One Issaquah Highlands resident is on a mission to end a potentially deadly behavior that is on the rise in the neighborhood.

Doug Anter has found much to love about Issaquah since moving to town from Michigan two years ago, but there is one aspect of the Issaquah Highlands that he says negatively affects his family’s quality of life — the amount of speeding.

“I love the people, the neighborhoods, the parks, but I hate the traffic — specifically, the speeding,” said Anter, who lives on Northeast Park Drive.

Anter said that speeders are prevalent throughout the Highlands, but that “there’s something about Northeast Park Drive” in particular. The road attracts so many drivers who ignore its 30, 25 and 20 mph speed limits, that Anter and his wife, who have two kids aged 2 and 4, live in fear.

“We don’t even think about letting our two kids play near the road,” Anter said. While out jogging with his dog along the troublesome street, he has many a time had to shout at reckless drivers to slow down.

Noise is also an annoyance. Anter said that at 9:30 p.m. from inside his house, it sounds like there is “a drag race” going on outdoors.

“It’s a selfishness thing,” Anter said. “Their actions can impact people in unbelievably bad ways.”

In just the two years that Anter has lived in the Highlands, there have been multiple car accidents near his house, creating gruesome sights for the many children in the area.

“My wife and kids witnessed an accident with a motorcycle,” Anter said. “My wife had to explain it to the kids … There are high consequences [from speeding] including death.”

In Anter’s former home of Detroit, he said that speeding was common on the freeways, but not in residential areas. In Issaquah, he said, it’s the opposite — and it shocks him.

“This is an area unbelievably densely populated with kids,” he said.

The speeders make the roads miserable for drivers, too. Anter is routinely treated with rudeness from others on the road for not engaging in speeding himself.

“Every day, up or down the hill, I go the speed limit … there is a long line of cars [behind me] … they’re on my tail at the [Grand Ridge Elementary] school light,” he said.

Anter said that the drivers behind him who want to exceed the speed limit are openly aggressive, flashing their lights at him and even yelling angrily out the window.

The problem is that drivers have the completely wrong attitude, Anter said. Rather than looking at driving as an activity where they need to be hyper-aware of their surroundings, they do what they want with no concern for others.

“It’s someone sipping a latte, texting, thinking they can go as fast as they want in an area so densely populated,” he said.

Anter would like to see a stronger response from local law enforcement to tackle the speeding problem. He said he got a ticket just down the street from his house for having frost on his back windshield, yet people constantly blaze through school zones at 40 mph with no consequences.

Luckily, there will soon be a chance for residents and law enforcement to attack the problem together. At Anter’s urging, the Issaquah Highlands Council will hold a town hall meeting between residents and Issaquah police at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 3 at Blakely Hall in the Issaquah Highlands to discuss speeding in the neighborhood.

“Issaquah Police Chief [Scott Behrbaum] is welcoming people to the conversation,” Anter said. “He’s sharing the challenges he has … What I’d like is for people to come armed with their stories and ideas for how to make this better.”

Anter’s hope is that the community soon turns into a very vigilant group of residents who are on the lookout for speeding.

“My goal is that the Highlands become known as ‘you don’t speed here,’” he said. “I don’t care what it takes … the community needs to be against stupid and selfish driving.”