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Wednesday, September 09, 2009

Highway Overpasses in Tampa: Progress?

Tampa is beginning to look like Miami. A slew of highway projects are coming to final fruition and we now have a confusing snarl of under and overpasses that we are trying to re-learn.

I found myself taking the wrong turn and having to renavigate my way through Tampa twice last week. As a result, I lost at least an hour of travel time, if not more.

Tampa's road engineers apparently are the not the cream of the crop. These must be the "C" students: The ones that barely graduated. How else can you explain the off-ramps that go in the opposite direction of where they used to be placed? The needlessly long treks you must endure before you can find a way to turn around? The confusing lack of signage or signage placed in the wrong areas?

Just as I dislike travelling through Miami, travelling in Tampa has become a nerve-wracking strain. I pity the poor tourists who will be navigating through Tampa on the way to Pinellas County's famous beaches.

7 comments:

Ed said...

As we mechanical engineers say, the only thing a civil engineer needs to know is that shit runs downhill.

The Lazy Iguana said...

Don't worry about the tourists. The casinos in South Florida have "killed Florida's family friendly atmosphere". Nobody will be going to the beaches along Tampa Bay anymore.

The overpasses are not really that big of a deal. Any new roads built take some time to get used to. And it does seem like decent signage lags behind construction.

It would also help a lot if people could read the signs and NOT stay in what is clearly the wrong lane till the very last minute, then stop and try to get out of it.

daveawayfromhome said...

I've seen Florida drivers described as even worse and more hostile than Texas drivers. Hard to imagine, though.
Personally, I generally avoid highways. I find that going down backroads is generally slower, but more predictable.

Ed said...

Dave - I've been waiting awhile to say this but I agree with you absolutely!

daveawayfromhome said...

lol

The Lazy Iguana said...

Come on. Florida drivers are slipping. The bad drivers must me the ones moving out. GOOD RIDDANCE!!

Top 5 cities for road rage, 2008:
1. Miami! WERE NUMBER 1!!! IN SOMETHING!!
2. Boston
3. New York City
4. Baltimore
5. Washington, D.C.

Top 5 cities (so far) for 2009:

1. New York
2. Dallas/Fort Worth
3. Detroit
4. Atlanta
5. Minneapolis/St. Paul

What the hell happened? I think a lot of people went the F back to New York. Bye bye! I would say we miss you, but that would be a lie.

Miami needs to step it up a few notches or else we will lose our title!

Three Score and Ten or more said...

Our favorite interchange in Atlanta is called Spagetti Junction (No I'm not kidding). You can visualize it if you haven't driven it. That may be one of the reason's Atlanta has worked its way up to a place of honor in Lazy's road rage poll.
My solution is to avoid Atlanta at almosts. When I travel, I used to go to Atlanta airport, Now I go to Jacksonville (It is cheaper too.) I shudder at some of the things I used to do while driving. Sometime I shudder at the things I still do when driving (Coot's priveledge.)