Dear Drivetime: The intersection of Markham and Chenal has "youth" out on most weekends fundraising. Some would say panhandling. Does the city allow this? Sometimes they have signs or wear uniforms, but sometimes there is no identification. Sometimes they're aggressive. -- Flabbergasted
Dear Flabbered: Officer Michelle S. Hill is in public affairs for the Little Rock Police Department. That means she has to answer our impertinent questions. She did so gracefully.
Such fundraising requires a city permit, Hill said. "Please have your reader call 911, and an officer will respond."
If the group has no permit, she said, a citation will likely be issued.
Dear Mahatma: Arkansas 5 between Arkansas 7 and Benton has backward L's on the side of the road. They are white with a black edge. I tried to figure out the significance, but they don't match up with mileage or mark a side road. What are they? -- Keep Eye on Road
Dear Keep: The markings are part of a project to widen 1.3 miles of Arkansas 5 to five lanes, build two bridges and add sidewalks.
The L markings are for aerial surveying. The markings are known as LiDAR targets. In the parlance of technology, the acronym means light detection and ranging. The surveyors in the sky used a laser-scanning sensor to collect data. LiDAR maps ground features, and measure vertical and horizontal clearances.
Dear Sir Mahatma: I see people driving with earbuds, listening to loud music. Even -- gasp! -- my daughter. I also see walkers with earbuds on the wrong side of the street with their back to traffic. Should there be a law? I say this to my daughter, a 30-something with three children, but what do I know? -- Concerned
Dear Concerned: You are wise. We mostly think of distracted driving in the context of texting or talking on a cellphone, but there are many other driving distractions. Including three children in the back seat. What if your daughter has on her earbuds and someone honks out a warning? Or an emergency vehicle comes up behind her? What if one of her kids finds a plastic fork in the back seat and stabs his little brother?
There is a law, one cited here many times: Careless and Prohibited Driving, Arkansas Code Annotated 27-51-104. One of the many violations is described as operating a vehicle "in any manner when the driver is inattentive and such inattention is not reasonable and prudent in maintaining vehicular control."
Could be worse. In the last week, The Mahatma has seen one driver applying her makeup while driving down a busy city street. And another shaving. The guy had an electric shaver plugged into the car charger. He was shaving with his left hand and driving with his right.
Regarding pedestrians, it makes no sense to walk with back to traffic, earbuds in. Face traffic. Listen to the birds make their own music.
Vanity plate seen on a Jeep: 1GR8TOY
Mahatma@arkansasonline.com
Metro on 09/13/2014