So the parking lot at Studio 2880 became a bus route on Monday, much to my surprise.
I was just getting ready to host After Nine (which runs from 9 to 10 each morning, with me hosting Monday and Wednesday (and sometimes Friday)), when I looked out the window and saw the #15 bus heading to UNBC using our parking lot instead of 15th Avenue.
I mentioned this to Randy Wilson, my first guest, and he said 15th Avenue was blocked off about a block east of the studio.
That’s when I remembered they had been doing some work there the week before on a water pipe. I asked one of the city guys who came by the back door of the building if it was connected to the pipe problem on Winnipeg Street, and he laughed.
I must say, it made it very easy to get out onto 15th Avenue later that morning, with no traffic coming through from that side.
As I was driving home, I started thinking about how many different places I had seen the city crews over the last little while. Some of it was on big projects, like Masich Place; some on smaller projects, like the water pipe by our office; and some of it wasn’t even on repair projects, like the crews I’ve seen out recently washing down a lot of the medians.
It’s been a good past couple of weeks for the crews, with not much in the way of rain to slow things down. The heat, though, makes it tough on the crews, especially as the day goes along.
I’ve heard of a number of people getting lemonade or some other kind of cool drinks and taking it to one of the work crews, usually in the afternoon. I know they appreciate it, and it’s a quick and easy way to show how much you appreciate the work they’re doing.
I did come up with one traffic point to ponder late last week: I saw someone pulled over in a bike lane, looking at his cellphone – on his bike.
OK, he’s in the bike lane on his bike, which sounds perfectly all right, but he’s also blocking traffic in the lane because he’s stopped.
So is he right or wrong? I don’t know. I just drove by and was happy he had pulled over, since I have seen a number of cyclists on their cells as they ride, which to me counts as distracted driving.