Wednesday, May 04, 2011

Cabela's Traffic

map image courtesy KVAL Oregon is getting its first Cabela's. Look at this map (thanks to KVAL).  See the loopy red bits and the arrows superimposed over the loopy green bits?  The green parts are called "The Beltline" and are -- at the most -- two lanes wide.  The part of the road under the big red arrow (next to the "Welcome to Springfield") is one lane wide.

Oh -- and, by-the-way -- where it's one lane?  That's where the southbound and northbound traffic from the interstate merge.

And, um, right -- there's a traffic light that will make the traffic along that single lane stop.

Now, recall that the next closest Cabela's is something like 300 miles away.  So...compress all the folks in a 300 mile radius who want camping equipment and compound bows into one lane.  Now put them into SUV's, Very Large Pick-up Trucks (with extra-wide back wheels), and have some of them pull trailers. 

An hour later, add 5 PM traffic as the folks working in Springfield hit the Beltline to go home, or folks who work someplace else try to get home to Springfield.

Oh, what?  You want to leave?  Sorry, you need to use Highway 126 for that.  Same problems, though.

And Happy Cinco de Mayo! (The ODOT site should be pretty entertaining.)

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