Today I found myself in the downtown area in the 3-4:30 timeframe.
I would like to know which of you utter nitwits is responsible for the traffic signals at either end of the Craig Bridge. With the bridge being closed for repainting, THERE IS NO REASON WHATSOEVER TO KEEP THE SIGNAL AT CRAIG BRIDGE AND SUMMIT ON STOP AND GO! NONE!
And since the bridge is closed, and maybe this was just a fluke occurrence due to the weather (maybe people were avoiding the VGCS what with the snow, or it was an early rush hour due to the snow, or something), FRIGGING ADJUST THE TIMING OF THE LIGHTS AT SUMMIT AND CHERRY, FRONT AND MAIN, AND ESPECIALLY MAIN AT BOERS-BOYER/RIVERSIDE TO COMPENSATE FOR THE ADDITIONAL TRAFFIC! THE FRIGGING SOUTHBOUND SUMMIT LEFT TURN TO CHERRY STREET TRAFFIC WAS BACKED UP PAST FRIGGING LAGRANGE, WITH YOUR FRIGGING CITY AND ODOT PLOW TRUCKS STUCK IN IT WAITING FOR THE FRIGGING LEFT TURN LIGHT WHICH ONLY LETS 3 CARS THROUGH IN EACH LANE PLUS THE GODDAMN MOTHERFUCKING RED LIGHT/LEFT TURN CAMERA INTIMIDATING ANYONE WHO THOUGHT OF TRYING TO HURRY THROUGH THE LIGHT.
With the frigging Craig Bridge closed for the next 2-3 months plus the impending closure of the High Level looming on the horizon, it ought to be clear to anyone with an IQ greater than last week's wind chills that there ought to be some damn changes made to the signaling and signal timing through this area. Unfortunately it seems that the material substituting for brains in the powers that be is incapable of pondering the ramifications of shutting down a bridge or two and acting accordingly with respect to traffic planning and signal timing! In fact, I wager that at least some of the poor souls out chucking cold patch into potholes probably have a better grip on said traffic planning and signal timing than their superiors and ought to be promoted while the morons in their cozy offices should be out pounding the streets with their feets, if you get what I'm saying.
If you're not inclined to listen to my little rant because I'm not terribly nice and friendly in my tone, however, keep in mind that the Strong Publisher and his minions read this board and you're probably messing up their commute, as well as all those nice employees over at WTOL, and they'll be more than happy to pick up the general issue and run with it. Frankly, I'd expect to be getting some calls from David Patch soon anyway. And I'm sure he, the rest of The Blade, WTOL, the rest of ToledoTalk, and myself, would just love to know why the hell the city can do things like spend thousands of bucks on both red light/speed cameras and the police Pie-in-the-Sky cameras for "PUBLIC SAAAAFFFEEEEETTTTYYYY" yet there's very little traffic signal flow intelligence and no damn emergency vehicle pre-emption on traffic signals pretty much anywhere in the city. You'd think that just MAAAAAAAAYYYYYYBBBEEEEEEE it'd be SMART to stick that on the signals up and down Monroe Street, Cherry Street, Promedica Parkway, and so on where the ambulances and fire trucks run. Correct me if I'm wrong here but the signals up and down Secor in the rebulit section were all replaced too and I don't recall spotting any pre-emption sensors or acknowledgement lights on those signals either... would have been a GREAT IDEA, don'tcha think? (Well it's obvious to me there's no thinking going on here.) Seriously, I get that the roads are hell in terms of surface condition, but apparently thinking ahead, or the simple act of thinking "duh, this T-intersection has one leg closed for a month, why don't we flip the signal into caution or four-way stop mode rather than leaving it in stop-and-go, hell it'll even save electricity in addition to all the gas in the drivers' cars" isn't happening.
In conclusion, you all either need to put down the bottles or to throw out the damn decaf and drink the real stuff.
Wishing you all the best luck in avoiding potholes,