Rat run
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A rat run is a colloquial term for a short cut or detour taken by a motorist, usually on residential side street in an urban or suburban area, in order to avoid the heavy traffic or lengthy traffic signals on a congested main route. Rat runs are frequently taken by drivers who are familiar with the local geography. They will often take such short cuts to avoid busy main roads and junctions, even at the expense having to negotiate traffic calming measures that may be in place to discourage them.
The associations with "beating the crowd", the rush hour, and the rat race likely gave rise to the term. However, it literally derives from the habit of rats in finding and maintaining covert foraging routes.
Rat running is a controversial practice in driving. Though prevention or enforcement of legal restriction on public roadways, even residential side streets, is difficult, the practice is widely opposed by homeowners on the affected streets, as it is viewed as a disturbance to their peace, and has been known to affect real estate values in some markets.
[edit] Preventing rat running
Some motorists refrain from rat running as a matter of general courtesy. Others feel it is their right to drive anywhere in the public domain, even on a street intended only for residents and their visitors. Often, when a major event that draws a large volume of traffic takes place, local police have been known to monitor or block such secondary roads to prevent motorists from the event crowd from using such streets to avoid the traffic. [1]
Since the 2000s, a number of U.S. states, including the states of Georgia and Maryland and other smaller jurisdictions, and some parts of the United Kingdom have passed or attempted to pass laws restricting rat-running in certain marked communities as a method of maintaining neighborhood peace and privacy for area residents[2] [3]. Though signs clearly mark areas where rat-running is prohibited, law enforcement in these areas have reported difficulty in enforcing such laws, and there have been no notable court cases to date.
Other places have installed physical measures to prevent rat running, such as traffic calming devices and barriers that completely block traffic along routes where rat running is tempting.
