Living in Dryden

Mailbox Frogger

While putting some mail in my mailbox today, I got stuck on the far side of the road for about five minutes. There wasn't a huge volume of traffic, but both directions were steady. Fortunately it wasn't raining or terribly cold, but it did make me think again about the tremendous difference that having my mailbox on the other side of Route 366 makes to the way I see the road.

From my living room, the road is interesting to watch and annoying to listen to. I'm not entirely sure why the number of broken mufflers goes up every spring, but that seems to be the pattern. Insulating the house has reduced the noise a bit, though some windows still vibrate when vehicles producing certain kinds of noise go by, and my dog barks every time a UPS truck passes.

At the road, though, it's very different. Walking along the road is on the shoulder is unpleasant, but it seems more like the cars are intruding on my space than that I'm daring to intrude on their space. It's good to have a general idea of whether cars are staying in their lanes, but there's no need to calculate speeds and when precisely they'll pass you. Crossing the road means entering the cars' space, looking both ways and thinking hard about the speeds of cars and how long it will take them to reach my driveway. The passing lane adds even more complication.

Mailbox, across the road

Fortunately I used to play Frogger when I was a kid, though it's a little different when the cars are real.

Posted by simon at April 7, 2004 12:53 PM in roads, traffic, and transit
Note on photos