Allow me to state right off the bat: this I Hate Monday is pure trivia. It’s nothing vital and important, like I hate war or I hate cancer or I hate people who take more than 15 items into the express check-out lane.
No, in the grand scheme of things this is inconsequential. Still, it’s annoying. What am I talking about? Let me paint the picture for you:
You’re driving home from work after a long and grueling day. You just want to get home. You’re on Riverwatch Parkway (but any roadway anywhere will do) approaching the railroad crossing by the quarry. The speed limit is 45, but non-rush hour traffic goes through this stretch closer to 55 mph. Just short of the rail crossing the vehicle in front of you slows almost to a stop and veers way off to the right and tiptoes across the tracks. Fourteen cars behind you also have to slow to a crawl, and the ripple effect has traffic backed up halfway to River Shoals Parkway.
Why have we all seen this a hundred times? Especially since it’s a crossing you could blow over at 55 with an open cup of scalding coffee in hand and never spill a drop. Especially since some of the vehicles who creep over speed bumps and railroad tracks here and there are the same rugged vehicles that are shown in TV commercials as blasting through deep puddles and over boulders, logs, and small animals. But in real life they are so fragile their owners seem to fear they’ll disintegrate if they cross train tracks or a speed bump faster than 4 miles per hour.
MEANWHILE IN CANADA… Check out this speed bump. It’s impossible to ignore, even though it’s about as high as a sheet of paper.