Lights Out on Lankershim

January 5, 2008 at 1:01 pm in Driving

Traffic lights are out on a stretch of Lankershim in North Hollywood, beginning at Chandler, by the NoHo Red Line Station.

Common sense tells you to approach an intersection with no lights as a 4-way stop and yield to traffic on your right, which most motorists seem to be doing.

At Lankershim & Burbank, an abandoned, disabled car from an earlier accident sits in the middle of the intersection.

LAPD is on the scene – but not at Lankershim & Burbank. They have a car with 2 officers ONE BLOCK NORTH at Lankershim & Hatteras. I thought, well, that’s dumb. So I called LAPD. They were unaware of the disabled car and seemed perplexed that their officers were at a smaller intersection. After a few moments, the dispatcher came back on the phone to inform me that DOT was on the way.

DOT? Not LAPD? WTF?

The next time you’re asked to vote to increase funding for local law enforcement, you say YES.

5 Comments »

http://www.TheBusBench.com BusTard

More funds for the cops? No.

Would you pay more to a private company based on poor performance? Why do you think the way the LAPD, et al, is (dis)organised warrants more money?

Take a look at the map and notice the terminal of the Red Line. If angelinos are too stupid to not collide when spit slicks the streets, then take the train and the buses. perhaps the MTA might shift their annual $27 MILLION budget from towing the hulks resultant of the motor morons, and put it into the public transportation. Straphangers subsidising idiots who cannot drive is the travesty, not the inevitable idiocy of dim drivers.

If you think that the LAPD is driven by incompetence, they’ve succeeded. It is insincerity and nothing more. I am third generation cop as well as military (from the early 1980s) and lemme tell ya–they simply do not give a shit.
http://www.blogging.la Will Campbell

The last time, I wasn’t asked. In 2007 the mayor and city council simply ramrodded an additional “fee” to my garbage pick-up that’s supposed to go to more cops.
http://lafd.org/blog Brian Humphrey

Jason,

Thanks for the important and timely post! You wrote…

Common sense tells you to approach an intersection with no lights as a 4-way stop…

While I can professionally affirm that ‘common sense’ isn’t ;) , you are correct: Treat all darkened traffic signals as a 4-way stop.

…and yield to traffic on your right, which most motorists seem to be doing.

While yielding is not merely kind but often safest, the California Driver’s Handbook instructs motorists that following their full and complete stop at a 4-way stop-signed intersection (or darkened traffic signal) to allow the first-arriving vehicle – or those already in the intersection the right of way. If two vehicles arrive at the same time, then the motorist to the right is suggested to be offered the first priority to proceed.

When rain falls: Heads up, easy on the throttle and expect the unexpected!!

Respectfully Yours in Safety and Service,

Brian Humphrey
Firefighter/Specialist
Public Service Officer
Los Angeles Fire Department
http://blogging.la David Markland

While I’m not opposed to more funding for the LAPD, the fault rests largely in their hands for poor management of funds.

As painful as it might be, they need to spend an itty bit less on manpower and improve their infrastructure and communication systems. If they were better able to communicate with the public the existing officers would be much more effective.
http://blogging.la Jason Burns

That’s definitely true, David. Seeing officers at the wrong intersection made me wonder what would happen if Los Angeles had a major disaster on its hands.

Lights Out on Lankershim

Search

Sponsors

Archives

Recent Comments

Sponsors