Detour: From Cute to Bothersome
A couple of days ago, I had an encounter with Grand Rapids construction that made me more than a little annoyed. First of all, I’m going to point out that the amount of construction I’ve seen around here lately doesn’t alarm me. Someone sent me a list of not-exceptionally-funny jokes about Michigan that included a couple about the amount of construction. I’ve also lived in Northeast Ohio where it’s pretty much the same. The state gets federal tax dollars for this stuff, so they do it; there’s really nothing unique about that. I guess it’s a little more concentrated for those of us in states with seasons, but anyone who gripes that their state is the worst is just being foolish.
Anyway, I was in downtown Grand Rapids to pick up Erin. I hit the construction on Division that absolutely could not be passed, so I had to detour around. This didn’t bother me; sure, Division would have been the most direct route, but I knew exactly where I could go to make a quick little jog onto Fulton to swing down towards the library. I don’t know that street’s name off hand, but I did know that it had construction on it just past where I was going to need to make my turn. Unfortunately, I was blocked by something I actually already knew was there but had forgotten. You see, several days prior, I had noticed that they had put up the detour sign warning of “No Through Traffic” a block too early. At the time it was a weekend, so with the light traffic, I was easily able to dodge the barrier and get to where I needed to be. This time, though, it was a weekday afternoon, so there were cars lined up there at the light, which meant that there was nowhere for me to squeeze by. I thought back to how I had seen that barrier before, as well as others set two or three blocks in advance on some streets. What I had once taken as a cute, silly overeagerness on the part of the construction team was now annoying.
Someone on the Grand Rapids road crews needs to look up the concept of “Through Traffic”. If you can turn off of a street and thereby find your way, over perfectly passable and legal streets, to frankly the rest of the North American continent, then that’s “Through Traffic”. Just because you won’t be on the same named street after the next block doesn’t mean you can’t get through.
Is this a stupid thing to raise my blood pressure about? Absolutely. Does that mean that this idiotic mistake on someone’s part isn’t really idiotic and needn’t be mentioned? No. This created nothing more than an inconvenience for me. Instead of going one block out of my way, I had to go maybe eight blocks out of my way. But isn’t the whole point of the vast vascular networks of paved roads with intricate capillaries within large cities convenience? If the fact that you can get to the same place by a longer route were the deciding factor, most of the roads we have wouldn’t exist. Nearly the entire interstate highway system would be gone. So, maybe someone should have expended a bit more thought so as not to extend unnecessarily the inconvenience generated by this construction. And now I don’t have to think about it anymore.
Anyway, I was in downtown Grand Rapids to pick up Erin. I hit the construction on Division that absolutely could not be passed, so I had to detour around. This didn’t bother me; sure, Division would have been the most direct route, but I knew exactly where I could go to make a quick little jog onto Fulton to swing down towards the library. I don’t know that street’s name off hand, but I did know that it had construction on it just past where I was going to need to make my turn. Unfortunately, I was blocked by something I actually already knew was there but had forgotten. You see, several days prior, I had noticed that they had put up the detour sign warning of “No Through Traffic” a block too early. At the time it was a weekend, so with the light traffic, I was easily able to dodge the barrier and get to where I needed to be. This time, though, it was a weekday afternoon, so there were cars lined up there at the light, which meant that there was nowhere for me to squeeze by. I thought back to how I had seen that barrier before, as well as others set two or three blocks in advance on some streets. What I had once taken as a cute, silly overeagerness on the part of the construction team was now annoying.
Someone on the Grand Rapids road crews needs to look up the concept of “Through Traffic”. If you can turn off of a street and thereby find your way, over perfectly passable and legal streets, to frankly the rest of the North American continent, then that’s “Through Traffic”. Just because you won’t be on the same named street after the next block doesn’t mean you can’t get through.
Is this a stupid thing to raise my blood pressure about? Absolutely. Does that mean that this idiotic mistake on someone’s part isn’t really idiotic and needn’t be mentioned? No. This created nothing more than an inconvenience for me. Instead of going one block out of my way, I had to go maybe eight blocks out of my way. But isn’t the whole point of the vast vascular networks of paved roads with intricate capillaries within large cities convenience? If the fact that you can get to the same place by a longer route were the deciding factor, most of the roads we have wouldn’t exist. Nearly the entire interstate highway system would be gone. So, maybe someone should have expended a bit more thought so as not to extend unnecessarily the inconvenience generated by this construction. And now I don’t have to think about it anymore.