Just pray you never have to deal with "chicanes" like we have up the street from where I live. These are sort of extensions to the curb that jut out into the street farther than a parked car, alternating from one side of the street to the other, supposedly narrowing the street while still allowing cars to pass...

The assumption is that on a narrower street where people have to weave back and forth between this stupid roadblocks, people will dive slower. But it doesn't take a driver three seconds to realize, "Hey, I can just drive straight down the middle at my usual speed!" This is much more convenient than trying to dodge the *&^@$% curb extensions so that's what everyone (including myself) does.

So what have these things succeeded in doing? Not slowing down traffic! They just force both directions of traffic to drive down the middle of the street at each other! Only when people come upon an oncoming car do they start swerving from side to side to maneuver around each other, but since they're both already going normal road speeds that just makes the system all the more dangerous... especially when (as some jackass in a gigantic truck did to me a couple of days ago) one of the people refuses to move even a little to the side, forcing the other person practically on to the curb (unless there's a car parked at the curb... ouch!).

The whole idea of trying to slow down traffic with some kind of obstruction is absurd. For the price they pay to install and maintain speed bumbs/chicanes/etc. and the cost of wear and tear, extra gas, and annoyance, the city could easily send a cop out once a week or so to ticket the REAL troublemakers, leaving the rest of us alone...

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'81 300TD Wagon 355k (Miss Diesel)
'83 300SD 180k
'84 500SEL 190k (Parting it out)