Morning Commute

It was cold, March morning...a sort of bone-chilling frosty day for late March. Even after a cozy night of being parked in the gargage, my trusty Civic didn't have time to warm up so it was a cold 2 minute commute to the office today:(

October 29, 2009

It seems that others have been heard my message about the red-light runners in town and are taking action. Extra police officers will be assigned to monitor the red-running intersections and issue tickets for red-runners starting in November. At $300 per ticket, the police ought have a nice holiday (can't say Christmas) party this year. A Tyler attorney has an ad on tv and in which he is standing at the intersection of Broadway and the loop complaining about the red-runners and the damage they cause. Even my dental hygenist talked about the traffic problems she encounters on her daily commute as she was cleaning my teeth this morning. I wanted to, but couldn't, tell her about the Roadrunner blog as a means to share her frustration with others, but my mouth was hanging open and filled a cold steel instrument making an ear-piercing sound as she scraped it on my teeth...but that's another story.

The moral of today's story is that everyone knows people are running red lights every single day, and at every single light in town. Drivers like to complain about the traffic light system and blame the engineers and the computer system that controls it but the real problem is the people who think they are exempt from driving regulations. Maybe it's time for those ignorant folks to go back to driving kindergarten and learn how to share the road with other roadmates...remember our state slogan "drive friendly".

Today's irritation is the "squeeze play". You'd think that most people know where they're going at 8am...probably the same place they go 5 days a week - to work or maybe school. However, it seems they are never sure where to turn and at the last minute, they need to cut in front of you to make that right turn that suddenly appeared. A common location for this is at the loop and spur 248 (University Blvd.). Two eastbound lanes of traffic on the loop suddenly decides to turn right on the spur...so SQUEEZE ME IN...get outta my way...gotta get there before you. Well, the play wasn't executed properly today and a few unfortunate players collided and were now standing outside their vehicles on the side of the road trying to figure out what went wrong. Advance planning people....get in your lane and forget about getting ahead of a few other cars and you'll get there sooner than those people gathering on the roadside.

Thanks Michael for your insighful comment - I totally agree!

Sep 3 8am Tyler TX

Sat a a green light (yes, green) for about 15 seconds while 5 vehicles decided they could go through the red light because they needed to turn left (southbound) on Broadway and just couldn't wait through another cycle.