Road works: a blessing

It doesn’t happen very often that a traffic island sparks my enthusiasm. But one that arose from the ashes of ditches and traffic cones near university did just that.

There is one noticeably dangerous point in my daily commute; it’s the point where I have to cross the road to end up on the bicycle path that allows me to skip the big busy roundabout. But I have to cross in the middle of a curve. And if it’s busy it makes sense to not wait until both lanes are traffic free; I’d be waiting for hours. So I cross to the middle of the road when I can, and wait there for the oncoming traffic to display a big enough gap to slip through. The paint on the road should keep space free for that. But that’s the theory.

In reality, most cars are more interested in cutting off some of that curve than they are in paint on the road. So it often happens that they come rushing towards me, half of the car on my side of the road, and then see me rather late. They always see me in time, but often with only a small margin. And now there’s the traffic island! Which forces cars to stay in their own lane! I like. Chances of me dying on that road have gone down significantly…

The confusing junction I pass every day, with the new traffic island

A car here kindly demonstrates its function: see how nicely it stays in the left lane!

And a passing cyclist illustrates the location of the bicycle path, which as it is now is indistinguishable from the pedestrian part of the pavement. I suppose they'll be adding some paint to clarify...