Traffic

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At least twice a year, I go to St. Augustine, Florida to see my doctors.  This year, I couldn’t get my usual 10:00.  When you have an urgent issue and the next available appointment is 2 months away, you take what you can get.

Once,  it was a sleepy little town off the coast of Northeast Florida.

Vintage Travel Postcards: A Trip To St. Augustine

This is how it looks in 2019.

It takes about an hour and a half to get from traffic-less to traffic jam.

Here’s a side-by-side pictorial explanation:

The sky above my home

Bumper-to-bumper: Redesigning intersections can resolve ...

What to expect in St. Augustine during lunchtime

I had  to use a picture from India to describe the traffic.  There seems to be an unwritten law that only pristine pictures of St. Augustine can be found on the internet.  I wrote in the search engine “Traffic jam in St. Augustine.”  How much clearer do I have to be to get a true picture of the place?

Did you know that in some countries you must have driving skills before you get your driver’s license?

I’m beginning to think that living through a demolition derby substitutes for a driving test in Florida.  Are Driver’s Licenses are on sale at Wal-Mart?  If so, I missed the memo.

Demolition Derby 2 - Android Apps on Google Play

google play

Our drive to St. Augustine consisted of…

  1.  Tandem drivers:  Two cars side by side on two lanes, going 45 miles per hour, showing no consideration whatsoever for those wanting to go the 60 MPH speed limit.
  2. Delayed-response-at-the-stoplight-drivers:  Too busy texting to note that the light had been green for one minute.
  3. Sidelines shooters:  People who speed onto the main highway from a side road without bothering to notice the car coming at them 60 feet away.
  4. Weavers:  They want to be in this lane…no that lane…then they have to slow down and speed up again, deciding they’d rather be in the left lane just as you’re trying to pass them.
  5. Good (for nothing) Samaritans: People who completely ignore the rules of the road to stop so that other people can make a left turn into a shopping plaza.  In heavy traffic.  And they DON’T MOVE even in the face of reality (aka, when the other two lanes keep going).
  6. “I see you there, but I don’t care” drivers:  An offshoot of the Sidelines shooters — city version.  These are the people who stick their bumper between you and the car in front of you.  Then, when the light has turned green and the car that was ahead of you is now past the green light, they pull out…
  7. They quickly become the “somebody needs to beat you senseless” driver when the green light turns yellow and, instead of going through it, they slams on the brakes.

By the time we arrived at South Park (yes, that’s the name of the street the doctor’s office is on) I was exhausted — and I wasn’t the one driving.

Waiting time:  30 minutes

Duration of the appointment:  15 minutes.

Outcome:  Sonogram needed.

I guarantee I’m not going back to St. Augustine just to get a sonogram, and never again at lunchtime. 

The drive back had its moments, but that lunch crowd is nothing less than crazy.

  

 

 

Category : Cars, humor
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