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© St. Petersburg Times, published February 3, 2002
We had a nice note from Marcia Hughes of St. Petersburg, who cast one vote heartily in favor of the state roadies' decision to redo all the exit numbers on all the interstates that crisscross Florida. When the project is finished, each exit number will correspond to the nearest mile marker.
That's the way it's already done in most of the country -- and on Florida's Turnpike. Data on dangerous sections of road are compiled by mile marker designations, and responses to emergency calls for help all are recorded by mile marker. Police and emergency responses should be better under the new system.
The change also will give motorists a better gauge of where they are. If someone is looking for Exit 92 on I-95 and passes Mile Marker 90, it's a pretty sure bet that the desired exit is about 2 miles ahead.
Except, Marcia points out, along northbound I-275 in southern Pinellas County. Exit 18, for 26th Avenue S, is actually about a tenth of a mile north of Mile Marker 19, and about nine-tenths of a mile south of Mile Marker 20.
We drove past and confirmed that Marcia is, indeed, correct. So we asked the state roadies what gives, and the answer might surprise you. Kris Carson, who puts up with our interminable questions, said the exit sign is correct. It's the mile marker that's wrong.
"During construction projects, the mile markers get pulled up to get them out of the way, and they're not always put back in the right place," Kris said. "Once all the exit signs are done, we'll redo all the mile markers, and that should fix the problem."
The new exit signs should all be up by summer, new mile marker placements soon to follow.
Isn't this just tres exciting?
We ran out of room last week before we got to our nomination for Carbungle of the week, Carbungles being the actions of other drivers that make your blood boil (I know, we promised not to make the pun again, but it slipped out). Let's get to this week's forthwith before we run out of room again.
Several people nominated drivers who whiz by and then cut in because their lanes are about to run out. We have had nominations involving such disparate places as the Bayway, westbound Ulmerton Road along the Miracle Mile, Roosevelt Boulevard eastbound just south of St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport, and the interstate.
We are prepared, particularly at this touristy time of the year, to allow for the possibility that some people simply don't know that they're about to lose their lane. This is an act of extreme generosity on our part, since we have never seen a lane run out that wasn't forewarned by road signs. But there are drivers for whom no amount of warning works.
Jessie firmly believes that most of the offenders just don't want to merge until the last minute so they can cut in farther up the line to get ahead of everybody else.
What tickles us far more than it should is watching one of these goons cut in half a block ahead of us and then pulling up beside him at the next traffic light. Playing dodge-'em with his car and being rude merely won him the chance to sit for a longer time and wait for the light to turn green.
Now that's funny.
We have dual Eyeball Jigglers of the Week.
Driving north on Fourth Street and turning right either onto Seventh or Eighth avenues N can be a true test of how well your vehicle is bolted together.
A lot of the avenues in the area are uneven brick to begin with, but the roughed up asphalt and potholes in the paving extensions off Fourth Street need to be navigated with extreme caution even before you get onto the bricks.
Let this be a warning.
Our funniest item of the week came from someone named Kim who lives in St. Petersburg and spends way too much time looking at street signs along First Avenue N. But we're glad she does because she found a gem.
Driving west on First, there is a sign immediately beyond 34th Street on the left curb that says, "Lane ends. Merge left." Think about that for a minute. If you're in the left lane and you merge left, you'll be driving on the sidewalk. I'm not certain about Florida, but when I learned to drive up North, I'm sure I was taught that driving on the sidewalk is considered ill-mannered and illegal.
To compound the hilarity, a sign just beyond the instruction to merge left is a diagram showing that the left lane ends and traffic must merge right.
Go look for yourselves and laugh while you can. I have a feeling this traffic schizophrenia will be fixed pretty quickly.
Another reader alerted us to a visual obstruction eastbound on 54th Avenue N. If you are approaching Fourth Street and want to turn left to approach the Eckerd drugstore there from the rear, it is difficult to see past median landscaping to get a good view of the oncoming traffic.
At this time of year, we could see cars among the branches, which have been stripped of a lot of leaves by the cold snap last month.
But come spring, when everything fills in again, westbound traffic in the left lane will be almost totally obscured. We hope the city will get crews out to do a little judicious trimming before the growing season opens.
And now, Dr. Delay's Terrible Traffic Tidbit:
Bus occupant injuries dropped 18 percent between 1999 and 2000, while motorcyclist injuries went up 16 percent. Jessie and I understand that these are dollops of information you can't live without, so we bring them to you as quickly as we can.
-- Dr. Delay can be reached by e-mail at docdelay@sptimes.com, by fax at (727) 893-8675 or by snail mail at 490 First Ave., S, St. Petersburg 33701.