Quote of the Week...from Albert Einstein

 Knowledge is realizing that the street is one way; wisdom is looking in both directions anyway.

                                                                               ---Albert Einstein

The great physicist from the twentieth century made a lot of pertinent quotes that I've discussed on this blog...you can take his above one in different "directions".  Allegorically, I think he's stressing the importance of thinking outside the box, beyond the standard constraints of established norms and rules.  Literally, though, I think his example comes up a little short.  So I'm driving along and come up on a one-way street...let's just say it's going right. If I'm going to turn onto it, I'm naturally not just going to look to my left to see if any vehicle is approaching.  Simple knowledge of traffic requires me to also look to the right to detect any possible pedestrians or bicyclists coming from that other direction.  I say this (and include this quote) because of the number of times I've been driving around town and observed how too many other drivers virtually ignore pedestrians and refuse to yield to them when they clearly have the right of way, especially at intersections.  And even if they don't, the law requires motorists to yield to them.  Having said that, let's get back to Einstein's probably figurative meaning.  An initial perusal of any situation or issue may reveal a general structure governing it that can lead one to make certain initial conclusions. But that perceived structure may be incomplete or even contrived to mislead...as so many political arguments are being presented during this election cycle.  Looking in both directions "anyway" means that, while I may be predisposed to accept a particular truth or opinion, I'm still instinctively going to make myself look at alternative and dissenting takes on the situation in question.  And if it involves a one-way street, I'm looking in the other direction as well before I take any action...

Tuesday's List: My Least Favorite Intersections in Gainesville

If you're not familiar with Gainesville, Florida, please bear with me...I've been here (except for a seven-month hiatus in 1987) for forty years and have formulated some strong opinions about the street layout here.  There are some real nightmarish intersections in town, and a lot of them I find myself traveling through to get where I need to go.  So the following is a list of my least favorite...or, more appropriately, most despised intersections, with the top entries being the WORST...

1 SW 34th STREET & ARCHER ROAD...If you're trying to cross this extremely large, over-congested intersection by walking, running, or bicycling, good look with that, with so many motorists refusing to obey right-of-way laws.  Right now the road surface is uneven and jarring, and the northbound light on 34th sometimes lasts green for just a few seconds.  Cars and trucks are notorious for running red lights here, and there have been many accidents...

2 NW 13th STREET & NW 6th STREET...NW 13th Street and NW 6th Street run parallel to each other until 6th veers west and merges into 13th a mile or two north of 39th Avenue.  Cars merging in on 13th from 6th often do not yield to traffic and cars crossing left over from 13th to 6th often "jump the gun" and misjudge oncoming northbound traffic on 13th.  Going down 13th northbound can be a bit stressful, and riding a bicycle in that direction is much worse as the drivers seem to be blind to my presence on the road...

3 ARCHER ROAD  & SW 35th BOULEVARD...With all the businesses and apartments concentrated here, this intersection is almost always overly congested...just getting to it can be an ordeal.  Ironically, I moved to this area back in 1980 to get away from the crowdedness surrounding the University of Florida campus, but it all drastically changed when a Wal-Mart was built here in 1987...

4 NEWBERRY ROAD & SW 75th STREET (TOWER ROAD)...If you're coming into Gainesville on Newberry Road from the west, you may have a long wait in store for you.  The traffic here backs up so easily that I tend to go out of my way to avoid this area, usually detouring on NW 39th Avenue or SW 24th Avenue...

5 NW 34th STREET & NW 39th AVENUE...This intersection is more dangerous than frustrating.  Close to home, I go through it a lot.  The often heavy north-south traffic is frustrated by a too-short green traffic light, but my biggest problem is that NW 39th Avenue is a truck route and I have witnessed large semis tearing through this intersection at high speeds, running the red light.  Very scary...

6 NW 43rd STREET & NW 16th BLVD/23rd AVENUE...The main problem I see here is that south of it on NW 43rd Street, the traffic builds up too much and interferes with the entering and exiting traffic from the Publix shopping center on the east side.  I often see cars taking chances cutting in front of others.  I'm always careful when passing by this area to look out for drivers making poor decisions...

7 NW 43rd STREET & NW 39th AVENUE...There's a similar problem to #6 here on the south side.  Cars too often attempt to cross over several lanes of traffic from a nearby street, causing confusion and sometimes interfering with the flow.  The lights are poorly sequenced, too.  Vehicles stretching the left lead signal from 39th Avenue westbound are putting themselves directly in the pathway of those turning left from 43rd north when they get the green light, causing danger...

8 SW 34th STREET & WINDMEADOWS BOULEVARD...This intersection in of itself isn't bad; its problem rests with its close proximity to #1, lying only a few hundred feet from it.  Whenever the traffic builds up...and that happens all the time...this intersection essentially shuts down and causes a logjam, with southbound cars on 34th often stuck in the middle of the intersection or trapped in lanes they can't get out off...

9 NW 34th BOULEVARD & NW 53rd AVENUE...NW 34th Blvd cuts across NW 53 Avenue at an oblique angle, making crossing this very close intersection to my house problematic...including for pedestrians.  The traffic backup at busy times is horrendous, stretching down 34th Blvd as much as a half mile at times.  There seems to be a larger than normal number of accidents around this intersection...

10 WEST 13th STREET & UNIVERSITY AVENUE...Originally my least favorite intersection when I moved to Gainesville many moons ago, I still try to avoid it.  The intensity of the traffic at times, combined with the heavy pedestrian flow crossing the street, makes it feel more like I'm in the middle of Manhattan than in "sleepy" Gainesville...and those new hi-rise buildings on the nw side add to the effect...

I'll bet you have some of your own "favorites" if you've been around Gainesville any amount of time.  But I imagine that no matter where you happen to be, there are some intersections that get under your skin the way these do mine...

Gainesville's West 34th Street

West 34th Street is an interesting road in Gainesville.  It is my most traveled street, since my workplace is on it at the most southern point of the city...while my subdivision lies at Gainesville's far north.  The distance from my house to my office is eight miles, and in years gone by (from 1989 to 1995) I've ridden my bicycle to and from work on it numerous times.  Although I feel I'm still in good enough shape to resume this activity, I no longer trust other drivers to stay focused on the road and not on their "devices".  Yes, I've recently seen too many instances of cars in front of me veering off the road into the adjacent bike lane and I picture myself getting run over on my bicycle were I there.  Of course, there have always been distracted drivers, and besides, especially when on the road at night, there is always the risk of encountering alcohol-impaired drivers.  But even many drivers who have been drinking, in my opinion, usually don't pose as much of a risk as those who can't stop texting or checking their Facebook page while driving.  Still, it might be fun to get my wheels out again and try the old route every now and then...

Gainesville's West 34th Street is a section of State Route 121, a most curious state route.  Out of Gainesville and going south-southwest, it runs through Williston and eventually out to the Gulf of Mexico.  Northward from our fair city, it passes on into Georgia a few miles west of Jacksonville and then continues on as Georgia State Route 121.  But that's not all: after winding its way through the southeastern part of that state, this road crosses over into South Carolina...and, you guessed it, becomes South Carolina State Route 121!.  I'd like to say that it goes on and on like that, but just south of the border with North Carolina, approaching Charlotte, this very, very long road finally comes to an end...

If you are from out of town, you may have heard of the "Wall" on the east side of SW 34th Street just south of SW 2nd Avenue that various people over the years, mainly students, continually paint messages over...with one exception: the names of the five victims of the student murders in 1990 continue to be permanently displayed and honored on it...and in the street median facing that wall are five trees, each with a sign featuring the name of a victim.  This stretch of road, which is on the slope of a small hill, is also part of the Five Points Marathon/Half-Marathon and I've run down it three times...in 2010, 2014, and 2015...and plan to add to that list next February.  Also, further north lies Westside Park, the site of several races I've run...including the last one, July Fourth's Melon Run.  Going back south of the "Wall", about a half-mile down the road, is the Florida Museum of Natural History and the UF Harn Center for the Performing Arts...which incidentally is the starting and finishing point for those aforementioned Five Points races...

Although West 34th Street is a major city thoroughfare for Gainesville, my city's public transit service, which is continually boasting of all its routes and accessibility, has steadfastly refused over the years to add a route going down this important, well-traveled road.  If they ever did, I would definitely ride it...especially if I could ride home on it late at night after getting off from work...

Gainesville and Its Coffee Shops Swell Back Up With Students' Return

Well, this is the weekend that the population in Gainesville swells back up again with its transient University of Florida student population returning (as well as a few attending Santa Fe College).  It's time once again for me to reconfigure my routes through town, especially to and from work, that have me driving through pockets of heavy student presence.  Looks like I may be taking some detours east on Waldo and Williston Roads or west on I-75 to avoid not just the University of Florida traffic, but also that of the public schools, which are also beginning. Moreover, it will again be necessary for me to keep tabs on important events taking place on campus...not because I'm planning to attend them...but rather because I'm avoiding them and the traffic emanating therefrom.  And, of course, I might as well resign myself to the fact that, starting next week, I'm more likely than not to walk into any Starbucks and not find one empty seat left: that's too bad since going out and sitting somewhere in public tends to focus my thoughts and helps me with some of my personal academic goals...

Maybe it's finally time for me to just face reality and make the big break from Starbucks...and start going to McDonalds instead.  Since I only drink regular brewed coffee, anyway,  why not save some money and go somewhere that I know will provide not only free Internet access (actually, I rarely go online except at home or on my cellphone), but also plenty of empty seats to choose from while charging much less for their coffee?  McDonalds fulfills all of these criteria, and furthermore, it isn't generally considered "cool" enough by those hipster and yuppie types who like to camp out for hours in the more highbrow coffee shops, hopelessly clogging up all of the seating along with the myriad students who use them for study halls (nothing inherently wrong with studying there...I do the same). And since I'm a working-class kind of guy, why not hang out in a working-class place like a national fast food chain?  The only problem I have with McDonalds is that sometimes they act confused when I order coffee at any time other than during breakfast hours.  Still, more often than not I get my order right away and can go on to study, read, and write to my heart's content.  And what's more, McDonalds are just about everywhere...there's even one within easy walking distance of my workplace. Yes, I suppose it's just about time for a change in venue.  I just hope that McDonalds remains "uncool" in the minds of many, especially all those pesky students... 

They're He-e-re!

Earlier this afternoon I was riding south on Interstate 75, which skirts the western end of Gainesville.  I got on it at Exit 390, which was the furthest north exit for my home town.  I passed Exit 387, which connects with Newberry Road and the Oaks Mall areas.  Then, less than three minutes later was Exit 384, which leads to Archer Road and the region of student apartments and condos.  Its northbound exit was so backed up that there was stopped traffic going well into the interstate lane.  It had begun: the annual return of University of Florida students by the thousands!

I'm sure this new collection of students will seem even younger than the previous ones (funny how that works).  Most of them will be confined more or less to the University campus, their own apartments/dorms/condos, and the surrounding shopping areas.  But when it comes to going to Starbucks again, I know I'll have an almost impossible task of finding indoor seating...because they'll be he-e-re, too!

Entering Local Population Congestation Zone

The summer still technically has more than a month to go, and certainly the oppressive heat and humidity that typifies it where I live is going to linger for a considerable time as well.  But in one important sense, for me, summer in one of its more positive manifestations is about to crash down to a merciless, bitter end...starting around now and then dramatically spiking in effect next Wednesday.  School is starting again.

No, I am not attending any school right now.  And I'm not driving either of my children to school in the morning or picking them up in the afternoon.  Those days are done, although who knows whether or not I'll someday decide to "go back" to enter a graduate level program.  The main effect of school returning will be the overwhelming congestion on two fronts: the return of University of Florida students by the tens of thousands as well as the return of public school, with its rush hours and buses stopping everywhere in the middle of the road.  Santa Fe College in the northwestern corner of town contributes a lot to the crowded streets as well.

With both UF and public schools, I particularly feel the congestion nowadays with my current work schedule as I leave my workplace at 7:30 AM and drive up a street, first passing through intense university student traffic in the southwestern part of town and then past schools and residential areas clogged up with buses and parents-with-kids (and slowdown school zones).  So next Wednesday it will begin anew...

There is another aggravation associated with the resumption of school, and it involves mainly the returning University and Santa Fe College students.  They tend to take all of the seats at the various Starbucks and other coffee houses in town, often camping out for hours there and sometimes not even buying anything.  Of course, there is a place that these students tend to overlook: McDonald's, which always seems to have plenty of seating and provides good-tasting, less expensive coffee anyway.  They also tend to steer clear of doughnut shops, which are more the habitats of gabby seniors.  Looks like I might as well start with these places if I want some assurance of seating when I go out to study...

You WILL Do Business Downtown!

There is a controversy of sorts lately in Gainesville about the plan to eliminate all free public parking in the downtown area. The city government wants visitors to the area to shell out money to use the public parking garages specially built for them. This plan is in addition to decisions made in the past to limit road lanes of the main thoroughfares of University Avenue and Main Street to one going each way, in order to somehow make the area more attractive to potential paying customers of its businesses.

None of these decisions has any impact on what I do, as I have long forgone any hope of successfully going downtown to do business there. For one, there isn't any place I would want to go other than the library's main branch and a couple of coffee shops. And I can get whatever I want from that library by placing a hold online and having it delivered to my nearby, albeit smaller Millhopper branch. As for the coffee, well, one place (Maude's) is easy to get in and out of with a private parking lot, but their fare is overpriced and I resent the snooty unfriendliness I have repeatedly encountered behind the counter. The Starbucks across the street from it is O.K., I suppose, assuming I can find a parking spot (which I hardly ever can). But why bother anyway, with all of the Starbucks stores available elsewhere in town. The other businesses downtown tend to gravitate toward highbrow, expensive restaurants and night clubs, neither of which I care much about.

I, personally, am nobody special regarding my business preferences, which is actually the whole point: I think others are like me in that they see very little downtown that would draw them there to spend their money. In other words, regarding the local government's failed efforts to stimulate business by restricting access to traffic and parking: it's the businesses, stupid!

Of course, they could pass a law similar to the new national health care law: an individual mandate decreeing that anyone living in Gainesville spend X amount of dollars annually on its cruddy downtown businesses or face a fine! But, y'know, although I wrote the above suggestion tongue-in-cheek, I wonder whether some of my local politicos might not think it would actually be a good idea. Scary, but it would fit with the mindset behind the restricted traffic lanes and the elimination of free parking...

Interstate, Denny's, South Florida

When I drove to Hollywood from Gainesville last week, I hit the Turnpike for a while. Then I decided to switch over at Orlando to I-95 and "free-way" it the rest of the trip. Although I-95 wasn't all that bad, the drive down Colonial Drive in Orlando was a monumental blunder. Endless sprawl and traffic, even on a Sunday evening---ugh!

I was very relieved to finally reach I-95, the interstate highway running along the Florida peninsula's eastern side to Miami (I-75 runs down the western side). I was tired and hungry as well, so I stopped off at the Denny's restaurant just off the Indiatlantic exit in Brevard County. My experience there was so pleasant, with the service, food, and price, that I ended up going to three other Denny's during my round trip. The first time (at the Indiatlantic exit) I order the (pictured) $4 breakfast. Next, at West Palm Beach, I just got a coffee (that Denny's was my least favorite; the coffee tasted old--like Starbucks always tastes-- but I wasn't in the mood to argue about it). Then, while I was in Hollywood I went out at 2:30 in the morning to the Denny's on University Drive, eating their $4 endless stack of pancakes. Finally, on my way back home I stopped off just south of Fort Myers and had a variation of my first meal, substituting sausage for bacon. I liked the friendly attitude of the people working at these restaurants. Maybe it was Denny's; maybe I was just lucky.

As you read this pretty insignificant article, you may have picked up on the fact that on the return trip I stopped off around Fort Myers. On the WEST side of Florida. Yes, I decided to try I-75 back to Gainesville. Actually, it was the first time I had ever traveled down this stretch of I-75 south of Tampa. And I must say that it was quite a pleasant experience, very different from I-95. No endless sprawl of urban traffic to contend with, even as the route passed by Fort Myers, Sarasota, and Tampa. All of the times during my teenage years in the 70's hearing classmates talking about speeding through Alligator Alley (which runs across the Everglades, specifically the Big Cypress Swamp) made me want to travel it, but I never got around to seeing for myself until just now. Now, in 2010, I saw nothing resembling the 100+ mph daredevils my classmates described. Rather, if anything, the traffic was pretty slow.

Yes, from now on I will be traveling I-75 to and from south Florida.

The Amazing Shrinking Bicycle Path

US 441 is a very important road that effectively divides Gainesville between east and west (although it is, within Gainesville's street grid, West 13th Street). The University of Florida lies on this road, as does Gainesville High School. I live within a mile of it on the north side of town (I always seem to find myself living near 441). And, for the most part, this street is bicycle friendly.

And bicycle friendly it should be, since my local government has invested a lot of money in creating bicycle lanes all across town. US 441 is no exception. As you can see in the top picture, taken on the north side of town near the former site of Dub's (where Tom Petty, former Gainesville High School geek, used to perform in the early 70's with his fledgling rock band). Very wide and accommodating for bicycles, wouldn't you say? This nice pathway continues southbound, all the way to Northwest 23rd Avenue. Then it disappears (unless you have a very, very thin bicycle). The bottom picture, taken by Gainesville High (where Tom Petty attended---hey wait a minute, get out of my blog, Petty), shows this. So just when someone would actually need a bicycle lane to get down on a busy street (and by the high school the sidewalk is often crowded with pedestrians), there is none. Maybe they felt that they couldn't fit one in, with the overall road space possibly too thin there. But there IS a good bike path going northbound along the same stretch. They could at least have fudged just a little and provided SOME space for southbound bicyclists.

You may wonder what the big deal is, anyway, seeing that there is a good concrete sidewalk running along the street in both pictures. But recently a law has been passed here mandating bicyclists to use the designated bike lanes instead of the sidewalks, unless of course there isn't a bike lane. Now I ask, is that a bike lane in front of Gainesville High? Maybe it is, to a cop... who knows. Not that I see the police dishing out tickets wholesale to "violators". But it does give them another pretext to profile, stop, and harass citizens that they might regard as "undesirables".

I don't suppose that very many people are bothered by the amazing shrinking bicycle path. After all, my local rag The Gainesville Sun hasn't printed any protesting editorial letters to this effect. Still, dudes, what would Tom say if he saw this? (Hey Petty, I told you to scram... stop jamming me!)

Pedestrians Rule in Manhattan

Manhattan is definitely a special place regarding its system of traffic. Because of its cramped nature with so many buildings and destinations per square mile along with its population density and focus on tourism and business travel, it is unfeasible for motorists to drive their own cars down its streets. For one, parking is very short in supply, and two, I challenge anyone to find me a public-use gas station anywhere in town. So instead, people either walk, take the subway, ride buses, or use one of the 13,000-plus taxis in town. On our stay, we either walked or rode a bus (we chose Grayline, which also provided tours of the city).

There is a knack to walking Manhattan streets that is easy to pick up on, making the prospect of crossing busy intersections no big deal. You walk up to a crosswalk. If the signal says “walk” or a blinking “don’t walk”, you cross. If it is a solid “don’t walk”, look where the traffic is coming from (most streets are one-way) and cross against the light if it looks clear. And if you misjudged a vehicle and it's coming right at you, don't worry; you're sure to get a nice, big warning blast from its horn as it bears down on you.

Regarding the reputation of NY taxis for aggressive and rude driving, it is important to note that, at least as I experienced it, they are UNIFORMLY aggressive and rude. So they are hence predictable, and I (and all of the other pedestrians) can handle that. Now, back in Gainesville, I sometimes experience overly-aggressive drivers around me and wonder to myself whether they had some roots in New York. Still, I had the distinct impression that those aggressive professional New York drivers knew what they were doing, while here in Gainesville I’m not sure that some of my fellow drivers are even aware of what planet they’re on!

I miss the streets of Manhattan, although I was disappointed with my early discovery that it was impracticable for me to try to jog on them. The big barrier is not the motorized traffic; it is the crowds of people everywhere!

Pedestrians, Yielding to Them

The school I drive my daughter to each weekday morning is pretty big, with a big parking lot area to go with it. When I enter it to let her off (and then turn around to leave), I often encounter students who walk right in front of my moving car. I always stop in time and show consideration for them. For the most part, I keep my eyes peeled for anyone who may be approaching my path from a distance and automatically yield to them. This is, to me, a normal standard practice that anyone in any parking lot needs to follow, for people walking in shopping center parking lots are also notorious for completely disregarding moving traffic and often step out in front of vehicles from spots hidden to the drivers. But when discussing what happens on the open road, the situation seems to get reversed.

At the traffic light near the same school that I am leaving, I wait to turn left at the green light (without a lead). There are usually students standing there waiting to cross when it turns green for them. And since I would be turning left into their path of crossing, I am required by law to yield to them. But I never see any students automatically start to cross when the light turns green. Instead, they just stand there waiting for all of the cars to turn left in front of them. I have tried on occasion to get a student's attention by waving him or her on, but my efforts have always been ignored. Those students, I'm sure, are quite aware from personal experience that most drivers will not respect their pedestrian rights and, since they don't want to get flattened by them on the way to school, they wait for everyone to pass first before crossing (if their light is still green, that is).

I read in yesterday's Gainesville Sun that a study done in January showed that only about 20% of drivers in Gainesville yield to pedestrians in crosswalks as they are legally required to do. The response? The police are instituting a "pedestrian patrol" to ticket pedestrians they catch jaywalking. Well, there are times when jaywalking may be the safest way to go, especially considering the tendency for drivers to ignore pedestrians at intersections! Why not instead concentrate on ticketing the jerks who won't properly yield to them?!

The common sense solution, of course, is for everyone, both drivers and pedestrians, to take a chill pill and demonstrate a little patience and courtesy for the other guy. This goes beyond what is legally required. It is an important element of simply being a well-functioning, civilized human being. Let's all consciously work at staying civilized, O.K.?