As if the bus ride home didn't take long enough already, upcoming road construction on Newberry and Archer is forcing the Editorial Board to break out the Google Maps and study Gainesville's back roads harder than we study for class.
Starting Monday, Gainesville residents are in for delays as the city resurfaces about five blocks on Newberry Road west of 43rd Street and a small section of Archer Road east of 34th Street, according to the Florida Department of Transportation.
The Editorial Board can't help but wonder why this construction wasn't planned for the summer, when half Gainesville skips town and traffic is at a minimum.
We may not be city planners, but it does seem strange that repaving less than six blocks of roadway will take two months to complete.
At least the construction is happening Monday through Friday and will end at 3:30 in the afternoon. We don't want to imagine Gainesville's infamous rush hour traffic and game-day gridlock being even worse than usual.
Still, how will we get to where we need to be when it really counts - like when we remember the midterm for that 10:40 class we haven't been to all semester is in 10 minutes?
The bus has never saved us in those situations, and now our cars won't either.
With travel time delayed about 15 to 20 minutes by construction, according to a Florida Department of Transportation spokeswoman, we're buying an extra alarm clock now.
We're all for filling potholes. But when making the roads smoother makes travel conditions rougher for two months, we have to wonder if we'd rather just deal with a few bumps in the road.
