Follow the rules when bequeathing car

We do our best to help explain the myriad of Department of Motor Vehicle laws on the books, but once in awhile someone runs into an obscure little rule. S.K. recently did just that and wrote in to share her findings. Here goes:

When I decided to leave my vehicle to my daughter in my will, I thought I'd better check first with the DMV, so I posed this question to the department's Penny Peabody. Can you leave someone a vehicle in your will?

According to Peabody, the Nevada DMV doesn't recognize wills. The reason is that they have no way of knowing if the will being presented is indeed the most current will for the estate. Here is the solution:

If there is not a lien on the vehicle, the easiest and cheapest way to designate a beneficiary is to file a "Transfer on Death Application" with the DMV for a charge of $20. You will receive a new title with your beneficiary's name and transfer on death behind it.

Kristine is tired of detours: Centennial Parkway between Statz and Palmer streets in North Las Vegas has been closed after a month. What's up with that?

Good news here, according to the city of North Las Vegas, this stretch of Centennial is scheduled to reopen by the end of next week.

Jeff and several other readers in North Las Vegas shared concerns about Cheyenne Avenue: The road work on Cheyenne from Martin Luther King to Rainbow has left miles worth of raised manhole covers and small circular "plugs" about six inches in diameter, turning the street into an obstacle course. Are there plans to bring the road in their immediate area up to their raised height?

Yes, that is the plan. The projections above the roadway are temporary until the pavement work is completed. Once Cheyenne is repaved, the road will be level again. Public works crews have to wait until the weather is consistently warmer before the resurfacing phase begins.

Gail doesn't understand how so many motorists can get away with disregarding laws related to high-occupancy vehicle lanes: We are originally from Washington, where HOV lanes are almost sacred -- people don't cheat! What an amazing money making resource is right under our law enforcement's noses, and they pay no attention at all. Why don't they enforce this?

Well, Gail, Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper Chelita Rojas insists that law enforcement officers do enforce this law, although she could not immediately provide citation statistics. The fine, by the way, can be as much as $250 for offenders. One problem the Highway Patrol faces is a lack of manpower, so they can't camp out on U.S. Highway 95 in search of offenders. "It is one of the things we do look for on the highways," Rojas said.

Last week we addressed the traffic light question that was driving David nuts: He wondered why you can make a U-turn at all corners of the intersection of Tropicana Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard except when you're traveling east on Tropicana.

We're going to revisit this question because the Nevada Department of Transportation provided some additional information that might help explain the situation. First off, there is a huge volume of traffic turning right onto Tropicana from Las Vegas Boulevard to get to Interstate 15. The movement of that traffic would be severely interrupted if motorists were making U-turns at Tropicana.

Secondly, when New York-New York was built, it was decided that it would be better to have motorists who missed the Tropicana entrance to the resort continue on to Las Vegas Boulevard and enter there rather than make a U-turn.

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