Why do single car bridges even exist? Or rather, why do single car bridges with crazy warning signs about maximum capacity exist?
That is one way to scare someone from driving over a bridge. This was the third or fourth single car bridge/underpass that I have encountered while driving and some of them are even placed in positions where they are just asking for accidents to happen!
My commute started out like any normal day (except for this particular day I had to get gas). Normally, before I leave the gas station I check Google Maps to examine the traffic along all the potential routes to work and to determine my best option. This day, I decided that since I wasn’t going into Baltimore there was really only one route I take and it usually is fine that I did not need to check Google Maps.
Of course the one day…
I had this strong feeling as I was placing my phone back into my purse that I should just take two seconds and check the traffic. But of course my brain was like, Nah! That’s not necessary. When instead I should have listened to that feeling.
If you have listened to one of our recent episodes you probably know that I tend to get these feelings about certain things and, more often than not, I tend to ignore them… only for the feeling to come true.
This was one of those times.
I left the gas station, only to come to a dead stop not too far down the main road. This was weird because traffic is never backed up this far. That should have been hint number one. Then as we continued to move at a slower than usual morning commute speed we finally got to the first traffic light where the line was backed up behind the light to the point where the light was green and cars were not crossing the intersection. That alsonever happens… Hint number 2. We finally inch across the light and at this point I am a little more curious. So I turn on Google Maps (while we are stopped) and see that there is apparently heavier traffic than normal but my usual route is still being stated as being the fastest option. We come to another complete stop shortly after passing the light and I debate whether to turn around and take the alternate route by turning left at the intersection. But knowing my indecisive self, I continue to inch along and don’t turn around.
Google Maps said this was the fastest way, so it has to be right…right?
We finally make it to the the end of Route 30 just to find that the road has been completely blocked! So now my options are to either turn left or right, both directions leading onto roads that I have never ventured on before. As I am slowly approaching the turn I quickly turn my GPS back on in hopes that it will steer me in the right direction. Luckily my sense of direction was not super impaired and I made the (correct) split second decision to turn left instead of right. Thinking about it after the fact, turning left seemed like the only reasonable option as I would have turned left at the end of Route 30 anyways. But in the moment all my logical thinking goes haywire and I usually end up making incorrect turning decisions. So I was really proud of myself for the deduction that my work is towards the left direction so I should turn left :).
Luckily, Google Maps kicks on as I make the more-than-90-degree turn onto the road to the left. Also luckily, a lot of the other people turning left seemed to be heading in the same general direction as me. Maybe some of them knew where we were going? So there we were, a long line of cars (probably more traffic than that road ever sees at one time) driving down a road that was turning more and more like a farm-y backroad. The cars in front of me at least gave me indications of what to expect of this crazier-by-the-inch road and when my turns were approaching. Once we made our first turn and drove up and down, curving left and right, we came to a complete stop. Oh no! Not a traffic jam here too.
I looked down the curve to see a tiny bridge, like one that a Disney Princess might frolick across in the meadows. Definitely not one that should be used for driving. On one side was the long line of cars and on the other side I could see a white Ford pick-up. We alternated driving across the extremely narrow bridge before continuing down the road that had now lost the line in the middle. You know you’re on a back-country-road when there is no yellow line and you have to stop half off the road whenever another car is approaching from the opposite direction.
We continued to play follow the leader (which thank goodness I was not!) and wind our way along this road. Until we approached another single care bridge. If I had thought that previous bridge was scary, then this one was outright terrifying. At least the previous bridge looked quaint, the siding all made out of stone and the actual road part looking like road material. This bridge looked to be made of floorboards. Not the shiny, freshly installed ones, but the squeaky ones in old houses that move when you step on them. There was even a ominous sign next to the wannabe bridge stating the maximum load capacity (which I was sure meant “one car at a time”). I waited for the car in front of me to clear the “bridge” before slowly beginning to inch across. The boards of the bridge moved as my tires rode across them, kind of feeling like I was driving across a xylophone (at least one that was about to fall apart).
And to make matters worse, there was a super impatient driver in a blue Honda Civic behind me that didn’t wait for me to clear the bridge before crossing (that definitely made me go faster across)! Obviously, this was a driver that does not calculate time for accidents or detours into their daily commute (or they don’t check the traffic before leaving…).
After clearing the bridge we came to a stop sign at a fork in the road. At this point most of the cars in front of me were gone. They had all either turned in different directions or had successfully made it across to where I wanted to go. I say successfully because this main road that we were stopped at was positioned at a really bad angle for wanting to see cars approaching from either direction. Either direction was blocked by a curve in the road which was covered by trees or a hill. The direction that I wanted to go was turn left then immediately make a sharp more-than-90-degree turn right onto the road that was diagonally positioned from me. I wait for a line of cars to drive by and begin to move… only for a truck to come speeding around the curve from my left. After he passes I do a quick left-right-left-right head check and hit the gas, turn left, hit the brakes, and make a sharp right.
All the cars that I had been following were gone, but guess who was still behind me? He made that scary blindly-crossing-a-badly-angled-road maneuver right on my bumper! This road that we had turned onto was more straight so I felt more at ease going the speed of 40 mph. As I was driving I had a weird sense of deja vu and realized that I had taken this road (in the opposite direction) once before when my normal route was blocked. I realized this when I saw a “Tractor crossing” sign (yeah you read that right) and saw a sort of speed bump in the road. Last time when I had driven this road, I had not realized that this crossing was a little elevated to form a bump and had driven over it at a much higher speed (much to my terror). This time, the realization allowed me to make a more gradual and smooth drive over the bump.
This apparently was not okay with the Honda driver behind me (apparently he wanted to hit the bottom of his car on the bump?) but as soon as we cleared the bump, he sped around me. I saw him in the distance get stuck behind another vehicle that was probably also driving reasonably. My Punjabi tends to come out in situations like that and my thought when I see people like that is Where are you going to go now? Or oh wow, you made it sooo far. Good for you!
After that I was only one turn away from getting back onto my usual road, and boy was I glad to be on it!
Morale: Always check the traffic before getting on the road!
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