LAPD's losing battle to control the new 6th Street Bridge

Originally published at: LAPD's losing battle to control the new 6th Street Bridge | Boing Boing

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Who you gonna call?

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So, are there places in LA to drag race? A track or what have you? I know that won’t stop all street racing, but if there is a legit place to do that sort of thing, some people will use it.

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Why they don’t just post a couple of squad cars there? There are 10,000 LAPD officers.

They’ll only do it if they believe that these drag-racing arseholes are mostly Black and LatinX. Otherwise, it’s boys being boys as far as they’re concerned.

climbed on it in ways the designers should have anticipated

I’ll always remember an industrial designer I knew explaining that his safety approach was to look at the item in question through the eyes of a hyperactive eight-year-old boy. The designers of this bridge would obviously have benefited from this approach.

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I somehow suspect the people hooning on that bridge aren’t the kale salad-eating, organic wine shop-loving DTLA crowd.

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True. This object of public infrastructure seems to exist as some sort of meta version of an “attractive nusiance” that draws in stupid and reckless young adults.

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There’s a perfectly good concrete river bed to race in below the bridge, if movies have taught me anything.

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Maybe they need to impound even more cars from violators, but frankly I’m a little surprised how bold these street racers seem to be considering that a number have been impounded already.

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Jason covered that in the tag on the article.

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There are several race tracks and drag strips within an hour or so of LA. The issue here is that this fad for ‘street takeovers’ is at its peak right now and there are 7 to 10 of them per night in various places in the area. They aren’t interested in drag racing on the bridge. They are interested in doing burnouts, stunts, and generally acting like fools.

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This problem, street take overs on the bridge, is relatively easy to solve. Put jersey barriers down the median of the bridge. The road surface will then be too narrow for their stupid games. Once the take over fad has passed, they can remove the median barrier and restore the looks.

Climbing on the bridge, that is something that should have been considered while designing the thing. Since it wasn’t, I’m sure they will end up installing chain link fences with barbed wire at the top.

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and holy cow are they dangerous and in dangerous places.

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It’s been a problem on the DC beltway. ATVs and dirt bikes shutting down traffic for races and spin outs. It’s been quiet for a while now since the police crushed a bunch of confiscated rides.

Drag racing on nearby Indianhead HWY in Md. is anther story all together. It attracts the late model Corvettes, Mercedes, Lambos and the like. Drive there at night at your own peril.

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It’s pretty surprising to me the way that drag racers have taken over the bridge so brazenly. It’s the very definition of a high-visibility and easily-enforced location, yet they persist and don’t seem to get caught somehow? Drag racers used to pick deserted industrial back roads with lots of exit routes to avoid getting caught. I can’t help but feel this is a political statement against police as much as it is anything else.

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They get caught. They get impounded. They keep coming back.

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I learned a new word today.

Ah - that happens here in KC some times. I have seen videos from down town KC, and have driven down streets all marked up with tire marks.

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Are they Fast and Furious?

driving fast and furious GIF

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Now, if they were all wearing animal-like costumes, they’d be Fast and Furry-ous.

:: shows self the door ::

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If the movies are accurate, I’m not sure I’d wanna be riding around in the viaduct either.

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