Traffic

I live in a very small city, pop. about 25,000.  But when the university is in regular session the students add about 25,000 themselves.  This town was never designed to deal with the associated traffic, and especially not students who have their own drawbacks.  For one thing, in the winter the typically slick streets are a hazard because student winter tires are any tire with tread.  For another, all the parking anywhere near the campuses is designated for paid staff and faculty, with very little left for students.  The orientation for new students stresses that there are 2000 parking spaces on campus and 25,000 students, around half of which have a car.  The math isn't hard.  Leave the car at home.  So generally the traffic and parking ease off in the Thanksgiving holidays, when the students go home and leave the car behind when they return.

But...

This summer, which is usually great for getting around by residents, was still a disaster.  There was construction accounting for part of it, paving, etc.  But basically it was just too many people overloading cramped two lane roads.  Probably by the next census the town will have closer to 40,000 permanent residents, many of them staff and faculty.  The city council passed a resolution that forbids heavy trucks in the downtown area (think big tri-axle coal trucks).  Somehow they think the trucks will just disappear, when in reality it means a work-around for the trucks will bring  worse conditions somewhere else.  It's not like the trucks will go 'poof'.

 And so it takes an hour to drive 1 mile at commute hours, which is 3:00 to 6:30 or so.  The three o'clock start is because of the health workers on shifts at all the hospitals and clinics.  The six thirty is accounted for by all the people waiting in traffic for the hour.  It is a mess, every day.  And don't forget the Saturdays when the university has home football games; that adds another 60,000 people to the regular weekend traffic.

Since we are retired, we just try to avoid the 'rush hour' (why do they call it that when no one can move, much less rush?  And it lasts for more than an hour?) .   And if one waits until the game starts, you can get around on game days.  But the side effect is more accidents here all the time now, too.

Anyway, that's my rant for the day.

I knitted a nice chenille scarf yesterday, photo below.  Unfortunately, the diamond pattern knitted into the scarf doesn't show on the 'right' side, only on the purl side.  But it is a nice scarf and easy to do, once I got the hang of it.  It is for two yarns together, which I haven't done before, and was done on my new 260 knitting machine.  I like it.  I'll knit a matching hat soon.

Bumper sticker for the day:  "You do not need a parachute to skydive.  You only need a parachute to skydive twice."