Do NOT Do the U

In Manhattan and Brooklyn, unwritten traffic rules dictate that you can make a U-turn pretty much any time you want -- unless you're driving a cab, in which case police will invariably give you a ticket. At least that's what the cab drivers will tell you. If you get into a taxi outside 35 W. 81st St (just down the street from where I grew up) and wanted to go across town, the driver could take you over to Columbus Ave, down to 77th St, back to Central Park West, and back up to 81st St (a half-mile trip) -- or he could just make an 'illegal' Yuwee, and you'd be headed to the East Side just a block later.

But only cabbies have to deal with the cops for U-turns in NYC. In Manhattan and Brooklyn, I used to do U-turns right in front of police cars, sometimes slowing them down as they lazily scanned the nabe for miscreants In New Paltz, things are a bit different.

A few days ago, I was on my way back from Starbucks when a squad car that had been parked nearby suddenly put on its lights behind me. I pulled out of the way, assuming that the officer wanted to get past me in order to respond to a call. Nope. He explained that he'd spotted me doing a U-turn before I'd parked across from the Starbucks. I told him that I was new to New Paltz and that I didn't know about that rule. He let me off with a warning. I guess that's another way that NP is different from NY.