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elfsYesternight, as I was driving home along Highway 509, I was coming up on a heavy truck laden down with landfill for the new runway. There are hundreds of these trucks every day passing along the final two-mile stretch until 509 terminates in Burien just south of the airport. As I was coming up on the truck, I realized that I was either going to have to slow down a lot, or swing to the left and speed up. I chose the latter and stomped on the gas. I was probably going a bit over the limit when suddenly there were police lights behind me.
Sigh.
But then, the highway patrol swung away from me and got behind the truck. With a feeling of cold relief I finished my maneuver, now made much easier by the rapidly decelerating truck, and got off the highway to head home.
This happens a lot (the troopers pulling over the landfill trucks, not police lights in my rearview mirror). Every time I drive by that stretch of road, there's at least one state trooper SUV and one truck there by the side of the road. And I can't figure out what's going on. It's just really odd.
And it gives me a bit of a nervous feeling when I see just how stealthed-out the trooper SUVs are. They're indistinguishable from civilian SUVs when the police lights aren't on. But they're less frightening than these monster landfill truck-trains, I suppose. I mean, is the private construction company deliberately putting over-weight trucks down there and this is just the cost of doing business, is it a safety inspection, or what?
And I guess what annoys me most is that this is the mechanism by which two parts of our government-- the port authority and the highway patrol-- interact. It's inefficient in the extreme, and it's burning taxpayer money.
Sigh.
But then, the highway patrol swung away from me and got behind the truck. With a feeling of cold relief I finished my maneuver, now made much easier by the rapidly decelerating truck, and got off the highway to head home.
This happens a lot (the troopers pulling over the landfill trucks, not police lights in my rearview mirror). Every time I drive by that stretch of road, there's at least one state trooper SUV and one truck there by the side of the road. And I can't figure out what's going on. It's just really odd.
And it gives me a bit of a nervous feeling when I see just how stealthed-out the trooper SUVs are. They're indistinguishable from civilian SUVs when the police lights aren't on. But they're less frightening than these monster landfill truck-trains, I suppose. I mean, is the private construction company deliberately putting over-weight trucks down there and this is just the cost of doing business, is it a safety inspection, or what?
And I guess what annoys me most is that this is the mechanism by which two parts of our government-- the port authority and the highway patrol-- interact. It's inefficient in the extreme, and it's burning taxpayer money.
