyway and they leave boards and ramps lying all over the place and the hassle from them just because you want to drive past to your house is unbelievable. The cul-de-sac is also on the top of a hill so they go skateboarding down the middle of the road and at the bottom of the hill is a blind corner - accident waiting to happen. As some indication as to the steepness of the hill, I've got upto 25mph in neutral - and its not a long road (seven 'executive' detached).
My stepmum still lives in the cul de sac where they've been since 1981. There's young kids next door but other than that it's a friendly street where everybody looks out for each other. When she hurt her ankle and couldn't walk they took it in turns to get her bits of shopping in or drive her to the shop. The neighbours directly opposite have her over for dinner and they regularly go out for a pub meal, while she looks after their dog during the day or if they are working late she takes her out.
If you get a street like that where people have lived for years you just don't want to leave. She is rattling around a little in a 4 bed detached with just her and the dog, but it's worth it to stay because of how quiet it is, and because it's a community.
*It is not necessary to understand things in order to argue about them. -- Pierre De Beaumarchais
We have an excellent sense of community in our little close. Last summer we had a street party for about 20-odd homes and although kids do play out in the street they all seem to pack up by early evening and tidy up after themselves.
I live on the main street of a tiny village, and as was mentioned before, apart from the odd boy racer, it's great! The traffic disappears around tea-time and at night the only sound to be heard is the hooting of our resident owls. I'd hate to live on a cul-de-sac or similar; can't stand shrieking/badly behaved gangs of kids!
