What do you do when you see a Detour sign?

[Aidensmom]

Do you follow it? Or do you move the barricades and go through anyways?

In the past couple of weeks, I have had the opportunity to really observe people's behavior regarding this. Two weeks ago a small sinkhole opened up in the street about a block from my home, on a street we live on the corner of. It has since opened a bit more to encompass halfway across the road. The city has had the whole block closed with barricades and "road closed" and "detour" signs since the beginning because sinkholes can, and do, expand unexpectedly. There is nothing at all in that block so no one really NEEDS to be on the street there, there is a retention pond on one side of the road, a couple of vacant lots on the other.

I think rule-followers are in the minority, because few actually follow the detour. I am one of the rule followers, I drive around the block to get around it, even though it is an inconvenience to me, but most people do not. The grass has all been torn out on either side of the road from people driving around the barricades. Friday, the city put out barricades on the grass to keep people from driving there, people have moved them so they can drive through.

Today, when walking my dog, just to see what would happen, I put all the barricades back where they were supposed to be. It took only FIVE MINUTES before a car stopped at the barricades, someone got out, and moved them so they could drive through instead of taking an extra 60 seconds to drive around the block! I am just waiting for the hole to open up more and a car to fall in that is driving through.

I really am kind of curious why people take the risk and drive through, just because it's not how my thought process works.

 

[mommasita]

I follow the signs...

Here is a story though, and I LOVE IT:

Last year we had a detour, and it was written like this "ATTENTION, EVERYONE MUST EXIT OR SUBMIT TO A ROADBLOCK FOR ALCOHOL AT THE NEXT EXIT"...Well, everyone got off off naturally, and there sat the police with the roadcheck for alcohol...(sorry don't know how to address it properly in english, I keep seeing it in french)..I found it to be quite funny.

 

[SwedishMeatball]

Wow, that seems like a ballsy thing to do. I'm not sure I would ever be motivated to do that. Most detours aren't that much out of the way, but I would assume it was for a good reason and follow the signs. What is it with Florida and all those sink holes??

 

[tiggersmom2]

Don't have many "detours" here in my part of GA.....but I can just imagine when a car gets "eaten".....

 

[Pop Daddy]

by the time I read that long post, I could have been there

 

[PhotobearSam]

I would follow the signs...

Seems to me that it would take more time to get out of the car, move the barricades, get back into the car and drive than just to go around the block.

people are so

 

[MushyMushy]

Usually, after I come up with a few colorful cuss words, I follow the sign.

I've never seen anyone do what you're saying! What jerks.

 

[SwedishMeatball]

by the time I read that long post, I could have been there

 

[Aidensmom]

by the time I read that long post, I could have been there

And reading is less work than moving barricades held down by sandbags.

 

[Pop Daddy]

and back

 

[Becky2005]

The *only* time I've gone around the barricades for road closed type of things is when it's for local residents only stuff and I'm trying to GET to the local resident only area (which isn't the case here). Basically they will put the detour up way before the road closed area but there are houses/businesses inbetween where the detour signs are & the actual road closed is.

Otherwise, I would figure there is a GOOD reason for cones/barricades sitting there, I don't particularly want to get myself killed or destroy my car because I couldn't take an alternate route.

 

[snowy76]

This thread reminded me of this...

That's I-88 in upstate NY. Small sinkholes can get bigger!

 

[Cool-Beans]

Sometimes I follow them, but not usually. The reason I drive on through is that 9 times out of 10 there isn't any reason for the detour. Cars CAN get through, they just for whatever reason don't want them to. Maybe it would tie up traffic too much? I don't know. I'm not going out of my way if I don't need to.

But it HAS happened a few times that the road really was shut down and I had to turn around anyway.

So, that's my reason. You asked for it, you got it, Toyota.

I'm bailing on the thread now before people can tell me how evil/stupid I am and how I'm going to hell and/or a bad mother for setting poor example and how I should always follow the rules.

 

[Aidensmom]

Sometimes I follow them, but not usually. The reason I drive on through is that 9 times out of 10 there isn't any reason for the detour. Cars CAN get through, they just for whatever reason don't want them to. Maybe it would tie up traffic too much? I don't know. I'm not going out of my way if I don't need to.

But it HAS happened a few times that the road really was shut down and I had to turn around anyway.

So, that's my reason. You asked for it, you got it, Toyota.

I'm bailing on the thread now before people can tell me how evil/stupid I am and how I'm going to hell and/or a bad mother for setting poor example and how I should always follow the rules.

You know, I would understand if there was no obvious reason for the detour. But you can see the GREAT BIG HOLE in the road from the point where the road is closed! In this case, it is obvious.

 

[*JoGo*]

My mom and I were at a busy intersection once, corner of highway & a road that leads thru the middle of town.... There was a HUGE sign set up that said "Road Closed" --- there was a sink hole, it was huge, it ate a car. So we're waiting at the stop sign, and this VW bug w/ a lady talking on her cell phone turns onto the street and runs STRAIGHT INTO the "Road Closed" sign. The car fit right between the legs holding the sign up... surprisingly it didn't fall over, although she did push it back a few feet... My mom and I start laughing and say did you just see that?? Then she backs up, still on the phone, and drives straight into it AGAIN!! Now we're really howling, just sitting there watching her. Finally on the third try, still on the phone, she made it around the sign. I wonder what, if anything, she said about it to the person on the other end of the phone?? We should've followed her on down the road, to see if she drove into the sink hole. There was no way around that one - hill on one side, ravine on the other.

 

[mickeyboat]

We had a water main break in front of our house. The town fixed it, patched the road with stone, and put signs up with barriacades until they could get it repaved. One morning we woke up and the barricades were all over the road. Someone had run right into them and knocked them over. I'd like to see what their car looks like now! Morons!

Denae

 

[apirateslifeforme]

I would follow the signs...

Seems to me that it would take more time to get out of the car, move the barricades, get back into the car and drive than just to go around the block.

people are so

I was just about to post the same thing...

 

[korbbec]

I would always go around. Many roads near my house were closed last week due to flooding. My 5 minute ride to work was turned into 45 minutes. The roads looked passable to me and DBF had driven thru after the flooding but before they closed the roads and said it wasn't bad. I still went around. or

 

[MareQ]

I follow detour signs - unless the area I need to go to can only be accessed by going through the sign.

Funny story - in our old house we lived on a side street that they turned into a dead end road. We were the 2nd to the last house on the side they were closing off.

The first day of construction - while trying to get home - I naturally went through the "open" end of the road and through the detour sign - to go the only way I could to get to my house. I was stopped by the Police and ordered to turn around and find another route to my home- HUH?? LMAO! I politely pointed out to the police officer that the driveway his squad car was parked in was MY HOUSE and there was no other way to get home. He was ANNOYED with me for "insisting" on going that way and annoyed that I made him move his car

 

[manning]

This one gives me shivers.

It's the signs I miss or don't see that concern me.

Years ago when the interstate highways were just being built I was driving on a stretch of interstate in the mountains. They were intermittent. I was driving along and noticed I was the only one on the road. I looked over to the on coming section and saw two way traffic. I missed a sign or one was removed and the cross over. This brought me to a dead stop. Thank god. The bridge wasn't put in yet. There weren't any baricades around. I would have driven off the road.