We didn't need Nostradamus, or even Miss Cleo, to predict this one.
The lane striping was justabout dry on the new traffic roundabout at Station Road and Old Bethlehem Pike when the first complaints came rolling in. And who do you think they came from? Thinkabout it. If you know protest in Richland, you know what I'm talkingabout!
The roundy unofficially opened nearabout 2:00 pm on Thursday, October 14. The temporary construction barriers, orange cones, and detour arrows were castabout, replaced with 15MPH speed signs and nifty circle diagrams.
Observers, including township staff, were on hand to bringabout a smooth transition, to be sure that traffic in those whereabouts would moveabout as promised by the engineers. They reported back wildabout it. Not even a scrape in the first 10 days. There are plenty of other intersections, with expensive traffic lights or stop signs, that have much more to worryabout.
As a matter of fact, Richland police reported only two circle-complaints. The sources might have easily been predicted months ago, or thereabouts.
In fact, they WERE predicted months ago, when I prognosticated that no matter what actually happens when the roundabout opens, you can expect certain people to complainabout it. The possibilities were endless: Cars go too fast. Too slow. Too many signs. Too few. Traffic is still a problem. We wasted our money. Pat Keller was wrong.
There are people in Richland who don't want leadership to get credit for anything positive. If an accident happened, they would tellabout it like a turnpike pileup. If no accident happened, they would say one nearabout did. And what do you know - they chose option B. Let's call the complainants Mr. X and Mr. Y.
Mr. X, one of the usual suspects, originally told the police that he witnessed "frequent near-collisions", and fears that things will be even worse when the fourth arm of the circle is opened to Route 309. But when questionedabout the details of those "frequent near-collisions", he performed a neat aboutface. Now he thinks that drivers will only need to get used to the new pattern.
From the tone of his original complaint, one might get the impression that Mr. X spent considerable time layingabout and observing the situation. But what he apparently didn't know was that Richland police were outandabout to seeabout traffic during rush hours. Their observations were a complete turnabout from his. They all said that things went smoothly. And none of them saw him hangingabout.
The second call came from Mr. Y, who will never be thoughtabout as an impartial source to askabout. His wife, a long-time protestor, lost elections to each of the three supervisors who supported the roundabout. He gained his own notoriety in 1997, when he got madabout a citizen who criticized his wife's candidacy. He went to the man's home late one night and threatened to "jack him up". Not exactly something to bragabout.
And what was his complaint now? The color of the "yield" signs confused him. He is used to yellow ones, and wasn't sure what to do at a white one. Police Chief Larry Cerami told him: Yield. Problem solved.
Some people have a thingabout opposition. It just keeps happening, again and again and again. In the 1932 movie classic "Horsefeathers", Groucho Marx sings the tune that has become the Richland protest anthem - "Whatever It Is, I'm Against It". YMCA, age-restricted housing, new roads, a new park, walking trails, homes, stores, the roundabout.
In this era of bedtime stories about Yu-Gi-Oh, Elmo, and Nemo, does anyone rememberabout the Boy Who Cried Wolf?
Let's face it. Traffic accidents can occur anywhere. Engineers have tried abouteverything: multi-colored signals, red octagons, yellow (and white) triangles, flashing lights, strobes, speed bumps, rotaries, radar, English T's, and human flagmen. Yet America still suffers thousands of motor vehicle deaths every year, and billions of dollars in damage.
The reduced speed at the roundabout will diminish the severity of any mishap there, but I fearlessly predict that we will eventually see a fender-bender or two. Some day. Maybe sooner, maybe later. Because try as we might, we can not changeabout the main cause of these problems - the drivers themselves.
The same knockabout leadfooters and road-ragers you see every day, speeding, passing improperly, weavingabout through traffic, ignoring signs, drinking, or worse. As long as people gadabout, disobeying the rules of the road, insurance companies and accident statisticians will stay in business.
And as for people who goabout looking for the black lining in every silver cloud, its abouttime we just said fuhgetaboutit.