It is often said that it's the little things in life that make life worth living. That's always been true for me. A beautiful sunrise over Stone Mountain. My dogs warm welcome whenever I come home from work. A hot cup of good coffee on a cold winter morning. Chipper Jones launching a fastball into the bleachers at Turner Field. Life is full of these little pleasures, even if we don't always take time to recognize how important they are to us.
In the world of traffic, a little thing happened last week. You might not have noticed it, but I did, and it made my day.
With all the talk of massive construction projects, TSPLOST and toll roads, it was a small change to a small strip of pavement that had such a huge impact on me.
Last week the Georgia Department of Transportation very quietly added a row of concrete barriers dividing the lanes of Interstate 85 southbound and Ga. 400 southbound where the two roadways come together and merge heading to Midtown.
It was a small, probably inexpensive project. It was done quickly with no fanfare. However it's impact is huge and hopefully will spread.
My biggest pet peeve when driving is when people don't merge properly onto the freeway. It's called "cutting the gore" and it's not only annoying and dangerous, but it also slows down traffic.
The "gore" is the usually triangular area of the road that separates a merge lane and the main roadway. They are everywhere around Atlanta. When people cut or drive through the gore area they are not only breaking the law, but they are hurting traffic.
For example, just about everyday I take the Northside Drive ramp onto I-75 southbound. There are solid white lines clearly marked on the road showing motorists when they can merge onto the interstate. Yet, everyday I see people drive over these lines and try to get on the freeway more quickly. It drives me crazy.
Those lanes and lines are there for a reason. They are engineered to allow traffic to merge as smoothly as possible. When drivers disregard the marked lines, they can become a traffic hazard and can add to merging delays.
Last week the DOT did something about it. Tired of seeing illegal merges from drivers coming off of Ga. 400 onto I-85 they laid out a long line of concrete barriers that prevent people for merging too early and cutting the gore.
I truly hope they continue to put these barriers up at other high traffic merge points.
In the world of traffic it was a small thing, but this small thing certainly made things a lot better in my life.
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