OK, who is responsible for the obnoxious, offensive, and absolutely idiotic rumble strips being ground in on our otherwise peaceful highway? They make no sense and are disturbing my peace a mile and a half up the hill above them.
On a busy weekend we are interrupted every few minutes by a quick, but totally annoying braaap! But on quiet weekdays the periodic punctuation is even more profoundly peace destroying. I pity those who live by the shore having to listen to what sounds like bursts from a mini-gun during pitched battle. They certainly are not grinding gouges in our roadways for safety, they seem randomly placed: not necessarily on curves, nor on no passing zones, nor in any apparent critical areas. No, they seem more placed in areas where they can ruin the peace of the residents within the sound range, which is more than a mile.
This lunacy is perhaps even worse than the obnoxious sound; it looks like they are designed to be future potholes, allowing for winter to do damage to the roadways multiple times faster.
Nincompoops, it must be the highway lobby, trying to set up future roadwork for future revenues; nobody else could come up with a reasonable explanation.
As a bicyclist I find them even dangerous, cruising along quietly and suddenly blasted with a hundred or more decibels of a most annoying frequency and you are ready to ditch your bike out of fear when someone moves over to give you a little more room and if you are driving and want to pass someone, you wind up hesitating as soon as you hit the strip because you think you’ve just blown your head gasket. Well, I am blowing my head gasket, the repetitious sounds are going to drive me to recording the sounds and playing them back at full volume in front of the Department of Transportation 24/7. These rumble strips are simply the most insidious evil ever perpetrated by the imbeciles who design highways. Enough already.
Jerry Hiniker
Grand Marais
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