road safety on the block

[mellowtigger]

Two Thursdays ago, I had another emergency dental visit. After the dental visit, I discovered that I had a rash on my left arm. It remained there for many hours, but it was gone the next day. I have no idea what triggered it.

To recap (pun intended), at that molar tooth location I have now busted 1) the original tooth, 2) the repair work on it, and 3) two different temporary caps on it. Thankfully, I have a scheduled appointment tomorrow to get the final custom fitted metal crown for it. Hopefully that fix lasts my remaining years without further incident.

During the last week, we got new features on the block where I live. First, there appeared an actual roundabout in the middle of the previous intersection on the north end of my block. This is great news to prevent the cars speeding down my block at all hours of day and night. It hasn't been as much of a problem recently as it was several years ago. This will help, though. The city calls these roundabouts 3.7F traffic circles. There are plenty in my area already, but "mine" is new.

I have no idea what this means for fire trucks, though. The fire station is a few blocks directly north of me. They frequently travel down our block to get to locations quickly, because my street is the intersection right outside their fire station. They'll have to travel elsewhere now, maybe? Unless they just have to travel more slowly through intersections. Obviously the roundabout wouldn't be allowed to block emergency vehicles, but it does seem like an unusual impediment to their fast travel.

A few days later, my block also got not just 1 but actually 2 speed bumps!

That seems like overkill, but maybe the people pushing for speed bumps didn't know we were getting a roundabout. I had no idea. My block just got a whole lot safer for kids on the block.

Comments

[mtbc]

I occasionally get rashes on my forearms. I don't know what triggers them and they're gone within the hour.

[shimmerwine]

The fire department will just blow through the roundabout like they do through lights. Everyone makes way for fire trucks.

There's a huge one in NH, and I don't remember it being called a roundabout, but what it is called has escaped me ever since they started putting them here in weird places. I don't even know what they call them here. I have heard 'traffic circle' before.

Update: Mom says it's called a 'rotary'.