More Road Silliness

So as I waited (and waited, and waited) for the non-timed traffic lights on Fort Worth Highway this morning, I recalled why it was a few years ago that our speed limits were curtailed. Emissions non-attainment!

So, here we are, years later, still in non-attainment status, and not one functioning brain cell at TxDOT has thought that "gee, we should time these traffic lights so we don't have thousands upon thousands of vehicles sitting and spewing crud in the air for no good reason all day, every day". Efficiency of a vehicle at a traffic light? 0%. Number of vehicles in Parker Co. pointlessly waiting for unnecessary traffic lights because TxDOT won't time them? Lord only knows.

I also passed construction going on to put in the permanent traffic lights at I-20 and FM1187. Fantastic - goodness knows we need a replacement set of traffic lights for that hopelessly overloaded interchange. That's much better than, say, extra capacity, or clovers, or just about anything except a stupid waste of money to do the same job twice.

Oh, and look! It's the mind-bogglingly ridiculous neck-down of I-30 between Spur 580 and I-820. Three lanes on one side, three lanes on the other side, and two lanes in between. Could someone with an 8th-grade physics education please explain to TxDOT why no road will ever move faster than the slowest choke point? Be sure to include the prime example of the gloriously widened Santa Fe Drive in Weatherford that goes down to ONE lane each way at I-20. This guarantees a backup all the way over the hill and back down toward Holland Lake. The reason I was given by past local TxDOT engineer Jimmey Bodiford? "I didn't know how to design the bridge at I-20, so I didn't".

Is it time to reform TxDOT yet?