This commute is killing me.\u00c2\u00a0 A couple of nights ago it took me an hour and 40 minutes to get home from work.\u00c2\u00a0 For a 20-mile journey, on a single stretch of motorway – the infamous I-10 (a.k.a. the Katy Freeway).\u00c2\u00a0 That’s an average of 12 mph – which just shows that the police are taking the piss by putting up “65-mph” speed limit signs.<\/p>\n
And\u00c2\u00a012mph is an average<\/span>.\u00c2\u00a0 For the last 5 miles of the journey I was hurtling along at closer to 80mph.\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, that’s over<\/em> the limit, but I dare<\/em> the bastards to pull me over and risk a mouthful of my barely-contained road-rage.\u00c2\u00a0 The police have started ticketing people based on their calculated<\/span> average speed between two points, even if they don’t actually catch them speeding.\u00c2\u00a0 If they can do that, then I’m going to use an average speed between two points as my defence.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s got to cut both ways.\u00c2\u00a0 Plain and simple.<\/p>\n Anyway, if the last 5 miles were at 80mph then the first 15 must have been at less than 10mph (my rough mental calculations backed up by the fact that I didn’t get out of first gear).\u00c2\u00a0 The weather was fine, visibility good, and there were no accidents.\u00c2\u00a0 There weren’t even any police cars sat on the hard shoulder with their lights flashing just as a ‘traffic-calming’ measure.\u00c2\u00a0 (Man<\/em>, that pisses me off!)\u00c2\u00a0 So why the difference?\u00c2\u00a0 Simple.<\/p>\n The Texas Road Authority are in the process of upgrading the I-10.\u00c2\u00a0 This is a 6-year project costing in excess of\u00c2\u00a0$1.4 billion (U.S. billions – $1,446,000,000), and involves significantly widening the road and reworking just about all of the intersections.\u00c2\u00a0 The last 5 miles of my journey have already been upgraded, the first 15 haven’t.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s the difference.\u00c2\u00a0 Bit it’s not that roadworks<\/em> are messing things up – the contractors have committed to making at least\u00c2\u00a0three lanes available in each direction at all times.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s just the sheer volume of traffic using the road.<\/p>\n The old Katy Freeway is\u00c2\u00a0three lanes wide in each direction, plus one central lane for HOV (high-occupancy vehicles – cars etc. with at least three people in them).\u00c2\u00a0 The new freeway is six lanes on each carriageway, plus three lanes of service road each side, plus another four lanes (two in each direction) of HOV\/toll road in the middle.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s 22 lanes of traffic wide, and it sits like a great big black ribbon plonked down across the ‘countryside’.\u00c2\u00a0 Actually, there wasn’t a lot of countryside left even before they started the upgrade – it’s pretty much built up to within a couple of feet of the road – although there are still a surprising number of trees on most areas not already covered by roads or buildings.\u00c2\u00a0 The new I-10 is a big 200-metre wide stretch of blacktop you can probably see from space (if you can see the Great Wall of China, then I’m sure you can see this), and it’s beautiful<\/em>.<\/p>\n Sure, trees and grass are nice, but when I’m driving home to see my kids (and play in a nice, tree-shaded garden) I’d rather put up with 20 minutes of concrete whizzing by than 100 minutes of trees going by so slowly I can see the leaves sprouting.\u00c2\u00a0 The I-10 upgrade can’t happen fast enough for me, and the sooner\u00c2\u00a0the Texas Road Authority\u00c2\u00a0gets out and starts bulldozing those last few trees out of the way, the better.<\/p>\n Screw the tree-huggers.\u00c2\u00a0 Tarmac the world, I say!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This commute is killing me.\u00c2\u00a0 A couple of nights ago it took me an hour and 40 minutes to get home from work.\u00c2\u00a0 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