Using my driveway

[TB Roye]

Loring

Use sign like the picture in you post. Then a spike strip. Talk to you neighbor about the kid. Also check the traffic laws in your city might be some relief there. Try the nice route first then go for it. Post a sign saying private property trespassers will be prosecuted, that way if the spike strip gets them they were warned.

Tom

[Daryl]

Go talk to the neighbor's son, that should stop that right there. Now, as I understand it you can shoot trespassers in Texas. Okay, maybe put a garbage can at each end in the evening, a couple concrete blocks in each one will keep them from blowing away.

[os1kne]

The sign is a good first step, just make sure that it's visible at night. A discussion with the neighbor kid is a good idea. It's probably tempting to have that discussion during or just after the act, but that probably isn't the best time as tempers may flare.

The garbage cans would probably be effective, but then you've got the hassle of moving them in/out every evening and morning.

It's a shame that you have the burden of preventing/deterring people from using your property without permission.

Good luck!

[messmaker]

Might not be a very good answer. Some neighborhoods do not allow signs as well. You can try talking to your neighbor if you think it will help. He might decide you are being an a$$ and continue. It is human nature to look for the easy way out. I know it is your property, but you don't want to be "That guy" I doubt anything short of a gate will do much for the odd car that thinks it looks handy.Good luck.

[Black wallnut]

Hire the guy that does 3D sidewalk art to paint it to look like a moat infested by sharks.

[unknown poster]

Talking to the kid or his parents might help, or it could make things worse. The same thing goes for a sign.

Leave some stuff in the driveway to make it more difficult for them to use your property as a cut through. Trash cans might work, roofing nails might be a bit more agressive. A car would be ideal.

Back in high school I had some friends who decided to play a prank on a guy who was bullying them. They knew he'd be coming home late at night in his sports car so they put a paper grocery bag in the middle of the road. Inside the bag was a cinderblock. Sports cars and cinderblocks don't mix well.

I'm not saying you should play a prank on the kid, but in my neighborhood it would be perfectly acceptable to leave some construction materials laying out overnight. Perhaps you just didn't get a chance to clean up before it got dark?

[scmhogg]

Many years ago, my uncle had a similar problem. He drilled some 1" holes in his driveway and put lengths of black rubber hose in each hole. It gave the appearance of spikes, but you could drive over them.

Steve

[gsmittle]

How about a nice cobblestones-on-end border on both sides of the drive? That should the driving in the yard problem.

In the tonier neighborhoods around here, I often see PVC barriers at one end of the drive; the ones that look like sawhorses. Any sort of barrier solution makes it a PITA for you to use your circle drive, though.

I live in the first house on a short cul-de-sac, and people turn around in my driveway all the time. Unfortunately, LOML keeps her car in the garage (shop is a detached building) so we have to keep the driveway clear.

g.

[woodturner]

Many years ago, my uncle had a similar problem. He drilled some 1" holes in his driveway and put lengths of black rubber hose in each hole. It gave the appearance of spikes, but you could drive over them.

I like that idea!! What a great solution!

Of course, may not work on the neighbor, once he sees you drive over them.

[MilDoc]

First question is, do you live in a Neighborhood Association area with rules to live by? If so, disobeying any rule is just not worth it.

Second, have you checked any of the other homes with a U driveway? Maybe they have a solution.

If no to the first, and no solution to the second, in your position I would do anything convenient to me and inconvenient to the jerks. Really doubt signs will stop too many. After all, how many red light runners are there? Jerks are forever.

[LCHIEN]

I don't want to give up my use of the drive. I sometimes park there if I need to use the area in front of the garage or to swap cars around esp. when either or both of the kids are staying here (like over Christmas). And for any guests I recommend they park in my drive because the neighbors driveway across the street is exactly opposite the one+ car length street-side parking space between entrances to my drive. And his family has backed into three cars that were parked there over the years (family of bad drivers). I tell all my guests not to park there now.

[Bruce Cohen]

Well Loring,

You could:

A. Blow up the kids car, with him in it or not

B. Spike strips (already mentioned)

C. Claymore Mines, on trip wire.

D. IDE's

E. Electric eye across driveway, when beam is broken, extremely bright light blinds the sucker.

F. Lost of broken glass on his driveway

G. Court order banning him from being within 500 feet of your property.

PM me and I'll get you a phone number for an "exterminator".

Otherwise, lots of hang up phone calls at all hours of the night to the kids house.

BTW, Happy New Year, and maybe he'll move.

[LCHIEN]

I'm thinking about one of those game cameras, for taking unattended pictures of animals feeding around deer feeders. Motion activated with a flash, to memory card.
Then I'll get a record of who's doing it with license plates.

Rats, looking at the Moultrie products manuals, the flash takes 20-30 seconds to charge after motion is detected, before it can take a picture. OK for grazing deer but the car would be gone by then.

[dkerfoot]

The sign is a great first move.

I like the idea of some device that would drag behind the vehicle and make noise. I am thinking something like a small PVC frame with cans on strings. Something cheap, easy to replace and annoying to the driver.

You wouldn't need to put it out every night.

Alternatively, it would be fun to rig up an electronic circuit that would really scare the heck out of them. Are fireworks legal in your area?

[dbhost]

Get some of those "Tire Shredder" spikes and signs. That'd do it.