It was too bad that I got stuck in traffic on I-45 just north of Huntsville, Texas, yesterday. You see, if I had been stuck just south of Huntsville, I could have had the time to marvel at Big Sam. Big Sam, the roadside statue of our (Republic of Texas) second president, Sam Houston is what gives travelers the will to live after traveling long distances on Interstate 45.
Especially glad was I to see it yesterday after having encountered a traffic jam seemingly in the middle of nowhere. I was driving back from Dallas and managed to keep the cruise control on from where Central Expressway gave way to I-45 until I hit this endless ribbon of cars just outside of Huntsville that was headed south but going nowhere.
How long this line of creep-along traffic was I couldn’t say. That’s because I was just too antagonized to keep track. But I probably spent 45 minutes in this traffic jam. And what was the reason for this massive metallic tail? It was a 1-mile strip of highway that is under construction (although no one was working at the time) that has a barrier which shrinks the interstate from two lanes to one. Only 1 mile long and it probably created a snarl from the Walker County line all the way back to the jerky store in Centerville.
It seems there should be a better way so that traffic does not get all bottled up like this. I mean, we have cell phones, computers, Blackberrys, red berries, strawberries and “American Idol.” Why can’t someone smart come up with something that will make traffic flow much faster and smoother in such conditions?
About halfway into the traffic jam, I saw a so-called “Dynamic Message Sign” just off the shoulder but I couldn’t tell what it said. Just think of all the gas that could be saved with making traffic move along at least at a steady roll. You’d probably have less smog as well. And you would most likely reduce the chance of someone going ape s**t because of the traffic and opening up on other drivers with an AR-15.
Someone out there needs to put their good old American ingenuity to use for something other than figuring out how to steal someone’s identity on the computer. Let’s go geniuses. Traffic is waiting.