Living in Dryden

Freese Road, Mt. Pleasant Road, and 366

Just west of Autoworks is an intersection that isn't much fun to drive through. I've mostly been focusing on houses, but felt this intersection (map) important enough - by virtue of being dangerous - that it was worth taking some pictures from inside my car.

From the Mt. Pleasant Road side, the views out of the car are okay. These pictures were taken in light morning fog, and the curve to the west definitely doesn't help, but while it isn't the kind of visibility I'd like to have, especially for a left turn, it isn't terrible.

Looking east from Mt.Pleasant Road's intersection with Route 366

Looking west from Mt.Pleasant Road's intersection with Route 366

Even without fog, however, the views from the Freese Road side aren't very reassuring. The view to the west is particularly well-blocked, even before the road heads into a curve.

Looking east from Freese Road's intersection with Route 366

Looking west from Freese Road's intersection with Route 366

Because this might seem like photographic trickery, and because taking pictures from inside cars isn't much fun anyway, here are some extra details. The pictures were all taken from the driver's seat of my 1996 Saturn SL2. The focal length of the lens used to take the pictures was 24 or 25mm for all of the pictures except the one on Mount Pleasant looking east. My camera has a multiplier of 1.6, so they were taken with the equivalent of a 44mm or 53mm lens on a regular 35mm film camera. Distances on most of the pictures therefore look longer than they actually are, and distances in the Mount Pleasant looking east picture look only a tiny bit smaller than normal. The views from Freese Road were taken later in the morning, after the fog had burned off.

I avoid making left turns at this intersection whenever possible, and I'm cautious even about right turns and driving straight through it. Even when I'm approaching it on 366, I keep an eye out for drivers who might not have seen me. I'm surprised that this intersection doesn't have a light, but maybe it hasn't quite reached critical mass for traffic.

(The next intersection up Mount Pleasant Road is pretty scary itself, combining hills and curves in an even more dramatic way, though there's less traffic there.)

Posted by simonstl at April 18, 2004 11:47 AM
Note on photos