When exiting the loop to go west on Adams, coming from the mall area, they now have a really strange traffic pattern. You exit into a two lane access road, then after the car dealership, it has a painted oval almost that forces all the traffic into the LEFT lane for about three car lengths, then it is two lane again. Since most traffic by far is turning RIGHT to go around and get on Adams going west, it is asinine to move everyone into the left lane for such a short distance and for no obvious reason. I sometimes think a three year old is the traffic engineer for highway project.

Not to mention the wrecks that are happening because of the way they are bringing the Gatesville traffic onto the access road, not the loop, till after the West Adams merge. Many mornings I see near wrecks since so many vehicles have blind spots on the driver's side, try to merge and almost sideswipe a car. There is little room to get over from Adams, where MOST of the Temple traffic originates. Again, poor planning by a three year old.

I know the area you are talking about, and I drive it just often enough to forget about the narrowing and get frustrated trying to figure out what the heck is going on.

The truly odd part is that the asphalt itself doesn't narrow, it just goes from a two lane road with no shoulder to a one lane road with a massive shoulder and then back to a two lane road with no shoulder.

I don't think it is the fault of a three year old chief engineer. We've got a lot of good Ags working for TXDOT in central Texas. My completely uneducated guess is that it has something to do with the large drainage ditch for that section. Perhaps the concern was that a distressed car at night would try to pull off into the grass to get out of the road, and unwittingly drive their car into the ditch. I don't think it is safer having people constantly sideswiping each other while trying to figure out why all of a sudden one lane disappeared off when there is plenty of room for two, but the boys that make the rules in Austin aren't always privy to the realities on the ground.

I drive west over the loop on 2305 and noticed a solid amount of backup the last few weeks , but didnt know what was causing it.

I rarely take that exit to go down 2305 from the loop.

At this point I'm done complaining or trying to figure out what they're doing.

Closing down a lane of traffic for frigging Wal Mart is the stupidest thing I've ever seen. The only thing more frustrating is the jackholes that try to make it all the way to the light before they merge over heading east.

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I don't think it is safer having people constantly sideswiping each other while trying to figure out why all of a sudden one lane disappeared off when there is plenty of room for two, but the boys that make the rules in Austin aren't always privy to the realities on the ground.

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The staff I work with in Austin don't seem to have a lot of on the ground experience with the individual issues of everything I work on, but they do a good job. That's just the issue with having a central district office making calls on a larger area. They do as good of a job as they can, IMO.

When I take that exit to get on Adams, I just turn right between the bank and dealership. I avoid a lot of headache that way.

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I don't think it is safer having people constantly sideswiping each other while trying to figure out why all of a sudden one lane disappeared off when there is plenty of room for two, but the boys that make the rules in Austin aren't always privy to the realities on the ground.

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The staff I work with in Austin don't seem to have a lot of on the ground experience with the individual issues of everything I work on, but they do a good job. That's just the issue with having a central district office making calls on a larger area. They do as good of a job as they can, IMO.

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Sorry. I didn't intend for that to be a shot at the engineers in Austin. They do good work, and they set standards that keep us safe. My point was like with any set of uniform standards, the application on the ground can get a little wonky. That doesn't mean the guys in Austin set bad standards or the guys building the road are doing a bad job of applying those standards. It just works out funny sometimes.

Don't be sorry. He insulted the locals on another thread. I guess us local yocals can't figure out traffic circles.

I see a lot of people turn at the bank, but to me that is sort of cheating. It is not the way the traffic is supposed to go. I did not mean to really insult the people in Austin, but why would they design a high dollar project without at least one trip to the real place to see what they have created?

I admit that the circle is Waco has always been scary to me, but they have them in residential areas of Kennedale where my daughter lives and they seem to handle the traffic more smoothly than a four way stop.

I bet the one lane does have to do with the drainage ditch. As far as pushing everyone into the left lane, I'd imagine that has more to do with where the majority of cars are coming from (exiting the loop) than where they are going (West on Adams).

Going the other direction I suppose they keep everyone on the access road until after Adams because they moved the exit for Adams way back up past 205 loop and there isn't room for a new on-ramp.

I can see the reason for them having to shut down a lane to construct a new turn lane for the new Wal*mart, but It seems to be taking forever.

And taking a right at the bank isn't exactly pain free way to go either...

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I don't think it is safer having people constantly sideswiping each other while trying to figure out why all of a sudden one lane disappeared off when there is plenty of room for two, but the boys that make the rules in Austin aren't always privy to the realities on the ground.

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The staff I work with in Austin don't seem to have a lot of on the ground experience with the individual issues of everything I work on, but they do a good job. That's just the issue with having a central district office making calls on a larger area. They do as good of a job as they can, IMO.

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Sorry. I didn't intend for that to be a shot at the engineers in Austin. They do good work, and they set standards that keep us safe. My point was like with any set of uniform standards, the application on the ground can get a little wonky. That doesn't mean the guys in Austin set bad standards or the guys building the road are doing a bad job of applying those standards. It just works out funny sometimes.

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Completely agree, they make calls as they see fit, but on the ground experience of specific issues gets lost at time.

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Don't be sorry. He insulted the locals on another thread. I guess us local yocals can't figure out traffic circles.

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I grew up there, and knowing the community, I think it would be entertaining for the first few months.

I drive that spot all the time, almost every day. It gets backed up at rush hour, but beyond that, I don't see what's so bad about it. It's perfectly easy to navigate. What's the problem?

It makes no sense to not let people get over to the right when they safely can, and stay in the right lane. The left lane goes straight or into the lane that will eventually turn left at the light. Instead you have to stay in the left lane till the bridge, making it wasted to even have a right lane in the first place, and sometimes making it tough when people expecting logical lanes stay right and then have to merge back into the left lane. There is zero logic to the bubble. I even see some people drive straight across it ignoring the markings.

I am mainly there at a time when traffic is backed up that far going home.