Twice In A Lifetime!

No one was as shocked as I was when I had to admit that our public officials (or some of them, anyway, probably long gone from office) actually got something right in the way of capital improvements. Now I find that a second Public Improvement has actually proven to be an improvement.

I'm talking about the 281 Superstreet, that section of highway between Loop 1604 and Overlook Parkway, way out in the part of town that we city-dwellers just want to get through as fast as possible. Now that this "superstreet" is completed (and, surprisingly, without unearthing the remains of any commuters who had died in their cars waiting for the light at Encino Rio), we actually can.

I had low expectations for the idea when I first heard about it. Being from New Orleans, the first thing I thought of when the I read about this project was the boulevards around the Crescent City where you can't turn left, but must go a short distance beyond the intersection, make a U-turn, and come back. While that layout may be an improvement over regular intersections, it didn't seem an improvement worth aspiring to.

Yet it is. I've been through that dreaded stretch of road four times now, twice outbound, twice inbound, all four times around lunchtime, when traffic is almost as heavy as at rush hour. I hit one red light in those four trips, and except to make that one stop, my speed never dropped below 45 m.p.h. Kudos to whomever is responsible for this dramatic improvement.