Things like this genuinely tick me off. Near my house there is an intersection - routes 113 and 30, if you know it - that has been the way it has for years. It's been that way as long as I remember, anyway, and probably longer than that.
Now I'll admit to you that the intersection is strangely organized. Whenver we give directions to people coming to visit from out of town, we have to carefully describe how to go through this intersection. It is a little confusing, but only really for people who are both unfamiliar with the layout of the intersection and needing to enter the few blocks of housing back where I live. Most of the traffic coming from that direction (from 113) is going to turn left or right onto 30, making the decision of how to navigate the intersection quite trivial.
Well it seems that in their quest to screw up all the roads in Downingtown, they've decided to reconstruct that intersection. Construction began this morning, and as I drove through it, I was left with the impression that traffic designers haven't the slightest care for efficiency.
They had strung the new lights a week or two ago, and I was curious how they were going to orient drivers to face the lights, which were incorrectly aligned to the direction of traffic coming from Whiteland Ave. As it turns out, they're ripping up the whole road and forcing cars to aim toward the lights. That's not so bad, really, except they have now removed the right-turn lane.
It's obvious that this wasn't an oversight on the part of the designer because they clearly re-lined the road already to indicate that the single lane that will now be available is for turning any direction. There is a big white three-way arrow on the gorund there now.
I wonder if anyone bothered to ask the question, "Do you people who will be affected by this change actually want this?" It seems to me like someone was thinking to fix a problem that does not exist. The main problem with that intersection is not the aiming of Whiteland Ave. northward, but how traffic coming from the south or east must yield to northbound traffic coming from the west. If it is their intent to fix this problem, then I'm glad, but I don't see why Whiteland Ave. had to be forced into one lane to accomplish this goal.
Moreover, since I'm known to see conspiracies everywhere, why do I not know about these changes? I mean, I live there, and only found out about it when they started painting new lines in the road. There has got to be a better way to obtain information about how my local government is screwing me.
And while I'm on the topic of things that irritated me while driving today, I want to repeat that area bicyclists are stupid. I passed two bikers on the street today. This is not a big deal. But no more than 20 feet to the left of the road, there is a bike trail, made specifically for bikes.Â
Now just to elminate any possibility of excuse for them, the bike trail crosses this road in two places. I passed the bikers between these two crossing points. In the stretch of road between these two crossing points there is nothing. There is no house, no road, no path. Nothing.
I realize that bicyclists have every right to be on the road if they want to, but come on! There is a freakin' path designed for your travel, away from the dangers of me running you down for your stupidity. The path even connects to the larger path in town, and that path probably goes everywhere you might need to go.
It was pretty clear from their appearance that they weren't "professional" riders. These two were just out for a ride. Don't get me wrong, the "professional" riders are much worse, insisting on biking on the windingest 1.5-lane blind-turn high-traffic roads. There should be bicycle police, and they should have guns, and just shoot these examples of evolution at work.
