Tuesday morning, I decided to head downtown for a cup of tea and a muffin, as I frequently do on Tuesdays.
Driving east on Fifth Avenue, I saw traffic backed up around Quinn Street or Patterson Street. Turned out it was a crew working on the inside lane, funnelling all the traffic over to the curb lane.
That slowed me down a bit, but we got by that, and a fair number of people immediately changed back to the inside lane and, being Prince George drivers, stepped on the gas to make up for the 15 seconds or so they may have lost.
And immediately had to come to a stop for another crew working in the same lane a few blocks up the road.
So everyone shuffles back into the curb lane, waits a while, and then eventually gets through the light at Lyon Street. Things open up a bit until we get across Highway 97, where a few blocks further on, the curb lane is now closed.
So everyone moves to the inside lane, and the dance continues.
At this point, I would not have been surprised if both lanes had been closed at some point, but they weren’t.
I couldn’t help wondering why the two crews on the west side of Highway 97 hadn’t put up pylons all along that stretch, with opening so people could turn left onto the various streets if necessary. It would have stopped some of the shuffling.
I now got close to Carney Street, and observed another one of those ‘great’ things about Prince George traffic.
I saw someone walking their bike across Fifth Avenue at the lights, which I was happy about because that is what you are supposed to do.
Then, after getting across Fifth Avenue, she took her bike up onto the sidewalk, got back on, and rode off . . .
Right past the sign saying cyclists are supposed to use Eighth Avenue.
I guess she figured obeying some of the laws was good enough for one day.