Mon-Fayette

One day I'll write a post on subsidizing sprawl vis a vis the Mon-Fayette Expressway, but here's the latest from the Post Gazette. What better way to clear up traffic congestion around the Squirrel Hill Tunnel than creating four additional confusion lanes for Pittsburgh Drivers? Why don't they just go whole hog and merge all into one lane, and put a stop-sign on the on-ramp so that drivers have to accelerate to 60 mph in 3/10 of a second. Oh, and land mines; that'll clear traffic up.

I'm sure that if you follow the money, you'll find that the people driving this deal are those that get significant contributions from the Construction industry. I don't know about you, but if I were a Pennsylvanian resident, I'd rather pay for 5 more stadiums than see the M/F Expressway blow down the river.

[Deep breath]

Anyway, the whole Mon-Fayette situation reminds me of scene in this book.

"I'm afraid you're going to have to accept it," said Mr Prosser gripping his fur hat and rolling it round the top of his head, "this bypass has got to be built and it's going to be built!"

"First I've heard of it," said Arthur, "why's it going to be built?"

Mr Prosser shook his finger at him for a bit, then stopped and put it away again.

"What do you mean, why's it got to be built?" he said. "It's a bypass. You've got to build bypasses."

Bypasses are devices which allow some people to drive from point A to point B very fast whilst other people dash from point B to point A very fast. People living at point C, being a point directly in between, are often given to wonder what's so great about point A that so many people of point B are so keen to get there, and what's so great about point B that so many people of point A are so keen to get there. They often wish that people would just once and for all work out where the hell they wanted to be.

I'm going off to point D, which has coffee waiting for me.

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