Shoulder Conspiracy

 

Well with the mid-summer heat wave redefining the word drought, the Colorado River running dry, and the Great Salt Lake losing a half inch a day, and nobody seeming to care, it is time to address our other summer fascination – road construction.  With orange cones everywhere, why should Tom Clyde have all the fun.

 I have no explanation for the things UDOT does other than possibly it is an empty shoulder conspiracy.  They insist that they need a 15-foot-wide shoulder everywhere they go, even though no one ever uses it.  Who breaks down that can’t pull over in the gravel for a few minutes?  No one.  But can we really afford all these shoulders, everywhere.  It’s like building a dam for a million-year flood while all the schools will flood every 100 years.  Lets have some consistency.   Is there a benefit cost analysis or risk assessment or are they just using their West Valley City Road template everywhere.  Let’s have some site specific consideration and sensitivity.

 

Case-in-point 1

I-80 east exit to U-40 south backs up to Kimbal Junction, not just on holidays but all day, every day because it is a one lane exit, going up a hill, with oil trucks.  During the last Olympics they painted that as a two-lane exit, and it worked fine with half shoulders.  Not anymore.  And it was just redone.

Case-in-point 2

U-248 is an abomination, an embarrassment and a disgrace that it is always backed up with two empty shoulders and a left-hand turn lane to nowhere!  It drives me nuts and I never drive on it.  And it is redone every year.   There is ample room on each side for four free flowing lanes with gravel shoulders and a movable center barrier in the middle with a ‘no left turn’ sign.  If someone has a problem, once in a blue moon, we can all slow down and go around but not suffer grid lock everyday for the luxury of the ubiquitous empty breakdown lane.  Snow storage?  Get a bigger plow, and besides it doesn’t snow any more.  And now we have added a monster Maverick at the Frontage Road death intersection, but with a new traffic light, before U-248 inexplicably shrinks to two lanes again for 500 feet, with two huge shoulders.  What are you thinking?  You don’t need another study, you need common sense.

 

Case-in-point 3

Is U-224 going to be nine lanes wide, wider than most aircraft carriers or runways, to accommodate empty bus lanes and shoulders and random left hand turns.  Stop the insanity.  And my last pet peeve is the sidewalk in the middle at the junction by the car wash so left hand turns to Smiths can back up cars to Jeremy Ranch.  It’s a road, not a sidewalk or garden bike or parking lane.  Even with two new turn lanes now, it is a bottleneck.

And that brings us to my final comment.  These are major arterial roads, not collectors, made to move people safely and efficiently from point A to point B.  Forget the frills and national templets, shoulders and turn lanes, bike lanes and by-ways, make them work for us.  Time the lights, restrict access, paint the lanes, build them for peak flows.  At least until we all get our own personal computer Olympic drones and traffic becomes Ai – 3D by 2034.

What’s-your-point

I know bigger roads lead to more traffic, but we are beyond that here with already failing levels of service.  In New York and New England they stopped building roads and told people to live with it.  In many places like Boston people drive on the shoulders unrestrained when traffic gets bad.  Will it take that kind of revolution here.  We are not rural and quaint anymore.  We are a metro, urban, crowded, world class destination resort.  Live with it. 

I wish you luck with the bus lanes and paid parking with day skiers and resort workers parking at the junctions, as they should.  But so much of our traffic is now people going to work and contractors, building and fixing and cleaning more homes every day.  All kidding aside, it is not just the shoulder conspiracy.  We are now the problem.  Water and traffic flow towards money but you can’t buy or build your way out of gridlock.  You have to be smarter and make sacrifices.  You can’t have it all.  In the psychology of traffic, the most important component is the nut behind the wheel.  Can we be the solution.