Mrs. HM has been extra cranky this week. Yes. It IS possible.
First I read that a ROUNDABOUT is being installed on my regular route to the bank and The Pony's house and the flip house(s). Okay. I've known for two years that this process was in motion. But it wasn't immediate. Just something to put in the back of my mind and not worry about just yet. Well. NOW is the time to worry! Construction starts on June 9th.
I can't imagine this being a success. We are NOT ENGLAND! Hillmomba is not even an island! We don't need roundabouts! We have plenty of land for highway entrance and exit ramps, and we are trained to sit at stoplights and wait our turn. Some are trained better than others...
Anyhoo... construction will last until MID-DECEMBER!!! I will have to take the alternate route through Backroads, past the lake, on the winding blacktop road. It's not THAT bad, but will take longer. The worst part will be other traffic taking that road, including big trucks that see the center line as only a suggestion.
Not only was reading that news depressing, but the very next day, another article appeared, letting us know that there will be construction at the intersection in front of the Sis-Town Casey's!!! That's where I get T-Hoe's gas every Thursday! So now I will have to take an alternate route in that area as well. This project will start on June 23rd, and last six to eight weeks.
Mrs. HM can't catch a break.
6 comments:
In my town of around 5000 people, they put in 1 roundabout several years back. Those of an elderly age did not do well with the transition and often held up the traffic it was supposed to prevent. Over time, their knowledge improved and met with success, the town (city) decided to add another, and then another and then, one more. Yep, that's 4 so far and likely planning for another somewhere in the area. Having been to Scotland and England, we were familiar with roundabouts. However, the ones over there are multiple lanes, where ours are just 2 lanes, one that gets you turned around etc., and one for exiting the roundabout. (We got introduced to roundabouts and driving on the left side of the road and a right sided driver, manual shift driven car, all at the same time. Thankfully my husband is a fast learner. I would have gotten us killed or at the very least, run out of the country and told to never come back.) Once you get used to them, they are really way better than sitting at a light while traffic builds up. We used to see traffic lined up from 1 set of traffic lights to the next. You rarely cleared both lights and it would have been faster to walk to your destination. The highway put in many years ago, by passed this town and it was both a blessing and a curse. Less traffic but also less shopping. Ranee
I offer you my empathy! We had a major road construction project in progress when we moved here. It is a well used connector highway that takes you from North Carolina into Georgia. It appeared to be nearly done when we arrived. They kept digging it up and then repaving, leaving traffic to the men with stop and go flags. Finally, it was completed and is a nice smooth route, until you hit the Georgia state line. It goes back to two lanes with rough pavement. The road is less than 10 miles. Now Georgia has decided to 4 lane the next road to civilization where our doctors have offices. Dealing with lane closures again, we are wondering how long this is going to take. This means that we have to add at least 20 extra minutes to get to an appointment. But the ride with my back out of whack was a nightmare!! Then we went to Murphy downtown to eat not long ago to discover a hateful roundabout slap dab in the middle of two where a traffic light used to reside. These are simple folk with no idea how to navigate a roundabout! At least they knew to stop on red, now they have been seen circling endlessly before figuring out how to get off the merry-go-round! The reasoning is that it will save money in the long run with no lights to need power or maintenance. Who really knows?
Rae,
That's about the size of our towns around here. We already have two roundabouts, over by the bowling alley and the local high school. The HS kids loved them when they first opened, and drover round and round for fun. There's not nearly as much traffic in that area (except when school lets out) as compared to this new roundabout. It's a really busy intersection with lots of truck traffic. The current roundabout has crushed bricks in the middle right now from a truck running over them. Not just the bricks that make a little border next to the pavement, but the bricks that made a low wall nearer the center. I can't imagine these big trucks at the new roundabout!
I commend you (well, your husband!) for such driving skills! I can drive a stick, and navigate a one-lane roundabout, but I can't imagine mastering all those tasks at once.
Kathy,
I think it's a fad, and money is being doled out for these roundabouts, so everybody wants a piece of that pie! This intersection connects Hwy 67, the major N/S interstate on the eastern side of Missouri, with Hwy 8, a two-lane blacktop state road that gets traffic over to Hwy 44 at Steeleville. So lots of semi trucks that want to cut over there without going through St. Louis or the bottom of the state across Hwy 60.
Thanks for the empathy! I wish you completion of that project, and a speedier trip to doctors!
My city has several roundabouts and they have been there for decades, you'd think people would have learned how to use them by now, but still there are some who don't have a clue.
River,
The trucks are our main problem. They don't bend around the circle, and get their tires up on the middle, which destroys the bricks, which then need a repair crew clogging up the traffic.
The new roundabout will have about 20X the vehicles passing through, compared to the current ones by the school. The way drivers run the red lights around here, I can only imagine how many will dart into the roundabout in front of cars already there, causing much brake-slamming and honking and bird-flipping. (And that's just from me, heh, heh!)
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