triviageek

Los Angeles had a massive blackout today when someone accidently cut the wrong cable. What MOST drew my attention, however, was one small quote.

stoplights went out at intersections across the city

With reminders of Hurricane Katrina still in the news, I suppose it's only natural that this quote reminds me of Hurricane Isabel when traffic lights were out for DAYS in this area.

And driving anywhere in the DC metro area was EXTREMELY HAZARDOUS!

While legally everyone is supposed to regard an intersection whose traffic lights were non-functional as a 4-way stop, many drivers apparently thought themselves too important to bother and proceeded thru the intersections without even slowing down.

You can imagine what happened when more than one of those drivers (traveling on streets at right angles to each other) arrived at the same intersection at exactly the same moment.

To say there were a lot of accidents is putting it mildly.

I remember being fortunate that there was a way for me to drive to work via only limited access highways so that I could avoid intersections, but I remember having a doctors appointment during that mess, and thinking that just driving to the appointment was seriously putting my life at risk.