Comments on: California Roll

By: James

James — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 23:16:52 +0000

You know, cops get as frustrated as the rest of the public. The other day I was in my patrol car, sitting on Nellis at Charleston. I was at a red light, and I was the first car in line. Looking left, out my driver’s side window, I could clearly see the three lanes of traffic coming westbound. The lane nearest the curb had a lot of people who were making a right turn to northbound Nellis from westbound Charleston. As I was watching the flow of traffic, some idiot in the center lane of Charleston decides that it’s perfectly okay for him to go ahead and make a right turn to northbound Nellis, cutting off a guy who was trying to make his right turn correctly.

Yes, it was frustrating because, first of all, I was assigned to a rather important call that I couldn’t drop in favor of a car stop and second, even if I had been unassigned, there was no way I could have safely turned around to catch up to the idiot. The only option I had would have been to sneak out in front of the south-facing stopped traffic, make a U-turn to the left from a straight thru lane (while driving down the crosswalk so as not to cause an accident with westbound traffic that still had a green light) and trying not to hit any pedestrians or run into someone who’s in the left turn lane trying to go from southbound Nellis to eastbound Charleston. Oh and doing any of that with any degree of safety would have required me to use my emergency lights and siren which would have violated department policy on the use of that equipment. Contrary to common belief, we can’t just flip on the lights and siren whenever we want to, there are only 4 situations under which we’re authorized to use them, and blowing a red light to catch someone for a misdemeanor traffic offense is NOT one of those times. So when you cry and moan about “where’a cop when you need one” think about this post. We see just as many (probably MORE) outrageous traffic offenses than you do, but sometimes we just can’t do anything about them, no matter how much it irritates us.

By: James

James — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 21:03:44 +0000

Just curious as to Bob’s comment… I’d love to know where you got the idea that drinking a soda while driving is illegal…

By: Kari

Kari — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 07:03:30 +0000

There is a four way stop sign at Horizon Ridge and Coronado Center near Coronado High School. It is a fairly large intersection. Taking my son to summer school every morning and trying to take your turn crossing that intersection is a JOKE! For some reason nobody knows how to take their turn. Everyone is in such a hurry. You will see cars from one direction trying to go while another car(s) is trying to go at the same time. It makes me so mad that I’ve found an alternate route. One other thing…once you cross Horizon Ridge towards the high school you are in a flashing 15 mph school zone. Nobody seems to care about that at all! Where is a cop when you seriously need one?!

By: Captain Newbie

Captain Newbie — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 23:49:29 +0000

A good place to witness the stupidity in this town at 4-way stops are at Jones/Warm Springs. It’s a very busy area that will need a light sooner or later but its funny to see people suddenly stop way short of the stop sign just so they be first to be able to go whenever two cars were approaching the stop from different directions at the same time.

This town hasn’t only attracted some of the worst people in the country, we got their drivers too.

By: don d

don d — Tue, 20 May 2008 12:44:33 +0000

4 sure no 1 knows how 2 navigate a 4 way stop. Patience is the best verture (we are only talking about 3 seconds of our trip)

By: Bob Drummond

Bob Drummond — Mon, 19 May 2008 15:16:41 +0000

All points are great. The other BIG offence including our wonderful Gestapo (Metro) is I witnessed a police officer switch lanes 4 times WITHOUT signalling. They have cited people for less. The other offences are cell phones…including Metro again he was on his cell sped through a school zone at about 35mph, when the lights were flashing, NO ONE issued him a citation.
WHEN is our stupid legislature going to wake up and ban cell phones while driving. It is against the law to drink and drive…even a soft drink. think about it.

By: B. Faires

B. Faires — Mon, 19 May 2008 08:21:31 +0000

I don’t know if you remember when Oakey was only two lanes wide between Decatur and Jones with a four-way stop at Lindell. I came to a COMPLETE stop at Lindell and the “wonderful” person behind me lays on their horn! You do the right thing by the law and people still get mad. Don’t even get me started on Summerlin drivers (the Land of the Beautiful People.)

By: Holly Ditzel

Holly Ditzel — Sat, 17 May 2008 20:03:51 +0000

I was born and raised in California, the land of fruits and nuts. I am quite familiar with the California roll; however, in California, we called it the Beverly Hills Stop, which of course they never stopped, they rolled right through.

By: Crystal

Crystal — Thu, 15 May 2008 16:08:55 +0000

You are so right! No one in this town knows how to proceed at a 4 way stop! Drivers are so rude and inconsiderate, and all they want to do is get ahead of everyone else, even if it only buys them a few seconds!!!

By: T E Brown

T E Brown — Tue, 13 May 2008 19:12:53 +0000

Hi Dayna,
I’ve been taught that to stop at a stop sign, four-way flashing red light, stop signal, means, putting our foot on the brake and having the car stop. The car may rock back a little, but RED means STOP.

Phoenix Arizona (http://www.orgsites.com/az/rms/index.html)
has a program where they have put signs at all intersections saying “RED means STOP”.

I think Metro has started that, and I’ve seen a few billboards, but an all-out media campaign is needed to teach people that RED means STOP.

Of course, once we teach them that RED means STOP, then the next course is YELLOW means slow down, get ready to stop, not ’speed up the light is going to turn red.’

Thanks for all the great articles.