The Twinkling Lights of Christmas

There is nothing that says Christmas like bright shiny lights in the snow. Unfortunately most of the twinkling lights I see on a daily basis are those of brake lights as traffic moves at less than 20 mph on the freeway. They have no need to warn me of speeding in work zones, I can't even accelerate to 30 mph on a regular basis. I understand the need for UDOT to repair roads, I would just like to suggest that maybe winter is not a good time to narrow the lanes down on a freeway that is mostly overpasses and already prone to black ice. Luckily I have not had any mishaps. Of course with all construction there are closures of exits and all kinds of other fun obstacles to overcome. Something that I have found typical lately is the idea of springing an onramp closure at you right before you get to it. The onramp at 7th East is closed. One night at about 2 a.m. I was approaching said onramp to get on the freeway. The sign that tells you the ramp is closed, is in the actual lane to take the ramp, not a couple blocks before or even the intersection before. I have checked and there is NO earlier warning of the ramp closure. Heaven forbid that they should let you know before you actually get there so that you can choose another route. Another complaint I have about winter construction projects is that when they shift lanes it makes it very difficult to determine where the actual lanes are. With snow and ice and the reflection of lights sometimes you can't see which lane you are supposed to be in, and if you can see a lane it's probably the old one that they attempted to cover up when they shifted lanes for their poorly timed road project. One thing I can be positive about is that at least my commute is not often at a dead standstill. Every night as I merge from the 201 onto I-80, I look at the pretty string of brake lights that stretches from 600 South to farther than my eyes can see, I feel grateful that at least I don't have to take I-15 South!