living on...

... the corner of: 'waiting at the stop sign' and 'flying over a blind hill at breakneck speed'. Even though the posted limit is 45 mph or lower depending on how close you are to the yellow blinking light near the school zone. Out here on a narrow, crumbling two lane street with little other than residences and the entrance gates to the city golf course, it can be dangerous to attempt to cross from one side to the other.

When we moved here over thirty years ago, our house was the last one on the street: now there are dozens that have been built in a subdivision past our driveway, and literally hundreds in developments on the side street going past our property. Meaning traffic like you would not believe could occur in what would appear to be a relatively quite residential area. There is an elementary school situated about a half mile away, and a fairly new middle school less than a mile from our front door. Meaning hundreds of cars and buses/daycare vans going back and forth twice a day to deliver and pick up students in those two schools. And hundreds more coming out of the developments that have grown up in what was once forests in the acreage to the east.

There are so many potholes in the street, with multiple asphalt patches, it is like a water park when we have days of rainfall. Lately there has been quite a bit of rain, and the holes in the street are constantly being replenished after vehicles splash the water out traveling to and fro. If you were unlucky enough to be a pedestrian slopping along in the rain, you would be in danger of getting drenched from the side/below as water is sprayed when wheels clump and thump through multiple areas where the asphalt is in constant need of replacing - a vicious circle as the eroding effects of rain and traffic are the cause of the steadily enlarging holes. I have actually contacted the city to report on the standing water in the streets. The guy I spoke with did not specifically say 'take a number and get in line'. But a two lane residential street is understandably at the far end of work orders for repairing transportation issues.

We were really in the country when we moved here, with the nearest traffic signal miles away. Understandably progress is continually edging out of the city and squeezing rural spaces.  At the end of our street, where you would make a turn to the west to head into town, shopping/services and work, there was another two lane highway. Admittedly you did not actually see mule drawn wooden wagons taking produce to market, or /farm equipment going about the business of agriculture. But it was definitely slow-paced, easy living, peaceful country quiet.

There is now a traffic light at the end of our street, which empties onto a four (six when  you include turn lanes) lane highway that was expanded in recent years. The state Department of Transportation has plans to turn that intersection into a roundabout, and eliminate the lighted signals. Four lanes entering the intersection from four different directions feeding into a roundabout? Okay. That sounds challenging. I was recently riding with someone whose plaint is that no one seems to know how to 'use the roundabout': they either hesitate, or go barreling through without consideration for other drivers. Neither approach is good or safe.