Today needs moar lulz

Mister Prime Idiot is at it again!

Hi Viatologists,

After careful consideration, access to the Worldwide Highway Library from
the Vatican City State (212.77.0.0/19) is tentatively and hereby denied.
All registered users in this IP address block will need to find an alternate
source or seek another IP address in neighbouring Rome.

...So now he hates Catholics? I normally can't stand the filth that comes from the Vatican every other week, but banning them? Troll, though he may be, CalBog's got balls. (In the same sense as one might say a woman has balls, not in the sense of actually possessing a pair, mind you.)

Then again, this act of his elicited three responses, so maybe he was only trying to break the Cone. We all know that the Vatican considers teh intarwebz as witchcraft.*

...Nah. He can't be that crafty!


* - Denotes sarcasm, not meant to offend. For once.

Port Vincent NIMBYs speak out about proposed BR loop

From WBRZ-TV - Port Vincent Residents Speak Out (Video)

...Let me get this straight. The loop is badly needed at this stage. Traffic counts in Metro Baton Rouge along the I-10 (from Milepost 159 west to the river) and I-12 (out to and beyond the Livingston Parish line) are insane, and the companion US Route(s) aren't any better an alternative. The latest proposal for the Port Vincent area (east of BR) is a bypass of the town, meant to impact as few homes as possible, and they still want to pull the NIMBY crap?

I've driven through Baton Rouge many times, both on the I-10/12 main drag, and on the US 61/190 Bypass (Airline Highway). It is PATHETIC. If there's even a hint of daylight, good luck getting through there in any sort of decent time. The traffic sometimes makes New Orleans look like a niche rural destination. The loop would make life easier for a lot of travelers, and for those who actually have to drive through the city center.

Instead, they're worried about trash. Trash! Come on, that's a pathetic reason. The bypass is needed as bad as a six-laning of I-12 for its entire duration.

Our Official "Just Plain Wrong" Video of the Week!

This Is Just Plain Wrong!

The video loads a little slowly, but audio is (surprisingly) in English. All I will tell you, my two readers, is that it involves a bridge, a firetruck and an idiot. Or possibly one of the most unfortunate of souls... you be the judge.

The effort to ban "speed traps" in Louisiana

I wish I would have posted this in MTR first, kinda. Way to beat me to it, Matt. Anyway...

Article from Biloxi (MS) Sun-Herald

I wish they would get rid of the practice. I've lived in Louisiana, and some of the "speed trap" towns have been infamous for a long time. In the area where I live, Sun and Abita Springs are the worst offenders. Most people here know about these towns, and even if they can't bypass them (Good luck bypassing Sun if you're going from southern St. Tammany up to Bogalusa where the charity hospital is...) and have to cut through the main roads, they still "avoid" the town. They don't stop, they'll just wait til they get to the next town and fill the gas tank or grab a bite to eat, no matter how far away that is. Of these towns, the worst offenders don't have anything else to draw in the traveler, no kind of tourist traps or places of historical value. The towns get little to no tax revenue from travelers because of the reputation, so they're forced to supplement the town coffers by writing tickets for absurd stuff, and in the process they further the reputation.

These towns are trapped by their own idiocy. Sun is still trapped in the cycle of having to ticket speeders to survive, but Abita wised up and started to tout their place in early Louisiana history. They're thriving now, and they don't have to ticket the populace to make ends meet. (In fact, if they did, they'd alienate the tourists.) Abita is no less safer because of this - the fear of God is still there, but you don't have to fear them writing you a ticket solely Because They Can (TM). A lot of these towns would start doing better if they sold themselves instead of making the drivers curse towards Baton Rouge for bypass routes.

Lulz from MTR

I've read (with enjoyment) Mr. Yamamoto's "The Experience" for a few days now, and some of the funniest posts in there are when he starts trashing someone he calls "CalBog" - basically a disliked, trollish "viatologist" who posts in MTR, annoying the piss out of people along the way. Well, CalBog just posted again, and he must be desperate for pageviews or something. Today, he's posted an update to his site for "Ruta Federal 2" (Mexican Federal Highway 2) videos.

"Hola viatolicos mexicanos,
¡Buenos días! Hoy, la Worldwide Highway Library (WHL) tenga una nueva
fotografía "Virtual 360" de la Ruta Federal 2:"

(link would go here... but not on MY blog...)

"Si quiere verla, necessita Apple Quicktime."

I wonder if he's thinking he can get through the Wall of Silence by posting in Spanish? Anyway, right there, you see one of MY gripes against the guy - he's desperately trolling for pageviews, but he's rabidly anti-Linux. Plus, it's a Mexican Federal Highway, not a Mexican Federal Route.

Highway = Autopista
Ruta = Route

Next!

"Ruta 2 tenga dos ramas a Chihuahua. La rama secundaria se conecta a Palomas y la rama primaria. Use la rama primaria para los viajes entre Juárez y el estado de Sonora. La WHL tenga los mejores fotografias y las mejores vídeos de las Americas."

Let's see what that translates to...

"Route 2 has two branches in Chihuahua. The secondary branch connects to Palomas and the primary branch. Use the primary branch for travel between Juarez and the state of Sonora."

Uhm, OK. I can get that from Wikipedia. At least his Español isn't as crap as his Français. Next!

"The WHL has the best photographs and videos of the Americas."

This I doubt. I've read real roadgeek sites in my life. I could probably do better than our friend here if all I had to work with was a machine running Windows 98 and some poor B&W scans.

All in all, massive lulz.

This was worth the front page?

It's such a pain to walk lately, I swear. Anyway, I saw this in the Times-Picayune yesterday:

End is in sight for I-10 construction in Metairie

Of course, the online version of the article is wrought with the usual trolls, but some of the replies are spot on... OK, they're finishing it on time. Problem is, it could have been done in a LOT less time if Louisiana knew the first thing about scheduling highway repairs. Other cities in other states can get roadwork similar in magnitude done in less time. Even with the fact that New Orleans doesn't have a true local freeway bypass (I-12 doesn't count, I-610's western terminus is past the roadwork, and the Causeway requires one to go through at-grade intersections), I'm sure the same work could have been done in other states, in a similar situation, much faster.

Then again, maybe I'm just so annoyed about the traffic over there that I'm grasping at straws.

So I'm not the only one...

Proof, on video, that many of the people on the roads in St. Tammany Parish, LA are complete morons...

What is a MFFY, you ask? Click here to learn!

...And here I thought I was the only one to see some of the prime examples of stupidity around here...

Annoyance breeds creativity.

Suffice it to say today managed to piss me off. As if three screaming kids aren't enough to drive one to fratricide, I got some decent shots of the roadwork on US190 on my cameraphone... and I can't get them off of the damned phone to put online. So, what do I do? I get loaded. Then I sleep. And after I woke up, I stumbled upon The Great International Highway Makeover. I confess, I'm a bit of a roadgeek at heart, so I dug around. Some of the designs there are pretty cool, but then I looked at the Louisiana shields. Gag, no. I had to make my own.


The first one I decided to do, after getting ahold of a half-decent silhouette and doing some modifications, was a variation on the MUTCD-default circle. However... this is a Louisiana shield, so it has to be special. Screw the circle... I used a fleur-de-lis instead. Not only is it a symbol of Louisiana's French heritage, it's also the emblem the New Orleans Saints use. It's unique to us, as far as any of the 50 states. (Ok, so Detroit, MI, St. Louis, MO and Louisville, KY use it sporadically as well...) I think it came out nicely, considering how crap the fleur-de-lis looked as a blank. My fault, considering I haven't worked a graphics program in months... but I digress. I used a variation of Series E for the numbering, and surprisingly, it all fit into a 2di width scale. I suppose a wide blank could work if they decided to use Series F for 4di's.


Next up, I did one for LA 1, but I did this one in colors. Specifically, the traditional purple (background), green (lettering and outline) and gold (foreground). *"Mardi Gras Mambo" plays in background* It looks good on pixels, but who knows how visible it would actually be at night?


Next, I reversed the coloring of the lettering and outline with the background to make this shield for LA 28 Business. (No longer on the Route Log, but at one point, it used to exist.) This one's in Highway Gothic, I think. I was playing with the Clearview font, then I lost track. As it is, it's meant to be the Business shield. The green background is meant to remind one of an Interstate Business Loop/Spur, of which we have none of here. (And yes, I know that Louisiana doesn't use the "B" suffix on their Business highways. Maybe they should. It's better than not signing them at all!)


The fourth one in the list is one for LA 1088 that uses the fleur-de-lis in a manner that better resembles the current Louisiana highway shield. This one I know for sure, I did in Clearview. It could be a better font for signing the rural highways, especially if they continue to use the current shield.


Finally, I did a cutout version of the shield, possibly for use on freeways, similar to how some Utah and Virginia Interstate-US Route multiplexes have cutout shields for the US Route. In this case, this is for LA 3132, the freeway-standard Shreveport Inner Loop that may someday carry the I-49 designation. (Unless they end up routing it through the city instead.) It uses two different colors for the lettering, and carries a "state name" of "Freeway."