Plaudit
And on to the next post.
Massachusetts, in an attempt to keep driving fun when there's no snow and salt on the roads, has rotaries. What are rotaries? They are roundabouts or traffic circles. I think they should be called newbie-traps or HonkFests. So Mass folks added rotaries to their roadways. And, on a whim, they decided to do away with the yield signs. Until some guy in the Roads and Traffic Department(which itself was voted out of MA in early 70s, I believe), came up with the bright idea. He said: "Why remove them when you can place them in highly ambiguous positions around the rotary?". "'Tis true!", said the wise men of the council, nodding their heads. And thus came to be the yield signs. One is never sure if one is the yielder or the yieldee. Actually, that seems like a pretty deep, philosophical statement. "Who is the Yielder? Who is the Yieldee?". Anyways, back to fun and games at the rotary.
When I first started driving around in MA and encountered my first rotary, I was stumped. I was stymied. Thankfully, this was a very small rotary - only a couple of intersecting roads and there was practically no cars around so I managed to scrape through somehow. My next encounter of the rotary kind was a few weeks later. This time I was prepared. I'd taken directions to my destination and one of the steps asked me to take the third exit (!!?!) off of a rotary. I arrived at the aforementioned rotary, started rotating and counted off the exits. I spotted the exit I needed to take and almost took it. Why didn't I succeed? We all know how MA folks are polite but firm about their no merge/no lane changing rules, right? I take that back, they are just firm. So I figured I'll just go around this rotary one more time and get to my exit. Of course, I couldn't recognize my entry point to the rotary so I ended up figuring out my exit when it was way too late. And yet another rotation. At this point, I was feeling dizzy and rapidly losing interest in getting to wherever-the-heck-it-was-that-I-wanted-to-get-to. Mercifully, on this rotation I reached escape velocity and left the orbit to take my exit.
It is a testimonial to the tenacity of human spirit that I continue to drive in this part of the continent.
Good night and happy Rotating.
P.S : So this post was written late last night and couldn't be published until now thanks to some Google Blogger issues. Just want you to know that I don't generally wish people Good night at 9 in the morning.
Massachusetts, in an attempt to keep driving fun when there's no snow and salt on the roads, has rotaries. What are rotaries? They are roundabouts or traffic circles. I think they should be called newbie-traps or HonkFests. So Mass folks added rotaries to their roadways. And, on a whim, they decided to do away with the yield signs. Until some guy in the Roads and Traffic Department(which itself was voted out of MA in early 70s, I believe), came up with the bright idea. He said: "Why remove them when you can place them in highly ambiguous positions around the rotary?". "'Tis true!", said the wise men of the council, nodding their heads. And thus came to be the yield signs. One is never sure if one is the yielder or the yieldee. Actually, that seems like a pretty deep, philosophical statement. "Who is the Yielder? Who is the Yieldee?". Anyways, back to fun and games at the rotary.
When I first started driving around in MA and encountered my first rotary, I was stumped. I was stymied. Thankfully, this was a very small rotary - only a couple of intersecting roads and there was practically no cars around so I managed to scrape through somehow. My next encounter of the rotary kind was a few weeks later. This time I was prepared. I'd taken directions to my destination and one of the steps asked me to take the third exit (!!?!) off of a rotary. I arrived at the aforementioned rotary, started rotating and counted off the exits. I spotted the exit I needed to take and almost took it. Why didn't I succeed? We all know how MA folks are polite but firm about their no merge/no lane changing rules, right? I take that back, they are just firm. So I figured I'll just go around this rotary one more time and get to my exit. Of course, I couldn't recognize my entry point to the rotary so I ended up figuring out my exit when it was way too late. And yet another rotation. At this point, I was feeling dizzy and rapidly losing interest in getting to wherever-the-heck-it-was-that-I-wanted-to-get-to. Mercifully, on this rotation I reached escape velocity and left the orbit to take my exit.
It is a testimonial to the tenacity of human spirit that I continue to drive in this part of the continent.
Good night and happy Rotating.
P.S : So this post was written late last night and couldn't be published until now thanks to some Google Blogger issues. Just want you to know that I don't generally wish people Good night at 9 in the morning.
Comments
you reprehend Massachusetts' brilliant rotary system and cleverly title the post 'Plaudit'?! what an utter travesty! Rotaries save fuel, reduce traffic congestion, prevent accidents, wake up people from auto-pilot, whip around the cerebral juices, occasionally give a mild high...roundabouts were around since the days of horse-drawn carriages because the cabbies didn't know how to stop the horses at a light (horses are color blind). they are guilt devices made to give every driver a second thought about going forward or turning back. if only we had roundabouts in life instead of crossroads.
Been there, Rotated many times!
DI