The in basket: Jim DeLorm e-mailed to say “I renewed the license on my wife’s car, a 1992 Toyota Corolla four-door sedan. Of all things, they charged me $10 for GWT/VEH WT. What kind of scam has the state or county come up with now to suck up our hard earned money? Gross vehicle weight on a passenger car??? It’s bad enough,” he said, “when they force you to do it with a pickup when a lot of people never haul anything, but to do it with a car is a real scam. Anything for a buck.”
Monthly Archives: December 2006
Blue lights when Yellow turns to Red
The in basket: Jo Clark read the Nov. 27 Road Warrior about the
legality of entering an intersection when the light is yellow,
which essentially said it’s legal if there’s room for you on the
other side of the intersection. Two state troopers agreed with
that.
“If so,” Joe asks, “how can they justify the ‘blue’ lights
installed on the back of signal lights at Marine Drive and some
other places (in Bremerton)? I was the recipient of a warning
(as I recall) for doing what they say is legal, right after they
installed the blue light.
“The trooper told me they sit on the other side of the intersection
and watch for it to turn blue so they can catch the ‘perpetrators’!
I was not speeding – just caught in that very wide
intersection because it was unsafe to stop on the yellow
Red flags coming to Silverdale X-walk
The in basket: When Malcolm Larney suggested in October that
Kitsap County emulate Port Orchard and Bainbridge Island and make
red flags available for pedestrians to carry at crosswalks, like
that at Silverdale Way and Anderson Hill Road, the county said it
was a good idea, but not at that intersection, which is scheduled
for a traffic light.
The out basket: Doug Bear of Kitsap County Public Works says the
county has decided to test the flags at that intersection after
all.
Gates’ tunnel beneath Highway 106
The in basket: Emily Bachel asks about all the work on Highway
106 by Alderbrook Inn in Mason County.
“The work has been going on for some time,” she said. “The rumors
are that Bill Gates, who has property adjacent to the resort,
is actually having a tunnel put under the road to simplify
his access to the road. Could you verify this?”
Stop bars requested on Lazy S Lane
The in basket: John Lesser wrote a while back to say, “On Wednesday (July 9), I passed yet another accident at the intersection of John Carlson Road and Lazy S Lane (in Central Kitsap). I have lived in this area for many years and have passed many accidents at that intersection. A few years ago I called the county and requested they paint stop bars on Lazy S to help alert motorists to the required stop. I was told the next time the engineers were in the area they would take a look. Nothing has changed. Maybe you can get an answer from the county.”
Mystery poles on Ridgetop at Pinnacle
The in box: Larry Ficca e-mailed to say, “I have recently noticed two poles, each with a device on top that could be a camera. They are located on Ridgetop Boulevard in Silverdale, about five hundred feet on either side of the traffic light at the intersection of Ridgetop Boulevard and Pinnacle Court. Each device is pointed toward the traffic approaching the intersection. “Are these devices cameras or something else?” he asked.
No Fence Around Detention Pond
The in basket: Jeri Gilreath has been eyeballing the storm water
detention pond where Alaska Avenue meets Mile Hill Drive in South
Kitsap, part of the widening project on Mile Hill this year.
It has no fence, she noticed, and she thinks drivers might slide
into it in icy weather. The storm water pond at the other end of
the project, near Bulman Road, has a substantial chain link fence
around it. She wondered what the difference is.
Steady flashing light on Newberry Hill Road
The in basket: Ted Moore read the recent Road Warrior about the odd time a reader had seen the flashing lights blink in the school zones on and around Central Valley Road and observed that “the school crossing signs for Klahowya Secondary School… were installed nearly two years ago, and the lights have flashed 24×7 ever since. Holidays, summers, weekends… the crossing lights flash, midnight, 4 a.m., 8 p.m. … it doesn’t matter… 24 hours a day… every day!”
Holly Road speed limit problem
The in basket: Gene Arbogast II asked in June how he “would go
about trying to get a speed limit decreased on NW Holly Road.
“My wife and I recently purchased a new home between Longhorn Drive
and This-a-way
Road,” he said. “There are approximately 20 or
more homes between Boundary (Trail) and Longhorn Drive. All the
driveways have homes that require backing out of the driveway,
because the homes are situated next to the road like a quiet
residential street. The speed limit through the area is 45 mph.
Which means
most people traveling through this section are doing 50 to 55 mph.
This
makes it a bit dangerous to back out of the driveway and very noisy
also.
Motorcycles parking in crosshatched areas
The in basket: Ted Moore said two motorcyclists he knows pulled
into one of the white hash-marked areas at the end of a parking row
at Wal-Mart in East Bremerton. Ted says he’s done that himself in
the past and knows others with motorcycles who do.
The two at Wal-Mart “noticed a city police cruiser parked near
the edge of the parking area. My friend stayed with their
motorcycles for
several minutes, until another motorcyclist pulled up and parked.
They
chatted a few minutes, both noticing the police cruiser, then
turned to go
into the store. Once they have crossed the road, the police cruiser
turned
on its lights and approached. At least one received a ticket for
parking where they did.
What are the rules, Ted asked. “If it’s illegal to
park in these areas, then it makes me wonder why the police waited
for the
two riders to step away from their motorcycles before being
approached?
Couldn’t the police drive over and warn them before they left…
maybe even
before the second arrived, giving them a chance to move
to a legal parking slot? Or was it that these police were
specifically out
to write tickets. It appears to be on the edge of ‘entrapment’ to
me,” said Ted.
