Intersection Trespassers Are Targeted

You’re sick of inching up to the same intersection as the stoplight flashes from green to red and back again. When your chance comes, you lurch into the busy intersection.

Trouble is, traffic has stopped. Now you’re trapped, and everyone with a horn is letting you know what he thinks.

While getting stuck in an intersection may be common in Southern California’s car culture, officials in traffic-choked West Hollywood say they want to put a stop to it.

Drivers in that city caught in this predicament soon will face $100 fines. “The main thing is that it’s rude,” Mayor Jeffrey Prang said.

As of Monday, sheriff’s deputies and parking enforcement officers with digital cameras are positioning themselves at key intersections, taking pictures of violators.

Those drivers will receive letters advising that they have violated the Anti-Gridlock Act, a section of the vehicle code that allows ticketing of drivers who obstruct cross traffic in an intersection. After a two-week grace period, those letters will be accompanied by $100 tickets.

Intersections to be targeted the most aggressively include La Cienega Boulevard and Fountain Avenue, Fairfax Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard, Doheny Drive and Sunset Boulevard and La Cienega and Sunset boulevards.

The point, city transportation manager Terri Slimmer said, is that “if you can’t clear the intersection when it’s green, you shouldn’t be out there.”

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Times staff writer Monte Morin contributed to this report.