        I have a small rant and I don’t mean to offend anyone, I love living in Carlyle and there’s a ton of great people, but I must say driving up and down Main Street is trying for me at times. I don’t usually get road rage, and you would think it would come in a large city if it did, but that’s not the case… send me out during the day on Main Street and I become an angry sort .
               First off the parking the way it is, yes it looks beautiful with the curbs, flowers, and street lights, but it facilitates people darting out to cross the street. Now, the majority of people are good about checking for vehicles, but there are some that I’ve come across that have been lucky I saw them because they just walk across.
               I’ll admit, because of the way the street is set up I’m not going to park in front of the Co-op and then walk to a corner to cross… but if I’ve parked and then go to cross the street I wait, watching for vehicles, and then hustle across the street for the vehicles that do slow down for me, while giving them a big wave as a thank you.
               In contrast to this, however, I become extremely annoyed when I am at the pedestrian crossing and have made it part way across the street, but get stuck trying to finish crossing because the vehicles won’t stop for me. Vehicles are supposed to yield to pedestrians if they’re at the crosswalk, but they don’t have to anywhere else on the street. Carlyle is just set up in such a way that crossing from wherever you’ve parked is the norm.
               So, yes, I get annoyed both when I’m behind the wheel and when I’m walking because it seems like the rules of the road almost go out the window because no one knows how to handle the beautiful, but somewhat backwards setup.
               I’ve grown up in communities with angled parking, but they park next to the sidewalk in front of the business… that way you’re also not trying to crane your neck in such a way that you can see if anyone’s coming when backing up to your left. I discovered early that it’s definitely helpful to use the reflections in store windows here in Carlyle. But when you park next to the sidewalk, you get the luxury of shoulder checking over your right shoulder and out that large back window, without having to try to turn yourself around to look left or try to shoulder check left with all the blind spots on the vehicle there.
               Additionally, the rules of the road say that if you’re turning – whether a u-turn or a turning onto a new street – you remain on the right side of the road. This is because you don’t want anything passing between you and where vehicles are coming from, which becomes especially important turning onto Main Street. You can see when you’re pulled up to the street that it’s clear on the left, but as you come out into the intersection you get in line with the parked cars along the middle of the street and can’t see anything to the right. Add to that someone who decides to make a u-turn on your right, you simply can’t see if you can go or not. That person doing a u-turn should come past your vehicle to get into the right lane before turning.
               Technically there are four lanes at an intersection: one goes north, one heads south, one zips east, and the final one runs west; but somehow between u-turns and people heading straight and people turning from one street to another it’s like there’s six lanes… and nobody seems to be on the same page out there which is simply frustrating.
