Dear Mr. Know-It-All:
Recently, while motoring around our beautiful San Juan County, I came across an intersection with no stop sign or yield sign for any of the roads leading into it. What gives, and is it safe?
Signed,
Stop and Go
Dear Stop,
This is pretty common along oilfield roads in the more rural areas of San Juan County; that’s why you might see trucks bound for the oil and gas fields with fluorescent orange flags flying from tall poles on their vehicles. They’re a visible sign that another driver can see if they are both approaching a “blind” and “uncontrolled” intersection at the same time. However, in our willy-nilly rush-to-get-there life, Mr. Know-It-All cannot think of driving through an intersection in more, let’s say “paved” areas of San Juan County, where there aren’t any traffic lights or signage to determine who goes when.
Mr. Know-It-All reached back out to Stop and Go to get the details on this wild west intersection, where there are apparently no rules and survival of the fittest is the law of the land. I found out that no, this isn’t in some far-flung corner of San Juan County; it’s actually in the city of Farmington, although not along heavily traveled streets.
Here it is: the intersection of W. 32 Street and Mesa Drive. It could be four directions of anarchy if you’re not careful. What happened to the sign? Was it the victim of a late-night, teenage dare? Is it gracing the wall of a nearby man cave or she shed? Mr. Know-It-All took this discovery to Demetrius Henry, Traffic Engineer with the City of Farmington. In looking through city records, Henry told me that this intersection never had a stop sign or a yield sign, but with further review of nearby intersections, ” … this is the only one along 32nd Street that does not have a stop/yield sign. Therefore, to maintain consistency in this area, I will create a work order to have a yield sign installed” he told me.
As you’re reading this, crews should have finished installing the shiny new yield sign at the intersection, so it shouldn’t be too much of a shock for drivers in that neighborhood.
Do you know what to do if you approach an intersection that is uncontrolled, or has no signage, traffic lights, or road markings indicating the right of way? Mr. Know-It-All has to admit: he went back to the New Mexico Driver Manual, which states, “At an intersection where there is no stop sign, yield sign or traffic signal, drivers must yield to vehicles coming from the right.” The old right-of-way rules come into play, yet again.
Mr. Know-It-All realizes it may still feel like taking your life in your hands when you’re just going out to grab some milk from the store, and some of our fellow motorists treat red lights and stop signs as optional and not mandatory traffic control devices, but hopefully, everyone will drive with a little more care and for the love of everything mobile, please, please use your turn signal!
Mr. Know-It-All is Scott Michlin, the general manager of KSJE 90.9FM community-supported radio at San Juan College. When he’s not answering questions here or on the radio, you might find him teaching public speaking or mass media classes at San Juan College, or serving on the board of directors for San Juan United Way, Presbyterian Medical Services, or the San Juan Symphony.
If you have a question about something in San Juan County, drop him a line at SMichlin@tricityrecordnm.com. If he doesn’t know the answer, he knows someone who does, and you’ll read about it here in the pages of the Tri-City Record!