Slow down
Our residential neighborhoods in Ortonville and Brandon Township are not like most neighborhoods with paved streets and sidewalks. We live on hilly, tree lined gravel roads in a beautiful rural setting. We walk and jog and ride our bicycles and exercise our dogs on the roads that our homes are on. These gravel roads are our residential neighborhoods.
With this in mind, as we drive on these roads, we need to exercise common sense, courtesy and caution. As a daily walker, I find that most drivers do exercise caution and courtesy as they drive past, slowing down and often smiling and waving. Unfortunately, some folks seem to have the mindset that because the speed limits are not posted, 55 mph is the speed they can travel regardless.  Pedestrians and dogs and children are simply in their way as they speed by dangerously close, sometimes with scowls of displeasure that their progress has been slowed. They might be 30 seconds later getting to wherever it is they are in such a hurry to get to.  Our dirt roads are not freeways or highways.
Please think of how you would feel if you were the pedestrian, or your child or your parent, and a car is speeding by with little or no regard for your safety or peaceful enjoyment of your neighborhood.  Slow down, leave a minute or two earlier, and enjoy this beautiful community we all call home, and help keep it safer for all.
Beth Hall
Brandon Twp.