Stay vigilant as Tallahassee Chick-fil-A queue snarls traffic early and often | Street Scene
Mary Ann joins our stellar Act of Kindness group and adds; stopping in traffic to help hit home with me too. The temptation is always great to lend assistance.
Thanks, Mary Ann. Clearly 99.9 percent of the human race shares the instinct to aid others in need. Nothing brings that impulsive natural order to help more than Street Scene readers. I won’t dignify the foolish comment or name of someone who reminds us of the less than 1 tenth of one percent still out there. It is the objective of this column to pass along information designed to inform, and hopefully enhance the lives of all.
Q. Gordon, trial attorney and magistrate extraordinaire, now retired, brought back fond memories of my mediation days as we each were charged with assisting parties in a lawsuit through court mandated pre-trial dispute resolution. Gordon didn’t write only to reminisce, he has a true concern for Tallahassee's future. Specifically the future of motorists staying safe when northbound on Capital Circle NE, north of Eastgate Way as they navigate traffic stopped in a thru lane queued-up to assuage an insatiable appetite for chicken. Chick-fil-A chicken!
A. This restaurant (as many others across the country) has always been extremely busy at certain times of day but the idea of social distancing and face coverings has those who might normally enjoy inside dining staying in their cars, waiting for drive-thru.
The result is a premier restaurant unable to meet the flood of patrons quickly enough to keep vehicular traffic moving without backing into the street. Capital Circle is not the only Tallahassee location. Chick-fil-A on West Tennessee Street must occasionally contend with the same situation. Also Starbucks Coffee and some days, Popeyes Chicken Restaurant.
Without question, such a condition materializing on any busy arterial is unfavorable at best and can be down right dangerous. My readers know I am frequently checking and verifying traffic conditions in Tallahassee, Leon County, South Georgia and much of Florida brought to my attention. Together with my lifelong career in transportation safety, living in, and traveling to, many large cities and small towns, I have come to understand traffic patterns, what creates them and what remedies might exist.
From small towns to large metropolitan areas the above described condition of traffic backed into an active lane is not entirely uncommon where city buses stop in a lane of moving traffic, right turning vehicles slowing to a stop allowing others to first exit a driveway, delivery trucks, the occasional disabled vehicle, school buses collecting or delivering children, first responders blocking an intersection, insufficient left turn storage lanes backing traffic into a thru lane, etc.
All college towns experience saturated ingress-egress at coffee shops and fast food restaurants.
I recognize it is no consolation to realize this phenomenon exists all over America, actually in every industrialized nation, so until an engineering redesign is presented, such as additional storage and turn lanes into busy shopping centers and restaurants, allow me to suggest we stay vigilant behind the wheel knowing a vehicle ahead of us might stop suddenly or for what-ever-reason might already be stationary.
Q. Larry is concerned that paint in an intersection might create a slippery surface in the rain.
A. At the Pat Thomas Law Enforcement Academy there exists an extensive driving program to teach officers how to handle a vehicle in different conditions and situations. Upon a section of the driving course is an area known as the skid-pan.
Driving instructors created this devilish section of road by covering it in paint and then wetting it down thoroughly to have drivers know how to recover a vehicle when the tires lose traction with the road and tries to enter a sideways slide. Paint on the track at the academy can be wildly fun. However, paint on a city street requires extreme caution.
Philip Stuart is a retired Florida State Trooper, Traffic Operations Projects Engineer and Forensics Expert Witness. Write to him at: crashsites@embarqmail.com.
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