THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, September 30, 1995 TAG: 9509300008
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A15 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Opinion
SOURCE: GEORGE HEBERT
LENGTH: Medium: 54 lines
Too often on drives around town or on longer trips - like a recent one to the upper Midwest - I find myself in a swivet over the caprice exhibited by those in charge of road repairs. I'm talking about unexpected hodge-podges of orange barrels, orange cones and temporary signs used to block off heavily traveled lanes or otherwise torture traffic into uncertain patterns around some well-meant improvement.
Several things about such bottlenecks are annoying, some actually dangerous. Frequently there isn't much warning on the road itself; you're in a pickle and dodging and braking before you even realize there's an impediment. On occasion you may wonder if any consideration at all is given to the motorist's expectation of a reasonable time of passage (with some normal deadline, like reporting for work) along a route that was perfectly clear last time he or she used it.
This is the worst part of the problem - an apparent insensitivity to drivers' concerns, an officious attitude conveyed not only by the abruptness of the interruption and the frequently terrible timing, but by the hard line the sign writers take: All those 45-mph commands coupled with huge signs about double fines in work areas; some unapologetic thunderclap such as: ROAD WORK NEXT 5 MILES, with follow-ups such as LEFT LANE ENDS or MERGE RIGHT.
But, as my wife and I discovered, there can be empathetic exceptions to this arbitrariness of certain repair managers.
There are some who do realize what the average driver may be thinking or fuming about. And they deliver their messages with an actual twinkle of undertstanding. We came home from the recent trip with two for-instances.
On one project we encountered, there was the customarily grim wording of an initial announcement: ROAD WORK NEXT UMP-TEE-UMP MILES. But then in a little while, 3 MORE MILES, and a bit farther along, 2 MORE MILES and then a really compassionate ONLY 1 MORE MILE.
That anonymous writer made a couple of friends in our car.
But another sign was an even more potent friend-maker, more proof that thoughtful officials can create pleasant (and safer) moments for drivers negotiating repair obstacles. This sign was at a Michigan project just before two lanes of traffic had to merge into one, and was in addition to the diagram of the impending lane change. It said:
SQUEEZE
PLEASE MEMO: Mr. Hebert, a former editor, lives in Norfolk.Mr. Hebert, a former
editor, lives in Norfolk.
by CNB