Traffic Alert: New No-left-hand Turn
I got my first traffic ticket in more than 10 years last Thursday and by some mriacle it was not a speeding ticket. Not that drive I that fast, but of all the tickets you expect to get as a REALTOR speeding is the one you expect to get. No, I got a ticket for an turning left at a 2-way stop where left hand turns are no longer allowed. The corner is E. 1st and Quebec and you are no longer allowed to turn left from E.1st eastbound onto Quebec northbound. This is one of the worst changes in traffic rules I have ever seen with no notification of the change before the intersection and two signs that are hard to see at the intersection. Of the two signs that show no left turn, one is on top of the stop sign, which is hidden behind telephone poles from a block away and far to the right of the quite wide lane at the interesection. The other sign is way across the intersection (= to about 6 lanes away on top of a street sign. I know that that is Quebec I never look over there to check and if I am going to turn left as someone who travels this route frequently I don't look at the stop sign. It has been there for years. I know it is there, I stopped. A simple "Change of Traffic Rules Ahead" sign (or whatever is they put on that sign) would have alerted me to check for changes.
Another location where I see people lined up getting tickets almost every day, that it is not raining, it at W.6th and Granville. Southbound on Granville you are not allowed to turn left onto W.6th eastbound. They must write 2 dozen tickets an hour there and they have been doing this for years. If traffic safety was their true concern wouldn't they try to make it more obvious that you are not allowed to make these turns. I can only assume that traffic flow and traffic safety are the reasons why they ban left turns at these locations, but no one is safer after they make the turn. An extra sign or 2 would greatly add to general observance of the regulations here and the cops could go back to catching people doing 80km/h down Granville or Knight St.
That is my rant!