Driving at a speed of 25 MPH or less gives you more time to react to the unexpected, such as a child darting out from between parked cars or to a car backing out of the driveway. Unless you are consciously aware of your speed, you may be driving faster than you should on a residential street. Driving at a lower, more responsible speed on residential streets has very little effect on the time it will take you to get to your destination. The more we use residential streets as short cuts, the more we disrupt the quality of life in neighborhoods. Neighborhood cut-through traffic increases noise and pollution in residential areas and results in a greater threat to the safety of children.
Statistics show that most accidents occur close to home.
In particular, make sure that you and all your passengers always buckle up. You should expect the unexpected, especially on residential streets. It may not be your fault if you have an accident, but imagine the pain you would be living with were you to injure a child or an elderly pedestrian. Yield to pedestrians. Crosswalks exist at every intersection whether or not they have been painted on the street.