Stupid by design

The North Texas Tollway Authority needs a swift kick in the pants. For something they did many years ago, yes, but a good kick in the pants is still warranted...

The Dallas North Tollway and the President George Bush Turnpike are major, major arteries in the endless labrynth that is DFW. To countless Dallas citizens, it is the primary means of transporting one's self from one end of the city to another, in a timely and efficient manner(most of the time). That being said, you'd think they would have thought out every possible scenario when they set out to build these all-too-important roads way back when. The recipient in need of the swift kick in the pants is the one who designed the junction between these two toll roads. Going south on the Dallas North Tollway from Plano, I must brave this horrid intersection upon leaving work for the evening. I fully understand that rush hour is a tough time, and everyone's on their way home, so I can expect much traffic. On the other hand, the blockhead that designed the intersection in question must have thought that there'd be no more than 5 or 6 cars at a time trying to go east/west from their southbound Dallas North Tollway ride. So here's the deal, when you take the President George Bush Turnpike exit, all exiting traffic must merge into 1 lane. That's ONE LANE!!! Only after driving a good distance in this one lane, will you be able to part to either the eastbound or westbound direction. It's bad enough that ALL the people who wish to drive on the PGBTP* must merge into one lane, but just to make things interesting, there's a toll booth directly preceeding this one-lane exit ramp. That means there are even more people jockeying for position, some trying to merge to the far left so they can travel southbound on the DNT*, and others who wish to join the already merging exiting traffic heading for the PGBTP. So there you have it. Imagine for a moment if your vena cava (veins that carry blood into the heart) were designed this way; as three major bloodlines are forced to enter one single miniscule blood vessel; don't you think you'd have a heart attack?!?! It certainly feels this way every single weekday. And it's all thanks to a dunderheaded imbecile who got paid to design this monstrosity. Not very efficient at all, to say the least.

As a simple solution to this ever-so-stupid design, I propose that the NTTA close the toll booth preceeding the exit to the PGBTP, thus eliminating the extra fleet of cars vying for position during the daily pile-up that is rush hour. It would at the very least make things much easier for the massive amount of cars merging to take the PGBTP exit. Besides, all one has to do to enter the DNT is continue south on the frontage road, through the light at Plano Parkway, because right there is an entrance that does not require a toll. They'd save some coinage in the process! See, I'm always thinkin' of the little guy.


*PGBTP and DNT are the President George Bush Turnpike and the Dallas North Tollway, respectively. Just in case you weren't clever enough to figure that out... ;)