NORWOOD, Ohio -- When cars come down Brittaney Knox's street, she said Thursday, they fly. That's why she keeps a close eye on her children when they play on Williams Avenue and why many of her neighbors have taken up a grassroots campaign to slow down local drivers.
Grassroots -- literally. The signs, stop-sign red and white, bear all-caps slogans such as ‘DRIVE LIKE YOUR KIDS LIVE HERE' and 'TRY TO DRIVE 25' and are planted in many Norwood front yards alongside sprouts of white clover. They're meant to remind local drivers to stop screaming by and protect others' safety by keeping their wheels on the ground.
"If you're going 25 miles per hour, you have enough time to stop if you see a child playing and the ball's rolling," Knox said. "If you're flying and the ball rolls, you don't even have time to see it."
Ginny Roessler, a Forest Avenue resident who designed the signs, said she hopes everyone who sees them remembers to check their speed and be mindful of pedestrians.
"Speeding is a very big issue everywhere, but Norwood is a walking/jogging/biking/kids everywhere community," she wrote in a Facebook message to WCPO. "Not the Indy 500."
Former Norwood police chief John Murphy bought a sign and wants to buy more for his neighbors. He thinks they're working -- and so do police.
"I don't have any stats to prove that it is, but I can just say from personal experience, it makes me look at my speedometer," said Lt. Ron Murphy.
Lt. Murphy said his department is looking into other ways of slowing traffic, especially in school zones.
In the meantime, John Murphy said Roessler's signs are a symbol of what makes Norwood special.
"Norwood has always been that way. It's a sense of community," he said. "You care (instead of thinking) ‘I just live here, I don't care what goes on.' You have to care."
