Renewed traffic means reminders of good driving

While we weren't looking, mid-March became mid-August.

Traffic life has been good this summer, even in the maze formerly known as Second and Third streets.

After Tuesday, however, all bets are off.

Wednesday, Grand Island's morning traffic -- school, work, masochism -- returns to its full-bodied, construction-altered self.

We have had a few months off, taken a vacation, hunkered down in motor vehicle hiatus.

This week, however, we have the chance to revisit the specter of gridlock, backups and frayed nerves, the one that forced us to find alternate routes, leave earlier and drive like Job himself.

Since March we have nicely navigated a forest of bright orange barricades and more signs than a Miss Astrology pageant. With the final group of students back in school Wednesday, this week will once again push our patience as Broadwell, Blaine/Custer and Eddy will resume a decided crawl in the morning.

Much of that traffic will reverse itself by late afternoon, and the next morning the entire process starts over.

Repeat as needed.

Needed is defined here as Monday through Friday, an amazing consistency called the work week and school days.



Driver assessment

Meanwhile, good news abounds: The construction on Second Street is on schedule, defying a brief but terrible monsoon season earlier this summer.

That means we will be switching sides in late August and driving on a new, wider Second Street by late fall.

And feeling good about ourselves because we will have dealt with disruption for better than nine months without being overcome with daily outbreaks of road rage or driver depression.

Still, being prepared is key -- especially after a summer of lighter traffic.

That's why I am offering these reminders for the discriminating driver, the one for whom calm, efficiency and good manners are the goals.

1.) Your horn is neither a weapon nor a behavior modification device: Pounding, pushing or otherwise throwing yourself on your steering wheel to blast your horn is futile. The sound and fury neither moves traffic nor makes your mother proud.

The horn is designed to warn of impending danger. For example, a couple short beeps would be handy if someone was backing toward you in an attempt to better position his vehicle to scale the Second Street overpass from Blaine below.

Horns can also be useful as timing devices. This often comes into play when driver number one needs to get the attention of driver number two at a precise interval, often because driver number one is employing a commonly known hand gesture, which assesses the driving acumen of driver number two.



Might even honk

2.) Those other vehicles? They have drivers in them: While we have mentioned this before, waiting in traffic requires a modicum of effort and attention -- teamwork, if you will. For example, a lackadaisical driver can wander into and block an intersection unaware that dozens of vehicles have been waiting to cross it for 20 minutes. When this happens, see the timing device reference in #1.

3.) Do you drive well enough to do that?: I'm as guilty as the next cell phone user/driver, but I never completely trust someone on the phone with whom I am also sharing the road. I am especially cautious of talking drivers who are laughing and carrying on or whose vehicles sport a crunched door or dented fender, anything that says, "I've driven and crashed while distracted, and I can do it again."

4.) Take one for the team: Given that we are halved Second Street (18,000 vehicles a day) for five months, we have held up remarkably well, my opinion of the turning lane at Custer and Old Potash notwithstanding.

Not that I am suggesting we make permanent the disruption (Isn't the nature of a disruption its impermanence?), but aside from a few daily hiccups, we have handled the change with some class. Now that we will once again be throwing thousands of vehicles into the breach for another couple months, driving cooperatively will be necessary.

It may even catch on. We may be looking out for the other guy long after the big machines are gone, and we're motoring on new concrete.

I might even honk if I saw that.

George Ayoub is senior writer at The Independent.