McDonald's Special Turn Lane - Get Out of Town!!!
You may recall that a few weeks ago I complained about our fine city’s over-the-top love of stoplights, particularly those designed for nothing more than to increase the daily revenues of McDonald’s. Once again, the city is bending over backwards to help this franchise that needs no help, and it’s really screwing up the traffic patterns in this city.
The McDonald’s at 41st and Minnesota is being rebuilt from scratch, and the city is ensuring that their reopening is a record success. No, there’s not another stoplight being put up in front of the store. Instead, at a time when the city is making it next to impossible for other businesses to even put in an entrance, the city is in the process of building a special lane for the company.
While I will admit that I really don’t care about the existence of this turn lane, the resulting mess during the construction is a nightmare. Here we have one of the busiest intersections in the entire state cut to one lane. My office is a couple of blocks away, and what was at one time a minor delay in gaining entrance to the street has now become a waiting game…waiting for a nice person to let me in just so I can wait some more.
A little sidebar here…what’s surprising to me is who exactly will let you in. One would think that it would be the nice middle-aged housewives. No way…they won’t even glance your way. Nor do senior citizens, kids, wannabe gang-bangers, pimps, ho’s, or men of the cloth. Instead, it’s dudes that let you in…middle class dudes in their giant Dale Earnhardt-stickered pickups. I would have never guessed that.
Back to my main rant – so there’s this never-ending traffic jam created to lay a special turning lane for McDonald’s. What does our fine people at Pierre do to add to the headache? They start some work on Interstate 229 that closes a couple of highway entrances. What does this have to do with 41st and Minnesota, you ask? Plenty. People heading east on 41st Street that would normally turn onto Western to get on the freeway are now forced to continue down the street, adding that many more cars to an already crowded intersection. Even during slow times of the day, the line stretches to the next stoplight. To add to the mess, there’s no warning of the incoming mess, so you have to also deal with the idiots who suddenly find themselves in the wrong lane.
Ok, so it’s not that big of a deal…and the mess is scheduled to be finished by the end of the week. But it’s messing with my life and that’s what Get Out of Town is all about.
The McDonald’s at 41st and Minnesota is being rebuilt from scratch, and the city is ensuring that their reopening is a record success. No, there’s not another stoplight being put up in front of the store. Instead, at a time when the city is making it next to impossible for other businesses to even put in an entrance, the city is in the process of building a special lane for the company.
While I will admit that I really don’t care about the existence of this turn lane, the resulting mess during the construction is a nightmare. Here we have one of the busiest intersections in the entire state cut to one lane. My office is a couple of blocks away, and what was at one time a minor delay in gaining entrance to the street has now become a waiting game…waiting for a nice person to let me in just so I can wait some more.
A little sidebar here…what’s surprising to me is who exactly will let you in. One would think that it would be the nice middle-aged housewives. No way…they won’t even glance your way. Nor do senior citizens, kids, wannabe gang-bangers, pimps, ho’s, or men of the cloth. Instead, it’s dudes that let you in…middle class dudes in their giant Dale Earnhardt-stickered pickups. I would have never guessed that.
Back to my main rant – so there’s this never-ending traffic jam created to lay a special turning lane for McDonald’s. What does our fine people at Pierre do to add to the headache? They start some work on Interstate 229 that closes a couple of highway entrances. What does this have to do with 41st and Minnesota, you ask? Plenty. People heading east on 41st Street that would normally turn onto Western to get on the freeway are now forced to continue down the street, adding that many more cars to an already crowded intersection. Even during slow times of the day, the line stretches to the next stoplight. To add to the mess, there’s no warning of the incoming mess, so you have to also deal with the idiots who suddenly find themselves in the wrong lane.
Ok, so it’s not that big of a deal…and the mess is scheduled to be finished by the end of the week. But it’s messing with my life and that’s what Get Out of Town is all about.
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