Starkville may not have a dog in the fight - if it?s like GA, it would be MDOT dictating how the work is done since it?s a State highway.
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This sounds almost as bad as the Hwy 25/Lakeland Dr. widening project. If your driving eastbound when raining, and at night, and have to turn left, you might run off into something. Or, at least destroy you tires and rims.
This was not a sole-MDOT project. This was a combined effort between MDOT, the City of Starkville, and the Greater Starkville Development Partnership.
It's a great design. IF the road is wide enough for cars to make the uturn. I haven't seen what you're talking about, but I assume it's the same setup as on the busy roads in New Orleans?
Of course the other problem is you have to have drivers that understand it. Judging by how long it was before I saw someone in Starkville properly use the round about at blackjack, I'd say people will have t figured out in 2050ish.
How about take the money spent on this and fix the existing cracks and potholes? What is needed most on 12 the last time I was there is street lights.
I make an average of 30+ trips a week utilizing all or a portion of Hwy12 and I like the setup. It is reducing the number of overly aggressive driving moves, it is actually improving the flow of traffic and you don't have to be constantly on guard or looking out for idiots who are using the turning lane as a fifth lane and making selfish (and dangerous) left hand turns across oncoming traffic. Plan your routes better, utilize the traffic lights for turns (both left and right) and you will find the traffic flows well. Haven't had to wait more than one light change to proceed through an intersection during either am or pm rush hours since implementation, where I used to get hung up at multiple intersections and have to wait up to 3 or 4 light changes during high volume traffic periods. As for Taco Bell, do as mentioned previously, utilize Gillespie, Yellow Jacket, Lynn Lane, Eckford, etc. It truly doesn't add much time, is safer and less stressful. Give it a chance.
Lot of uninformed in this thread, and apparently a lot of drivers that don't drive on crowded urban streets very much. Most of you sound like those doctors from Columbus who complain about a student dropping his nachos in his baseball seats that he never occupied.
You?re right. I don?t drive on a lot of crowded urban streets. If I wanted to do that I?d live in a big city. I like the slower pace of a small town. But the obscenity they?ve done on hwy 12 has not helped anything. Traffic will still back up for a half mile at a redlight. All they?ve done is make it where I have to go way out of my way just so I can go to a business that happens to be ok the opposite side of the highway I?m on. And making u turns in some of those intersections is inherently dangerous. The main one is the intersection of 12 and Stark Rd. You have drivers coming onto 12 from the small entrance ramps and they?re looking back to see if anything is coming from their left. Nobody is thinking about a driver making a u turn from the opposite direction.
It is the driver making the u-turn that must yield to the driver making a right turn.
http://funeasyenglish.com/graphics/d...right-turn.jpg
No. The reason for the project is to prevent just that. If it r didnt teach you to NOT do that next time, the project isnt the failure. The project is to promote the east/west flow of traffic that is negatively affected BY people trying to cross over turn. Invonvenient? sure. But when you multiply the number of cars that attempt to do what you did, THAT is what makes the rest of HWY 12 gridlocked. Turn right into a business. the alternative is getting every business to participate in an easement to widen hwy 12 which, if you truely hate taxes, is not an option.
I lived in starkville for 10 years... it took me all of 10 days to figure out how to navigate the "big city" and part of that was avoiding Hwy 12 because of idiots. Clearly I was successful because I managed to make it out alive, graduate, and have the power to come back and visit. Hell i've even thought about moving back all this excitement about Hwy 12 being a clusterF*** has me excited. Maybe all of you will stop driving on it and i can get the whole road to myself... just like the good ole days when no one else new the cut through roads.
Yeah, they did this on 280 in Birmingham. I sat in on the study where they explained all the time that the stop lights and turns were taking away from the actual highway.
Another thing some of you need to think about is that Starkville has seen unprecedented growth and it isn't the same small town you think it is or was. Guess you'll just have to adapt.