To Yield or Not to Yield

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This week readers want to know if you still need to stop at a stop sign if there is also a yield sign (Confused? Don’t worry I’ll explain.) and is there any way to avoid getting a temporary permit if you buy a car from a friend?

Bob Kalman asks: Sharon Coats forgot to tell you something when you addressed her question about the Dean Martin Drive and Cactus Avenue intersection in your May 6 column. When traveling south on Dean Martin toward the intersection with Cactus the road splits into two lanes. There is a stop sign in between the two lanes and a yield sign on the right of the right hand lane, which is a right turn only lane. So, if you are turning right, do you stop or do you just yield at the intersection?

Last week, Sharon had informed me that when she stopped at the stop sign to turn right from Dean Martin onto Cactus, she was harassed by the horns of other motorists. She wanted to know what to do. I told her: You gotta stop at stop signs.

But Bob and many, many other readers told me about the second sign. So I went down and checked out the situation and learned they are correct, that there is a yield sign posted to the right of the road.

Of course, there is also that big old — and, dare I say, confusing stop sign — in between the left and the right southbound lanes.

I checked with the traffic management folks with Clark County and their intention seems to be to allow those motorists turning right onto Cactus from southbound Dean Martin a more fluid movement at the intersection.

Herbert Arnold with Clark County traffic management wrote me in an e-mail, "The stop sign is for the southbound through movement and the yield is for the south to west movement."

Public works spokesman Bobby Shelton further explained, "Basically, a motorist (in his/her respective travel lane) is to obey the first posted sign to his/her right."

It did take me a while, but I found the state law that allows such a dual-signed intersection.

Nevada Revised Statute 484.785, section 1, states, "the Department of Transportation and local authorities … may designate any intersection as a stop intersection or as a yield intersection and erect stop signs or yield signs at one or more entrances to such an intersection."

The key words are "at one or more entrances to such an intersection," which happens to be the case at Dean Martin and Cactus.

To recap: If you’re turning right from southbound Dean Martin onto westbound Cactus, obey the yield sign.

And for Sharon, by following the yield sign you’ll probably hear less honking from other drivers.

Punda Pai asks: I am buying a car from a friend in the Los Angeles area. I will have the title of the car and proof of insurance. Can I get a smog test done with California plates? If so, can I then register the car directly without first getting a temporary permit. Also, because the vehicle was once registered in Nevada do I need to get a vehicle identification number inspection?

This certainly is quite the multi-part question.

I checked with Tom Jacobs, a spokesman for the Department of Motor Vehicles, for the multi-part answer.

Yes, you can go get the smog test done even with California plates, Jacobs said. If you do get the smog test done with the California plates, you then can go register the vehicle directly without needing a temporary permit.

But Jacobs doesn’t suggest doing it that way.

He warned that if something happened to the vehicle while the registration was in another person’s name, you could run into issues with the insurance company.

"My recommendation would be to bring in the title and get a permit and remove the California plates," he said.

And to answer the final question, Jacobs added that as long as the vehicle has already been registered in Nevada there is no need to have the vehicle identification number inspection done.

If you have a question, tip or tirade, call Francis McCabe at (702) 387-2904, or send an e-mail to roadwarrior@reviewjournal.com. Please include your phone number.