For a ‘batty’ education on vacation, head for Austin’s city limits
There are pleasure trips and there are business trips, but the best business trips can end up being extremely pleasurable, if you stay alert to capitalize on opportunities. It happened to me, on an auto introduction trip to Austin, Texas.
Austin is the Texas state capitol, home of the University of Texas, and it’s a musical mecca with “Austin City Limits” and an endless stream of bars and nightclubs with live music spilling out from open doors that attract full houses nightly, plus lots of museums, a dazzling state capitol building made of native pink granite, and the Lyndon Baines Johnson library and museum. Austin also is known as the entry point to the famous Texas Hill Country, where you can find the LBJ ranch amid other enormous ranches and stereotypical small towns a short drive away, over wonderfully twisting roadways.
All of those are tourist attractions, but all compete for only support status on my list of reasons to fly to Texas for a trip. The top attraction was revealed to me by surprise, when I was one of a hundred or so automotive journalists had been assembled at the Four Seasons Hotel downtown, right on the bank of the Colorado River, which meanders through Austin. A Chrysler public relations type mentioned that one of the most astonishing things he had ever witnessed would be occurring at sundown, which happened to be shortly after a press conference/dinner would have started in a ballroom just inside.
“Bats,” he said. “Thousands of bats will fly down the river at sunset.”
Right. I was about to suggest something about this fellow’s belfry, whatever that is, but he was serious. Now, bats have never been high on my list of favorite things, although that was mainly because I knew nothing about them, except what I had seen in some silly attempts at scary movies. Nevertheless, I told him that regardless of what would be served for dinner, and the seriousness of the information being divulged, to come and get me when it happened, and I brought my camera.
Sure enough, right about the time I was finishing my salad, I got a tap on the shoulder. I grabbed the camera and ran out on the hotel balcony. Looking southward, across the river, it looked as though there must be several grass fires upstream, because three or four long, horizontal columns of smoke were wafting from right to left, above the river. The columns of smoke were undulating and flowing smoothly, and then I realized why.
It was not smoke, but bats. Hundreds of thousands of bats. I shot hastily, firing off a couple frames at the wrong exposure, before my guide told me to relax, that it would continue for 5 or 10 minutes. So I shot some at various stops on the zoom lens, up to 200 mm.
It was incredible. These are Mexican Free-Tailed bats, one of 42 known species of bats in North America, 32 of which can be found in Texas. There as many as 1.5 million of them that live under a bridge, just upstream from our hotel, and every night at sunset they all fly out from their nesting areas, zooming off in the kind of orderly procession traffic-control engineers probably were hoping for when they established that single-file roadblock out to 40th Avenue East on London Road. They fly off in formation, and then apparently scatter. Every morning, by sunrise, they mysteriously wind up back home — just like George Hamilton.
Still, bats are creepy, right? Wrong, my once-mosquito-bitten northern transplant explained. Bats eat insects, and, the fellow said, you will notice that you are never bothered by mosquitoes or other nuisance insects in Austin, or in any other areas where a lot of bats reside. Bats consume crop pests. Such as cutworm and cornborer moths, potato beetles, and grasshoppers, but mosquitoes are a favorite. At its peak in annual number, the Austin bats can consume 25,000 tons of insects in a single night. It makes you wonder how an increase in our bat population might affect our Up North mosquitoes, black flies, gnats and chiggers.
It turns out bats are not the disease-ridden rodents many of us believe, and while a minute number of diseased bats might be found, the percentage is no worse than other wild mammals. Bats are very clean, not at all related to the mice their bodies resemble, and they groom themselves constantly during the day, when they’re hanging out — literally — in their bat-caves, so to speak. Not only are bats not blind, they see very well, and also have a sonar system called “echo-location” that helps them navigate in the dark and aids their quick, darting flight capabilities in finding and catching tiny, flying insects. Bats also are credited with a large percentage of pollination and seed dispersal for forests and fruit plants.
There are larger colonies of bats than Austin. San Antonio, which is a perfect day-trip south of Austin by car, has a colony of 20 million Mexican Free-Tailed bats, which contributes to the story behind the Austin bats. Back around 1900, Dr. Charles A. Campbell, a San Antonoio physician, was alarmed about a malaria outbreak, transmitted by mosquitoes, and he was convinced bats could control the bugs. So he designed and built some towers that attracted 250,000 bats as residents. The mosquitoes were wiped out, as was the malaria, and the good doctor ended up nominated for a Nobel Prize, and the Texas state legislature passed a law making it a misdemeanor to kill bats.
Austin, the state capitol, caught on and is now the center for bat research. In 1980, the Congress Avenue Bridge over the Colorado River was renovated, and the bridge was purposely built with slots an inch wide and 16 inches deep, calculated to provide optimum temperature and humidity for bats. Female Mexican Free-Tailed bats migrate to the bridge in March, they give birth to a single pup each in June. The males form in smaller colonies elsewhere, in caves, mines or other buildings.
The babies pack together in a cluster of 500 per square foot to stay warm at night while their moms are out hunting insects. The moms return to nurse the young, which grow rapidly and can fly in about five weeks. As summer ends, about this time of year, the males and other area bats join the colony under the Congress Bridge, swelling the number of residents from 750,000 to 1.5 million, and in November they migrate south to Mexico.
One other fascinating fact is that the fellow who tipped me off about the bats said that when he was first informed of them, he went out on the riverbank pathway, which is lined with signs filled with information about bats, and waited. The sun set, and there were no bats. He was perturbed, then laughed at himself for being the victim of a version of the legendary “snipe hunt” prank. The next night, at a nearby restaurant, he happened to look out the window and saw the bats. It turns out, the bats fly every night at sunset, except one night each month, when they don’t fly.
So if you’re looking for a vacation trip, Austin is a great spot, for all the museums, wandering along music row, or attending Austin City Limits. But reserve your time at sunset, and find a good vantage point along the river, downstream from the Congress Avenue Bridge. It’s worth the trip.
[[[[[CUTLINES:
Photos by John Gilbert
1/ At sunset every night — ALMOST every night — hundreds of thousands of bats fill the downtown sky at Austin, Texas, making sure visitors never need to swat mosquitoes.
2/ Austin’s bat population is so valuable, a downtown bridge was built with special grooves to house up to 1.5 million of the world’s most misunderstood mammal. ]]]]]]
Large and luxurious XG300 boosts Hyundai’s auto stature
Never having been able to speak or understand Korean, my contact with automotive products made me assume “refinement” was a word in our language that didn’t necessarily translate.
My first experiences with Korean cars led to a pretty major stereotype, which was that Japanese companies built copies of the best vehicles in the world, and while selling them they were hard at work on designs and technology that went beyond the originals. Korean cars, on the other hand, seemed to be pretty good copies of Japanese carsÂ…butÂ…
The ability to refine those copies seemed to be a stretch for cars like the first Hyundai subcompacts and compacts, and it seemed that as the copies got better, there was no indication of any technical advancements that didn’t originate in Japan or some other country.
Korean cars have gotten better, there is no question about that, and Hyundai, Daewoo and Kia have come a long way.
The best way to describe how good the all-new Hyundai XG300 is that after a week-long test of one, my wife, Joan, said, “You know, I didn’t HATE that car.”
True, our family tends to appreciate and enjoy the technology of the best cars, and we can even like ordinary, normal cars, but we tend to dislike your basic boring, unimaginative vehicles. And that comment indicates the XG300 represents a real breakthrough for Hyundai. Incidentally, speaking of translations, we are still told that Hyundai should be pronounced “HUN-day,” a lot like “Sunday,” which is for the ease of Americans; we know the real pronunciation should be more like “HYUN-die,” but the U.S. marketing arm of the company wanted to simplify it.
Hyundai still makes the tiny Accent, the subcompact Elantra, and the midsize Sonata, plus the sporty coupe Tiburon. They have gotten less dislikable, in recent years. But even while the Sonata is greatly improved and impressed me, I was unprepared for the XG300, which stands alone, bigger and better than all other tenants in Hyundai’s stable.
First off, let’s say that it’s possible that maybe no single item on the Hyundai XG300 originated at a Hyundai think tank. I’ve experienced every single element on various other cars from various other countries. But when Hyundai wanted to come out with a larger car, approaching the near-luxury segment, it pretty well got everything.
Hyundai set the price of the XG300 at $23,500, which is pretty high for a car from an economy-based company. But it also loaded the XG300 up with items that are mostly exclusive on the high-end of other companies’ option lists, and made them all standard equipment. The only option you can find is a CD player as part of an audio upgrade to a six-speaker system from the standard AM-FM-cassette four-speaker device.
The standard features I found most impressive are both mechanical and interior.
On the mechanical side, you have front-wheel drive powered by a transverse-mounted 3.0-liter V6 that has — check them off — dual overhead camshafts, four valves per cylinder, variable timing of the valvetrain to provide more flexible distribution of power in varying circumstances, multiport fuel injection with four-jet injectors, an in-tank fuel pump (pushing is more efficient than pulling for the pump), a vibration-canceling counter-balance shaft, electronic (distributorless) ignition with dual knock sensors, and three-way catalysts.
That about takes care of the engine, except to explain that it puts out 192 horsepower at 6,000 RPMs and 178 foot-pounds of torque at 4,800 RPMs. But there are more high-tech mechanical things. Such as the standard automatic transmission, which is a five-speed (not four), and which is shiftable through a stylish floor lever through an aluminum plate and with a side channel for manually shifting, which Hyundai calls Shiftronic.
The suspension also is advanced, with double-wishbone design up front, complete with coil springs, gas-filled hydraulic shocks and a stabilizer bar, while the rear hs independent multi-links, coil springs, gas shocks and a stabilizer bar. Large, four-wheel disc brakes with a dual-diagonal arrangement and four-channel, four-sensor antilock.
Yes, you can find various cars with some of those features, and even with all of those features, but they generally cost $30,000 or more.
Inside, the seats are supportive, and luxury touches abound. The seats are leather, for example, and the woodgrain stuff on the dash is abundant, carrying over to the console. The gauges themselves, including a tachometer, have a background of little wavy lines that are neat, not obtrusive or annoying, another plus. I like the feel of the thick, leather-wrapped steering wheel, although I think the speed-sensitive steering might be a little over-boosted.
The center dash area has, stacked from top to bottom, heat/air vents, then a trip-computer readout window with such things as distance to out-of-fuel, time, etc., then the audio system with easy to operate controls, and below that the heat/air switches, which also have easily adjusted round knobs. Under that there are a couple of trap doors for mini-storage bins and cupholders.
There is plenty of room in the front, rear and trunk, which has a cargo capacity is 14.5 cubic feet, because the XG300 is a few inches longer than the adequately-sized Sonata. The overall length is 191.5 inches and wheelbase is 108.3. The XG300 has fuel-economy estimates of 19 city and a lofty 27 highway, but that’s possible, thanks to all the technology on the engine and that five-speed transmission.
As to the exterior, which makes its first impression in any car, we’re back to the grossly subjective. I like the look of the front and front corner, because the grille is different enough, and the standard projector-beam headlights and foglights add to the look of contemporary sportiness and class. It’s OK from the side, too, but when you get around to the rear, I think it loses its flavor a bit. I mean, there are contours and indentations here and there, intended to make it distinctive, but it almost looks like the designers thought, “OK, we’re at the back fender, so let’s put a little hump here.”
An acquaintance of mine suggested it looked like Hyundai hired a Buick designer to do the silhouette and the rear corner, and you can read what you like into that.
From the standpoint of a total package, you’d have to look long and hard to find any vehicle with so much high-tech features at such a modest price. As for refinement, there could still be some tweaking.
For example, the manual override transmission allows you to have some fun, and if you want to start off hard, you can do that. But when you want to just start off moderately, you STILL start hard. So it lurches a bit off the line, and a little when it upshifts, but that’s still small criticism, and the sort of thing a little refinement can take care of.
Also, the name. I’ve had to look up the name “XG300” about a half-dozen times, because with so many alpha-numeric vehicle designations nowadays, my memory bank is on overload. Still, when you consider names like Elantra, Tiburon and Sonata, you might think of a series of medications and/or musical movements. So maybe XG300 isn’t so bad.
[[[[CUTLINES:
1/ Hyundai has ventured into the larger, “near-luxury” segment with its new XG300, which is loaded with standard high-tech features for $23,500.
2/ The interior is a stylish blend of real leather and less-real woodgrain, but with an undeniable aura remindful of German luxury sedans.
3/ Maybe Hyundai designers ran out of styling ideas by the time they got to the rear of the XG300, which is less distinctive.
Redesigned 2002 Explorer eliminates controversial problems
SEDONA, ARIZ.—The recent hassle regarding Ford Explorers with Firestone tires has been a major problem for Ford Motor Company, but there is a theory that it is just the tip of the iceberg, and when all information is disclosed, it will be a major problem for all sport-utility vehicles.
The problem is a simple one of physics. All higher-center-of-gravity vehicles tend to be less stable and more likely to roll over, especially when driven too aggressively. If you don’t think SUV drivers drive too aggressively, try cruising on the freeway, stretching the speed limit to 75 between Duluth and the Twin Cities, and take note of how many SUVs pass you, doing at least 85.
That is not to absolve Ford of any blame in the matter. There are some critics who will claim that the Explorer’s solid rear axle and rear suspension, which began life in an entirely different application on the Ranger pickup truck, didn’t help the vehicle’s agility, and that the flexibility of the frame might also have contributed to some instability, either in an emergency or if a tire gave out.
But if the Explorer problem is just the tip of the iceberg, Ford has the perfect solution: It built a better iceberg.
A herd of automotive journalists was invited to show up in waves this past week amid the stunning scenery and twisty mountain roads of northern Arizona to test-drive a group of early-production 2002 Explorers, which will go on sale in January or February of 2001.
The introduction was brief, but we got a chance to put the new Explorer through some pretty thorough paces. All of the test vehicles were equipped with the 4.0-liter single overhead-cam V6. We jumped into a black, Eddie Bauer model — ranking above the basic XLS and the upgraded XLT–right near Phoenix, and drove north and then east, into the mountains.
First impressions are that the new Explorer is amazingly smooth and stable, with a hug-the-road feel gained by lengthening the wheelbase and the width, but also by stiffening the frame and adding new suspension design and componentry. Ford engineers pulled off the trick of lowering the floor inside for ease of entry and exit and for the better feeling of road contact, yet raising the ground clearance for off-road purposes.
It was also amazingly free of wind noise, and felt generally tight all over, probably due to its computer-aided design, which made for closer tolerances between body panels.
When we went off the road, on a tiny elk-hunting road, we found snow and also mud. Lots of mud. The better to make deep ruts with. We drove along that road, and the Explorer cleared ruts and boulders with ease, down steep ravines and through trees as we swerved and slithered along in the mud.
A series of three switches on the dash activate the Control Trac four-wheel drive. We experimented with all three. The automatic four-wheel drive uses the rear drive wheels while reading your driving situation, and switches the torque to where you need it most, even if that means transferring 100 percent of the power to the front wheels. In that automatic setting, if you start off hitting the gas hard, all four wheels get torque to eliminate rear wheelspin, and once underway it might transfer all the power back to the rears.
Four-wheel-drive-high locks the axles and gives equal power doses, front and rear. Four-wheel-drive-low, which is good for climbing out of problem areas off road, and is outstanding for holding the Explorer back when going down steep off-road grades.
On the road, the automatic setting let us zip along the twistiest mountain switchbacks and on down Hwy. 89A from Flagstaff into Sedona, while the innovative suspension made the Explorer handle better than some cars.
REDESIGN WAS NEEDED
The old Explorer has been the largest selling SUV in the world every year for over a decade. For such a popular vehicle to suffer its current indignity, Ford, by an incredibly ironic twist of luck, might be in the best possible position to capitalize on its own agony. First, it just introduced the Escape, a more compact SUV that has the same interior capacity as the current Explorer, which gave concerned buyers an alternative right in the same Ford showroom. And in a couple of months, it will fill the nation’s showrooms with an all-new Explorer that overcomes every shortcoming of the current one.
To the masses, it might seem as though Ford made a hasty but effective adjustment to ease all the concerns. But really, it was a master stroke of good timing, because the entirely redesigned and renovated Explorer was scheduled to come out right now, anyway. The new Explorer resembles the current one, but it is entirely new from the pavement up.
“The dynamics targets for the new Explorer were to make it ride and handle better than ever before, which included making it more stable, safer, easier to drive, and more reassuring,” said Dale Claudepierre, the line director for what Ford calls “compact” SUVs. “In order to do that, we had to start over, and design the first purpose-built chassis for a Ford SUV. In the past, all of our SUVs were based on pickup truck chassis.”
Ford kept the same length and height, but stretched the wheelbase — the length from front to rear axle — and gave the new one a 2.5-inch wider stance. The frame is now comprised of boxed, girder-like bars, designed to have crushable, energy-absorbing front and rear sections, while increasing the torsional stiffness overall of 350 percent. Hmmm. The current one indeed WAS flexible, I guess. The resistance to bending is also improved by 26 percent.
WELL-TIMED CHANGES
The new independent rear suspension affects the ride and handling as well as the stability. The true secret of the new Explorer is based on what Ford has named its “porthole-in-frame” design for the rear axle and its components.
In solid-rear-axle vehicles, the frame must be designed to bend around the rear suspension and axle, so Ford engineers decided to run the frame posts straight back, and to carve a circular hole in each side of the frame, running a tube through the holes. The rear differential was thus mounted up high in the frame, rather than over it, saving precious inches of room that would be otherwise required for proper clearance. The upper and lower suspension control arms are mounted both above and below the frame rail, with those half-shafts sending power to the wheels through the tubes that pass through the portholes.
Moving the suspension parts up high increased ground clearance by one inch, and by not having to place the rear differential above the frame, engineers could lower the rear floor of the vehicle by seven inches.
While all of that is hidden from view, the result is that interior room is increased, and it was put to good use. A third seat gives the Explorer seating for seven, and the second and third row of seats fold down into a flat cargo area. There also is a deep storage bin at the rear, even with the seats up and in place.
Larger door openings and a lower step-in height, with grab-handles for every door, make entry and exit easier. Front seats have more longitudinal travel to aid comfort.
Under the aluminum hood, we drove the 4.0-liter V6, which has been increased to 210 horsepower and 250 foot-pounds of torque, as the standard engine. The V8 upgrade will now be the 4.6-liter modular V8, with a single overhead-cam instead of the old 5-liter pushrod engine. The 4.6 will be all-aluminum and have 240 horsepower and 280 foot-pounds of torque, with more than 250 available as low as 1,500 revs.
They’ve sold 3.6 million Explorers since it came out as a 1990 model, and if the current Explorer finds sales curtailed because of the bad publicity about vehicle and tire instability, Ford has countered with a swifter, more economical, and technically innovative new one.
[[[[[[CUTLINES:
1/ The 2002 Explorer proved its off-road capabilities on a muddy road in the Arizona mountains.
2/ Sunset in the Arizona mountains east of Sedona outlined the new Explorer.
3/ A pair of new Explorers were ignored by a pair of foraging Javelinas, mother and offspring.
4/ The redesigned rear of the 2002 Explorer has a smooth resemblance to the Range Rover.
Hinckley, Duquette combine for perfect picnic-on-the-run trip
They say you can’t go back home again, but, of course, we know that’s not true. And some of the best experiences are when you can recreate a scenario from out of your past.
One of our family’s mini-traditions still works, and it’s an enjoyable project for anyone looking for a day-trip drive of a few leisurely hours. Or longer.
This one all came about after numerous trips to the Twin Cities and back. Used to be, there was no Interstate 35, and in those days, trips to college or to the big “Cities” meant choosing between Hwy. 61 and Hwy. 23. Because 61 was more traveled, that was the usual choice. But I always loved the curving, winding roadway of 23, which, of course, ran into 61 part way to the Twin Cities.
Since freeway days, the pleasant, easy-going touring ride along Hwy. 23 remains a worthy alternative to the same-ol’-ness of I35.
We also have discovered favorite places along the route. One of ours used to be Stacy’s Bakery in Sandstone, until one day Stacy herself informed us she was selling out, and she was going to work with her son, Jim, who had opened a new bakery and confection store at the Hinckley exit.
It is called Jeffrey’s Bakery, after Jim’s son, Stacy’s grandson, and it is just about 100 yards west of the freeway, making available some of the absolute best breads you’ll find in this, or any, world. Stacy’s influence also is reflected in the dark-chocolate treats and toppings on various rolls.
One time, by sheer coincidence, we stopped and got a loaf of Golden Indian bread at Jeffrey’s, and continued north, then decided to veer off at Sandstone onto Hwy. 23. Perfect time to see the later stages of the foliage color changes, and as we drove along, we were a bit thirsty, just as we cruised into Duquette.
There is a gas station there, at a place called the Duquette General Store. We ventured in, and found a wonderland. This is a general store to make you realize what a rural general store could and should be. You could buy everything from heavy, thermal pants and jackets and wool hats, to assorted hardware, to canned goods and groceries. And there, about halfway to the back of the place, was a big glass-faced bin of fresh food.
We custom ordered several custom slices of roast beef, and we decided on a half-dozen slices off a chunk of Colby cheese, and a jar of horseradish mustard, plus a couple of milk and/or pop, and a bag of potato chips.
The first time we did that, we were on our way from the Twin Cities to visit friends and relatives and check out Hawk Ridge, so we were in a bit of a hurry. So we resisted the urge to sit out at a picnic table and make it a real picnic, and we hit the road.
Winding northward along Hwy. 23, however, the temptation overcame us. My wife, Joan, pulled out the bread from Jeffrey’s and the goodies from the Duquette General Store, and created the best sandwich imaginable.
It was so neat, that we repeated the whole venture several times, as the perfect alternative to prove that when you are in eat-on-the-run mode, you needn’t settle for mere fast-food joints.
Last week, we revisited that entire trip scenario, with a neat surprise. We still got the bread at Jeffrey’s, and we still found the Duquette General Store, complete with heavy clothing, and, of course, the roast beef and cheese chunks to be custom sliced, as well as a big jar of Gedney’s horseradish mustard.
Curtis and Julie Gunderson moved from the Twin Cities to buy the Duquette General Store in 1984, and to live in the solitude of the woods about a block in off Hwy. 23. But they recently decided to renovate their wonderful old house and turn it into a bed and breakfast. It is called “Home in the Pines” bed and breakfast, with four units, and Julie Gunderson said it has been booked solid, every weekend since June.
You might think that Duquette, Minn., might not exactly be the tourist center of Minnesota, but a lot of people appreciate the rolling hills and rivers of the area for hiking, wildlife, hunting, foliage color-change, or just solitude.
We didn’t have time to stay, being in a hurry, as usual. But that might be the only way to improve on the short trip to Hinckley, with the circle route up Hwy. 23 and back through Fond du Lac into Duluth. The new wrinkle would be to spend the night at the Home in the Pines bed and breakfast. All you need is a place to sleep and breakfast; we’ve already got the sandwich for dinner.
[[[[[CUTLINES:
1/ Jeffrey’s Bakery in Hinckley has some memorable breads and confections.
2/ The Duquette General Store is a bit of old-time, small-town tradition combined with contemporary features of a grocery store and deli.
3/ Home in the Pines bed and breakfast is a neat hideaway, just west of Hwy. 23 in Duquette.
4/ The changing foliage is not the only attraction of the diversion from I35 along Hwy. 23.
Single-file London Road creates congestion where none existed
As a kid, I can remember making family trips to London Road — which is the wonderfully formal name for Highway 61 for its run from 10th Avenue East all the way to the Lester River Bridge.
Our intention was to find a good vantage point to watch the Soap Box Derby. Those little home-built missiles had a perfect venue by starting up on the hill just east of 26th Avenue, and they could coast down that hill and along that beautiful, straight chute, east-bound until momentum and the force of gravity ran out. The winner would go on to some national competition.
In later years, after getting that ultimate rite-of-passage document called a driver’s license, I came to appreciate that mile-long stretch of London Road running straight and true from 26th to 40th. First off, it was marked 40 miles per hour instead of the 30 of the more residential eastern stretch or the busier area west of 26th.
A restaurant used to be located atop that hill at the western edge of that corridor, and it was called the Lemon Drop. When Grandma’s Marathon was first run, the runners found that highest hill on the 26.2 miles from Two Harbors a back-breaker, and it became known as “Lemon Drop Hill.” It still is, even though the restaurant is long gone.
All of London Road used to be four lanes, two going either way, so there was never a lot of what Twin Cities drivers know as “congestion.” When a wide parking lane was painted onto both sides of London Road from 40th to 60th, it was a minor nuisance but no major problem. But that made the four-lane, 40-mph corridor from 26th to 40th more special to those trying to get somewhere on time.
Drivers always have taken great care about sticking to 30 both east and west of that long straight stretch, and it was with some relief, coming eastbound, that you could round the curve just past 40th and fan out into two lanes while speeding up to 40 to make time along the pleasantly wooded straightaway.
Congestion. That’s a word that has been thankfully rare in Duluth-area traffic. In fact, when I first started working for Murphy McGinnis Media, I mentioned in my introductory column that one thing I wouldn’t miss about leaving the Twin Cities was “rush-hour without traffic.” Except for jam-ups at UMD hockey games or trying to get to Canal Park on Grandma’s Marathon weekend, there is no heavy congestion in the Duluth area.
Until now.
One of my great concerns about the headlong rush of society is when it comes to micro-managing things that seem to be getting along just fine as they are. True, there are exceptions to the old phrase “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” but it’s also true that the Big Brotherism of government agencies can do more to disrupt than to aid in some circumstances.
It has now been decreed that the mile-long corridor from 26th to 40th will now be reduced from the four lanes to two, meaning one lane in both directions. Painted lines and signs direct all traffic to merge, and Duluth drivers dutifully are doing so.
There is one problem. The traffic that always seemed to flow so efficiently along in two lanes, now is bunching up into a single-file, bumper-to-bumper trail that makes driving a bit more stressful and a bit less relaxing, and, yes, it gives all drivers along that stretch a sample of that wonderful world of congestion.
Trust me, it’s something we could quite happily live without, in our endless quest for utopia.
If you’ve driven along that stretch, when there is any number of vehicles sharing the roadway, you will suddenly find that you must merge into one lane and suddenly there is congestion where none previously existed.
It seems that simple math may not have been considered in the decision to confine the traffic flow from two lanes to one. Let’s see nowÂ…Pick a number, let’s say 100 cars. If you had the busiest time of day, about 4:30 or 5 p.m., and you are running 100 cars westbound in that corridor, could you run them more efficiently over two lanes or one? Next question: Do you feel more comfortable in one of two lanes, with 50 feet between cars, or in one lane, bumper to bumper, with no possible hope to pass?
Perhaps those who live in the new apartment complex adjacent to and just east of Glensheen, or those touring Glensheen Mansion and anxious to leave the parking lot, might have complained a bit before that at certain moments in the day the traffic flow might be tough to move into. But, is it easier to find gaps when all the traffic is moving in two lanes, or when it is all bunched into one, long chain?
Coinciding with the move, a new traffic light at 40th Avenue East has had an interesting effect. It allows easy access to London Road from people coming down 40th, and for those leaving Lakeshore Lutheran nursing home. My mother is a resident at Lakeshore Lutheran Home, and I must say, I have spent some minutes at the old exit, waiting for traffic to clear. It never was because of a constant flow from downtown, because if you were going east from Lakeshore Lutheran, you could easily find a break. It was more of a problem if you were going west, and had to wait for traffic going both ways to permit a break.
Imagine if that stretch had been modernized in the last 25 years to keep up with contemporary traffic flow demands. It might have remained four lanes all the way, from 10th Ave. East to 60th, and maybe the corridor would have been increased to 50 mph while the 40th-60th stretch might be raised from 30 to 40.
Instead, the only relief from 30-mph and one lane to 40-mph and two lanes has now been reduced to one lane, all the way from 26th to 60th, with no opportunity to pass a slower car in that entire stretch.
On top of that, if you are coming home from work, eastbound along that once-free-flowing corridor, you now find yourself bumper to bumper — and quite possibly behind a truck or SUV which means you can’t see far enough ahead to anticipate any situations, which is another reason why the new one-lane stretch makes me anxious.
The flow of now-congested traffic is still OK, as it moves along at just about 40 miles per hour, except when one innocent soul is leaving after visiting a loved on at Lakeshore Lutheran Home, and, sure enough, they get a green light. That means the leading car in that flow of traffic now jammed into one lane coming eastbound on London Road, must stop, except that their red light is just around the corner, at 40th, so it is invisible back along the line of traffic.
So all the cars in line hit their brakes, but they do it in sequential fashion. And you there, behind that SUV, get the benefit of an outstanding test of your reflexes when you get the surprise flash of brakelights while in single-file, bumper-to-bumper mode.
It wasn’t broke, but they fixed it. NOW it’s broke.
(Editor’s note: If you have an opinion about this traffic-flow change, send an e-mail to john.gilbert@mx3.com.)
[[[[[CUTLINES:
1/ Eastbound traffic along the London Road corridor pass the Glensheen Mansion parking lot in single-file, bumper-to-bumper form instead of the free-flowing pattern of two lanes. And there’s a surprise traffic light, just around the corner at 40th Avenue East.
2/ The traffic flow is forced to merge from two lanes to one in both directions, looking east down Lemon Drop Hill onto the mile-long London Road corridor.
About the Author
John Gilbert is a lifetime Minnesotan and career journalist, specializing in cars and sports during and since spending 30 years at the Minneapolis Tribune, now the Star Tribune. More recently, he has continued translating the high-tech world of autos and sharing his passionate insights as a freelance writer/photographer/broadcaster. A member of the prestigious North American Car and Truck of the Year jury since 1993. John can be heard Monday-Friday from 9-11am on 610 KDAL(www.kdal610.com) on the "John Gilbert Show," and writes a column in the Duluth Reader.
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