Patience needed at downtown stop lights
Today’s first caller sang an old yet classic tune to the Red Knight’s crimson ears. It goes a little something like this: “Oh, sweet darling. Oh, sweet darling. It’s midnight in the city, and I can’t believe how long I have to sit and wait at stop lights in Hollister. What a drag. Oh, sweet darling.”
City engineering official David Rubcic, a rather polite lad, has heard this classic complaint many times before, he noted, but not for a few years at least, and not in such a poetic verse.
The Red Knight decided to drive out to the main drag, undercover in a civilian car, and test those lights for himself.
Once there, the usually trusty Crimson Clock malfunctioned, and among our hero’s unknown yet inconsequential deficiencies is a lacking ability to count with any level of accuracy. Lacking there was not, however, included the following inscription in the Red Knight’s diary that evening:
“Dear Diary, Today was splendid, aside from several long stops at intersections thru out (sic) the day downtown. I almost lost it. But then I was OK. Also, I just ate several miniature Boston cream pies before bed. ”
If you’re frustrations also happen to boil over mostly on San Benito Street, you might have to just turn up the radio, down a pie and drown out your impatience, or just suppress it later, because the ever distant state bureaucracy known as Caltrans has control of the timing on those beauties. They include stop lights all along San Benito Street to Nash Road and then up to Airline Highway, Rubcic pointed out.
Rubcic did say that among the rest of Hollister’s stop lights, most of them are “detection activated” – or based on automated traffic counts. Some others are on a set timing schedule, he said.
Rubcic, meanwhile, also acknowledged quite honestly how it can be “really frustrating” driving through downtown sometimes. Right on, Rubcic.
The Red Knight will report back with a full report from Caltrans on the lights.
Walk and talk – or break the law
A curious caller to the Red Answering Machine (or RAM) pulled over to the side of the road – your hero assumes – and dialed the second most used emergency response number next to 911.
He called the RAM because he had noticed a law enforcement officer driving on duty while talking on a cell phone. While listening to this particular informant, the Red Knight dozed off a little as our hero thought how interesting it would be to see one cop pulling over the other for talking on a cell phone. That would be awkward, really awkward.
The caller, meanwhile, wondered why officers of the law can talk on their cell phones while regular citizens have to speak toward their ears at the silliest invention since the Fanny Pack, or pull over and lose time, or not speak at all, except to themselves.
The reality, however, is this: Police officers aren’t the only people allowed to talk on their phones while driving. Most everybody still does it, at least once in a while, and usually with little risk involved.
Law enforcement officers, though, are exempt from any chance of that awkward scenario, under which one officer scolds another for talking while driving, because the law says so.
Under California’s Vehicle Code, section 23123, subdivisions c and d read as follows:
“(c) This section does not apply to a person using a wireless telephone for emergency purposes, including, but not limited to, an emergency call to a law enforcement agency, health care provider, fire department, or other emergency services agency or entity.
(d) This section does not apply to an emergency services professional using a wireless telephone while operating an authorized emergency vehicle, as defined in Section 165, in the course and scope of his or her duties.”
