Thursday, October 22, 2009

WATCH YOUR TURNS (or lack thereof)


1. New No Left unto 58th off of Broadway.
DETOURS INCLUDE:
a.) Right on 57/Right on 8/Right on 58.
b.) Follow Columbus Circle around
to Central Park South (59th).

Then Right at 7 Av/Left on 58.


2. Cop trap on Broadway and 14th, still active during morning rush hours. Vehicles traveling downtown on the Left Turn Only lane will be ticketed.

3. New cop trap on westernmost Houston (before ending at West Side Highway). Left lane is coned off the entire block, to accommodate parked NYPD vans, while 2 (or more) officers on foot motion violators to the left.
They seem to be enforcing wide turns off of Washington, as well as cellular use if caught (especially Yellow Cabs).

SIDE NOTE (reminder): on that last block of Houston (normally) the left lane is for Left Turns Only, while the middle lane is to go straight ahead into Pier 40 (and right turns as well), and the right lane is for right turns only. The dotted segment of these 3 lanes (for legal lane shifts) is only available the 1st half of the block. The 2nd half are solid white lines. So don't procrastinate. But then again, don't turn wide either, to align yourself early with the lane you need. Both ends of this spectrum are 'illegal'.

Between you and me, in a city this congested, a tactic like this, in that location, for bringing in revenue, is indeed a cheap shot. Motorists are forced to be so anal about the law, to avoid tickets, that it could easily unfold into a neighborhood-wide traffic jam.

Perhaps it's simply part of Bloomberg's plan to dissuade motorists from driving on Manhattan's streets, which is fine by me, but please give us hacks a break. We fit nicely into
Plan GreeNYC! No? But the cops don't care and apparently neither does the mayor. Ironically enough, he just became the first mayoral candidate to win the endorsement of all 5 area police unions. Unfortunately, taxis are not excluded from transportation initiative #12, while in all other major cities of the world, taxis are cut slack in bus lanes, etc. etc.

1 comment:

  1. Just last night in the drivers room, John Caine was suggesting a web site like this.

    A couple of tips for not getting a ticket:

    1) The guy has thought about it, he knows where he wants to pull you over, pull over or stop dead in the lane you're in IMMEDIATELY, if you don't it will piss him off.
    2) Put your drivers license between your first 2 fingers on your left hand and raise your hand out the window as high as it will go, place your right hand of the top of the steering wheel. He will come and take the license out of your fingers.
    3) Remember that he sees at least 20 things an hour that he could write a ticket for. He can't write 20 tickets an hour. So you did something that stood out and got his attention, he probably only wants to yell at you, which only takes a minute. Let him yell, don't interrupt, don't beg, don't lie, and don't tell him you broke a law.

    I've been yelled at a lot of times with no ticket.

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