Stupid Guest Tricks

Big Wallaby wrote:Other morning after getting off, I was going by the 535 turn, and somehow a car had hit the lightpole. Even more amazing, there were no fewer than four FHP cars there. Even more amazing, I had driven by the location less than half an hour earlier and so knew the FHP had arrived quickly.

Which 535? And which turn?

(For those of you not from the Orlando area ... State Route 535 and County Route 535 both exist, are different roads, and even intersect each other.)

SR535, where one direction of SR535 becomes Palm Parkway and the other becomes Apopka Vineland (A.K.A. CR435).

It doesn't help that, in an area where the road designers didn't own a ruler, the road designers didn't know how to number roads. A road should never continue through an intersection directly to the right or left.

Of course, there is a spot on SR50 (the only SR50 that I know of) going toward Clermont (which, why are Clermont and Vermont pronounced so differently?) where you can be running in the right lane, minding your own business, when out of nowhere, at 55 mph, you are suddenly in a right turn only lane.

But I choose not to be bitter. I just want it changed.

I find it amusing that people who move to Utah always get lost. We use a simple grid numbering system for 95% of our roads and there are only a few places where I can see getting confused(only about 6 of those roads are in Salt Lake), one is at the boundaries between cities where the grid shifts, and then there is the handful of named roads we have, there is also the problem with the mountains causing some unusual road changes(like around the University of Utah), but it's pretty much a line of changes and you can get back to the correct roads after you pass it. How is the basic grid system more confusing than named roads which have no indication of where they are?

The real problem with the Salt Lake City area is how you'll be driving at freeway speeds on the freeway, come up to an onramp and someone will pull right in front of you at 25 mph. Okay, 27.

The problem in Florida with roads is that they are not straight, and as I showed this morning, many times the numbers run together, like where SR535 becomes CR435 if you continue straight through the light.

Big Wallaby wrote:The problem in Florida with roads is that they are not straight, and as I showed this morning, many times the numbers run together, like where SR535 becomes CR435 if you continue straight through the light.

Or that you can turn off of 535 to 536 and then end up on two different I-drives.

kurtisnelson wrote:Or that you can turn off of 535 to 536 and then end up on two different I-drives.

Not to mention the 2 completely different streets both named "Vineland Ave" ... or the difference between Apopka-Vineland, Kissimmee-Vineland, Taft-Vineland, and Polk-Vineland (none of which are the same, nor is there any place named "Vineland")

Some street names make sense ... I live not too far from Osceola-Polk Line Rd. Guess which road divides Osceola from Polk counties?

hhsrat wrote:Guess which road divides Osceola from Polk counties?

Colonial Drive?
Ivanhoe Blvd?
SR-417?
Katella Ave?

What's my prize?

In my region, they're fond of naming all the roads in a housing area after the housing area. In the "Tallowood" townhouses, there's "Tallowood Drive" and "Tallowood Ln" and "Tallowood Circle."

Good luck if someone tells you they "Live on Tallowood," and you're not from round here. (If you are from round here, you assume they mean DRIVE, because people on the other roads specify, the Drive being the longest most prominent of the three.)

8^P

Big Wallaby wrote: Katella Ave?

Am lost on this thread but know it's not Katella. Only you BW. Only you. :D: Katella derived from Kate & Ella Ball. Always thought this was clever.

Back on topic for a minute. (What? Isn't that against the Forum rules?)

Purpie and I saw one of these today, a pedestrian crossing over Flower at 5th Street. He actually was stopping, and waiting for cross traffic to go by before continuing, which showed that he knew exactly what he was doing. Of course, he might not have been too happy if there'd been a Black and White available at the moment, as there often is in that area. I mean, the OCSD and County Courts are on this particular intersection, and SAPD is a block or so away... :twisted: