Yesterday I was supposed to drive to Nashville to have surgery done and had to cancel and reschedule because of a traffic jam caused by God only knows what.
I was leaving Clarksville at exit 8 on I-24, which I usually use whenever I drive down to Nashville.
At the on-ramp going onto I-24 a cop was sitting there with his lights flashing, not blocking the on-ramp but just sitting on the other side. I made the right turn to get on the Interstate and to my surprise I realized too late that traffic was backed up and not moving. I tried backing up to get back on the road to maybe go around to exit 11 and this stupid cop refused to allow it. Instead of preventing cars from being stuck in total gridlock this cop was funneling cars onto the ramp and then refusing to allow them to turn around.
I was wasn't the only one who was forced to have to sit in traffic for two hours going nowhere. Dozens of other people were forced into this mess by this cop.
I gave myself plenty of time to get to Nashville, but by the time I drove the 2 miles to exit 11 on I-24 my appointment had expired. All the way my wife was yacking about everything that was going wrong.
Well, I was forced to call ahead and tell them that I couldn't make my appointment thanks to the gridlock and it's been rescheduled for next month.
By the time I reached exit 11, much to my surprise, there was nothing. Traffic just took off as normal. No obstructions, no roadblock, no construction workers, nothing......
WTF???
The only thing I saw was a TN Highway Patrol officer helping a woman change her tire on the side of the road, but this was before the on-ramp at exit 8. Did this cause a traffic jam? Just a bunch of people rubber-necking a cop on the side of the road? We have a unwritten law here in TN that you try to change lanes so that you don't hit a cop when he's pulled someone over for whatever reason. Did this cause the jam?
I've been noticing alot of extra traffic on I-24 the last couple of years. I remember when the only time traffic was bumper to bumper on I-24 was when you got to Nashville. Clarksville is 52 miles North. Traffic is getting really bad the last year or so. So many people are constantly driving around. I see handicapped license plates on the road everywhere. Getting around Clarksville during the day is really tough on the main roads. You have to take back roads to get anywhere because of all of the backed up traffic caused by traffic lights.
The guy that invented traffic lights should be shot BTW. He's the biggest contributor to Global Warming on the planet.
