Stop standing in the middle of the street

To continue on my Dennis Miller like tone this evening, I live on a quite narrow road which barely has room for two cars to pass when there aren't vehicles parked on the side of the road which there always seem to be ending in a dead end. In fact, tonight as per usual with cars parked along the sides of the street it was impossible for more than one car to easily pass along the road.

Now, possibly some of what I am about to say comes out of my growing up in the country on a dirt road. Cars only came past our house when the people who owned the summer home below us came down for an occasional weekend during the summer. Needless to say I lived on a less than busy street. Due to it being a dirt road lined with shells, it was simply not possible to speed down our road nor was it possible not to be seen from a distance coming down the road often in a large cloud of dust. We were hence pretty safe riding our bikes on our road or walking to the end of the road without fear of being hit or causing much hold up to traffic(Traffic in all honestly was almost a foreign concept to us.).

Tonight being a typical evening especially a Friday night cars were piled up on the side of the road making it difficult enough for me to get down the road. Imagine my dismay when in full cover of darkness to see the road filled with a mass of 20 or so kids which is way more kids than houses filling up the roadway. I always back slowly out of my driveway especially since we have random cats that wander our neighborhood. I know why the kids were standing around sadly. Someone in all their infinite wisdom has decided to place a basketball hoop on the side of the road. I may be the only person apparently who thinks this is unsafe since the kids seem to continue to play unsupervised after dark, and they range in age from I would guess about 2-13. There is no lighting for them to be easily seen. It just all seems dangerous to me. With the parked cars, it makes it hard to see when they dart out to get the ball. I am always so worried someone will hit the kids. I know our yards aren't tremendous, but they certainly seem a safer place for the kids to play especially after dark. Or, there is always the playground to the church which is adjacent to our street. The kids playing in the street just makes me so nervous and a bit annoyed I will admit as well when I am driving. When I am trying to get to work or even just run to the store, the last thing I want to do is wait for them to slowly move out of the street. I swear I've seen turtles move with more vigilance and conviction than my neighborhood kids when they are standing often idly in the middle of the street.