I have seen several reports in the past few years talking about how bad Missouri's roads and bridges are compared to the rest of the U.S. Well, I just want to say that after this past weekend of traveling that I think those surveys must be biased or something. Have they been to Illinois and Indiana?
First of all, I am not a speeder. I am one of those do good law abiding citizens that rarely speeds. If I do, we are talking 72 or 73 in an 70. Yet, I find the speed limit in Illinois ABSOLUTELY crazy! 65 mph on a four lane road in the middle of nowhere? Here I am going 65 mph down the road with no one around me, with the exception of a car or two flying past me as if I am sitting still. The road isn't curvy, there are no houses, let alone cities... so why I am going so slow? I think the reason is because of the big potholes that like to be found in places on I-64. The difference between 65 and 70 is probably a short fly through the air and your tire being completely being obliterated.
Yet, here is my favorite part: the speed limit in the construction zones is 40 mph!!! Now, I realize that is too fast when there are workers around, but for about three quarters of the twelve miles I spent in one lane with absolutely no work going on, I found that outlandish. Apparently so did the white Ford pickup that was on my rear for about 6 of those 12 miles.
As I crossed back into Missouri on Monday, I was relieved. Call me crazy, but for the most part, I think our state is doing a good job on our roads compared to others. The speed limits are set correctly and the emphasis is on active work zones for catching speeders. Thank you Missouri for helping to "Show Me" what common sense looks like!
1 comment:
For the most part, I think Missouri's roadways are pretty decent compared to bordering states. One thing, too, is that it seems that MoDOT is very timely in getting its projects done. I don't know if they intentionally set their completion dates way in the future so they know they'll get the project completed "early," but realistically they do a good job.
One state that has better roads, in my opinion, is Ohio. But they do have I-90/I-80 in the north that is a toll road, which I'm sure brings in some dough for the highways. I really like how the lanes that merge onto the interstates from overpasses in that state are much longer than Missouri's. It gives you just the right amount of time to merge on into traffic, whereas in Missouri (and most states) you have to whip on into 70-plus mph traffic in a short amount of time.
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