Okay, I've Had It With the White Stuff
I hate driving in suburban Illinois in the snow.
The thing I hate most is not so much the roads (which are badly designed enough to make anyone hate them) but the traffic lights. Traffic lights here are set to what I call "Impedance mode", designed to maximally impede traffic on major roads. I think that was not the intention, the idea seems to be that if you went through one light (light A) while it was green, then you should go through the next light (B) without stopping.
Of course, the corollary to this is that if you hit a red light at A, you'll hit a red light at B too. If A and B are on a major road, you probably got onto that road by making a turn at a light, which means that you started while the light was red, and hence will stop at every stoplight after that. Of course, it's not supposed to be that way. If you stopped at light A, if you drive forward at their idea of reasonable acceleration up to the speed limit and proceed to light B, you will get there just as it turns green, ensuring a reasonably trouble-free passage.
Unless, of course, there are cars at light B who had to stop at the light. Then you have to hit the brakes while they slowly get their cars up to speed. Since all suburban roads are overcrowded, there are always cars stopped at the light, and even in good conditions driving becomes a rapid-fire series of hitting the accelerator, followed by hitting the brakes, and then repeating. In the snow, when there's no visibility, it becomes a very exciting game of getting your car started, and then immediately stopping it again as stopped traffic emerges from the fog. Considering the stopping distance for a car on slush and ice, I think the city probably does this to keep the car repair places in business.
Logic would point out that you can get out of this cycle of continually stopping at every light simply by driving ten to fifteen miles per hour above the speed limit, a behavior in which many drivers indulge. So, while you are starting and stopping in the mush, you have to deal with people sliding in and out of traffic and generally making sure never to drop below about sixty miles per hour on surface streets. It gives you two exciting ways to get into an accident, either rear-ending someone, or getting sideswiped by a speedy daredevil, neither of which is entirely appealing. The entire thing seems like an exercise on behalf of the city to try and get us all killed, which makes me wonder if they're taking a very pro-active stance on combating suburban sprawl.
The thing I hate most is not so much the roads (which are badly designed enough to make anyone hate them) but the traffic lights. Traffic lights here are set to what I call "Impedance mode", designed to maximally impede traffic on major roads. I think that was not the intention, the idea seems to be that if you went through one light (light A) while it was green, then you should go through the next light (B) without stopping.
Of course, the corollary to this is that if you hit a red light at A, you'll hit a red light at B too. If A and B are on a major road, you probably got onto that road by making a turn at a light, which means that you started while the light was red, and hence will stop at every stoplight after that. Of course, it's not supposed to be that way. If you stopped at light A, if you drive forward at their idea of reasonable acceleration up to the speed limit and proceed to light B, you will get there just as it turns green, ensuring a reasonably trouble-free passage.
Unless, of course, there are cars at light B who had to stop at the light. Then you have to hit the brakes while they slowly get their cars up to speed. Since all suburban roads are overcrowded, there are always cars stopped at the light, and even in good conditions driving becomes a rapid-fire series of hitting the accelerator, followed by hitting the brakes, and then repeating. In the snow, when there's no visibility, it becomes a very exciting game of getting your car started, and then immediately stopping it again as stopped traffic emerges from the fog. Considering the stopping distance for a car on slush and ice, I think the city probably does this to keep the car repair places in business.
Logic would point out that you can get out of this cycle of continually stopping at every light simply by driving ten to fifteen miles per hour above the speed limit, a behavior in which many drivers indulge. So, while you are starting and stopping in the mush, you have to deal with people sliding in and out of traffic and generally making sure never to drop below about sixty miles per hour on surface streets. It gives you two exciting ways to get into an accident, either rear-ending someone, or getting sideswiped by a speedy daredevil, neither of which is entirely appealing. The entire thing seems like an exercise on behalf of the city to try and get us all killed, which makes me wonder if they're taking a very pro-active stance on combating suburban sprawl.