Is there ANY traffic enforcement around here?
From time to time this blog has written about how car dealers' delivery trucks get to block center left turn lanes or traffic lanes whenever they feel like it and how the CHP doesn't really have a problem with it. It's one thing for the FedEx guy to stop in the street to deliver a package. He's gone in a flash. And we can maybe understand when the occasional moving van does it because it hardly ever happens. The auto delivery rigs are another matter, though. They do it all the time. They take a long time to unload. And there are lots of them. You and I would get tickets if we blocked the roadways, but the trucks that deliver cars to Fulton District dealerships and used car lots get a pass. Their use of the public roadways is more important than other people's, you see.
Don't fault the car dealers, though. It was never a priority for the County to think about having car sales places make arrangements for delivery of their inventory so as to not interfere with the rest of us. Don't blame the CHP, either. They are just contractors doing the minimum their contract stipulates. And their client, the County, must be satisfied with the relaxed way traffic laws are applied here, because the County keeps renewing the CHP contract. Despite our tax money paying for enforcement that doesn't happen, the arrangements are structured such that complaints to the CHP are not heard by the County. And if anyone bothers to complain to the County, the complaint is shunted on to the CHP, which means the County is able to ignore the complaint. It makes one wonder what the point is of paying for the CHP in the first place.
This issue is not just about traffic violations by automobile delivery trucks. Consider speeding. It's pretty common throughout our community; everyone does it. Speeding is another traffic law that is supposed to be enforced, but isn't. Again: The County contracts with the CHP and the CHP takes the money but says it doesn't have patrol units. The County spends municipal service tax money for services that aren't delivered. Does that make sense?
