Better late than never

Just a small update on my rant yesterday about our neighborhood maze trapping drivers because of a construction street-closing. I wrote:

The city and MNDOT could have prevented much of the current confusion with a mere two detour signs.

Very soon after I wrote that, two detour signs appeared. I doubt that my writing caused it. I think it just took that long for the mess to become apparent to the folks whose job it is to control traffic. It took 4 days, even though the Nicollet closing had been planned for at least a month (there was a warning sign just in front of the area to be closed). Perhaps they thought that everyone would notice the sign, remember the dates, and have picked alternate routes. Yeah, right... as if it were the very same people traveling that route every day.

There are still a few people facing off with our neighborhood maze, but I'm sure those are the people who don't pay much attention anyway, so they're probably used to ending up in places they don't want to be.

Welcome to our neighborhood maze

This won't really be political commentary, except in the sense that it will illustrate how freeways convolute local traffic. Over time, we become accustomed to finding our way around freeways, at least until those plans become further thwarted by construction.

Over the past few days, I've watched many dozens of cars come to the dead-end outside my window. Despite a DEAD END sign they missed or ignored, they slow, act perplexed for a second or two, then make one of two annoying choices... (1) turn around and go back, or (2) head the wrong way on a one-way street.

Our neighborhood maze normally snares few people because there is no good reason to be wandering into it. For a week or so, though, re-construction of the infamous I35W/Crosstown strip has closed Nicollet Avenue at 62nd. Nicollet is a major street in Minneapolis... it's the street that separates East addresses from West addresses. It's also one of the few streets that passes under the Crosstown freeway. Nicollet is our favorite escape route when the freeway jams up, which is often, so it's busy with people who are already peeved at having to resort to an alternate route.

Then, breezing north on Nicollet, they run into a Road Closed sign... not that noticable, not well-placed, with no detour marked. Confused, they take the only obvious alternative besides making a U-turn (which is usually illegal) and turn left onto 63rd (there are no streets going east)... entering our neighborhood maze (below).



Study the map carefully... once going west on 63rd, there are (of course) no streets going north... the freeway blocked them many decades ago. Worse, the first 2 streets going south (Blaisdell and Wentworth) will prove to be dead-ends. Most drivers, however, will breeze straight across on 63rd, figuring on getting over to Lyndale. Wrong. There are little-used railroad tracks (that nobody ever notices) that dead-ends traffic at my place (the blue dot).

Some violate the one-way Pleasant Avenue S. (east Pleasant avenue S.; note that there is a west Pleasant avenue S. on the other side of the tracks). They do so at not-insignificant risk, for the two long blocks they'll travel is lined with apartment buildings housing many people who will properly drive the correct way, facing the violators. Did you notice that East Pleasant Avenue South only goes North? I would like to think that only government could make that happen.

So... most errant drivers wandering into our neighborhood maze find some, often clumsy, way to turn around and try some other way. You know (don't you?) that very few will ever resort to returning to Nicollet and backtracking. There is the irresistable urge to find a shortcut... there has to be another way.

What I've noticed (while at my computer, the dead-end is directly in my line-of-sight) is how clumsy most drivers are at turning around. Their plight is often complicated by traffic coming at them on the one-way, by traffic following them into the dead-end, and by cars parked on both sides of the street. Some notice our parking lot and escape into it for their about-face. Some frustrated drivers, once turned around, peel out in anger at having been trapped and delayed.

As I write this, a Yellow cab is completely confused. He turned around (it took two tries), but all the time looking around in disbelief.

It would have been nice if 63rd went over the tracks, as 60th and 65th do, but there is a railroad siding there for parking and jockeying freight cars. Yes, it could have been built further south, but it wasn't. I don't know why Blaisdell and Wentworth are dead-ended rather than exiting onto 65th. Probably the pleas of some local residents who weren't thinking very far ahead. I don't know why E. Pleasant S. is one-way north either (W. Pleasant S. isn't).

Locals learn the escape route south (Pillsbury) and accomodate ourselves to what the city has "given" us. Drivers for the international delivery firm DHL have never figured out that there are two Pleasant avenues South. Three times I've had to go to the airport to pick up packages they couldn't deliver, because they couldn't find my address.

The city and MNDOT could have prevented much of the current confusion with a mere two detour signs. It's possible that MNDOT is just too swamped, what with massive construction jobs and falling bridges, to have given a little thought to keeping others out of our neighborhood maze. On the other hand, it is somewhat entertaining to watch.