So one of my pet peeves is of course the superhighway that runs through our little city, I-40. I have been day dreaming a lot recently about the total destruction of that urban blight, though it will never happen.Friday, I went to Sevierville to see the Smokies play (please don't get me started on downtown's loss of a baseball team to Sevier County) and had to take 640 as the detour. That's when it hit me, the solution to our problem has been there all along:
It's the simplest solution and few would mind. Everyone I have asked about the detour says it isn't that bad, so why not make it "permanent". Oh we'll fix the road through town as planned, it'll be big and ugly and unnecessary, but if we change the names it will at least be less congested.To make 640, 40 would relieve much of the truck traffic through downtown and get them along their merry way to wherever in the same amount of time, probably even quicker, as they wouldn't be fighting local traffic.
What to do about the existing 40's name, get creative call it "The Sunsphere Skyway" or something.
We can't get rid of the beast but we can urge people who are just blowing through town anyways to use a more sensible road, one that doesn't contribute to the noise and air pollution of a urban community.
Come on TDOT, throw us a bone.
Write-In Spellings, Oh come on you know you want to.
[update: didn't some brilliant writer already broach this subject?]
that awesome graphic blew my mind away. there was a 40 in 640?!
ReplyDeleteand that new campaign slogan makes me feel dirty.
This is exactly what I was thinking the other day -- from my limited viewpoint, the SmartFix construction and detours seem to have aided traffic flow in and around our fair city.
ReplyDeleteGreat idea, and I'll second CK in giving props to your sexy logo.
This is an incredibly sensible idea, and one that would cost almost nothing. In fact, we could just send out Mind and Bantr with a couple of cans of spray paint and let them take care of the signage for us!
ReplyDeleteSorry this took so long. I was out of town last week and not commenting anything. So, anyway, two big thumbs up on this one Mr. Pol. If you'll also promise to civilize the outdoor drinking laws so I can sip a glass of wine outside at Sundown right alongside my beer guzzling brethren then I would gladly nail up posters for you all over town.
ReplyDelete