Sending Cattle Down The Chute To Slaughter

[ThomWV]

Over the past week I had to drive from northern West Virginia to the Outer Banks of North Carolina and back. The trip took me west of Washington to I-95 at Fredricksburg, Virginia and down to Richmond and then east to the coast via I-64.

As I was driving the 80~100 miles east on I-64 from Richmond to the Hampton Roads area I noticed something that was chilling. At every on-ramp and off-ramp to that section of interstate there was one of those arm-type of barricades like you'd see at a rail road crossing. The things were unobtrusive, you'd hardly notice them; just gray galvanized arms, apparently electrically operated from some far away control booth. The things gave whoever is in charge of the magic switch the ability to funnel all the thousands of vehicles on that long road in any direction they liked, like cattle hustling down the chute at the slaughter house.

I took 664 around cities, got a good look at the back side of this country's navy and one of its major ship yards, and then noticed that there was no similar set of control devices as I moved on to the south.

Read Orwell folks. Be afraid, be very afraid.

[Fierce]

1. We have those in Minnesota.

But they're used to close the interstate in bad weather. They're not scary at all.

[jdlh8894]

2. Traffic Control during Hurricane Season

They block off all east-bound lanes so they can use ALL lanes for west-bound for evacuation.

[JHB]

3. We have gates like that on some parts of the Long Island Expressway

(I-495 on Long Island, New York) They're there to regulate access during rush times, so that a busy on-ramp (with limited get-up-to-speed space) doesn't wind up jamming an entire section of the road.

Sections with less traffic, and sections designed to merge heavier traffic, don't have them, and they stay upen at off-peak hours. And they block access if a section is closed due to an accident or something.

Should we be very, very afraid of effective traffic managment?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

4. My god, it's the mark of the beast.

[yellowcanine]

5. Yes if you look very closely, the barriers have "666" stamped on them and

they will be activated by a universal product code permanently affixed to your forehead during the Great Tribulation.

[Catchawave]

6. Hurricane gates for evacuation

At least that's what they told us :silly:

[piedmont]

7. Those are for hurricane evacuation. They're on the Interstates all along the Atlantic coast. nt

[Beausoir]

8. In North Dakota, they are to prevent idiots from getting on the interstate after it has been closed

in a blizzard.

Blizzards in North Dakota can be and often are deadly.