Just Like Grade School, Some People Still Cut in Line

Dear Street Smart:

This is directed at those incredibly rude people who think it’s OK to speed to the front of a line of cars waiting to transition off the freeway. It is especially aggravating because you know they would never do it if they were in line waiting for a movie or at the grocery store.

A prime example of this rude behavior is during morning rush hours on the westbound Ventura Freeway near the southbound San Diego Freeway. These rude people use the connector lane to the northbound San Diego Freeway to speed in front of the line of cars waiting to enter the southbound San Diego Freeway.

Does it ever occur to them that one of the reasons traffic is backed up is because they cut in line?

Trish Davidson

Glendale

Dear Reader:

I agree, Trish. I respond to such troglodytes by honking and making rude gestures. It doesn’t stop them but it makes me feel better.

Since my approach isn’t too effective, I asked California Highway Patrol Officer Pablo Torres if the CHP could do anything about these “cutters,” as we called them in grade school.

He said they do not violate the law unless they interfere with the progress of other cars in that lane, in which case the CHP could cite them for making an unsafe lane change. Also, he said, if cutters block traffic flow on an adjacent lane while trying to cut into a line of cars, they can be cited for impeding traffic.

But don’t despair. If that old adage “What goes around comes around” has any merit, these people will come back in the next life as speed bumps.

Dear Street Smart:

I am writing about parking meters in the immediate vicinity of the post office at 11304 Chandler Blvd. in North Hollywood. Why should a person have to pay daily for the privilege of picking up his mail?

What compounds the difficulty even further are the long lines at the post office. You cannot get out to feed the meter without losing your place in line, and the meters allow only 15-minute parking anyway.

At $20 an infraction, I’ve paid well over $100 in parking fines there in the past year.

James Wilkinson

North Hollywood

Dear Reader:

Ouch! Sounds like you’re dealing with the post office from hell and I’m afraid my answer is not going to provide you much salvation.

Dean Granholm, postmaster for the North Hollywood area, said there is no un-metered customer parking at that post office because it was built nearly 100 years ago, before they realized Los Angeles would become the automobile playground it is now.

He said there are no plans to add customer parking because there is no nearby vacant land for that use.

Your best chance for relief is with the Los Angeles city’s parking meter management unit, which has the power to remove parking meters. Agnes Hill, a supervisor there, said you should write to her division, spell out your problem and they will try to fix it.

Write to the Los Angeles City Department of Transportation, Parking Meter Management Unit, 555 Ramirez St., Room 315, Los Angeles, Calif. 90012.

OK, so mailing this letter will mean you’ll have to deal with that same post office parking problem, but if your letter is sufficiently persuasive, it will be the last time.

Dear Street Smart:

We live on Mecca Street, which used to be a quiet street that leads up to Braemar Country Club. But lately people have begun to race up and down the street at speeds beyond belief. They run stop signs and go 80 and 90 m.p.h. to get to the country club on Sunday mornings. They will also speed in cars along a bike lane put in just last year.

I have written letters to City Councilman Marvin Braude and to the police asking if they could patrol the area once in a while. It has just gotten worse.

Jan Andelson

Tarzana

Dear Reader:

Your street sounds like it needs a good old-fashioned Southern speed trap, with Billy Joe Bob the state trooper parked in the shrubs and Uncle Jethro running the courthouse.

Billy Joe Bob would tell the speeder: “You’re not from around these parts, are you, son?”

After the speeder is arrested, Uncle Jethro, acting as the municipal judge, would say: “Weeeeell doggie, looks like we got ourselves a lawbreaker here. You know what we do to lawbreakers, don’t you?”

The speeder would then be forced to pay an exorbitant fine or spend the night in a cell with Buford, the town drunk.

Back to reality. You actually have a couple of more realistic options.

First, you can call the LAPD’s Valley Traffic Unit at (818) 989-8381 and ask them to increase patrols on your street. (As you already appear to know, however, you may well get a better response if your council representative calls on your behalf.)

Officer Frank Zdroy of the traffic unit said the culprits are actually residents of your neighborhood. “It’s always a problem area and we work it all the time,” he said.

You can also request that they park one of those radar display boards on your street that tells motorists their speed as they drive by. Often people slow down when they see their speed flashing in lights on a huge sign.

Another option is to go to the source of the problem: your neighbors. You can contact your neighborhood watch group or community police officer and see if together you can spread the message that speeding could land them in ticket troubles, a hospital or the morgue.

Dear Street Smart:

Is it true that the Toyota model Cressida is the name of a Trojan woman who was unfaithful to her lover, Troilus?

Andy Drysdale

Van Nuys

Dear Reader:

You are right. She was a character in Homer’s “Iliad” who swore undying fidelity to Troilus but then fell in love with some other dude. (Isn’t that just like a Trojan woman?) Poor Troilus was later killed by Achilles.

But speaking of bad car names, what about the Chevy Nova, which is named after an inconspicuous star that suddenly grows extremely bright, but then goes dim again?

What’s worse is the Spanish translation for Nova: “Won’t go.”