Taking A Walk

by Dwayne Phillips

You know them. They are the most dreaded signs you can see while on the road:

CONSTRUCTION AHEAD

The road will shrink from two lanes to one. Sometimes the one-lane road stretches for a mile or more. Men with flags stand on the ends of the one-lane road. One man stops traffic on his end while the vehicles from the other end drive on the one lane. When one man stops his traffic, he calls the man on the other end on a cell phone. Sometimes the crew uses an old walkie-talkie. If you are under 25, I will not take the time to explain what a walkie-talkie is. It sort of works like a cell phone for short distances.

The other lane of the road, the one that cars do not use, is under work. The worst type of work from the perspective of the driver, is new asphalt. Sticky petroleum. Not good as your tires pick up and throw every pebble on the planet.

Walking through a construction site is as bad as driving through one. First, construction workers rarely if never see anyone taking a walk. They don’t know what to make of you. I usually smiled and waved and tried to stay out of the way.

But where would I walk? Either side of the one-lane of traffic put me facing it. Well, that was true half of the time. The other half of the time traffic approached me from the rear. I tried to walk away from the construction work. Large machines garner large amounts of my respect.

And then there are the other characteristics of construction sites. They are L O U D. They are dusty. They are strewn with oil. They have a bad odor. Did I miss any of the senses?

I came to the conclusion that if possible, I would drive through construction sites and walk on the other side.