As a journalist, I’m often required to stay impartial on many subjects. The only way to write a fair and balanced story about something in which people may have opposing viewpoints on is to simply not have an opinion about the matter, and see it from the viewpoint of both sides.
For the most part, this isn’t difficult. Oftentimes, the matter doesn’t affect me personally, so I have no reason to choose a side. When it does affect me, I do my best to keep an open mind, which has always worked for me.
I know it works, because on some of the most controversial topics in which people choose sides – usually something involving politics – I’ve received calls from people on both sides of the issue complaining my writing was more biased toward the other side. When neither side is happy, then I know I’m doing my job in a fair and balanced manner.
But one issue in Stevens Point is bugging me, and I’m going to voice an opinion. It’s an issue I’m not aware of anyone complaining about, and I’m sure it’s not one the Stevens Point Common Council or any of the appropriate committees is discussing. It has nothing to do with the Downtown Square, CenterPoint MarketPlace, school funding or local municipal budgets.
It has everything to do with traffic lights in this city.
In my opinion, the traffic lights aren’t timed right. It seems like I hit red lights more often than green lights, and a continuous drive is nearly impossible.
Maybe it’s the routes I take from home to work and back. From home, I get onto Division Street from North Point Drive, and then take Division to Main Street, where I encounter every red light along the way. I take Main Street to Clark Street where I park, once again hitting every red light.
Going home, I travel down Clark to Division, and from Division I go to North Point Drive, once again hitting every red light.
I wouldn’t complain if this was all I knew, but until three months ago, I was living in Plover where I encountered a whole different batch of traffic lights. The lights in Stevens Point frustrated me, but not to the extent the ones on my current route annoy me now, but once I got to Whiting and Plover, it was smooth sailing. That’s probably because those municipalities use sensors to control their lights, allowing for the more traveled roads – such as Post Road – to have a more continuous flow. I never appreciated this until moving to Stevens Point.
I know this is a petty thing to complain about, and most people will probably tell me I should just be more patient. They will say other issues are more pressing.
And I’ll agree with them. It’s likely the city has done studies on this, and the timed traffic lights are perfectly suited to get the best traffic flow. It’s possible if I was traveling straight from Interstate 39 onto Division that I would hit every light perfectly.
I’d probably be less likely to complain, too, if it didn’t seem as though every vehicle I was following was a Ford Focus in which the driver took his or her time slowly accelerating from every red light like a Sunday driver with no care in the world.
Maybe I need to take that attitude, too. After all, why should I be in a hurry to go to work? It’s just a job, and getting there two minutes earlier won’t result in me getting a lot more done during the day.
I could get my morning coffee a few minutes earlier, though. Nothing wrong with some caffeine that will make me more impatient on the ride home at lunch.
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Originally published in The Portage County Gazette on Friday, Aug. 26, 2011.
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