Circle Jerks

Yesterday during Waist High’s visit the conversation briefly turned toward traffic and other people’s driving skills or lack there of. None of us, of course, fit into this category so we felt free to make fun of those less fortunate. Chuck suggested the city implement some sort of public service announcement to educate the public on how to drive in congested traffic since it is a relatively new phenomenon in town. Someone must have been listening in because in the local section of the paper today there is a brief lesson on driving.

As most of you know, my biggest traffic pet peeve is the Garces Circle and people’s inability to negotiate the complexity of A CIRCLE! I probably feel more passionately about it than most because I frequently have to drive through the circle, so I’ve spent more than my fair share of time there. A nice woman wrote a letter to The Californian saying, “The Garces Circle is a beautiful landmark…” and asking the paper to “print a primer on the correct way to enter, drive and exit the lanes.” She also admitted that she has “been honked at too many times.” Gggrrr! She’s one of them!

The article features a quaint little diagram showing how cars are supposed to traverse a circle and offers helpful hints like “If you miss your exit, continue around until you return to your exit.” Visions of Chevy Chase popped into my head.

The thing is, I seriously doubt that all the people who need these instructions are going to remember some tiny little arrows printed (in all black and white again) in the paper days ago. What they really need is a big flashing sign telling them when to go and how to drive.

Somehow I doubt even that would help.