In the past month, anytime I’ve had to take the Veteran’s Expressway into Tampa, towards the airport, I’ve had to divert off course. Typically, the expressway begins to back up just before the Waters Avenue exit, and that makes sense, because 2 lanes branch out to 5 or 6 lanes to go through the toll booths, and then some lanes exit, and the rest of us merge into 2 lanes again. It’s a stupid design, but we’re all used to it by now.

Lately though, traffic has been backing up a lot sooner. I’ve been stopped way back at the Van Dyke exit, or Hutchinson road, and the cars just creep along for miles. That forces me to get off at Gunn Highway, and go through the city streets in order to make up some time.

Am I the only one who has noticed this mess? It’s enough to make a girl want to tele-commute every single day!

On Friday afternoon I was in Ybor City for a work function, and had to head through Malfunction Junction to head north on I-275. I don’t care what they’ve done to improve that junction - it’s still horrible! Luckily, the traffic heading north on I-275 wasn’t bad at all, and I made it up to 75 in a matter of minutes. That may change this week once the new I-275 improvements from Himes Avenue to the Hillsborough River start construction. Another lane is being added to alleviate traffic around the downtown area, but for now, cars will be merging into lanes to give the workers room to work. The project won’t be done until 2010.

Does anyone else feel like they should just add 3 or 4 lanes while they’re at it and be done with it? Forget this one lane at a time nonsense.

What the heck was the problem on the Veteran’s Expressway this morning? I got stuck right around Gunn Highway and it was slow all the way through the Waters Avenue toll booths and up to Hillsborough, where I finally gave it up and got off. It took me 35 minutes to get from Waters Avenue to Hillsborough, too! I turned on the radio to listen for a traffic update, but all they said was “heavy volume”. Duh! What’s the reason for it? I hate it when there’s not a reason for that kind of traffic.

There was a time when I drove U.S. 19 almost daily. Since moving to the boonies, I’m a bit further from U.S. 19 and I’m not required to get on it much anymore, and my stress level is way down. I never realized how frustrating stop and go traffic was until it was removed from my life. In our new town, I can get to the grocery store by just going through one light. Other stores are just a few more lights away. I don’t miss the hustle and bustle of 19, nor do I miss the ugliness - billboards and strip malls and just an overall eyesore.

I can only hope my small town never grows up, or I’ll have to move again.