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Elderly lady in sunglasses sitting in car.
Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.
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“Entitled woman upset with road design.”
For some background, my town is growing rapidly. It’s mainly split into two parts, one being “old money” with large houses and nicely manicured lawns. Most of these folks are in their 70’s now and have inherited properties from their parents or grandparents.
The other part of town is still nice, but largely middle class. This is where I live.
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Driving down a suburban street.
Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.
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My friend is a municipal traffic engineer. He designs roadways according to all of the codes and standards. He also lives down the street from me on my side of town.
The town wanted to build a new road connecting the two sections of town, with a connection to an on-ramp to the highway leading to the nearest city. My friend was in charge of the engineering of this on-ramp and submitted two designs that met all the codes and requirements. The town chose the cheaper of the two designs and construction had started.
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Shortly after construction began, my friend received a call from a member of the public. He has no idea how she got his number. She was asking him questions about his design and why the city didn’t choose the other option. She was from the “old money” section.
My friend mentions that the other option would have cost the city an additional $750K (something about having to move utility lines - I can’t recall the details). She was asking who she should call with the city to try and change their mind.
My friend, of course, asked her why.
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A yield sign.
Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.
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Her response:
“Because with current design I would to have to yield to folks on the other side of town to get on the on-ramp. They should have to yield to me.”So yes, because of the design of the road system, she was p**sed that she had to yield to traffic from the “wrong side of town”, and tried calling government officials to get her way.
Thankfully, they kept to the original design.
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It's not that this woman was upset that the new road is making her commute longer, or that a new ‘yield’ sign is a nail to her schedule. No, it's who this new road is forcing her to yield to. She can't stand the fact that she must yield to people she views as inferior to her.
Well, in that case, we say to the town engineer: “Keep up the good work, this lady has a few valuable lessons to learn."
We're not sure if a yield sign will do the job, but it's worth a try, don't you think?
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Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.
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