WHAT'S IN A WORD...?

 

MEANDER or WEAVE

When we moved to our little town in Northern Colorado a couple of decades ago, it was still pretty rural. Small towns dotted the landscape far off in the distance from the interstate which intersects the entire state north to south.  Even though each of those small towns had begun to expand from their original four- square block downtown areas, there was still plenty of farmland and open space to make it feel roomy and inviting.

However, in the last few years more and more planned neighborhoods have popped up, as have building after building of apartments which string their way among all the new houses and strip shops which invariably have joined the march of progress.  Sadly, the "rural" part has pretty much disappeared.  

Obviously, the next step would be to add a bigger infrastructure of roads to handle all the additional traffic which seemed to go hand in hand with more people.

So, we have endured road construction of some sort or another for the last five years as CDOT scrambles to relieve the congestion of too many cars on too few roads.  First, it was new interchanges at every exit to those small towns.  Now it is adding a new HOV lane as a toll road which will soon connect Fort Collins to points south through Metro Denver. 

Even though most of that toll road has been completed, there is still an incomplete section a little south of us that has to join the two systems together.  Despite the fact the whole proposed toll system hasn't been finished yet, that sizable length is ready-to-go with all the proper signage.  It's like this new section is an opportunity to "practice" for the real deal.

Though there are also signs in place that say no car can drive over the solid white lines without incurring a fine, there is a bright orange strip slapped onto each one of the big green freeway signs that says, "TOLLS WAIVED". 

It didn't take long for cars to begin using that new HOV lane as just another traffic lane to switch back and forth as they literally sail down the road at speeds quite a bit above the posted 75 MPH.

Next thing that happened was a message on the lighted programmed traffic boards:

MEANDERING BETWEEN LANES AND CROSSING THE 

SOLID WHITE LINES INTO THE HOV LANES IS ILLEGAL

 AND SUBJECT TO FINES

That didn't change anything at all.  Cars were still "meandering" in zig zags across those solid white lines into the HOV lane and out again into the regular lanes to get any advantage they could to surge ahead in the traffic.

So, someone must have decided that telling drivers not to "meander" wasn't a serious enough warning if they didn't want to get fined.  A new message appeared on the programmed traffic boards:

WEAVING BETWEEN LANES AND CROSSING THE 

SOLID WHITE LINES INTO THE HOV LANES IS ILLEGAL

 AND SUBJECT TO FINES

Apparently, nothing will scare motorists into thinking that "tolls waived" means anything more than just that.  And that they can drive wherever they want without monetary repercussion.  In fact, people ARE getting fined.  Big Time!  The news is full of snippets about individuals who have been fined HUGE amounts of money--like we're talking nearly a $1000.00 plus for repeatedly crossing the lines.  Still, there are those that think perhaps they won't get caught.  Not sure.  But until then I make sure I cross into the HOV lane on the DOTTED WHITE LINES.  And exit again on the DOTTED WHITE LINES.

I don't have money to play games on the freeway.

MEANDER or WEAVE?  They both spell money wasted, to me!

So....What's in a Word?

UPDATE JULY 3, 2024--Just read in the news that over        $40 million in tickets for this violation have been issued in Colorado for the first nine months.  And only a fraction of that amount has been collected.  People have all kinds of excuses why they should NOT have been ticketed in the first place, in spite of video evidence they repeatedly crossed the double white lines.  "What were you thinking?!?!?"