How to Build a Better Roundabout

For starters, don’t build a roundabout at all.

“Well how will we get off the Interstate then, David?”

Sure, I know there will be those who think I belong out there looking for big foot, or visiting Roslyn, New Mexico, or even developing a working model for cold fusion. I mean, even more than normal.  But it’s really not that.

Pay attention VDOT, what is about to unfold here is a design change that will provide a difference in Colonial Heights and likely for large Interstate ingress/egress designs in the future. How you ask?

Well, if I told you that there was a way to lower the potential for accidents at the I-95 exit/entrance area by 67 percent would you be interested in changing the roundabout design to make it happen? And what if it would not impact the majority of traffic on Temple, perhaps making it even less restrictive, and likely be able to do this at a budgetary wash?

Pipe dream, you say. Balderdash, you say. Poppycock, you say.

Sure, I know it sounds crazy, and maybe after you read this you will say, there goes that moron again proposing some kind of ridiculous idea, like flubber tires. But that’s not it at all.

The whole idea of the roundabout, which by the way I think is a good idea and will work, has been an issue within the community from nearly every corner. For some, just the idea of change is enough to wad their panties, others see a new design with a sceptic’s eye, and others just throw their hands in the air and slink off in defeat with visions of the Boulevard project in their heads.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

While looking at the VDOT model for the roundabout on the city’s web page, I was sort of spacing out on the traffic flow. Yes, the model shows how traffic will run through the roundabout, starting and stopping in appropriate places and then moving as the traffic cleared up. Truly, the model, based on GPS technology is a bit of a wonder. It resembles a huge whirligig.

So as I am watching the traffic swing out of the interstate and stop and start to allow cars and trucks to pass, I noticed that all the east-bound Temple avenue traffic was going straight through the whirligig. No one was taking a left and trying to spin back up Temple, or attempting to pick up the I-95 entrance lanes. They all went straight through as if driving directly from the Boulevard to the mall.

There are three places in the current design where an accident is likely to happen. They each involve the Interstate portion of the roundabout. Two for the east bound lanes, and one for the westbound, Interstate-bound, lane. If we could eliminate the intersections on the east bound lanes, two potential accidents points would go away.

In fact, the entire roundabout would go away.

What you would have left is elevated Temple Avenue east lanes (yes a bridge), and then a left turn from the Interstate exit onto Temple west bound, and a left turn from Temple avenue west bound to enter the Interstate.  That would be the only place where roads would cross creating a need for people to merge to get into the lanes they want to go on.

It might even be possible to engineer it in such a way that the cross traffic for the west bound lanes would be eliminated. But doing that would probably end up looking like the I-95 north bound exit to the Downtown Expressway.

Take a second and go look at VDOT’s whirligig design which is intended to make us feel good about the change. Wouldn’t it be a change if the flow of traffic on Temple Avenue in either direction was unimpeded from the Boulevard all the way to Conduit Road?  Wouldn’t it be nice to eliminate the biggest driving hazard in the city?

Here’s why it won’t work.

It makes sense. It makes sense, and VDOT has already sold the farm on their own whirligig design. As a certified project manager, I would suggest that now is exactly the time to look into a change like this. It takes little money to do it; just a few technician-hours on an AutoCAD. And if it would have the benefit of improving traffic conditions in the city and improve safety at the same time, doesn’t that make sense?

There is some question about whether the change would increase the cost. I’m sure building a bridge there would tack on some cost, but at the same time you would be saving the cost of the roundabout itself. Also, it would make the whole project easier to build. VDOT could construct one side, say the west bound lanes and move traffic there, and then build the east bound lanes. They do this all the time, it’s just a matter of figuring it out.

And the redesign?

Well that’s pretty simple too. These designs are a made using AutoCAD computer systems.  A good engineer ought to be able to modify the model in short order. If the proposal has so many positive aspects, isn’t worth looking at?

But ha. I forget, the current design is in the works, God forbid we suggest something that may be better. And besides, I’m no engineer so I can’t have a good idea either.

Hey VDOT, take a look. It will work, it will be better, isn’t it worth taking a look at? Oh, by the way, you can have the idea free consider it a present.

If you think this idea might be a solution, consider contacting the city or VDOT. While it’s past the input time, they haven’t started building anything. The suggestion does not affect right of way and only moderately changes the design. Without actually working out the financial details since I don’t have them, it seems to me that there would not be that large a difference. And, if it would be simpler and safer wouldn’t be worth a contract mod?

Come on VDOT, after that mess you hung us with on the south end of the Boulevard don’t we citizens deserve some consideration for this kind of change? Bleh, my bet is bureaucracy will raise its head and stupidity will flourish yet again.

Democracy--or Might Makes Right

Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.

H. L. Mencken

 Oh the world of local politics. It would be even more comical if it didn’t have the serious side behind it. And I’ll be darned if it isn’t happening over and over again right before our very eyes.

You talk about political grid lock? Just look at how some of those “my group your group” decisions have panned out over the years. Perhaps the biggest fiasco in local politics took place many years ago in Petersburg when their City Council opted out of helping their largest employer at the time, Brown and Williamson.  B&W was looking for some tax help, the city said no way, and Brown and Williamson moved to North Carolina.

Who won that decision?

Bad decisions are almost always the result of “group think” instead of working to the benefit of whatever municipality we happen to represent.  Politicians are elected; and they believe they are elected because of the policies and planks that they ran on. In reality that has nothing to do with it at all. In local politics who’s in and who’s out almost always is the result of popularity. Not too much different in reality to who gets named Home Coming Queen and King.

It’s by popular vote. How many people can I get to vote for me, support me, and put a little muscle behind my election campaign? Hold aside your personal feelings and that is exactly what democracy is all about. In truth, it’s the absolute worst form of government, next to all the rest.

What’s a constituent to do? Vote, for sure, because if you don’t vote you might as well just give up. You have no say in who is doing what. You deserve whatever you get. And for those who vote and lose, at least you were in the game. In some ways it’s a lot like the lottery. You can’t win if you don’t play.

But there are other things. Just because “I am more popular than you” does not mean that I will be a better judge of determining the course of the good ship over the next however long my term or terms last. In and out, up and down, in the end it’s all about groups and whether I have the swing vote.

In Colonial Heights, it’s very easy to see the gyrations between the two factions. What you don’t think there are two factions? My my, we have been napping haven’t we?

To me, City Council’s job is to set policy. According to ehow.com their purpose is:

A city government's mission is to use financial and human resources to provide services and ensure civil order for residents.

So how does that pan out in our City and how can you tell which way the pendulum swings?  Really, that isn’t hard to figure out at all. If you know what the real issues are in Colonial Heights you already know how council breaks in dealing with certain matters that come before it. It’s all defined by the votes they make.

You want to know how Council is going to determine the course of events in the city? Just look at who they “elect” as mayor. Whoever gets that position is the person leading whichever faction has the swing vote.

There is really only one way to change that. It has to do with the election. Pay attention to who is sitting on City Council and if you are dissatisfied with what comes out of that office you can make a change.  If they happen to be following a course you prefer, then keep on truckin’. But if you do not like the things that City Council is doing or promoting, then you have a moral imperative to make a change.  You can make a change by electing other candidates whose ideas and ideology more closely fit with your beliefs, or at least not with those of the faction you do not care for.

Choose not to vote and you get what you deserve, plain and simple, and exactly as H.L. Mencken suggests.

The Evil in the Hearts of Men

Back in my early days of being a father, I used to tease my older son Geordie at night by channeling the voice of Frank Readick Jr, who spoke the opening lines for The Shadow radio show. At the time, I just thought it was kind of funny when in my most evil sounding voice, “Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?  The Shadow knows!”

And to me at the time it was just sort of humorous. I didn’t think that it might be absolutely horrifying to an eight year old, and in fact, hadn’t given it much thought until it came up recently in a conversation with him.

“That used to scare the crap out of me, dad,” he confided.

And perhaps it was a bit overdone for an impressionable kid at that time. But the sheer reality of it all is that monsters do exist. We are faced with them constantly, and often we don’t even know they are in our midst.

Take for instance the case of Jeffrey Clark, the former youth group leader at a local church.  Time will tell if Mr. Clark is found guilty of the charges against him for aggravated sexual battery, but in my experience these things tend more often to be true.

The incident prompted my church to host a meeting with a sex offender counselor. To say the least, it was an eye opening meeting.  There’s a reason why these people are called predators, and Clark’s case appears to be fit the bill for how these kinds of people operate.

Their intent, first and foremost, is to get “close” to kids. What they do to get there is the predatory part. They develop a personality that makes parents and leaders comfortable, and then turn their wiles toward taking advantage of kids. It’s not just boys that they are after, but it seems that boys are often the targets.

Take for instance the Jerry Sandusky case. No one wanted to believe that he was the sort of person who would take advantage of little boys. And yet…

And yet, that’s exactly how sexual predators work. They ingratiate themselves among the people who ultimately provide them access to that thing they want most of all.

Does that sound scary to you? It does to me. The reality of it is that it should strike fear in every parent.  These people end up in positions to do exactly what they wanted to do. They are predators; there is no better term for it. Everything they do is geared toward getting that one-on-one situation with your child.

There are likely those among the population who think this may be a bit overboard, or that my paranoia may be showing. But the truth is that these situations come up more and more often.

Blame the Internet, the media, or anything else you want to blame, but the truth is that these people are out there. You probably know them and you probably trust them.  That’s how they work, that’s their game, and they are very good at it.

So in the end, who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? No one. Take the time to get to know the people who are taking charge of your children. They are not all saints. In fact, some are as far away from saints as one can be.