L.A. Can't Drive » intersection

Private School Brat Runs a Red Light to Net 50 Feet

I-95, U-405 — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:09:56 +0000

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This kid’s dad might want to think twice about having given his son a Range Rover (license plate 6PIV). This little speeding, tailgating punk just screamed private school brat. He’s a proud 2012 graduating senior, though, which one could gather from the large inscription written in red soap across his rear windshield. From what I saw all along Beverly Glen, he was tailgating the driver in front of him on this single, winding northbound lane and speeding whenever he got a hair’s breadth of room in front of him. The kicker is when he pointlessly and blatantly ran a red light just south of Mulholland by this housing community. It was afternoon rush hour, and his choices were to either slow to a stop before the red light or run it and stop 50 feet later. For some oblivious reason, he chose the latter option. Might I add that this wasn’t a situation of when the light just changed from yellow to red. It was redder than an Asian on his tenth vodka shot. I snapped this photo as the light turned back to green a few seconds later. Way to go genius…hopefully, your dad has enough money to bribe a school that’s way out or your league to accept you in a last ditch effort that you’ll actually learn something before you have to fend for yourself.

Leapfrogging Wannabe Punk in Accord

I-95, U-405 — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 08:05:46 +0000

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Some people just look the part of asshole driver. The punk with his straight-billed baseball cap (oh, I think the going lingo is “lid” now) and his wannabe I’m a douchebag lean behind the wheel was driving this shizzy Honda Accord (license plate 5TZK) in Sherman Oaks on Burbank Blvd. When you’re just west of Sepulveda, the rightmost lane on Burbank Blvd. is pretty much intended to be a right-turn-only lane. If you go straight, you have the option of turning right into a Shell gas station or plowing directly into the rear of a parked vehicle along the curb. Most drivers around these parts, particularly those who exit the 405 Fwy at Burbank Blvd., already know this fact. And even if you didn’t, the steep downhill slope of the road gives you plenty of visibility of traffic flow and the makeup of the road in front of you. Unfortunately, this is also a favorite leapfrogging spot for egocentric jackasses who all too often treat driving like a pissing contest. In this instance, I was making my way down the slope across Sepulveda Blvd. when I noticed this punk in my rear and sideview mirrors refusing to merge to his left along with the rest of eastbound Burbank traffic. Judging by his speed, I knew he wasn’t heading toward the gas station, so I let up on my accelerator in an act of defensive driving. On the other hand, this punk probably thought I was going to gun it and try to prevent him from “cutting” in front, and I heard him step on his gas pedal and shoot past me to my right, nearly running into the back of parked sedan just east of the gas station driveway. That’s when I got a good look at this insecure, dumb-looking sh*tlet. Anyway, I had no interest in playing a petty racing game with someone who I felt was less evolved than me, and I gave him ample room to move in front (without signaling, of course). Hey, even tapeworms need a win once in awhile.

Illegal Leapfrogging Punk in Chevy HHR

I-95, U-405 — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 06:08:48 +0000

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Sometime last year, the city screwed with the lanes on Wilshire Blvd. by Sepulveda and the 405 Fwy on/off-ramps in Brentwood. Previously, if you were going east toward the freeway in the #1 lane, you had the option of either going straight or making a left to go north on Sepulveda. A green arrow helped to facilitate this turn. Now, in a feeble and naive attempt to reduce traffic congestion, they made the #1 lane a left turn only lane–you see the sign and the fat dotted white lane markings about two hundred yards before the Wilshire/Sepulveda intersection. Let’s be real…this is L.A. Late afternoon/evening rush hour commuters quickly learned that the #1 lane moved faster than all the other eastbound lanes on Wilshire and use it to pass as many cars as possible before changing lanes to their right. Essentially, a mind-numbing bottleneck was created, making traffic even worse in this area. Way to go, councilmembers. Anyway, as annoying as this is for a lot of the other drivers who patiently wait in the #2 lane to go east on Wilshire past the 405, it’s not illegal…unless you pull a selfish, asinine stunt like the punk in this crappy Chevy HHR (license plate 6JPT). Both he and the driver in front of him (not photographed) didn’t switch over from the #1 lane to the #2 lane earlier like most other drivers. In fact, by the time he reached the Sepulveda intersection, he was still in the left turn only lane. This arrogant piece of dessicated gonad then drove his Moby Dick of a vehicle forward, crossed Sepulveda, and ignored yellow hatched lines (that represent a raised concrete median) in front of him before continuing east on Wilshire. Clearly, passing about 100 cars wasn’t good enough for this fu*kwad, and he felt completely entitled to pull a blatantly egocentric and illegal maneuver. If the city really needs to raise some extra cash, they should park some traffic cops by this intersection on a random evening commute. It’ll be like shooting ducks in a barrel.

It is Not Cool to Mentally Check Out at Intersections

I-95, U-405 — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 05:51:00 +0000

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I honestly have no idea what’s going on through the heads of some drivers in Los Angeles. So many of them seriously tune out at the least opportune times. Case in point, let’s talk about this clueless couple in this Ford Fusion (license plate 6NBL). We were traveling in North Hollywood during rush hour on Magnolia Blvd. going west. When we reached Cahuenga, we were stopped at a green light for bumper-to-bumper traffic ahead of us. Though technically all drivers are supposed to keep the intersection clear until they can safely traverse, almost all of us never do this–myself included. The more conscientious drivers will at least make educated guesses as to whether they have enough time to clear the intersection before the light turns red. But what happens if we actually get stuck in the middle when the lights start changing? Well, again, the more considerate drivers will do their best to clear the path for oncoming cars. Not these idiots. This guy and his passenger felt completely content to sit smack in the middle of the intersection. We even backed up a bit to at least enable them to clear part of the crosswalk if they wanted to. Alas, to no avail. The light turned red for us and green for perpendicular traffic, and these fools continued sitting there like ducks in a barrel. It took cars on Cahuenga to honk at them for them to grow some brain cells and start backing up. We snapped this photo when they stopped, and as you can clearly see, they are still way over the farthest limit line for westbound Magnolia traffic. Seriously, folks, I know we spend so much time in our cars, but we certainly have an obligation to both others and our own safety to make a concerted effort not to mentally check out, particularly in these scenarios.

Belligerent Illegal Parker Ignores Repeat Citations

I-95, U-405 — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 03:05:12 +0000

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This story was too asinine not to be true. People in this town really are that lazy, that selfish, and that apathetic. Here’s what our reporter said about our hydrant up in Santa Clarita:

“Tickets?? Who cares!! Every day for the last week, the female driver of this Exploder (yes, Exploder) has been parking at the infamous hydrant. And every day, she has been ticketed, but she still continues to do it. Even after I told her that law enforcement will ticket her vehicle, her answer was she does not care; she lives right over there and does not want to walk too far because the parking sucks here. Well duh!!”

So just because the parking sucks in your area and you’re too lazy to walk your ass an extra block or so, that makes it absolutely kosher to back into and block in another driver’s car while illegally parking too close to a fire hydrant? The self-entitlement in this town never ceases to amaze me. Just today, as my wife and I were running errands on Black Eye Friday, this crazy wench blows through a stop sign at a two-way stop sign intersection, nearly hits our vehicle, and refuses to acknowledge us or her erroneous behavior as I leaned on my horn. Good thing she didn’t hit us because I also had my son in my car. Anyone risking the safety of my family, especially while pulling these twat-yanking maneuvers, will get reamed a new asshole, and I will do everything in my legal power to make sure this person pays out the maximum allowed by law in insurance premiums and liability claims.

Possible Hydroplaning Leads to Accident

I-95, U-405 — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 05:11:06 +0000

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Here’s a submission the other day that had to deal with the aftermath of an accident:

“I have no way of explaining what happened here. I was going east on Nordhoff to my job when I see this Mustang that had crashed on to the bus stop at Nordhoff & Reseda. I have only one theory on what happened. 1) Usually people turning left from Reseda to Nordhoff heading west gun it when the yellow arrow light appears at the intersection. Earlier that day it had rained and the chances that this Mustang sped on a yellow left turn and hydroplaned out of control on to the bus stop is high. I wonder if he/she had the munchies for McDonald’s to speed on it so bad?”

I see people blatantly speeding through yellows and running reds while turning left on a daily basis without exaggeration. It does seem odd how this accident happened if there wasn’t some sort of DUI involved. Hydroplaning is very dangerous and very real, especially on our streets that see so many consecutive days, weeks, even months without rain. The build up of grease and oil on the roads is so great that the slightest bit of rain can create hazardous driving conditions that the bulk of aggressive/clueless drivers in this town have no idea how to handle. Fortunately, it doesn’t look like anyone got hurt.

Classic Unobservant Aggressive Behavior

I-95, U-405 — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 20:06:05 +0000

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In the twelve years I was driving in the New York City metro area, I didn’t get into a single accident. I had a lot of close calls, but the drivers, though aggressive, are much more attentive than the drivers out here. In Los Angeles, we had two rear-enders in the first year we moved back here (as was the case for my wife, since she was born and raised here). This submission demonstrates the clueless aggression that makes for a double cocktail of accident-prone behavior:

“Here’s one to start the holiday weekend for you, and sorry in advance that I do not have any pictures of the driver, but I have attached a diagram of the intersection and lanes in question for reference.

I work in West LA and, as such, am forced every day to endure the traffic around the 405 on Wilshire or Santa Monica. Fortunately, I figured out a shortcut through side streets and a few parking lots that puts me out on Beloit Ave. at the north side of the intersection with Santa Monica Blvd, with the entrance to the 405 South being on the south side of Santa Monica Blvd. as can be seen in the diagram. I was in the lane and direction indicated by the green arrow, and the idiot driver was in the lane and direction indicated by the red arrow. As can be seen, I was to proceed through the intersection into lane 2 since the lane to the west of me was to go through the intersection into lane 1. Anyway, my light turns green so I proceed to go through the intersection. Unfortunately, some moron decided to not stop and make the right hand turn on red without looking into lane 1. This caused the idiot in my case that was behind that guy to SWING AROUND HIM INTO LANE 2 WITHOUT EVEN LOOKING TO SEE IF THERE WAS ONCOMING TRAFFIC. I slammed on my brakes and beeped my horn for a good 5 seconds as she came within inches of t-boning me as I proceeded through the intersection onto the freeway entrance. She then had the audacity to cut me off instead of letting me through first, even though half my car was in front of hers after the incident! I was so furious that I screamed a few obscenities outside my window to her. Throughout the entire ordeal, including after I honked my horn she didn’t even look in my direction! Once we both proceeded to merge onto the freeway I gave her another honk and flipped her off, then went on my way.

Phew, that was long-winded but is SO TYPICAL of drivers in this city. The “me first” mentality goes too far sometimes, and people who make illegal moves like this are the reason there are so many accidents. This past May I had a similar incidient where a guy made a right on red and crossed over two lanes at once, instead of properly turning into the right lane, and side swiped my car as I was going through the intersection. He lied about what happened to his insurance company so I was forced to pay a $500 deductible out of pocket to get my car repaired. All I can hope is that these jackassess get what is coming to them eventually and that they are forced to face the consequences of their shitty driving.”

I used to work for an insurance adjuster and investigated auto accident claims on a daily basis. In the event of any accident, you MUST take photos of where the cars are before pulling over to the side of the road. Yes, you’re supposed to pull over as quickly as possible, but way too many people lie in this town that unless you have witness testimony from a fellow driver or a police officer, then the outcome of your case really depends on how thorough the adjuster is for your company. In the second incident, examining the dents and scrapes on the car would reveal that the driver was turning when he/she hit your car, as a result automatically placing that driver at fault.

As for the first near-accident, that lady probably knew she was in the wrong but was too arrogant to apologize for it. To make matters worse, she probably will continue to drive like in the future. You would think some people would learn from their mistakes when actual accidents occur, but quite the opposite happens. These accident-prone drivers are so delusional about their own driving abilities and sense of justice that they will always claim to be the victims in any scenario.