Thursday, August 19, 2010

Thank you, Officer Hoyle


And I thought Mondays were tough.

This morning, I drive to the end of my street, which is a one way street, and there is a tireless stop sign, dutifully protecting us all from the onslaught of traffic speeding its way north at the intersection closest my home.

Not uncommon to see drivers unaware that there is an intersection before them until it is too
late, we get a lot of close calls. C-L-O-S-E M*^%$@*F*^$%#@ calls, I say.



















Some closer than others. Note that the impact to this SUV at this very intersection knocked the entire wheel off of the SUV. They frequently come up on this intersection from the South too FAST.














My problem is that the road is bent in such a manner that as you come to the intersection from the East, your view to the South is, well... not there. The building on the Southeast corner comes right up to the road, just a couple of feet of sidewalk there.

In order to actually see any cars coming from that direction, you have to inch your car's nose out into traffic about 20 feet past the stop sign in order to see anything. And even then, you're taking your life in your own hands.

This is where a lot of those close calls come from.

sneak... sneak...... sneeeeeeeeeeeaaaak.... W!H%AMMO!











zoom
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So I'm guessing when the police officer saw me inch out into the street, trying desperately not to be T-boned by a Mack truck or a TANK Bus, he thought he saw me rolling through a stop sign.

I'm sure that warranted the U turn in the middle of traffic. I'm sure of it.

I'm dangerous that way.
Rolling stops in a devious attempt not to become a mangled comatose burden on society.

Evil, I am. Pure evil.




















So as I see it the only way to actually SEE a car coming from the South is to:
1. Inch out into traffic and hope to Galt that the oncoming vehicle is not going to ram you at 50mph, because you'll only have about 2 seconds to avoid that deathtrap... or

2. BUY A G$@#D*^#@ CONVEX MIRROR TO HANG ON THE POST ACROSS THE STREET LIKE I ASKED THE TRAFFIC TECHNICIAN TO DO LAST YEAR. COME ON!!

So thank you Officer Hoyle, for 1.) reminding me that the insurance card in my wallet is out of date, and 2.) reminding me to get back on my fight to get a mirror at this intersection, and 3.) for giving me the traffic technician's direct line.

I have a call to make.



2 comments:

Sarah said...

I had to take the Ohio driver's road test to get a license after my out-of-state license expired. There were a couple of intersections like that one on the route. Apparently the official rule is to stop behind the white line regardless of line of sight, then creep forward as necessary. With my luck, if I complained about an intersection like that, we'd end up with another unnecessary stoplight instead of a mirror.

The Wife said...

Last year, one of the proposed 'solutions' was to turn our west-bound one way street into an east-bound one way street. Ugh.

They decided instead to merely remove a few of the only residential parking spots along the North-bound road that exist.

I don't want to inconvenience all of the N/S travelers along that road by having a stop sign or stoplight, I just want to be able to see them coming without risking my property or health.

RE: the white line.... we don't have one. Who knew?