Above photo: Revenue Corner can be found at WB I-80 and McCarran
For the longest time, it was fun to watch people coming off westbound I-80 at McCarran, pull up to the red light, stop quickly, then turn onto McCarran, only to get nailed by a cop. Invariably, you'd hear the siren first, then a motorcycle cop would spring out of the bushes to the right (next to the IHOP). I dunno, maybe the FOURTEEN signs reading, "No Right Turn On Red," could have been your first clue, but so many people ignore it that they might as well name the spot Revenue Corner.
I don't run that red light because there's no damn point in it. Plus, it really is a trickier turn than it looks, so I truly side with the law on this one. I'll even go out of my way not to be first in that lane to avoid a-holes behind me honking at me to go.
So, it was with some amusement the other day that I noticed they've changed the game on us. Now, instead of sitting to the right in the bushes, motorcycle cops are set back a good five hundred feet under the overpass to the left.
Touche' RPD. It's a good move, because locals accustomed to scanning the bushes for a motorcycle cop will take a quick look, then go ahead and run the light, only to be caught unawares from behind.
As they say, forewarned is forearmed.
Below, a google street map view of the new trap's location.
Reno blogger James Ball was born in 1973 and raised in North Georgia, attending the University of Georgia in Athens. He and his wife, Pam, moved to Lake Tahoe in 1995, eventually settling in Reno in the early 2000s. They live in Northwest Reno with their two boys, Thomas and Alex. James is a web editor at the Reno Gazette-Journal.
