One of the things about the South I find the most… interesting… is the ability of Southerners to sit in traffic. It’s eerie. They don’t seem to mind. It’s like they accept that traffic is what it is and they’re good with it. Every once in awhile you’ll see where one of them finally cooks off and has a case of ‘road rage,’ but for the most part they seem perfectly willing to sit in traffic and accept that this is the way it is.
I hate to point this out, but a lot of the problem with the traffic situation – at least in Atlanta – has been brought on by the lack of interest by the local governments in timing out the stoplights. Or maybe they know that and don’t care.
Let me lay this out and see if it makes sense to any of YOU. In the greater Atlanta area there is a problem with jurisdictions overlapping. Counties run into each other and when roads cross county lines the next county refuses to cooperate with the previous county. They don’t want to work with their neighbors. Uh… that doesn’t help those of us who have to drive on those roads. What we need is for the counties to work together, barring that we need the state to get in there and get the counties to do their jobs. Time out those lights! Instead of there being demand lights at every neighborhood, have a computer override the demands and move us along. My KIDS were doing that 20 years ago with a Sim City game they were playing on the computer. Getting the traffic flowing – particularly with all the bellyaching they do about saving gas and having smaller carbon footprints – should be a top priority.
I hate to point this out, but a lot of the problem with the traffic situation – at least in Atlanta – has been brought on by the lack of interest by the local governments in timing out the stoplights. Or maybe they know that and don’t care.
Let me lay this out and see if it makes sense to any of YOU. In the greater Atlanta area there is a problem with jurisdictions overlapping. Counties run into each other and when roads cross county lines the next county refuses to cooperate with the previous county. They don’t want to work with their neighbors. Uh… that doesn’t help those of us who have to drive on those roads. What we need is for the counties to work together, barring that we need the state to get in there and get the counties to do their jobs. Time out those lights! Instead of there being demand lights at every neighborhood, have a computer override the demands and move us along. My KIDS were doing that 20 years ago with a Sim City game they were playing on the computer. Getting the traffic flowing – particularly with all the bellyaching they do about saving gas and having smaller carbon footprints – should be a top priority.
But it’s not.
So what we have are a bunch of very polite people sitting in traffic waiting to lose their minds. I’m convinced there must be something in the water down here that allows these people to be able to sit in this kind of unnecessary traffic every day and not lose it. Wow…
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