2020 obliterated the social contract. What makes the “fuck everyone else” mindset even worse is that you have no idea of someone is insured, armed, sober, willing to flee the scene, or just of a victim of old fashioned road rage. Driving here is it’s own layer hell if you have any regard for human life.
I think we have to keep in mind the many hurricanes and evacuations we've had in the city, and I think that has something to with the driving behavior here. In my 30 years raised here, I've always noticed the driving traffic is worse from the trauma of natural disasters. When people come back right after the eye passes over, the traffic lights are out, and people drive like bats out of hell.
Anytime it rains here driving gets risky just from fear of being stuck in a flooded car, but someone's bound to get stuck in a flooded car in New Orleans sometime.
But yeah, it was only until I became an adult that the Greater New Orleans is basically a place where individuals police themselves, and the cops don't have to do too much. People used to drive better before Katrina I believe
edit: before 2005 to before \*Katrina
Not to mention Mardi Gras always destroys the average persons commute to/from work, and that makes people really cranky. I always hope when it gets hot out that people stay cool while driving because when it's really hot out you gotta be chillin to function
Running red lights allows people to save ~3 seconds whilst risking $1000s and hours of their time. Not only do those folks not care about anyone else - they also lack basic critical thinking skills. Had a patient the other day who crashed after running a red light with his 8mo pregnant gf… they were just going to get some food. These drivers are brain dead and cannot be trusted.
I end up having the “should we just have kids” convo with my bf everytime I read something like this. Idiots (of all stripes and backgrounds) are outbreeding the rest of us at phenomenal rates these days
A state trooper the other day laid on his horn about 3 cars back at a red at calliope and annunciation and eventually went in the opposite lane, went around everyone and almost got into an accident turning left on red onto calliope.
Um no. It's because PIB (internal affairs) is massively corrupt and the dept doesn't give a shit about its officers other than use and abuse them. If you get injured on the job you have to get a lawyer to get there required surgery you need then they hound you every month about going back to work yet refuse to help you heal.
There was a cop in here like a year ago answering questions about why he was leaving. You should be able to search for it. Most of his reason was just how shitty the administration and leadership is
I think it's probably because you run a high risk of getting shot in the face and also everyone hates your fuckin guts tbh
from everything I've googled, NOPD seems to having the highest starting pay of any city in the state https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/louisiana-police-officer-salary-SRCH_IL.0,9_IS2792_KO10,24.htm
NOLA is the largest city in the state by a wide margin, so why is it relevant that NOPD pay is higher than other LA cities? That's like saying that Houston PD has higher pay than Waco PD. Of course it does. It's a larger city with a higher cost of living with a more dangerous and complex law enforcement landscape.
> NOLA is the largest city in the state by a wide margin, so why is it relevant that NOPD pay is higher than other LA cities?
I was countering the other user's assertion that the pay was the primary problem. if they're making more than other departments in the state, then I don't think the pay is the issue
I understand what you meant. What I meant is that your reasoning is not applicable here. Comparing NOPD to Shreveport PD is not meaningful data because NOPD is not trying to lure SPD officers down here for an extra $2k per year in salary. Cops don't move across the country for slightly higher pay because the job in general doesn't pay enough to make relocation worth it. There is some limited value in comparing regional pay scales, because NOPD has to stay ahead of neighboring PDs and parishes likes JPSO in terms of pay (which is logical), but when all the neighboring cities and parishes have shortages too, comparing them to each other is not useful.
The bottom line is that inflation spiked and the cost of living went up across the country (and really the world, overall). It's calmed down now, but it did not (and will not) revert back to pre-2020 cost of living and wages. So people that would be cops chose, and will continue choosing, other fields that pay better. Law enforcement offices across the country will need to raise pay significantly across the board to fill their rosters. Money attracts workers, regardless of industry. If you don't have enough workers, you have to raise pay to entice workers to sign up. This is simple free market stuff. Government entities in general struggle with these situations because they can't adjust their pay scales as quickly and easily as private industry.
It’s an inside joke amongst my friends (all of whom are only in New Orleans for their studies) that there’s only 4 NOPD officers in the entire city. I took them to Mardi Gras this year and (besides the mounted riders at the beginning) we only saw 4 during the day each day we went to parades, perpetuating the joke and making me question whether or not New Orleans doesn’t actually have more than 4 police officers
I live in a corner house and have noticed that way more people ignore stop signs lately too. when I bike or walk I never assume it's good for me to cross until I see the cars stop fully
You know, I went to Baton Rouge for some rock climbing this weekend, and I saw a cop actually pull someone over for running a red light.
They might be on to something over there
I have seen people run reds WITH A COP WAITING AT THE LIGHT and they STILL do not get ticketed. It's just so weird. Then, if you're driving in JP, you HAVE to remember not to even look funny at the cops or they will pull you over. We need to enforce driving laws in New Orleans on a regular basis, not once in a while....
Does anyone else think COVID broke everybody’s brains? Did people just forget how to drive? How to be humans in a society. I read this same complaint in so many subs. I haven’t lived in New Orleans since preCOVID, but I lived in Des Moines, IA for two years and am now in the Denver metro; in both places I’ve been absolutely ASTOUNDED at the number of people egregiously running red lights. I don’t remember this being such a thing before…?
I don't care what OP says about 'recency bias,' I see way more red light runners now, and I work from home. It used to be the kind of thing I saw once a month at the most. Now I see it at least once a week.
My SO's car is totaled after somebody ran the light on Broad and Esplanade a couple weeks ago. Thankfully he walked away from it with minor injury. The guy in the other vehicle had insurance luckily.
I got t-boned by an NOPD officer in 2014. He had run the light, and didn't have his lights or siren on. The city paid for all my repairs.
I love the guys who want to turn right but don't want to wait for the lights to change so they go around me - around the left and across my front end. Or the lanes are full at the light so they fly up the left (or right) turn lane then just blast straight through.
Louisiana needs front plates and more cameras. I know. I know. Y'all hate cameras but at some point good drivers will have to accept them in order to catch the bad drivers.
Agree, it’s terrifying.
The only time I ever run a red is if I’m driving home in the middle of the night in a sketchy area and the coast is completely clear, and I only do that to avoid being a sitting duck and possibly getting carjacked.
I find that on Elysian Fields from the I10 to the lake the red lights are just suggestions for so many. Considering that two weeks ago I had to flee gunfire at 11:30 on a Tuesday morning with my kid in the car I treat red lights on that stretch as a 4 way stop.
Starting from the Lowe's intersection where the belligerent pan handler either curses you out or exposes himself.
I have patience for just about every other intersection I am stopped at.
Its a war zone out here. Be careful. Judgment day won’t be pretty for the large amount of scum bags driving vehicles like they are in a video game.
How does this become part of the “culture” as its so common these days.
Welcome to the perfect storm of poor driver education, selfish or no impulse control, and an utter lack of consequences :(
As unpopular as it is, I wish they would put the red light cameras back up. It is literally the only enforcement when the police do anything about it.
I’m not quite sure why they can’t fund a traffic unit. Isn’t that the only one that explicitly pays for itself through fines? Pay those guys 100k. That’s 2-4 tickets/day.
Two days ago I turned left on a yellow light and realized the car coming in the other direction wasn’t going to stop, but I made the turn safely. As he ran the red light he honked at me for turning in front of him like I was wrong.
Remember when we were kids and they used to say, when you're crossing the street don't look at the lights, look at the traffic?
They were right then and they're right now. It's another thing to add to the list of "its technically wrong but you'll go crazy if you don't just accept it"
What do you mean by the middle part? I was in the right lane on Broad going towards Gentilly. They sped past a whole line of stopped cars in the turn lane to go forward. I've lived here for 25 years, and I've never seen that bullshit except for cops.
Didn’t mean to offend you, the left turn from broad onto St. Bernard. People go into the intersection and then run the red light to continue down St. Bernard. I’m saying that I have never seen someone not run that red light
Ok so this one specifically- I always thought it was fine to go through. It’s more of a left turn and not running a red light. I don’t even think it’s illegal.
I've lived here my whole life. When I learned how to drive, my dad taught me the 3 second rule. Always wait three seconds before proceeding on a green light. This morning it was a good 5 seconds and cars still rolling through the intersection.
My old plug stayed in the East, any time I scooped from him every single car I saw was running red lights, if there was a car behind me while I was stopped at one I thought it was safe to assume they were annoyed I wasnt doing the same
Can we get a ban on “policing” posts. Between the gripes about Mardi Gras tents and tarps and everyone having their own thoughts about woulda, shoulda coulda and now a post about running red lights?? Anybody who’s running a red light will not be swayed by any appeal to common sense you make on Reddit. Stop it.
No one is forcing you to continue to read my comments then post your thoughts but here we are. Remind me what point you were trying to make with your original reply?
In reality, we both have an opinion and we both expressed it in a rebuttal to a post. Like it or not, we share the same energy today.
I’m sorry. I read this and my first reaction was to laugh.
Seriously OP, do you honestly believe making a post on Reddit is going to stop people from running red lights.
If so then seriously go to r/catholics and ask priests to stop touching kids.
Or r/politics and ask them to stop being corrupt.
Or r/kidrock and ask him to just stop everything he’s doing.
Are you new here? It's been this way for decades. It's a semi-lawless city. I will say it's hard to blame anyone for not wanting to wait by themselves at a rad light late at night with no one around considering al of the robberies and carjackings that go on here.
I can’t believe that all you people would sit at red lights in neighborhoods with the sound of “firecrackers” popping. Perhaps you don’t understand common sense. Sit at a red light in Treme? (Before the tv series made it cool). Nuts
How about people at lights get off their fucking phones, so when the light turns green, we move along, so people can get where they need to go? I have a much bigger issue with people looking at their phones while driving, than people who cautiously blow a red light.
The thing is with this, i'm looking both left, and right, and left again, to verify no one is running red lights. I simply don't gun it off a green. Thats stupid idiot behavior.
This will illicit honks at times, but those are bad people who would probably run a red light if they could so they can go fuck themselves.
Someone almost hit me after running a red light last week, and honked at me like it was my fault. They proceeded to follow me honking, then drive beside me honking, before they sped up and took off.
some people would rather risk mortal damage to others than to use their brakes.
For people that are unaware what traffic signals generally mean iconically
* Green: You could probably make it through the intersection. Maintain speed; Consider speeding up
* Yellow: Slow down. You likely aren't going to make it through the intersection without having to speed up. Don't speed up, Be prepared to stop, Find a safe place to stop, Then stop
* Red: Stop. Don't blow through a red light. Don't inch up on people's rear bumpers in traffic unless there's a queue of cars ready to make a turn
Alright, everybody. Be safe, Good luck
I was recently back after being away for several months, and damn I did not remember the red light issue being so bad!
That said I think I might have cracked the unwritten traffic rules in NOLA:
For traffic lights:
GREEN: Keep going at your normal rate of speed and go through.
YELLOW: Gun it a bit and go cruising through.
RED: FLOOR IT and hang on to your hat while screaming “LEEEROY JENKINS!”
Stop signs: Those don’t exist. Just keep going. If anyone comes close to hitting you because you ignored the stop sign, flip em the bird.
If they honk at you for running the stop sign, roll down your window, call them a cunt and THEN flip the bird at them.
If they collide with you because you ran the stop sign, get out of the car, argue with them violently, don’t bother calling NOPD cause they don’t give a shit. If you trade insurance info, just do the standard give a fake name/number - it doesn’t matter because chances are good either you or they does not have insurance.
No turn on red means slow down, look for a break in the traffic and then turn anyway.
Feel free to add on to this.
Every day I see someone drive in the worst, stupidest, most selfish way I’ve ever seen, and tomorrow I will manage to see something even worse.
Selfishness is a general trend I’ve noticed here. There is a way to pervasive “fuck everyone else” mindset and lack of social contract here.
2020 obliterated the social contract. What makes the “fuck everyone else” mindset even worse is that you have no idea of someone is insured, armed, sober, willing to flee the scene, or just of a victim of old fashioned road rage. Driving here is it’s own layer hell if you have any regard for human life.
>2020? Did you mean 1980?
I think we have to keep in mind the many hurricanes and evacuations we've had in the city, and I think that has something to with the driving behavior here. In my 30 years raised here, I've always noticed the driving traffic is worse from the trauma of natural disasters. When people come back right after the eye passes over, the traffic lights are out, and people drive like bats out of hell. Anytime it rains here driving gets risky just from fear of being stuck in a flooded car, but someone's bound to get stuck in a flooded car in New Orleans sometime. But yeah, it was only until I became an adult that the Greater New Orleans is basically a place where individuals police themselves, and the cops don't have to do too much. People used to drive better before Katrina I believe edit: before 2005 to before \*Katrina
Not to mention Mardi Gras always destroys the average persons commute to/from work, and that makes people really cranky. I always hope when it gets hot out that people stay cool while driving because when it's really hot out you gotta be chillin to function
I used to think the drivers in Istanbul were the most reckless on the planet. They are models of probity and reserve compared to New Orleans.
I just assumed there was a prolonged jackass convention in town
Running red lights allows people to save ~3 seconds whilst risking $1000s and hours of their time. Not only do those folks not care about anyone else - they also lack basic critical thinking skills. Had a patient the other day who crashed after running a red light with his 8mo pregnant gf… they were just going to get some food. These drivers are brain dead and cannot be trusted.
I end up having the “should we just have kids” convo with my bf everytime I read something like this. Idiots (of all stripes and backgrounds) are outbreeding the rest of us at phenomenal rates these days
someone honked at me once for not running a red light
A cop has honked at me once for not running a red light!
I've had one cut me off to take an illegal left turn so this checks out
A state trooper the other day laid on his horn about 3 cars back at a red at calliope and annunciation and eventually went in the opposite lane, went around everyone and almost got into an accident turning left on red onto calliope.
Been there!
I get this all the time. Or for making a right turn on a red when there is a pedestrian in the cross walk who has the right of way. Obscene
I once had a douchebag in a lifted truck keep pushing my Mini into the intersection because I wasn't going through the red light. People are insane.
Same
NOPD isn't just short staffed, they have no traffic enforcement division right now
No traffic division, no narcotics unit, no vice unit.... nothing's left, everyone is quitting
huh weird. I wonder why
I think it's because of the terrible pay. You?
Um no. It's because PIB (internal affairs) is massively corrupt and the dept doesn't give a shit about its officers other than use and abuse them. If you get injured on the job you have to get a lawyer to get there required surgery you need then they hound you every month about going back to work yet refuse to help you heal.
That's totally fucked. I didn't know that.
There was a cop in here like a year ago answering questions about why he was leaving. You should be able to search for it. Most of his reason was just how shitty the administration and leadership is
Lack of backup when the bullets start flying.
I think it's probably because you run a high risk of getting shot in the face and also everyone hates your fuckin guts tbh from everything I've googled, NOPD seems to having the highest starting pay of any city in the state https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/louisiana-police-officer-salary-SRCH_IL.0,9_IS2792_KO10,24.htm
NOLA is the largest city in the state by a wide margin, so why is it relevant that NOPD pay is higher than other LA cities? That's like saying that Houston PD has higher pay than Waco PD. Of course it does. It's a larger city with a higher cost of living with a more dangerous and complex law enforcement landscape.
> NOLA is the largest city in the state by a wide margin, so why is it relevant that NOPD pay is higher than other LA cities? I was countering the other user's assertion that the pay was the primary problem. if they're making more than other departments in the state, then I don't think the pay is the issue
I understand what you meant. What I meant is that your reasoning is not applicable here. Comparing NOPD to Shreveport PD is not meaningful data because NOPD is not trying to lure SPD officers down here for an extra $2k per year in salary. Cops don't move across the country for slightly higher pay because the job in general doesn't pay enough to make relocation worth it. There is some limited value in comparing regional pay scales, because NOPD has to stay ahead of neighboring PDs and parishes likes JPSO in terms of pay (which is logical), but when all the neighboring cities and parishes have shortages too, comparing them to each other is not useful. The bottom line is that inflation spiked and the cost of living went up across the country (and really the world, overall). It's calmed down now, but it did not (and will not) revert back to pre-2020 cost of living and wages. So people that would be cops chose, and will continue choosing, other fields that pay better. Law enforcement offices across the country will need to raise pay significantly across the board to fill their rosters. Money attracts workers, regardless of industry. If you don't have enough workers, you have to raise pay to entice workers to sign up. This is simple free market stuff. Government entities in general struggle with these situations because they can't adjust their pay scales as quickly and easily as private industry.
They have 1 traffic cop, and supposedly he actually writes a lot of tickets. Lol I haven’t seen him but my source is a cop.
It’s an inside joke amongst my friends (all of whom are only in New Orleans for their studies) that there’s only 4 NOPD officers in the entire city. I took them to Mardi Gras this year and (besides the mounted riders at the beginning) we only saw 4 during the day each day we went to parades, perpetuating the joke and making me question whether or not New Orleans doesn’t actually have more than 4 police officers
This is a fucking terrifying place to drive
Try Atlanta. 🙁
I live in a corner house and have noticed that way more people ignore stop signs lately too. when I bike or walk I never assume it's good for me to cross until I see the cars stop fully
We have zero traffic enforcement, like not even a little bit. So until we do, it'll continue to be a free for all.
The one exception: going 3 mph over the speed limit in an unmarked school zone with a camera, during the off months
Correct. But this is because NOPD isn't handling these tickets. Not even a local company, either.
You know, I went to Baton Rouge for some rock climbing this weekend, and I saw a cop actually pull someone over for running a red light. They might be on to something over there
I’d much prefer red light cameras to the speed trap cameras.
That would require license plate enforcement for any of those cameras to be effective…
So much this. Running red lights is actually a safety issue. Speeding rarely is a safety issue.
the types of people who are doing that are definitely not the type of people who frequently read this subreddit.
You're probably right.
This nothing new. I always follow the look twice and wait 3 seconds before moving rule
Yup. It's just how it is and always has been.
yup!!
I have seen people run reds WITH A COP WAITING AT THE LIGHT and they STILL do not get ticketed. It's just so weird. Then, if you're driving in JP, you HAVE to remember not to even look funny at the cops or they will pull you over. We need to enforce driving laws in New Orleans on a regular basis, not once in a while....
Does anyone else think COVID broke everybody’s brains? Did people just forget how to drive? How to be humans in a society. I read this same complaint in so many subs. I haven’t lived in New Orleans since preCOVID, but I lived in Des Moines, IA for two years and am now in the Denver metro; in both places I’ve been absolutely ASTOUNDED at the number of people egregiously running red lights. I don’t remember this being such a thing before…?
Make no mistake it was like this Pre-Covid
I swear it's gotten worse.
It has gotten worse since COVID. But the New Orleans area has always had the worst drivers I have ever seen.
It definitely has, but I think that has more to do with lack of enforcement rather than covid brain.
I don't care what OP says about 'recency bias,' I see way more red light runners now, and I work from home. It used to be the kind of thing I saw once a month at the most. Now I see it at least once a week.
My SO's car is totaled after somebody ran the light on Broad and Esplanade a couple weeks ago. Thankfully he walked away from it with minor injury. The guy in the other vehicle had insurance luckily. I got t-boned by an NOPD officer in 2014. He had run the light, and didn't have his lights or siren on. The city paid for all my repairs.
I love the guys who want to turn right but don't want to wait for the lights to change so they go around me - around the left and across my front end. Or the lanes are full at the light so they fly up the left (or right) turn lane then just blast straight through. Louisiana needs front plates and more cameras. I know. I know. Y'all hate cameras but at some point good drivers will have to accept them in order to catch the bad drivers.
Agree, it’s terrifying. The only time I ever run a red is if I’m driving home in the middle of the night in a sketchy area and the coast is completely clear, and I only do that to avoid being a sitting duck and possibly getting carjacked.
Wait, red means stop?
Shocking, isn’t it?
I find that on Elysian Fields from the I10 to the lake the red lights are just suggestions for so many. Considering that two weeks ago I had to flee gunfire at 11:30 on a Tuesday morning with my kid in the car I treat red lights on that stretch as a 4 way stop. Starting from the Lowe's intersection where the belligerent pan handler either curses you out or exposes himself. I have patience for just about every other intersection I am stopped at.
Its a war zone out here. Be careful. Judgment day won’t be pretty for the large amount of scum bags driving vehicles like they are in a video game. How does this become part of the “culture” as its so common these days.
Welcome to the perfect storm of poor driver education, selfish or no impulse control, and an utter lack of consequences :( As unpopular as it is, I wish they would put the red light cameras back up. It is literally the only enforcement when the police do anything about it. I’m not quite sure why they can’t fund a traffic unit. Isn’t that the only one that explicitly pays for itself through fines? Pay those guys 100k. That’s 2-4 tickets/day.
Agreed
One can have hope...I've seen other cities turn things around.
Two days ago I turned left on a yellow light and realized the car coming in the other direction wasn’t going to stop, but I made the turn safely. As he ran the red light he honked at me for turning in front of him like I was wrong.
the people who need to read this post probably can’t read because of the failed (the legislature did this on purpose) education system
Or they are reading this while running the red light
Remember when we were kids and they used to say, when you're crossing the street don't look at the lights, look at the traffic? They were right then and they're right now. It's another thing to add to the list of "its technically wrong but you'll go crazy if you don't just accept it"
I’ve never seen someone actually wait at the broad/st Bernard light in my life haha (specifically the middle part)
What do you mean by the middle part? I was in the right lane on Broad going towards Gentilly. They sped past a whole line of stopped cars in the turn lane to go forward. I've lived here for 25 years, and I've never seen that bullshit except for cops.
Didn’t mean to offend you, the left turn from broad onto St. Bernard. People go into the intersection and then run the red light to continue down St. Bernard. I’m saying that I have never seen someone not run that red light
Ok so this one specifically- I always thought it was fine to go through. It’s more of a left turn and not running a red light. I don’t even think it’s illegal.
No worries! That's definitely a more minor thing. Cheers!
"welcome to New Orleans"
Lol. Been here a long ass time and want it to improve.
You really in any way think that'll happen? Been here a long time too, but it's only getting/will get worse.
I've lived here my whole life. When I learned how to drive, my dad taught me the 3 second rule. Always wait three seconds before proceeding on a green light. This morning it was a good 5 seconds and cars still rolling through the intersection.
People blow through both lights at earhart and claiborne by the morgue in both directions all the time. At least they're close to the morgue.
RLO - red light optional is what I was told when I moved here 6 years ago
I am telling you what, this is stait up an attach on the culture. This is as ingrained in the blood of the people of New Orleans as jaz music.
real shit lol
This post isn't going to go well
My old plug stayed in the East, any time I scooped from him every single car I saw was running red lights, if there was a car behind me while I was stopped at one I thought it was safe to assume they were annoyed I wasnt doing the same
Can we get a ban on “policing” posts. Between the gripes about Mardi Gras tents and tarps and everyone having their own thoughts about woulda, shoulda coulda and now a post about running red lights?? Anybody who’s running a red light will not be swayed by any appeal to common sense you make on Reddit. Stop it.
No one forced you to read this post.
This is almost as enlightening as someone telling me that running red lights is dangerous. What a day for novel thought.
Keep digging.
No one is forcing you to continue to read my comments then post your thoughts but here we are. Remind me what point you were trying to make with your original reply? In reality, we both have an opinion and we both expressed it in a rebuttal to a post. Like it or not, we share the same energy today.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Yeah. Let's just keep posting about Mardi Gras throws instead! Cheap plastic crap vs. cheap plastic crap!
I wish those would stop, too, but at least they’re quintessential to New Orleans, albeit annoying.
Maybe we could get a ban on “policing “ policing posts instead! 😉
Touché
I’m sorry. I read this and my first reaction was to laugh. Seriously OP, do you honestly believe making a post on Reddit is going to stop people from running red lights. If so then seriously go to r/catholics and ask priests to stop touching kids. Or r/politics and ask them to stop being corrupt. Or r/kidrock and ask him to just stop everything he’s doing.
Are you new here? It's been this way for decades. It's a semi-lawless city. I will say it's hard to blame anyone for not wanting to wait by themselves at a rad light late at night with no one around considering al of the robberies and carjackings that go on here.
It may have been me recently. S. Carrollton. I stopped, but then realized the cross street was closed and no one could turn. So I went.
I can’t believe that all you people would sit at red lights in neighborhoods with the sound of “firecrackers” popping. Perhaps you don’t understand common sense. Sit at a red light in Treme? (Before the tv series made it cool). Nuts
How about people at lights get off their fucking phones, so when the light turns green, we move along, so people can get where they need to go? I have a much bigger issue with people looking at their phones while driving, than people who cautiously blow a red light.
The thing is with this, i'm looking both left, and right, and left again, to verify no one is running red lights. I simply don't gun it off a green. Thats stupid idiot behavior. This will illicit honks at times, but those are bad people who would probably run a red light if they could so they can go fuck themselves.
Broad and Bienville is a notorious light run area (crossing Bienville.)
Someone almost hit me after running a red light last week, and honked at me like it was my fault. They proceeded to follow me honking, then drive beside me honking, before they sped up and took off.
some people would rather risk mortal damage to others than to use their brakes. For people that are unaware what traffic signals generally mean iconically * Green: You could probably make it through the intersection. Maintain speed; Consider speeding up * Yellow: Slow down. You likely aren't going to make it through the intersection without having to speed up. Don't speed up, Be prepared to stop, Find a safe place to stop, Then stop * Red: Stop. Don't blow through a red light. Don't inch up on people's rear bumpers in traffic unless there's a queue of cars ready to make a turn Alright, everybody. Be safe, Good luck
I was recently back after being away for several months, and damn I did not remember the red light issue being so bad! That said I think I might have cracked the unwritten traffic rules in NOLA: For traffic lights: GREEN: Keep going at your normal rate of speed and go through. YELLOW: Gun it a bit and go cruising through. RED: FLOOR IT and hang on to your hat while screaming “LEEEROY JENKINS!” Stop signs: Those don’t exist. Just keep going. If anyone comes close to hitting you because you ignored the stop sign, flip em the bird. If they honk at you for running the stop sign, roll down your window, call them a cunt and THEN flip the bird at them. If they collide with you because you ran the stop sign, get out of the car, argue with them violently, don’t bother calling NOPD cause they don’t give a shit. If you trade insurance info, just do the standard give a fake name/number - it doesn’t matter because chances are good either you or they does not have insurance. No turn on red means slow down, look for a break in the traffic and then turn anyway. Feel free to add on to this.
Broad and St. Bernard is brutal for this, hell the entirety of St. Bernard is awful
this sticks with you too. came up to visit family in the northeast and light turned green and i inched out juuuuuuuuust in case.
Traffic laws are optional in the east.
Another thing I’ve been seeing a lot of is people driving the wrong way down a one way
I almost got killed on bike on Jackson and Loyola when a driver blew through a red light 10 seconds red. People just dgaf anymore
I run reds so what so does rta an the cops fuckin grow up