I moved to NJ after living in Virginia and Tennessee
Virginia may be starting to change its mind on roundabouts. Traffic was so bad at the intersection of Routes 50 and 15 (in Loudoun County, about 40 miles west of DC and 10 or so miles west of Dulles Airport) that the traditional intersection-with-stoplight was replaced with 4 -- yes, 4 -- roundabouts.
I navigate them every weekend on the way to the animal shelter. It's a little awkward sometimes when I have to figure out when I can merge into traffic, but it's a lot better than waiting forever and a day for the 273 cars in front of me to turn left.
Driving in Northern Virginia always drove me crazy with the way that a road would suddenly have every lane be exit-only for different roads, and then, once you read the five thousand signs and figured out which lane you were supposed to be in, it would do it again, and you'd have to read five thousand more signs and shift lanes within like twenty feet.
I don't mind jughandles. I don't like turning lanes, though -- people going into them always slow down in the left lane, which makes the entire concept of "passing lane" worthless. I like knowing that I've got to watch out for people slowing down in the right lane, but people in the left lane will just keep going. Also, I'm always scared that someone else will be coming into the turning lane from the other direction just when I'm going into it.
Driving in Northern Virginia always drove me crazy with the way that a road would suddenly have every lane be exit-only for different roads, and then, once you read the five thousand signs and figured out which lane you were supposed to be in, it would do it again, and you'd have to read five thousand more signs and shift lanes within like twenty feet.
SO MUCH THIS. The only reason I'm not still driving in circles around the Pentagon trying to find my in-laws' house is that my TomTom GPS tells me which lanes to be in at all times. It is TEH BEST FEATURE EVAR.
Check out Victoria's Secret catalog pics from 1979 - [link] (NSFW due to lingerie). Reminds me of the episode of Dukes of Hazzard with Mabel's Mobile Madams.
New Orleans signage is laughable at best. More frequently, it's just missing. I've never seen so many signposts without signs. And lane markings? It took me weeks to figure out where St. Charles has two lanes and where it has four. Lanes end abruptly with no merge sign, sinkholes are marked with one cone if you're lucky, and blocks get closed off for street work with no warning whatsoever. When C and her husband were here visiting the other week, she remarked several times how Moldovan the roads are. That's not a compliment, y'all.
I am up earlier than I wanted to be, and the farmer's market doesn't open until 9. But I'm hungry now.
On the continued Times-Picayune debacle, check out this unbridled chutzpah - [link]
Cosplay fails. (Warning: cameltoe)
Calling the Rogue a fail is a bit harsh. It's a great costume. She just needs to adjust herself. I have no idea what the other guys were thinking, but I'm gonna hope they had fun.
In re driving - I think I confused a bunch of drivers when I was in San Francisco. I'm used to standing on the street corner waiting to cross (with the light) until I make sure all the cars are actually stopping. On an unsignaled intersection I wait until everyone in sight has gotten through the intersection, since you never know if they're stopping, going through, or playing chicken with the pedestrians. In SF, we'd have this stand-off, where I'd be waitng for the car to go and the driver would be waiting for me to go.
If you visit DC be warned - those red lights are mostly just decorative.
