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Playing catch up after the Thanksgiving long weekend. Here is the tally to begin the last month of the year.
Mattresses 126
Ladders 130
Last year in mid December the tally stood at Mattresses 126 and Ladders 112 so we are a bit ahead of mattresses this year and well ahead of ladders.
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St. Louis Mayor Krewson is considering bringing back the red light cameras which were eliminated in 2015. She has statistics which show that since the cameras were removed 171 people were killed in roadway accidents. The number of pedestrians killed by cars rose by 54 percent.
We've noticed an uptick in cars running red lights recently. In our area we see this on Clayton road and Big Bend every day. You have to wait after your light turns green to make sure there isn't a car in the other lane direction whose driver stepped on the gas well before the intersection to speed through a light which was turning red. It is totally red before the car completes the intersection. We've seen this enough that waiting a second or two when our light turns green is best for safety.
It's hard to say why so many are zooming through lights that are turning red. It may be that our area and many other St. Louis streets have too many lights. Many streets have stoplights block after block after block and it does become frustrating when the sync is off and you find yourself never getting a string of green lights. I do believe the timing sync should be looked at in many places. For instance, at Clayton Road and Bellevue and Clayton and Demun (our exits from campus) have terrible timing. Clayton Road green lights go on a long time but the exit streets are lucky to get 5 seconds. Seriously. In many parts of the day getting onto Clayton Road across from St. Mary's means sitting through at least 2 series of long red lights as lots of traffic from the hospital stream through.
In any event, there is much more red light running right now and if bringing back those cameras will help, I'm all for it.
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On Saturday night 3 ladders flew off a truck onto 55 near Weber Road. How would you like to have been behind that guy.
Ladders 122
Mattresses 118
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Mattresses 118
Ladders 117
5 mattresses and 6 ladders since the last report
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One thing seems for certain, highway and road entities must have lots and lots of money this year. There is constant road work going on both on interstates and local, county, and state roads. In the St. Louis area you can hardly get out of your driveway without quickly coming across some sort of road work. And, what is happening on St. Louis highways is ridiculous. Bridges are closed or mostly closed which leads to backups and time lost for drivers.
This weekend the Poplar Street Bridge had all but one lane closed eastbound and all lanes westbound on the east end. Sure it was the weekend but there is still lots of traffic and a pain in the neck to detour around it. 44 has work messing up traffic near 270 and the King Bridge has been closed going on 3 years. The JB bridge out south, the same. I'm waiting for some highway wiseguy to decide to do something on the only unworked bridge, the Musial. Local streets are often impossible to drive due to whatever work is being done on them.
I guess my point is, there has to be lots of available money. Don't be crying poor all you transportation people when tax time comes.
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A ladder on SB 55 near Herculaneum.
Mattresses 107
Ladders 109
On top of this there seem to be crashes all over the area during this morning's rush time. Including one deer hit near Troy, Missouri. I'll confess that heading over to Collinsville for church yesterday I drove through extremely thick fog which was especially blinding on the Illinois side. While I carefully watched that I was at least inside my lane lines it suddenly occurred to me that this is the time of year when deer are jumping across highways and roads in early morning and at dusk. That made me head over to the middle lane and have to watch the sides of the road as well as trying to see straight ahead in the fog. I was relieved to get to the Collinsville exit.
Dale's says I'm a bit too paranoid, but following traffic reports as I do rather obsessively, I don't think he's correct. He's hit a deer several times over the years.
The first one he hit was on the country road leading into Venedy where we lived. He had Lizzie in the car with him and she was about 3 or 4 years old. After he got home and settled down a bit from the shock of the deer hit, he decided that was a good evening to read her the book, Bambi.
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Yesterday morning a tractor trailer overturned in the eastbound lanes of the Poplar Street Bridge with the result that a 5 year old girl was ejected from the truck and died. While one question might be asked immediately is why was a 5 year old girl and two teenage boys riding in this truck, the real issue is how tricky/dangerous that area of the bridge is.
Comments to the story from Fox2Now ran the gamut, but one consistent strain was when would they (IDOT and MoDOT) ever get done working on that bridge. And, in addition, places that have been worked on are confusing to drivers not familiar with the lane changes. This causes those who aren't used to this part of the highway to suddenly change lanes when they think they're in a wrong one. In fact, the eastbound lanes on the bridge all will lead to 55/70 and 64. It just doesn't seem like it to someone from away.
I've learned to hold my breath going to Collinsville. As I approach the bridge in downtown I'm in the second lane to the left which puts me on the bridge heading right onto 55/70. But I am always aware of trucks (especially trucks) who suddenly realize the right lane will turn into an exit only to 64. I've seen more big trucks quickly swerve on lane to the left which is where I am.
Going west is just as as bad. Before the bridge and after 55/70 and 64 have merged together there are sharp curves where drivers are going to fast, especially the big trucks. Then the bridge has left lanes going straight in downtown and the right lanes going left to 70 and 44. In addition the lighting is non existent during dark hours. It's just crazy.
And now I read that IDOT will be closing 2 eastbound lanes on the Poplar today from 7:30 until 3 to inspect the bridge because of yesterdays truck crash. They warn of significant delays. And of course today I have to be in Collinsville for an appointment. I guess it's the Stan Span for me.
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