Road Closed

   The intersection by our house is one of the most dangerous intersections in the county. A few years ago there was a decision to put a roundabout in. The thought is that this will lessen the number of accidents that happen at this intersection. Work started on this a week ago.
  The first thing that went up were the "road closed" signs. This happened last Saturday. It didn't faze anyone. Cars kept coming, they simply drove around the signs. The police came out and put up a larger barrier. It stopped a few cars, but there were some that still drove past.
  This week the entire road is completely torn up. There is no road. There is a strip of dirt and some large piles of dirt where the road used to be.
  You would think that this would discourage people from driving on the road. Wrong. People are toodling through like one one's business. There are signs that say "no through traffic" and "road closed". Apparently this means nothing.
  I am a little irate about this. I don't understand why people can't seem to follow simple rules. It's not like our road is the only way to get anywhere. All you need to do is go to the next block and you're fine. It seems like this is too much of an inconvenience for some people. Why should they have to be forced to drive an entire block over? It's just not fair.
  Part of what bugs me about this is because people driving into the intersection while road crews are working can cause delays in this work getting done. It's also not safe. There's a chance that a worker could get hit or that a car that shouldn't be driving through will get hit by some of the equipment that is begin used. I guess no one thinks about these things.
  I have never been able to understand why some people think that traffic rules do not apply to them. This is something I've wondered about for a long time. I started thinking many years ago. I was crossing the street in front of the Excel Center in downtown St Paul. I was walking across the street with right of way when I stopped in the middle of the intersection because my hair blew in my face. A car ran the red light and went speeding though the intersection. If I hadn't stopped, I would not be writing this right now. I would have been road kill.
  Ever since then I've been watching people who fail to stop at stop signs, fail to yield and speed through yellow and green lights. I've had people pull out in front of me in roundabouts. I've seen people exceeding the speed limit to the point where I wonder where the heck the cops are.
  What are these people thinking? They're are probably not thinking. Some of them are too busy talking on cell phones to really care about what's going on around them. I got rear ended once by a woman who admitted that she was on her cell phone and didn't see us stopped at a stop sign. Thank goodness for C. If it hadn't been for him I may have smacked that phone right out of her hand.
   I'd like to remind everyone who drives of a few things. Put down your phone and pay attention to your driving. Stop at all stop signs and red lights. Do not speed through yellow lights. If you come to a sign that says "road closed" turn around and find another way to your destination. Especially if it's on my block.
   Thank you.