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Fine. Google Maps says there is a 2 minute difference. 2 minutes. What are you (a generic person, not oceangaia) going to do with your whole 2 minutes?
There is a reason the red lights are there. Traffic. If the traffic just reroutes around the red lights it just moves the problem elsewhere, namely off major roads and onto residential streets.
Again, I would not care if they drove the speed limit, or close to it. I am going to get a radar gun and sit there and count for an hour so I have real data.
You can't just go by Google Maps, there are many things that make a difference of much more than a few minutes aside from the things Google Maps is aware of. I used to have a commute of about 30 miles on a 2-lane road popular with truckers. I've missed a light due to the person in front of me slowing down while the light was still green or jamming to a stop on yellow, only to have a caravan of dump trucks turn onto the road in front of us, then I'm behind them for the entire 30 miles, and you can be sure it adds up to more than 2 minutes extra. Every time they stop, it seems like it takes 2 minutes just to get up to speed again. If that guy hadn't been in front of me, the trucks wouldn't have been either.
When I take alternate routes in general though, it is to avoid stress, not save time. I drive through a residential neighborhood every morning in order to avoid the intersection I mentioned in an earlier post, not to save time but because I find it more peaceful to avoid it.
Again, you should petition the city for speed humps. Every neighborhood that has them, has them because the residents pressured the city to put them in. I don't think the radar gun would be as effective as video of just how many cars come speeding by. although I guess you could alternate.
I came to this country with 2000 bucks.
After few days I bought an old car for 700$. On the way back there was a red light and two lines to the left with about 8 cars on the right and zero on the left line of the left turn. I took the most left line, the light turn green and I came ahead of everybody.
At that moment I understood that I will be ok in this country.
Location: The Circle City. Sometimes NE of Bagdad.
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Out of town commuters have created a huge traffic problem created by Waze by routing traffic thru town because of construction that lasted 4 years on a freeway that was poorly constructed.
Home owners have a hard time getting out of their driveways in the morning, and people are now driving down the wrong way on residential streets.
What used to be a 10 minute drive from house to the freeway is now 90 + minutes for the local folks.
Today I left an intersection clear so the three cars waiting to merge could move. The light I was waiting for was red and there were 15 cars ahead of me, so I waited.
Meanwhile 3 cars shot around me and cut into the opening I left.
I don't understand people. They can't wait a minute but have to get there right now. So impatient.
I didn't mind waiting but good thing two of those cars waited and never did get into the lane.
Not sure if it's spring fever or what. I can't even blame rush hour, after school traffic, but just normal everyday backup at this light. *sigh*
And yes, sometimes I take short cuts. Sometimes they're not so short, it's timing the lights right.
In some areas those shortcuts go through residential neighborhoods which tends to irritate the natives. There are a couple communities east of Annapolis that become shortcuts when the Chesapeake Bay Bridge is backed up. The County Police know this and will ticket people using those roads as shortcuts.
Also, if one person knows about a shortcut or workaround then so do thousands of other people, especially now with GPS, Waze, etc.
Do you mean for speeding? How can you get a ticket for just driving on public roads?
This topic always bring to mind this quote from J.R.R Tolkien - "Shortcuts make long delays." I have found that to be true on occasion, but not always.
For the most part, you can't run over a pedestrian just to prove a point. It'd e different if kids were playing on a highway, then that's on them. Highways are for roads. But in a residential area, that's where you'd find kids and people, and many places in the US have speed limits of 25 mph in residential zones.
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Pedestrians cross roads too. They're less likely to be accidents if a car is going slower, and pedestrians can see people crossing sooner.
Pedestrians and bicycles have the right to use roads just like people in cars do. Cars must yield to pedestrians or bicycles.
In our current home, our road gets far more use from pedestrians and bicycles than from cars. At least twice a year we have as many as 5000 runners on our street in a single day. Our street never gets 5000 cars in a single day. Our street is more for pedestrian use than for car use (which is good because it is better suited for pedestrians than for cars anyway.
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