Driving west on East Avenue, I approached the traffic signal at Pillsbury Road. The light was red allowing cars exiting Pillsbury to turn onto East Avenue. Behind me, five cars in each lane awaited the green. When it finally turned, all ten cars resumed our westward trek just in time to see a fat bicyclist (who appeared to have been poured into a pair of spandex shorts) hit the trip-button on another set of stop signals.
That second set of stop signals is less than fifty yards from the signals at Pillsbury and East Avenue. You see….there’s a bike path that crosses East Avenue at that point complete with expensive stop signals. It will stop vehicles on East Avenue in both directions whenever a jogger, a bicyclist, or a pedestrian out for a stroll feels it’s too inconvenient to jog, bike, or stroll a mere fifty yards to catch the light at the intersection.
The total of ten cars that had just gotten the green light at Pillsbury had to stop again fifty yards later. Now, there were a total of 20 cars, ten heading west, and ten heading east on East Avenue….waiting for fat-boy to get back on his bike and cross East Avenue.
Who in their right mind authorized such a cockamamie set up? I did some research and found that a former Chico city council…..dominated by liberals came to the conclusion that people who ride bikes, walk, or jog are helping the planet. The joggers are losing weight, thus lowering all of our health care bills. (Has anyone noticed their health care bills being lowered?) Those that walk the bike path are helping the planet by not driving a car. And those that ride bikes are reducing their carbon footprint, and thus, doing their part to prevent global warming.
The result of the liberal enviro-wackos ideas turn out to be more damaging to the environment than if they’d just left well-enough alone. Oh, I’m sure their votes to install the extra set of lights at the bike path made the liberals on the council feel good.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, greenhouse gas is one of the chief causes of (alleged) global warming. The gas is produced when coal, GASOLINE and other fossil fuels burn. A total of twenty cars sat idling, burning gasoline so fatso could cross East Avenue without having to take a mere fifty yard detour.
Stop global warming! Save the planet. Reduce your carbon footprint. Go Green. We hear a lot of that being bandied around Chico these days, and a lot of it coming from the current liberal city council. Those liberals should practice what they preach….and rip out that extraneous traffic signal and install it where it’ll actually do some GOOD. Until then, it remains a monument to the stupidity of liberals/progressives.