Posts filed under ‘Notes and Errata’
my love affair with the department of transportation
I realized that although I’ve talked about it a lot, I haven’t yet written about my love for the people who make our highways and roads, who put up signs who tell us where to go. I feel like we’re friends, like I know them – their ways of seeing the world, their hopes and fears, although they always give me slightly skeptical looks when I greet them like old friends.
Firstly there are the signs. One thing I like about America, we let each state come up with its own road signs. While in Wisconsin their signs say “Speed Zone Ahead” in California its “45 mph zone ahead.” I have to say, I think California wins this one – what is a speed zone, exactly? But in the best sign contest, there is no competition for the signs in Massachusetts – when entering a town, there are often signs that say “Thickly Settled”. Um, what? Really, we’re still settlers? Doesn’t that seem like the most bizarre way to announce that you’re coming into a town? Then there’s the signs throughout Oregon that said: “Warning: Primitive road. No warning signs” which Elizabeth kept wanting to edit to add: “After this one”.
And then there are the rocks. Sometimes there are fallen rocks, sometimes there are just rocks. Sometimes there is a slide area ahead and sometimes there are just rock slides. On thing you gotta give them, they like variety, those departments of transportation. My question re. fallen rocks is always, how do they know rock has fallen? Doesn’t it seem kind of counterintuitive to put up signs announcing that an event has taken place if you’re not sure it actually has?
Which reminds me of my other favorite signs, in South Dakota, which evidently mark the locations in which people have died. It’s a double sided sign – both sides have a big X above the text X marks the spot. On one side, the sign says Drive Safely – but on the other side the sign says Why Die?, which seems SO morbid to me. I get the sentiment, but what if someone feeling vaguely suicidal sees the sign? I can just imagine them saying to themselves ‘Well, I can think of LOTS of reasons to die’ and then driving off the road, necessitating another X marks the spot sign and starting a vicious cycle.
My other obsession regarding Departments of Transportation is highway adoption. Have you ever wondered how, exactly, one goes about adopting a highway? Let me tell you, I have. Lots. Contrary to what I bet a lot of you are thinking right now, there is NOT a phone number written on the signs. Anywhere. I’ve been in over 20 states, and they all have Adopt-A-Highway programs, and I haven’t seen a single sign with a number to call. There are also TOTALLY random people who adopt highways – “Nate and Emily” or “the Strausen family” in addition to the Rotary Clubs etc. Which leads me to the following conclusions- either all these people are really civic minded and of their own volition, called up the DOT and asked to adopt a highway – or, there’s someone whose job it is to get people to adopt highway segments. Now, I asked a Caltrans worker about it today, and he claimed that it’s just a bunch of civic minded people out there. I find this really hard to believe. I feel like there must be some person in the Caltrans PR department who sends out highway adoption solicitations.
My question for you, dear readers is this: have any of YOU ever adopted a highway? If so, how did you do it? Did you have to clean it yourself, or could you just donate money for someone else to clean it? Do you get in trouble if you don’t clean it? Help me end the highway adoption mystery! No fair googling. I want only real experiences.
The other sort of suspicious thing is that in Oregon, section of highway were adopted by the Clallam County Sheriff’s Chain Gang, which had to be a joke.
But I did find out how they make rumble strips – there is actually a rumble strip machine that has a cylindrical grinder on the bottom to grind out evenly spaced divots in the asphalt. I want to drive a rumble strip machine.
My other big question is, who does all the writing on the road to indicate where signs should be placed, and is there a penmanship test? Do they make everyone submit handwriting samples and then pick the best in the crew? I know it’s not that easy to write with spray paint, yet all of the writing I see, (you know, where they write things like Road Work Ahead on the shoulder to indicate where the sign should go) is SO neat. Way neater than I could ever do.
If any of you actually know anyone who works for a department of transportation who can answer my questions, you get extra special bonus points.
So to all the workers who spend extra time smoothing down those bumps, widening that shoulder, and thinking up those signs, I salute you. Thanks for keeping me entertained.
And so, and in conclusion…
As I approach the end of my trip, I’m starting to think about the big questions – what does this all mean? How will I take this experience and use it after the journey is over? Having talked to so many people about sexuality and reproductive health care, what conclusions will I draw about our culture, about us?
Sometimes it feels like books are put into our lives for a reason, like the universe is saying “THIS is something you need to read right now.” Last Tuesday at the biker hobo camp in Sunset Bay State Park, I met a woman named Heather from Sasketchwan (I love Canadians in general, I think…) who told me I had to read Ishmael, by Daniel Quinn. So on Sunday I’m scoping out my aunt and uncle’s bookshelves, and lo and behold, there’s Ishmael. The premise of the book is that there’s a gorilla, Ishmael, who teaches a man how to save the world. You have to read it for that to make sense, but it’s a really interesting book. It basically breaks people down into two types- leavers and takers. The takers believe that the world belongs to them, and that they have a divine call to master everything on the earth. The leavers believe that they belong to the world, and they are what are commonly referred to as “primitive cultures” – the people who haven’t yet been civilized. What was most interesting to me was the conversations about our cultural mythology – what stories are we enacting? What shared myths do we use to explain ourselves to each other?
Being on the road and out in the world these past few months and talking to people from around the country I’ve become more and more aware of these shared premises, the mythology we learn from the time we’re small, and I came to a realization about how our mythology affects the way our culture thinks about and talks about sexuality.
One of the great myths of our country, the story we’re acting out, is this idea that man must, and will, dominate the earth. How do we do that? By expanding our population! In America this idea of our “manifest destiny” to multiply and fill the vast emptiness of our country is everywhere. Population growth is progress, and population decline is a sign of failure. We produce more food more effectively in order to feed more people and expand until there is nowhere left to expand to. This story, it must be noted, is written by and for white people. People of color are not included in the story, although it impacts everyone who lives in America, and in the world.
In this story, recreational sex – that is, any sex that does not lead to procreation, is a waste of time. Furthermore, the idea that women would choose not to have children, and take contraceptives and have abortions to prevent having children when they don’t want them, directly threatens the story. How on earth is man to dominate the world if (white) women stop having babies?
It seems to me that this story explains a whole lot about the way we look at sexuality in general and how race has created tension within the movement. I had written more about the racial dynamics within the reproductive justice movement and how the dominant story impacts them, but it didn’t say what I meant and so I took it out. I’ll think about this more and come up with a more articulate version of my thoughts.
I know I’m certainly not the first person to think about reproductive justice in the context of our broader cultural myths and rules, but I don’t know that I’ve read or talked to anyone who has written about this particular manifestation. I find that reading what other people think helps me clarify my thoughts and articulate them better. Reading recommendations are always appreciated.
I’m full of ideas, these days, about the world and my place in it. I’m currently located in Garberville, which brings me back to old hazy days. I’ve been sitting pretty on a tailwind that I hope will bring me all the way back to the ocean.
I’ll be back in San Francisco on Sunday, and anyone who’s interested is invited to join me for a victory bike ride from the Ferry Building to somewhere fun. I’ll be on the 2:20 PM ferry, so that would be an excellent time to meet me if you’d like to see just how big my calves have gotten.
