Dear Mahatma: In Little Rock, where Pleasant Valley runs into Cantrell Road, there is a traffic light (added after the Interstate 430/Cantrell project). The part I don't understand is there is a yield sign on the corner, but there is no concrete island, or even painted stripes on the ground. Does the yield sign make it legal to make a right turn on red without stopping? -- Bill
Dear Bill: You have the express thanks of Mark Headley, District 6 engineer for the Arkansas Department of Transportation. Because you have noted a discrepancy. That is, the yield sign was installed but a complementing island was not.
By the time this gets in the newspaper, the Transportation Department's maintenance crews should have added a painted island at the intersection, with a refreshed stop bar and a yield bar.
As for the right turn, Headley noted it wouldn't be controlled by the traffic signal, so motorists must yield to eastbound traffic on Cantrell.
Dear Mahatma: My mind plays tricks on me. The streets surrounding our house were Cantrell, Mississippi, Ohio and Georgia. Not Florida. The house was actually moved across Mississippi and still sits at the corner of Iowa and Watt streets. -- Patty
Dear Patty: To refresh readers' memories, Patty wrote in response to a column that mentioned street signs on Mississippi that referred to it as either a street or a road. One reader was up in arms -- yeah, literally, waving his arms in the air in a gesture of frustrated dismay -- that signs on Cantrell Road showed Mississippi as a road. It was always an avenue, he proclaimed.
Maybe the city will fix those "road" signs after the coming sales tax election. It's on Sept. 14, and would add a cent of tax to every dollar spent in Our Town. Dude, street signs are expensive.
Meanwhile, Patty is sentenced to a punishment often inflicted in the newsroom of the old Arkansas Democrat.
A gentle whack upside the head with a rolled-up copy of the Sports section.
Hey, Mahatma: Your column is always awesome. Sometimes you don't mean to be wrong but you made light of the name of a road as being nothing serious. The name of a street matters. Here in Russellville we have Mill Creek Road and Mill Creek Drive. It makes a difference, especially in a medical emergency. Thanks for reading this. -- David
Dear David: Oh, no, thank you for the insight. You refer to the column on Mississippi Avenue vs. Mississippi Road. Or street. Or boulevard. Or whatever. To our knowledge, Little Rock has only one Mississippi, but the point is important. It's not usual for a subdivision to have many iterations on a name. When first responders are called to an emergency, it's vital to know exactly which street name is the right street name.
As for us, we are sentenced to a vigorous whack upside the head with a rolled-up copy of the Sports section.
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