31 October 2007

Barrington post office 10/31

This lady pulled her car in front of the parking lot gozouta and stopped. None of us could move.

PCH at Entrada 10/31

This guy straddled two lanes and then tried to merge into me.

Rustic Canyon Park parking lot 10/31

Parked in the handicapped space, no placard.

Stewart at Pico 10/31

Gridlock at the 99-cent store. Traffic was backed up from the entrance to the parking lot into the intersection.

Montana at Yale 10/31

Technically not a moving violation as it's parked, but my guess is that someone will drive it today.

30 October 2007

Kenter Canyon Elementary 10/30

This is Diana's babysitter. She was going WAY too fast through the turnaround.

Kenter at Sunset 10/30

Gridlocked still, two signal cycles later.

Bundy at Kenter 10/30

What you see here is traffic backed up all the way from Sunset such that it blocks this intersection. There is a Metro bus blocking the entire north/south throughway at Sunset. It was there for a full light cycle.

San Vicente at Anita 10/30

Another bloody hummer. Counting the two I missed on the way to school and the one I saw this morning, today's hummer count is five.

San Vicente at Bundy 10/30

Gridlock. J tells me the 405 was closed, hence the more-hellish-than-usual traffic.

Wilshire at Chelsea 10/30

They're like Starbuck's: everywhere.

Bundy at Kiowa 10/30

The librarian in me won't rest until I find an internet resource for calculating the carbon footprint of running errands in a hummer.

Pearl at Bundy 10/30

There were actually two cars that turned left here after the light changed but the shutter mechanism on my Treo is so slow that I only captured the one.

Ocean Park at 25th 10/30

Another red light run. Are y'all bored by these yet?

20th at Pico 10/30

I don't think the W.I. Simonson Mercedes dealership will be too happy to learn that their driver is going straight through the right-turn-only lane in their (expensive) car with their name right on the side of it.

20th at I-10 exit ramp 10/30

Almost gridlock.

Wilshire at 21st 10/30

This SUV is just one of a long string of cars that didn't stop for the woman in the crosswalk.

Kenter above Homewood 10/30

Both the roach coach and the red vehicle are parked in the red zone, meaning traffic queued up for the Sunset light is backed waaaaaay up.

29 October 2007

Kenter at Sunset 10/29

Almost gridlock. We can just squeeeeeze by.

17th at Carlyle 10/29

See that lady walking her dog? Her foot is in a cast. The lady driving the black Mercedes pulled right up to the crosswalk, blocking north/south traffic until Ms. Cast had limped all the way across.

17th at Wilshire 10/29

This hummer had Texas plates. My mind boggles at the math. Eight miles to the gallon, $3.09 per gallon, 818 miles to El Paso. That's $316 to drive here. We'll give them the benefit of the doubt; if they'd come from Texarkana it would have been 1631 miles, or almost double that. Later we'll calculate the carbon footprint.

Rochedale at Hanley 10/29

Ran the stop sign around a blind curve on a hill.

Bundy at San Vicente 10/29

He's stopped here in the middle of the street. Just stopped. Waiting for...what?

San Vicente at Bundy 10/29

Running the light to go into the market...or is that a right turn on red? Maybe...if she'd stopped.

San Vicente at Anita 10/29

That's a hummer. I think that my objection to them comes from the fact that they are SO in your face about their consumption. I mean, Nathan has been sent to Iraq to defend these people's ability to drive cars that get 8 mpg. Does that seem right? Not to me.

Lincoln below Idaho 10/29

The driver of the black SUV just pulled out in front of the oncoming traffic. Probably because she was on her phone and had her shields up. Or her blinders on.

Lincoln at California 10/29

The lady in the silver sedan didn't notice that it wasn't her turn at the stopsign.

Lincoln at the Joann's parking lot 10/29

See that? It's the right turn signal on a BMW X5. Notice that it's to my left. She pulled up next to me on the left to turn right out into Lincoln.

Lincoln at Ocean Park 10/29

Pulled out of the gas station without even looking.

27 October 2007

Sunset at Mandeville 10/27

Hummer at night, beginning in the Palisades and all the way to Cliffwood. J tried to engage me again in the argument about how if you put more people in the hummer (this one was apparently bearing four adults) it's just as efficient a mode of transportation as one person in a Prius. I'm not buying it.

26 October 2007

Bundy at Wilshire 10/26

You'll just have to take my word for it: this is a beige hummer headed south.

Bundy approaching Wilshire 10/26

When ya gotta go left, ya gotta really commit to it.

Santa Monica at 26th 10/26

And again.

Santa Monica at 26th 10/26

Ran the red light.

Kenter at Sunset 10/26

Oh you need to turn left from the right turn lane? No problem!

Bundy at Idaho 10/26

Coming back from my trapeze lesson I spied this hummer and wondered briefly if it's the same yellow one I've been seeing or if they are unique instances. Took its photo, turned onto Bundy. The hummer ripped by me on the right and cut across four lanes (five if you count the center turning lane) to dive into the parking lot of the taqueria at Ohio. The problem is that they're sold as invincible vehicles, so the kind of person who would buy one feels enabled? entitled? to drive as if he is bulletproof.

Alley behind the Co-op 10/26

There weren't any spaces in the lot so this driver parked his truck in the alley.

Broadway at 20th 10/26

No parking spaces here either so this Escalade was left in the red zone.

I-10 at Lincoln 10/26

A different red hummer from our litterbug of earlier this morning.

Sunset at Capri 10/26

She drives a hummer and she's rolled down the window to throw out a piece of trash. I guess that philosophically it's all of a piece.

Kenter at Tigertail 10/26

Dang! You can only see one of the two pickups that side-by-side blew through the stopsign here, one turning left and one turning right.

Kenter at Sunset (2) 10/26

The southbound light had long since turned green when this truck pulled out to turn left off Sunset.

Kenter at Sunset 10/26

There's not so much smoke today, so we can really see all these cars running lights.

I-10 at Bundy 10/26

Thought I was going to get the no-right-on-red photo but instead got two cars running the light. You can just see the second one through the windshield of the red Ford in front of me.

Ocean Park at Bundy (2) 10/26

This intersection was lawless this morning!

Ocean Park at Bundy 10/26

See? Not clearing the box. Running the light.

Ocean Park at 18th 10/26

Saw me in the crosswalk but couldn't be bothered to stop.

Olympic at Cloverfield 10/26

Neither this Mercedes nor the other car you see bothered to stop before turning right on red.

26th below Montana 10/26

Unclear on the purpose of that center lane, she blocks through traffic to turn left.

Kenter at Hanley 10/25

Yes the tree roots do make the road bumpy here. But hey! Instead of swerving way out into oncoming traffic, how about we just slow down a little?