Forget talking about religion, politics or sex. If you want to spur some lively debate among just about any group of people, bring up your traffic beefs.

Topping most people’s lists these days, of course, will be their personal experiences with drivers seemingly oblivious to what is going on around them as they engage in that oh-so-important cell phone call. If you can see the phone, that means he or she is driving with one hand - at most.

Bringing up that topic encourages embellishments - not only was this driver on the phone, he or she was eating/smoking/putting on make-up/reading a newspaper or magazine/ or sleeping. Combine that with a big tank SUV, and it’s scary - especially if you drive a Honda.

That said, let’s be more specific about less trite complaints, starting with Alton.

I’ll pick up where another Telegraph blogger left off concerning the red lights on East Broadway that apparently are invisible to some drivers, even at night.

The most dangerous crossing in the city seems to be across from the newspaper, in the westbound lane of East Broadway at Alby Street. There is a flashing red light that dangles from a wire above the intersection, but from the screeching sounds we hear while we work, for some reason people don’t see it until the last few feet. I’ve also seen many, many drivers just cruise right through the intersection without stopping, even when I’ve entered the crosswalk. The intersection does have a stop sign, but it’s quite a distance from the corner, located east of the doorway of Alton Marketplace offices.

East Broadway-Alby is only one of a few such dangerous corners in the city, which prompts me to offer my humble suggestion for this and other problem intersections:

Install some of those attention-getting, piercing white flashing lights along with the red ones. They are the type of flashers that emergency responders have on their vehicles. Those lights sure get the attention of drivers in West Asheville, N.C., which has the white lights combined with red ones along a busy road in a commercial area with traffic control lights every few blocks.

Another traffic problem that St. Louis County is addressing, to its credit, is impatient motorists rushing through an intersection - probably many times as the green light changes to yellow - then clogging the intersection so cross traffic cannot enter the street on their own green light. That is one of my big beefs, especially when the side streets entering those roads have brief, seemingly only seconds-long interludes of green lights and I’ve already waited my turn.

I can’t say I’ve had much of a problem with this type of clod in Alton, but there are two places especially where this happens and it triples my blood pressure level. Both locations are along Illinois Route 159 in Edwardsville-Glen Carbon. One spot is where Jerry Lavelle Drive in Edwardsville (by Steak ‘n Shake) empties traffic from two strip shopping centers that have Schnuck’s and Target stores. The other irritating intersection is the street by Applebee’s in Glen Carbon, where westbound traffic comes from Wal-Mart and surrounding shops at Cottonwood Mall.

Those two intersections consistently attract the rude, selfish and impatient drivers on Route 159 who don’t care if they block the exit for westbound drivers - those patient people who only have a precious brief chance to escape the congested shopping center lots. The “inconsiderates” race right up to the rear of what should be the last vehicle in line, then stick out in the intersection to block drivers who patiently waited their turn. I will admit to honking and pointing a couple of times in the hopes that the line will scoot forward and let me out. One time I wound my Honda around the vehicles in my way to get on to the highway, evoking a look of surprise from one of the cloddish female offenders.

Which brings me to this:
A couple weeks ago St. Louis County police announced they would start ticketing such inconsiderates, with Highway 40 construction work forcing vehicles onto smaller streets and escalating the problem. Officials specifically mentioned Eager Road at Hanley Road as a problem area. A few days after that, I was driving in that very area and saw the lines of cars in the east lanes of Eager headed toward Hanley. The message must have reached those drivers. They were politely stopping before reaching the intersections if there was no room for them, EVEN THOUGH THEIR LIGHT WAS GREEN! Fortunately, I was in the right-hand lane and bypassed all of them to get to a ($2.69 per gallon) gas station on Hanley.

I’m sure this is only Part 1 of more to come on traffic tick-offs. Anyone who has made it this far in my ramblings is welcome to write and tell me his or her most irritating traffic complaints or incidents. So, in the meantime, don’t just drive safely, drive considerately or someone may e-mail your actions to me for Part 2.

And, of course, watch out for that red Honda Accord!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 29th, 2008 at 12:35 pm and is filed under The Beat. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.