Dear Mahatma: What's up with narrowing parts of Fair Park Boulevard south of 12th Street, one of Little Rock's finest tree-shaded thoroughfares? Has the city bought stock in a tire and wheel company and is looking to generate some business by randomly sticking curbs into the street? Or are they trying to encourage us all to drive very small cars so we can fit onto the retro-sized horse and buggy pathway?
-- Feeling squeezed
Dear Squeezed: If there really is a nefarious plan to encourage folks to drive small cars, it's failed. Seems like every other vehicle is a full-sized, crew-cab pickup. Yeah, we'd like one, too.
Jon Honeywell, the city's director of public works, did some explaining about the Fair Park project, whose planning goes back to 2013 as part of a capital improvement program. He notes that folks from the Fair Park Neighborhood Association sought a way to calm traffic on the boulevard.
That is, to slow it down. Fair Park Boulevard connects to UALR. Yeah, that's right -- speed demon faculty. Most likely the anthropologists, pressing the pedal to the metal with their suede Hush Puppies.
Intersection bulb-outs were chosen as traffic-calmers. Anything that narrows a street slows down traffic, engineers have deduced. In our neighborhood, a scheme of white stripes does the trick on a residential street.
Honeywell also said the intersection radii are carefully designed to facilitate turning of larger vehicles without swinging into oncoming traffic. Fair Park is signed to prohibit through-truck traffic anyway.
Vanity plate seen on U.S. 67/167: IML82
Dear He Who Has All Answers: I've wanted to write every time someone writes about lane markers. Go to Delaware, where they add ground glass to the paint, and the road lights up from far in the distance. Got to be cheaper than the stupid reflectors. -- Ray
Dear Ray: As has been reported here several times over the past couple of centuries, tiny glass beads about the size of a grain of sand are used in the paint put on Arkansas highways. So reminds David Nilles of the Arkansas Department of Transportation.
Raised reflectors are helpful when there's heavy rain, since they sit above the layer of water on the highway. On the other hand -- always, there is another hand -- ice and snow sometimes come to Arkansas. When plows and graders clear the road, the blade can knock the raised markers off the road. This creates what is known as a "booger." As in, "dang, that's a booger."
We wondered how Delaware and Arkansas compare in terms of the size of their interstate highway systems. As Ray pointed out, Delaware has but three counties.
Turns out Arkansas has 755 miles of interstate highway, and Delaware has 40.61 miles.
Texas tops the list of states when it comes to interstate mileage at 3,233. Everything's bigger in Texas, doncha know?
Vanity plate seen around town: SRGOLFR.
Fjfellone@gmail.com
Metro on 08/11/2018