JPinMaryland
12-16-2006, 03:26 AM
Some of the most irritating places to get stuck in are cities that are like nothing and still you keep getting lost in.
Classic Example: Frederick Maryland. This city has like maybe 30,000 in the downtown area and yet I've gotten lost here dozens of times. They have created something akin to a lobster trap where you can get in but you cant get back out. The trick is they have these one way streets that lead into "T"s. WHere the cross street is also a one way! What's up with that? If the freakin cross street was two way everything would be fine. BUt no you are forced to keep driving in directions you dont want to go. That and the only external road links are a set of interstates that converge on Frederick, which is okay. But the exits often are only in one direction, you can exit west but not east, etc. Most annoying experience is there is a park in the middle of town, and when you are trapped on the one end, and you can see all the way across town to where you want to go, except you cant get there because you are on a one way that is dumping you out onto another one way..leading away from all this. :bang:
Or Newport, RI. I dont know what happened, but we were going through here one day and my wife just got stuck in an endless loop. I think we made about 5 circuits through the town and we are still in the same place. And Newport is like as small as a postage stamp. Very odd set of one way streets and hard to figure out where to get out of the city. I finally took the wheel, my wife was in tears and headed back toward the mansions on the beach front. Long way to go but at least we got out.
But my all time favorite:
Williamsburg VA. This is like a one horse town and you still cant figure it out. At night that is. By day I think its fine. THey have an expressway called Colonial Expressway or something and it has no lights! I guess they didnt want to mess up the beauty or something. Anyhow lights would have helped. The expressway leads back into the tourist part of town where the motels are. And the trick is that the road that leads off the express is at like a 15 degree angle to expressway so you cant see where it's coming up.
We drove around this expressway about 7 times. About two hours in the middle of the night before we finally figured out where the turn off to get into the real town was. No signs, no lights, map doesnt explain this. Hey Williamsburg how about putting some lights?
Classic Example: Frederick Maryland. This city has like maybe 30,000 in the downtown area and yet I've gotten lost here dozens of times. They have created something akin to a lobster trap where you can get in but you cant get back out. The trick is they have these one way streets that lead into "T"s. WHere the cross street is also a one way! What's up with that? If the freakin cross street was two way everything would be fine. BUt no you are forced to keep driving in directions you dont want to go. That and the only external road links are a set of interstates that converge on Frederick, which is okay. But the exits often are only in one direction, you can exit west but not east, etc. Most annoying experience is there is a park in the middle of town, and when you are trapped on the one end, and you can see all the way across town to where you want to go, except you cant get there because you are on a one way that is dumping you out onto another one way..leading away from all this. :bang:
Or Newport, RI. I dont know what happened, but we were going through here one day and my wife just got stuck in an endless loop. I think we made about 5 circuits through the town and we are still in the same place. And Newport is like as small as a postage stamp. Very odd set of one way streets and hard to figure out where to get out of the city. I finally took the wheel, my wife was in tears and headed back toward the mansions on the beach front. Long way to go but at least we got out.
But my all time favorite:
Williamsburg VA. This is like a one horse town and you still cant figure it out. At night that is. By day I think its fine. THey have an expressway called Colonial Expressway or something and it has no lights! I guess they didnt want to mess up the beauty or something. Anyhow lights would have helped. The expressway leads back into the tourist part of town where the motels are. And the trick is that the road that leads off the express is at like a 15 degree angle to expressway so you cant see where it's coming up.
We drove around this expressway about 7 times. About two hours in the middle of the night before we finally figured out where the turn off to get into the real town was. No signs, no lights, map doesnt explain this. Hey Williamsburg how about putting some lights?