If the cops just stand around looking useless, are you still supposed to slow down?
On August 12, 2003, at around 7am, while heading eastbound on S 320th St in Federal Way, WA, my wife and I entered a stranglehold of traffic.
The problem was at the intersection of 320th & State Route 99 (Pacific Hwy S), a notorious chokepoint which had been significantly widened and improved. Except for this morning, where construction workers and FW police decided to demonstrate how easy it is to block traffic.
Eastbound traffic has 3 lanes through the intersection: the left and middle lanes for general traffic, the right for high-occupancy vehicles. Orange traffic cones blocked both left and right lanes. A police officer was on the scene not directing traffic, as were at least six construction workers, none with a flag. No one accomplishing any visible work. The traffic jam cause?
3 workers stood on either side of the single open lane, yelling over the traffic at each other, trying to converse over the din of slow-moving vehicles. They actually leaned towards each other, while standing at the edge of the lanes.
So every motorist thought these asphalt monkeys were going to either step into the lane or fall into it.
I asked my wife to contact the construction department of the City of Federal Way to ask why they chose to slow down that morning's commute.
The fairly snippy answer was that the work needed to be done, and if they didn't close the lanes in the morning, the work would take longer.
- This was the first and only morning commute delay caused by construction we experienced that summer. The only other delay was a traffic accident. All other construction was completed during off-peak hours - why wasn't this?
- Where were these workers' walkie-talkies?
- Where was the flagger?
- Why was the police officer standing well behind the workers, ignoring them and not directing traffic?
Washington State has had highway construction workers die on the job from motorists driving too fast or recklessly - which makes me really wonder why these particular workers were crowding the vehicles.
This was a dangerous and completely unnecessary situation that the City of Federal Way must prevent from ever happening again.