I’m so glad to know that the odd triangular interjections into the main thoroughfares of Southeast and Grandin Court have a name. As a former Roanoker, I used to think I knew how to drive safely from downtown Vinton to downtown Roanoke, but my first visit after the “traffic calmers” were installed (now THERE’S a misnomer) was one near miss after another.

Fortunately I drive cautiously where there is any possibility of foot traffic, so I did not find a curb with my right front tire. But calm was not inspired in my personal traffic pattern.

I was calmer driving from Princeton, NJ to New York or Philadelphia. They use circles instead of triangles there. Same effect though, plop, plop, plop. The saddest sound in the world, especially in the rain.

Joe:
Just spent an unknown amount of time (quite a while) reviewing all of your blog to date. Had been on my to-do list. Yes, you’re on my informal to-do list, same as reading your column was. Great to finally check it out, and know that you’re still here even though the RT column isn’t.

Re Grandin Village calming - anything that helps keep that lovely place safer for pedestrians and motorists alike is OK in my book. Unfortunate that such things are necessary. I love Grandin, too. Used to live on Brandon, and went down to the village often before I was torn away to Atlanta on a job transfer. Now I’m settled in Salem, another lovely place. We’re so lucky to live in such a wonderful area! Thank you for the blog.

Unfortunately for us here in Southeast, the ‘traffic calming’ has done nothing to really calm anything. If anything, it’s made the drunk drivers less noticeable because now everyone is weaving.

But the sad truth is, people will still speed - when and where they wish. No amount of concrete short of a wall will stop that. You cannot legislate better behavior, and you cannot expect better. That’s life, sad but true.

It’s like the Mayor in Ghostbuster’s 2 said: “It’s every New Yorker’s God given right to be miserable.”

Apparently, it’s every Roanoker’s God given right to drive badly.

C’est la vie’.

It’s not just Roanoke that drives badly, it’s most of the state of VA. Sad to say, but unfortunately it’s true. Most folks don’t know who has right of way at 4 way stops. Most can’t drive in the rain, and forget about it if it snows. How bout those “drunks” that are out in the middle of the day, or, I’m sorry, those folks on a cell phone. And watching out for motorcycles? As they say in NY, Fogeddaboudit.

My favorites are the people, young and old, who do a masterful job of straddling the center line on two-lane roads. I knew the DMV had droppped parallel parking from the test, but when did staying in your lane leave the curriculum?

Adam..I lived in NC for 32 years and must say bad drivers are there also. I do think a law should pass and be enforced about cell phone use, and now people especially teens are texting. Scary. When I see someone behind me or infront using cell I try to change lanes and get out of their way.

If y’all think Virginia drivers are bad, you should come to Michigan. No wonder GM keeps putting out monster-sized SUVs — you need the extra protection to survive.

It’s funny that you mention people who straddle the center line. I travel down Colonial Ave. every day on my way home from work. This week in particular, I have had some near misses with people who come zipping around the curves straddling the center line. I have wondered what they are doing…they must be VERY preoccupied not to realize how they are driving.

I really do not think any state has any worse than another. I did read someplace where some states have the most dangerous roads and I do not think Va. was one of them. Could be considering the awful traffic you encounter on 81.

I transplanted myself to California awhile back. Now THERE’S a driving challenge! Somehow we still keep on truckin’, but there are alternative methods to get back and forth to work, with a mass transit setup which has light rail service, buses and ferry boats.

I have always wondered about the demise of the Roanoke street cars my mother used to take to and from work back during the Great Depression. I remember seeing the rails in the streets as a kid, but like the cobblestones in the back alleys, they were buried underneath pavement for car and/or truck traffic.

Seems to me that if there were funding and interest, the Roanoke Valley could set a precedent for other Southern cities to explore alternative transportation methods. Guess I sound like a liberal “greenie” but that is one of the hazards of California living. No triangular traffic calmers, though…my guess is that there are enough hazards in the streets here without creating new ones.

I will always love Roanoke, Virginia, and visit as often as I possibly can. Now I have a new destination to explore. Coda, that’s Italian for “tail.” The musical use of coda is “ending” which coffee is to a meal, and which I am doing just now.

Coda. Fine. Fin. End.

And now for a word about Roanoke drivers. I see so many folks multi-tasking while steering their 2-ton missile. Coffee and/or cigarette in one hand and cell phone in the other. It’s like operating the vehicle in a safe manner is the least important task.
On another note, any time I have had some trouble on the road, my faith in humanity has been restored when some “angel of the highways” has appeared and helped me out. This has happened even when in Georgia, on the outskirts of Atlanta, on a Sunday morning with a blown tire on the RV. AAA could not say help would arrive in less than two hours. A gentleman appears with his truck, makes the necessary repairs, and charges a fair price. His name was Max and I will never forget him. He said he drives that “insane loop around Atlanta” just to help out travelers. I paid him more than he asked and fed him lunch.
You never know when strangers are really angels in disguise.

wait, lets get to the real pertinent issue…I just discovered CODA and want to know more about the drink and the brownie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just need to vent a minute here.

I think we could start a thread called the “‘Rude’ streets of Roanoke”. I live near the end of a very long street, where there is one way in and one way out. There is no thru outlet. I also live toward the bottom of the hill of same said street. Getting out of my driveway can sometimes be an adventure, as people love to pick up speed going down the hill to the end of the street. Just a while ago I left my house to pick up my high school daughter. I get to the bottom of my drive, look left, look right, no cars in sight, and continue to back-up. Here comes a van, breaking all land speed records, coming down the hill. At this point I am partly in the street. The van, never slowing down, serves around me, lays on the horn and shoots me the evil eye, like I’m doing something wrong. Why do people act this way? The person didn’t even have the common courtesy to slow or anything. What has happened to manners? Or to being neighborly? Is everyone in that big of a hurry? It makes me mad. People are SO self-absorbed these days.

MdM,
I think the Rude streets of Roanoke are “everywhere”! Same here, though I live on a major ’short cut for people to avoid a few lights’ I see no one, I back out, a car rips down the 25 mph speed limit. I see them and I mean plenty of them, hit their brakes and I continue to go and say “Brake Check” tho they can’t hear me! It’s hard to back out alot so I try to back in mostly when I arrive home, then a car behind me.. I put on signal to wait on the right side & I pull half out of the street.. they SIT behind me..HELLO?? do they not know to go around? Then I usually have to wave to go around and want to wave something else to the idiots also.
Crossing your street to your mailbox? I’ve almost been hit a few times and when they slow down, I holler plenty and it’s usually different things. “Speed limit is 25!” or “Hit me &!$@%, I dare ya!” And when the beep at me?.. oh you don’t know want to know what I say then. I’m usually nice but when it comes to them being so stupid, I gotta do or say something. Kids & animals cross the road all the time and I’ve rushed out to see that a neighbors dog has been hit. They have no freakin common sense~
Next time someone runs up on your bumper leaving your driveway.. if you’re close enough, just plainly get out and say very nicely, “Brake Check?” (then cuss em out it you feel like it)

Since we are talking about people’s driving, This is a thing that really bugs me and makes me cuss and want to give them the finger(sorry) When people get off the interstate, they do not want to yield. Sometimes if there is no traffic then you can move over and let them in. But most of the time especially Hershberger Rd, you can not get over. If the cars are coming on the Hershberger form I81 and you are going to Valley View, they just keep on going as if you are not even there. If you blow your horn,then you can see them cussing YOU. Like it is your fault.
I want to get a big sign that says YIELD and hold it up to everybody that does that to me. Most of the time I am a patient driver except for this.

Annette

Joe, I wish you would correct my spelling. It is terrible.

Annette, so many are too busy fiddlin with their cell phones too. People coming off the ramps talk away and some don’t even look and we wonder why there are so many car craches.

Today…Talk about a MEAN Street.
Corner of Mclanahan & Carolina, there’s a huge wide pedestrian crossing. I saw a car coming but it was pretty far away, I started walking and all of a sudden they were right on top of me, slamming their brakes (no screachin).. I looked at them as I was then in the middle of their lane, started to walk SLOWER and if “Staring eyes and a What to you think you’re doing look” could do damage, they’d be hurt.

And another thing.. People do not know what to do at RR crossings and turning signals?.. I raise both my arms “Where ya going?”

Another Mean Street: trying to cross Campbell Ave. downtown in the Market area. Now you have to worry about getting hit both ways, since they changed the traffic pattern. I guess I may be the only person in Roanoke who didn’t really like this change.