We all hate the traffic lights in Fort Lauderdale. They are in many ways, a tale told by an idiot. Every year they propose raising taxes so they can "synchronize" the lights. My question is why don't they do it anyway? Why to they have to raise taxes to do something that so obviously needs to be done?
With all of the curse words we throw at the traffic lights as we get stuck at one seemingly endless light after another, until you've driven through downtown Fort Lauderdale with no traffic lights (and no police), you don't understand how important their guidance is to our civilization. On Saturday at about 2pm, the power went out in Downtown Fort Lauderdale (a faulty sub-station, they say). I actually had power in my Condo, but my cable was out, so I figured it was a good opportunity to take a trip up to Delray. What I didn't know was that the entire downtown area was without power, and that all of the traffic lights where out. Initially I didn't know how widespread the outage was, but it extended for the entire length of Broward Blvd up to 95.
An additional lesson learned here was to never let your gas tank get too empty. In my garage, my computer was showing 8 miles left, which isn't very much since the computer is highly inaccurate. What I didn't initially anticipate was that gas pumps don't work without power, so I wasn't getting any gas in Fort Lauderdale for awhile. Luckily the computer's averaging technique works better on the open road, so by the time I reached 95 it was showing 32 miles, which is enough to get me to Delray. I knew that once I kicked into 70mph mode, my car gets about 27mpg, so I'd be fine. When I hit Delray, about a 25 mile trip, my computer was showing 16 miles left. Just my luck, the station in Delray that I usually use, a Chevron on the corner of US1 and Linton, was shut down for repairs.
I can tell you from experience that driving around on the honor system isn't my idea of a wacky good time.
The crazy day ended with something that seems impossible; there was a massive traffic jam on Linton Blvd approaching 95. It wasn't clear why; I figured an accident. But no, it appears as though the traffic lights were all set permanently to red. The railroad lights were flashing; the gates where down, but people were passing through; very slowly. What are the chances of hitting 2 different traffic light debacles in the same day? I was so relieved to get on 95.
