Construction woes

Today I am working from home!  Thank you, Maria.  As a morning-get-me-going activity I decided to take my bike out for a spin.  It has been sitting patiently, waiting for me to stop making excuses and get riding.  So today I pumped up the tires, latched on my helmet and took off.  And that is where my woes begin.  I am currently surrounded by road construction projects.  To the east the FDOT is frantically working on US 19, long the bane of Pinellas drivers.  They are creating flyovers in order to reduce the number of stoplights on this congested highway in order to speed up traffic and make it less stressful and hopefully safer for drivers to get from Point A (somewhere up in Tarpon Springs) to Point B (Eckerd College or thereabouts).  Actually US 19 heads all the way up to Lake Erie, road trip anyone?  In the long run this will be great for most drivers in the county but right now, for me, it is a PITA.

Conversely to the west the City of Clearwater is working on a neighborhood traffic calming project to slow the cars down.  Evidently this was at the request of my neighbors.  Again, I'm not opposed to this project as it will beautify my normal ride, especially when I'm on my bike.  It is not currently possible to get through the intersection at Harn and Summerlin in a car, but with a little maneuvering it is possible on a bike.  Why was I leery about riding through the grass in someone's yard?  We did it all the time when we were kids.

So while various governmental agencies speed the cars up and then slow them down, bikers can go their own speed and their own way, ahhh freedom!