BATON ROUGE - A neighborhood is at its wits end after the city's traffic engineering department came back and told them their street doesn't meet the qualifications for traffic calming.

Frank Wilson has lived along Crestwood Street in Baton Rouge for more than a decade. He says he's tired of people using his street as a cut through.

"This is a friendly residential street that should be a safe place to play," Wilson said.

For the most part, it is a safe place to play. Between the hours of 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. weekdays it's a different story. That's when drivers zip around Crestwood Street like it's a racetrack.

"They're zipping through here so fast, it's dangerous," he said.

It's a four-way stop on Cedarcrest Avenue at Patricia Drive that some drivers have learned to steer clear of. During the rush hour, cars back up 20 to 30 deep waiting to pass through the intersection. To avoid it, they turn right on Seracedar Street and follow it around Crestwood Street until they reach the four-way stop at Patricia Drive and Cedarcrest Avenue.

Wilson says they speed through to cut the line. His neighbor says drivers save about four minutes by doing this. It's gotten so chaotic that one of his neighbors requested a traffic study but it didn't meet enough criteria for the city to initiate a traffic calming measure.

"We've contacted City Hall, we've contacted the police, we've contacted you guys, we're trying anything and everything we can to at least get someone to look at the problem and acknowledge that it is a problem and then start talking about solutions," Wilson said.

One of the residents says they have made a request for the Baton Rouge Police Department to visit the area since the "drive like your kids live here" signs don't appear to be working.