Thanks for the ample warning

Driving in to work the other day, I saw the message board on I-64 near Parham actually in use for once. It said, "Traffic delays at mile marker 183". Big help, that, because the message board itself is located at mile marker 182.5. I had to hit my brakes almost before I was done reading the sign. Then, after about a half hour of crawling along the highway, I got to the merge with 95. With traffic backed up for miles on both roads, it was evident that there was some kind of pileup on the road ahead. Nonetheless, in the small area between lanes right before you actually merge with traffic was placed a portable orange sign that simply stated, "Accident Ahead". How thoughtful! And helpful! By that point it doesn't really matter the reason that traffic is backed up; everyone's already late for work and totally pissed off. And I guarantee that by the time authorities responded to the accident scene and were able to go back up the road to put that sign down, traffic was already slowed down past the point of it being useful to anyone. But I guess it's the thought that counts, especially since my assumption the previous 40 minutes had been that everyone was slowed down to let a family of ducks cross the road.

They've also been warning us for days that a New Traffic Pattern would take effect on 64 near Staples Mill. The eastbound effect was basically that you veer to the right instead of the left so the construction crews can work on the other side of the road. But the HUGE improvement is along the westbound lanes where traffic from 195 merges with traffic from 95 north which merges with traffic from 95 south all at the same place. They've put up concrete barriers along the lane coming from 195, which means that those people can't get over until after the Staples Mill exit. This is an improvement that has been a long time coming! Every day on my drive home, no matter the time of afternoon or evening, traffic would be terribly backed up along that stretch because of idiots trying to get across four lanes of traffic in about 200 feet to hit that exit. Now I can get from the 195 exit past the Staples Mill exit in about 30 seconds as opposed to the five minutes it used to take. Now, don't take this as a complaint that Richmond traffic is "bad" in any absolute sense -- especially since I've never given much credence to those who argue that Richmond traffic is bad, considering that I have extensive experience driving the highways of Chicago and DC. But when a delay of just five minutes represents 33% of my total commute, I will fully endorse the spending of my tax dollars to put up walls between the lanes.