“Through me you go into a city of weeping; through me you go into eternal pain; through me you go amongst the lost people." -- Dante Alighieri, The Inferno (The Divine Comedy, #1)
BY RICHARD JOHNSON
I’m pretty sure Dante was talking about Cheyenne's hellacious roundabouts.
Perhaps we need to change a few signs from "20 mph" to "Abandon hope, all ye who enter here!" Seems fitting.
Look, we’ve all been in a hurry to get to Cheyenne's number one crime haven on Livingston Ave. Thanks to state statute, speed limits increased, so we can haul ass faster
to bask in the angelic glow of that McDonald's neon and those sexy rolled-back prices.
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| The roundabout in Cheyenne at Converse and Pershing. |
With all this HIVE activity, I really shouldn’t be running lights, but I punched the roof on that yellow so Lady Luck remains my ever-faithful side-chick. Ride or die, Cheyenne!
Maybe if these Greenies in their hybrids would quit coming up North and getting in our way, we wouldn’t have to run 'em down, or even worse, turn intersections into (gasp) roundabouts.
In facing the horrific gates of hell, it would be safe to say that roundabouts are causing the downfall of CFD high society. Except for the actual fact that, according to a study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, roundabouts reduced injury crashes by 75 percent at intersections where stop signs or signals were previously used for traffic control.
Studies by that agency and Federal Highway Administration have also shown that roundabouts typically achieve:
n A 37 percent reduction in overall collisions.
n A 75 percent reduction in injury collisions.
n A 90 percent reduction in fatality collisions.
n A 40 percent reduction in pedestrian collisions.
The one thing that the Mayor and I can agree on is that roundabouts are a good investment for Cheyenne.
But, let me take a moment to blatantly upstage the Mayor and mention that her team is changing the plans for that bridge East of town, possibly to scratch the roundabout that was planned there. Who cares how much those original plans cost? Who cares how many people are inconvenienced? Who cares how many people die?
You're not really THE Mayor unless you throw caution, along with legit data and blueprints paid for by city funds, to the Wyoming wind.
Just curious, per a city councilman, what kind of a project are Cheyenne residents expecting to see for the Christensen corridor? Would the current recommendation of a skewed intersection similar to Whitney and Highway 30 satisfy everyone?
Call me a heretic, but I believe another skewed, awkward intersection in the east side of town would produce the same results, injuries, and fatalities as we've seen on Highway 30.
Apparently this is what the administration is planning, a classic bait and switch. Planning and building intersections are all well and good, provided the construction of an intersection -- or even a Satan-spawned roundabout -- is executed with transparency.
I do not believe that the public that voted for the Christensen project wanted a hot mess of an intersection. The project, as it stands, is an insult to the intelligence of our community and its vision for the future.
Please spread the word. This project appears to be scaling back significantly, and future generations will have to clean up yet another disaster perpetuated by poor planning.
What do these council folk know about planning?
C'mon, a refinery and an airport in the middle of town? Who comes up with this stuff?
I'll take a table for two near the flaming pit of hell fire, please.
Richard Johnson is a former City Council member from Ward 3 on Cheyenne’s east side.
No joke, when I moved here in 2004 I encountered the Converse/19th/Pershing fiasco head on. I was traveling from the mall area exploring the city on Converse heading south. Had no idea there were two brilliantly designed independent stop lights at both Pershing, and at 19th, a mere 40 feet from each other or so. pershing turned green and I started moving only to immediately stop at 19th, tires screeching. I had no idea what the hell was going on or the crack that the city was smoking when they engineered that insane mess. The hours i spent per year at one or all of those damn lights one after the other at that intersection... it was a total nightmare. Now its such a dream to just go right through there in any direction that I just can't fathom why anyone in their right mind would not see the advantage of the roundabout. This like all other politicized issues seems to come down to identity politics yet again interfering with the betterment of our society. Only thing that keeps ringing true to me.
ReplyDeleteHell. the mayor won't step up and have the city police control speeding traffic right in front of her house. Called and complained, feel on deaf ears! Warren from Pershing to 8th Ave also the opposite way down Central. Why can we not have decent curbs and gutter and streets without potholes. Except frontier days... throw on some chip seal and a few new signs and lovely white strips on the main routes for frontier day tourist traffic. Hope they don't drive down any side streets, may not hear from them again! And now we are spending money out east.... got the money but what are they going to do with it. Maybe another out of state engineering firm and start all over again after their payday. But in the meantime the city is rotting and crumbling from within. (Except for the $300,000,000,000.00 + capitol square project) oh don't forget Mead's royal scepter and orb (but I think he took it with him)
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