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| Crack down on intersection hogs |
Tyler Finnerty
Staff Writer
Police Beat |
Courtesy of Boone Police |
The Boone Police Department
will be issuing citations to vehicles blocking intersections beginning
Oct. 1.
“When people become impatient and start coming
through the intersections, they continue to come on through, even
though there’s obviously not enough room for them to clear
the intersections. Therefore it blocks all of the other lanes of
traffic so everybody’s backed up,” said Officer Rebecca
J. Tomlinson of the Town of Boone Police Department.
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“Starting on October
the first, our traffic team’s going to set up and observe these
different intersections at different locations,” said Sergeant
Randy L. Brown of the Town of Boone Police Department.
The police will be monitoring intersections in Boone affected most
by this type of situation.
They will start by issuing warnings, then citations. These citations
include court costs.
“Everybody wants to go when [the traffic light is] green even
if [the intersection is] not clear, and that’s not necessarily
so,” said Tomlinson.
Brown explained that he has observed the traffic on Highway 105
having to wait at least two cycles because the traffic heading south
on Highway 321 is blocking the intersection.
The traffic team will also be watching for vehicles that misuse
the turn lane, said Brown.
“That lane’s designed to where when you get to where you
need to turn left, that’s when you need to merge over,”
said Brown.
“[The turn lane] is not meant to drive straight through,”
said Brown who has observed drivers pulling into the left-hand turn
lane at The Pantry on Blowing Rock Road in order to turn left onto
the 321 extension.
This, said Brown, blocks drivers who are coming from the opposite
direction and may want to turn into businesses on the other side
of the road.
Both Brown and Tomlinson said they have seen this type of driving
cause accidents and traffic jams.
“If everybody is more patient when they are going through the
intersections, then everybody will be better off in the end,”
said Tomlinson.
Drivers are not supposed to get into the left-turn lane until the
white broken lines begin, said Brown. He said the police will not
be overly strict about this rule, but drivers need to pull into
the left-turn lane as close to these white broken lines as possible.
“I’d suggest just slow down and take your time; everybody’s
in too big of a hurry,” said Brown. “They see traffic’s
backed up and they think if they get across that stop block they’re
good to go.” |
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