[ScoopLV]

Originally Posted by demoknite

It would be great if there were more round-abouts in town. Or if the light turned yellow again before it turned green. 5 seconds of green light is wasted while people get off the brake/clutch and finally get through the green light so only three cars can legally get through on a given cycle. When youve been sitting at a light for 7 minutes in 100 degree heat I dont blame people for going through that red at the last second. Pedestrians and drivers are both stupid at times, but lets not let the traffic management system go un-criticized.

I'm happy to criticize our traffic management system. We wouldn't have nearly the problems that we do if we didn't waste so much roadway bandwidth.

At least we have flashing yellow turn arrows now. I'm sure they have caused more of their share of collisions. But when people get with the program that flashing yellow means "yield to oncoming traffic," that should abate.

We could time our lights better. We could install better sensors so that people waiting at abandoned intersections get the light changed faster. We could install pedestrian "stop/go" lights at very busy pedestrian crossings. (There's one on Hollywood Blvd. that I avoid like herpes. Three schools let out at close to the same time, and kids will cross the street in a slow-moving herd for half an hour.)

We could time the lights to the volume of the traffic. Five-second greens are just dumb when there are 50 cars waiting for the light. I agree completely. This is probably the number two reason why people run red lights. (The number one reason is that they are special snowflakes with enormous entitlement issues.)

And then we could have more red-light stings. It's becoming ridiculous how many vehicles run the red at each change of the lights.

[unf0rgiven6262]

There's a palpable every man for himself attitude in this city that can be picked up on most clearly while driving. While there's many things I like about Las Vegas, I can't say a sense of community is one of them. To me that's the missing factor that's motivating drivers and pedestrians alike to behave the way they do.

By comparison, coming from Massachusetts, drivers have a pretty bad reputation. My sense was that there was a high volume of very aggressive drivers. At the same time though, they seemed to know what they were doing. For the most part, they would respond intelligently to road situations. Here there seems to be the same if not more emboldened aggressive drivers but they often majorly lack competence. I don't quite know what to make of it other than I suspect there are a lot of people driving without licenses.

I also agree completely about the poor set up of intersections and the stop lights in particular. The famous 5 second green lights are serious hazards. If there's a semi up front, he might literally be the only one to move through the light legally. One such intersection is on russell and valley view.

I've seen my fair share of pedestrians crossing the street in all sorts of areas with ear buds in, staring at their phone while crossing. These are the kind of people that shouldn't even be allowed behind the wheel.

[EA]

I've seen so many people fly up to the light, in an attempt to turn right, only to have to slam on the brakes to yield for a pedestrian who has the legal right. I imagine quite a few of the fatalities are from that right turning driver looking to their left.
I know it's victim blaming, but you have to keep in mind that people suck. If you just look for cars, a split second hesitation can save your life. Not looking can make you a victim in the same split second.

Now that I am on the south end of the strip and working on the north end, I have to drive down the strip twice a day. I am really surprised that it's not 70 fatalities a day. Drunks, distracted drivers, drunk drivers, distracted walkers, and people just not paying any attention.

[ScoopLV]

Originally Posted by unf0rgiven6262

but they often majorly lack competence.

You can say that about just about every subset of Las Vegas. This is what I mean when I constantly claim that Las Vegas is below average. When you assemble the lowest-educated group of people in America, some things are invariably going to suck.

The up side is the "in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king" result. Anyone who is basically competent is employee of the freakin' year, no matter the industry. It's easy to stand out when the peer group consists of knuckle draggers.

[nitro1320]

I finally broke down and bought a dash cam. Still testing it, but if it works well I might buy another one that faces out of the rear window (already been rear ended once living here). Too many stupid pedestrians and drivers in this town.

[NDJeff]

Originally Posted by Caltovegas

So far I've seen two incidents where by only from the grace of God two people were not killed. Each time it was people crossing against the lights. What is that makes people just enter an intersection without looking?

Natural selection attempting to do it's thing?

[Buzz123]

Originally Posted by ScoopLV

Sense of entitlement, lack of intelligence and complete ignorance about how inertia works. The average Las Vegas resident, basically. This is something I see every single day when I commute to work. I'm just hoping I don't see someone actually killed. But that's statistically only a matter of time.

I totally agree. But if you tell anyone I'll deny it.

[SoHoVe]

As far as locals go I wish they would use a little coming sense and wear something that isn't a dark color if they will be walking at night. I don't know how many times I have dodged jaywalkers in dark clothiing who suddenly dart into the street and I've only been back here a few months.

[RNnow&L8r]

I've noticed people don't know how to use a 4 way stop, roundabout, or how to cross a road. I'm just glad to live in a place where it's the pedestrians fault if they're in the wrong for walking out in front of traffic.

[clutchcargo777]

Then there's the CAT bus stops. A herd of 20 people, literally 50 feet from a crosswalk choose to cross in front of the bus into traffic. I hate maneuvering around non-turnout bus stops in general, but the pedestrians are the big problem.