Greensboro police address traffic complaints

GREENSBORO, N.C. (WGHP) – If you’ve got a traffic complaint, Greensboro police officers want to hear from you.

The department has rolled out a new hotline where you can report your concerns. Officers are also out putting up signs in certain areas urging people to stop at stop signs.

One of those is at the intersection of Pitt Place and New Hanover Drive just off West Cornwallis Drive. It’s one of several intersections where drivers will see them.

They’re placed at the bottom of the stop sign. They say “it’s your choice” and show that not stopping could cost you $241 in fines and court fees. The sign at Pitt Place went up Tuesday morning after police got a complaint about people rolling through the stop sign.

“People just aren’t paying attention,” said Billy Livingston, who’s lived on New Hanover Drive for more than two decades. “They’re coming off the Cornwallis and using this as a cut through street either to go to Friendly Center or to go back down to Bog Garden area or who knows where, and they’re not even slowing down.”

Livingston said in the time he’s lived in the area, the number of drivers not slowing down at this stop sign has grown.

“We’ve just noticed it more in the last year or two, and there’s a lot of repeat offenders,” he said.

It’s an area where many people walk and many kids play outside, and Livingston worries someone is going to get hurt.

“We’re going to have a nasty motor vehicle crash at this intersection if somebody doesn’t start obeying the law,” he said.

It’s why he reported the complaint to Greensboro police. Within hours, an officer came to the intersection and put up a sign letting people know it’s free to stop, but if you don’t, it’ll cost you.

“That’s probably our number one … complaint for the city is going to be traffic related, whether it’s speeding, aggressive driving, stop signs, red lights,” Officer James West said.

FOX8 crews spotted the signs up at the intersection of Alderman and North Hampton Drives as well as at Pembroke and Huntington Roads. There, our crews watched car after car barely stop at the sign before pulling out into the intersection.

“We just want people to treat this neighborhood and all the neighborhoods respectfully and … be careful when you’re cutting through a neighborhood,” said Peter Sangimino, who lives in Greensboro.

People living in these areas hope it will make drivers think twice about rolling through a stop sign.

“I hope they’ll read that sign and take it to heart,” Livingston said. “You shouldn’t have to put that sign up. There’s already a sign here. It tells you what to do.”

Officers are also ramping up patrols in the areas where you see the signs up.

If you do have a traffic complaint, you can call (336) 373-SLOW or fill out the city’s online form .

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