Sheer Insanity.
A new sign showed up along the highway over the last week or so, and it frightens me. No, it wasn’t a billboard from God or one of those fanatical anti-choice groups, it was just one of those blinking signs they use to alert drivers about accidents. In big orange lights it proclaimed NEW TRAFFIC PATTERN - DEC 6 - EXIT 20.
Now, in most cases, this wouldn’t be so scary. I mean, all they’re doing is opening up a new on-ramp. Unfortunately, this is Rhode Island we’re talking about. Our drivers are terrible. Should it be raining, the speed limit is suddenly dropped by about 25mph. I can’t count the number of times I’ve driven to work while it’s sprinkling out and people are doing an average of 40mph. On the other hand, if there’s snow everybody seems to feel as though it’s perfectly ok to drive as fast as they possibly can; faster if there’s white-out conditions.
What scares me most about this new on-ramp is that it is taking the place of another ramp. While driving southbound on I-95 through downtown Providence, exit 20 is on the LEFT. It’s been on the left since I was born and probably before that. And yet, people are still completely ignorant of this fact and there’s always someone cutting me off on the way home because he’s either forgotten that the exit is on the left and either needs to get into that lane or doesn’t want to exit and is swerving to get out of the left lane. The same thing happens to a lesser degree further south at exit 9 on the southbound side, and exit 11 going northbound.
Come December 6th, they’re going to open a new exit 20, which will be on the RIGHT. What I foresee happening is that the people who know that the exit has been on the left will be totally oblivious to this change and will be careening all over the highway trying to get to the new ramp. Or in some cases, trying to get away from the new ramp as they suddenly realize that they’re in an exit lane.
It will be chaos.