Straight lines are hard to find on La Crosse roads

Sometimes things just don’t line up. That is certainly true on some La Crosse streets. Take one of the city’s most recently improved road, Second Street near the La Crosse Center. The city painted lines to designate a couple crosswalks which they also raised to create of a speed bump. That should help people get across the street safely. But whoever painted the lines on that road got some bad instructions or wasn’t paying attention. If you are driving south heading toward the Center, in order to stay between the lines on the road, you have to jog to the left, and then a bit to the right to stay within the lines. Bigger vehicles like semis going north have no choice but to have two wheels over the painted line because the lane isn’t wide enough without risking hitting parked cars. Those heading the other way driving vehicles with a lane assist feature get a warning because to get out of the way, they have to cross the lane marker, in the middle of the intersection. The city recently announced plans to put in four-way stops at some downtown intersections to promote traffic safety, but still haven’t painted the crosswalks at the intersection of Fourth and King after it was dug up and repaved last summer. Let’s hope when the city resumes road construction in the spring, those new roads have distinct and clearly marked lines which actually line up.