“…why do so many roads go between the barn and the farmhouse?”
DUH…so the chicken can cross the road.
;-]
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That was Keith who said that, not me.
Well probably two sections of land. Lots own land on both sides of the road I would guess. Where the barn is would be where the livestock would likely be to let them out in the pasture or something without having to move them over the road every time. I dunno, I’m mostly a city kid but have farmer relatives.
Agricultural property lines. It could be stubborn farmers in general as we have very few Dutchmen.
I was addressing farmer’s boundaries. Topography would be necessary. I had no intention of implying it was done by the highway department to purposefully endanger drivers. I suppose the only danger would be to drivers unfamiliar with the area and distracted enough to not notice the yellow sign with black 90 degree curve arrow plus 15mph advisory speed. I have nothing against farmers. I am surrounded by them. Our Saturday market should be opening in a week our two. I can hardly wait.
I understood what you meant!
In my area, the 90 degree turns that were the result of going around a farmer’s property go back to the 1700s, as per the old maps that I have seen in the library.
That type of arrangement may have been just fine and dandy a few hundred years ago, but in this day and age of increased traffic volume, it just seems that it might make sense to do a little bit of property condemnation via Eminent Domain in order to straighten-out these intersections where the roads don’t actually meet.
Even though NH has a drive right law…it’s NEVER enforced. Even in the new sections of I-93 or rt 3 which are 3 lanes in each direction now - people still drive in the left lane. People go out of their way to get in the left lane and just park it there.
Some of you may recall me mentioning a woman whom I knew years ago, named June. On the first (and last!) time that I rode in her old Buick, as soon as she merged onto the NJ Turnpike–at a speed of about 35 mph–she made a bee-line for the left lane, even though the right and center lanes had fairly light traffic.
When she got into the left lane of the turnpike, she got the car up to her maximum driving speed of ~50 mph, and cars began zooming past us on the right. As I held onto the arm rest with a white knuckle death grip, I asked her why she was driving in the left lane, and her answer was, “Oh, I feel much safer over here”.
Yes, that was the last time that I rode in her car. It was just so much easier–and safer–to say, Let’s take my car, June!
Brings back memories of why I just liked to commute alone. One doc I used to commute with was aways sleep deprived. He had a farming operation too and would sleep through most meetings or at least have his eyes shut. One afternoon he was driving and we were going across the river bridge and his eyes were closed and his head down. I was two seconds from grabbing the wheel when his head bobbed up again and eyes opened like nothing happened. I gracefully started to find excuses for driving alone after that. I rode with a girl once too for a couple years. She was a good driver but when it was slippery she would take it up to the point of the rear wheels slipping and then back down a few mph. Just made me uncomfortable. Not as bad as my sister though.
Back around 1970, I drove down to Florida with a couple of co-workers. On the way back to NJ, we decided to drive straight through, instead of stopping for a night or two. Now, bear in mind that I-95 was far from being complete in those days, but even with the inevitable detours to older highways, somehow we managed to drive from Daytona Beach to NJ in ~19 hours.
On the final leg of the trip, as I and another guy slept, the third guy was driving the Maverick, and suddenly the two of us who were sleeping were jarred awake by the lurching of the car. I looked at the driver and asked him if he and the car were okay, and his answer was, “Yeah, everything is fine. I woke up when we hit the gravel on the shoulder”.
Even though I was still very tired, after that near death experience I managed to stay awake for the remainder of the trip.