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Mark Bennett: I-70 shouldn't remain a road to avoid
The Terre Haute Tribune Star ^ | August 4, 2019 | Mark Bennett

Posted on 08/24/2019 12:06:15 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks

When a school district deems its region’s main thoroughfare unsafe for school buses, that highway’s problems need fixed.

Lots of Wabash Valley residents fear driving on the local stretch of Interstate 70. And with good reason.

Fatal accidents — several involving semi tractor-trailers crashing into stopped or slowed traffic — have become frequent on I-70 between the Illinois-Indiana border and Indianapolis. Accidents along that 68-mile path outnumbered those on the 66-mile portion east of Indy to the Ohio border in 2016 and 2017, according to the Indiana University Public Policy Institute’s statistics. Distracted driving has been cited as a factor in several cases.

Three more fatalities occurred on I-70 west of Indianapolis last month. On Monday, the Vigo County School Corp. announced its buses won’t travel on I-70 “because of the significant number of serious accidents.” The VCSC doesn’t even want drivers to use I-70 to shuttle buses between schools when students aren’t aboard.

Buses must use alternate routes, such as U.S. 40. It’ll take longer, but as VCSC communications director Bill Riley put it, “Keeping our children safe is one of our basic priorities, and recent news tells us that our children will be safer staying off Interstate 70.”

It wasn’t a snap decision. Superintendent Rob Haworth and fellow administrators reviewed the interstate’s safety problems. “We’ve discussed this for a few weeks,” Riley told the Tribune-Star’s Sue Loughlin. “We can no longer ignore the safety issues on I-70. It’s something weighing on all of our minds.”

Such a smart step has been taken before. In 2011, former superintendent Danny Tanoos restricted bus travel on I-70 because of a spate of accidents involving congested traffic around construction zones.

(Excerpt) Read more at tribstar.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; US: Indiana
KEYWORDS: accidents; buses; children; construction; education; funding; i70; indiana; infrastructure; mayhem; safety; schools; speeding; terrehaute; tolls; traffic; transportation; workzonesafety
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To: lightman; Tolerance Sucks Rocks; the OlLine Rebel

Interstate 70, a highway that starts nowhere and ends nowhere, sure seems to have a lot of traffic on it.


21 posted on 08/24/2019 5:18:20 PM PDT by NicknamedBob (If you can't do something well, you won't do anything good.)
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To: the OlLine Rebel

‘That PA/OH abomination of verbs just can’t even be stifled in writing.

it’s ubiquitous in Lancaster County; I remember a news headline when I first moved there stated ‘worker wants paid’...shudder...


22 posted on 08/24/2019 6:16:35 PM PDT by IrishBrigade
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To: the OlLine Rebel

Poor speech is subjective. Usually said about those they consider less educated than themselves.

As I told my young daughter as we ate our meal at a McDonalds in the middle of Georgia a few decades ago...

(We are Hoosiers; with our own distinct dialect and pronunciation and sentence structure)

She said, as we began to eat, about the folks that took our order, “Dad; they sure talk funny down here.”

I replied, “No; WE are the one’s who talk funny down here.”


23 posted on 08/24/2019 8:23:42 PM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: lightman

Then it’s no wonder that the question is pondered about.


24 posted on 08/24/2019 8:24:56 PM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: EC Washington

Well; 300 days beats ALWAYS; on the chunk of I65 leading into Louisville!


25 posted on 08/24/2019 8:26:49 PM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: NicknamedBob

And ALL the semi’s these days have the data recorders that tattle if they go over the speed limit.

So we folks trying to go 70 are held up for MILES by two semis side by side.

The one on the right doing 64.879 MPH and the one in the ‘passing lane’ doing 64.946 MPH.

In about 5-6 minutes, we can FINALLY get past THAT mess!


26 posted on 08/24/2019 8:30:04 PM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: NicknamedBob

From Leakin Park, MD to Cove Fort, UT, baby!


27 posted on 08/24/2019 9:17:26 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (Show me the people who own the land, the guns and the money, and I'll show you the people in charge.)
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To: Elsie

Yes, very tricky to stop and pick them up on the side of the freeway when everybody else wants to keep moving.


28 posted on 08/24/2019 9:22:00 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (Show me the people who own the land, the guns and the money, and I'll show you the people in charge.)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
The Indiana legislature once considered a bill to make π equal to three.

Perhaps the Mailbag pickup should be introduced.

Like the trains grabbed the mail from the depot without stopping; the kids should be placed in sturdy canvas bags.

No need to slow down then!

29 posted on 08/25/2019 4:39:09 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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Bump


30 posted on 08/25/2019 8:20:07 PM PDT by foreverfree
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To: lightman

The milk is yet.


31 posted on 08/26/2019 4:23:44 AM PDT by Does so (To continue in English, press 2...)
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To: Elsie

re: “(We are Hoosiers; with our own distinct dialect and pronunciation and sentence structure)”

Like “Warshington” instead of “Washington” ... I’ve noticed before (while in the Ft Wayne area).


32 posted on 08/26/2019 4:37:16 AM PDT by _Jim (Save babies)
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To: _Jim

yup


33 posted on 08/26/2019 5:12:07 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: _Jim

droppin’ the ‘G’; too!


34 posted on 08/26/2019 5:12:36 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Elsie

No, it’s not subjective and it’s not about being superior. I was COMPLETELY baffled by my husband’s speech at times early on - had no idea what he was talking about (”let” vs “leave” with the dog outside....picture that). Rules and structure are important IF WE ARE TO COMMUNICATE. Otherwise it’s the Tower of Babel, might as well be truly different language.

One will NEVER learn that “structure” in proper English class or the handbooks used. Doesn’t matter where the class is or from where the teacher hails.

Even my husband knows it’s not proper, so does not WRITE it. He speaks it, but it takes a special stubborn ignorance to make the effort to write/type it!

Dollars to donuts you won’t hesitate to criticize “ebonics”, common black speech patterns. This is the same thing - bad grammar (NOT pronunciation/accent - that’s much different).


35 posted on 08/26/2019 7:37:27 AM PDT by the OlLine Rebel (Common sense is an uncommon virtue./Federal-run medical care is as good as state-run DMVs)
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To: the OlLine Rebel

I have lived all over this country, and anyone who thinks one area has far worse communication than another, is just living within their own biases.

I was born in the south, have family in the deep south. I currently live in PA, I have lived in CA, I have spent a lot of time in the midwest, and NY... about the only major parts of the country I have not spent good amounts of time are the rocky Mountain states, southwestern states, and New England.

Everywhere, and I do mean EVERYWHERE, I have been, they all have their distinct enunciations, and language. It doesn’t take long to figure out what’s what, whether it be, how they use, or refuse to use the “be” and its conjugations... How much or little they drawl etc etc.

Yes, it can be amusing.. and being a southerner I still enjoy being able to use bless your heart as an insult, and getting thanked for it by folks who have no idea they are politely being called an idiot.

Yes, it can be disconcerting to first hear another accent or different way of speaking, but I’ve never not been able to rapidly comprehend someone regardless of those types of things, no matter where in this Country, or even other countries that I have been exposed to. Want to have fun, hear some of the colloquial ways English is spoken in parts of the UK.... You think US dialects are confusing you wouldn’t survive there... In a country a bit over half the size of California, the variation of the language is crazy.


36 posted on 08/26/2019 8:00:25 AM PDT by HamiltonJay
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To: HamiltonJay

*sigh* It’s not about the accent!

It’s GRAMMAR. Take a linguistics class - you’ll be shocked how many basic requirements there are for human speech.

Southerners EVERYONE knows about - they have a few grammar hitches but they are common to everyone, common “errors”. (That still would not be permitted in writing or on newscasts.)

In New England, no special grammar errors. Neither in New York. I’m not as “traveled” (residence) as you but I’ve been around a bit, know many people from many areas, and nope, nothing matches the PA thing.

Basically no-one knows about it, either - even me, living next to them and with western MDers who “should” have about the same patterns. It’s not shown on TV shows or anything. It’s not “advertised”. But EVERYONE knows about New England and NY and the “South” - and many know about Minn/Wisc. Most of these again, are about accent, and not rearranging words or omissions.


37 posted on 08/26/2019 8:10:16 AM PDT by the OlLine Rebel (Common sense is an uncommon virtue./Federal-run medical care is as good as state-run DMVs)
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To: the OlLine Rebel

Sorry, but grammar varies to, if you think otherwise you are indeed living your biases. The implied or mis-conjugated “be” is nothing new, and as much as you may believe otherwise, its not just something that happens in PA, it may be where you were first or only exposed to it, but its definitely not distinct to PA.

No one would claim is perfect English, but it is NOT something I have not seen or heard far afield from PA.


38 posted on 08/26/2019 8:24:45 AM PDT by HamiltonJay
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To: HamiltonJay

Oh and it evidently reaches well into Ohio.

Not biased, just relating experiences. Look, I live in central MD and was raised here, I lived in New England working there, and my dad was basically a New Englander. His family in Maine of 5 brothers and a sister, visited several times. One bro moved only down to MA and his Minn wife has the upper Midwest/Canadian accent close to my other Canadian aunt who still lives in ME. Also trip to WI for their relations and my mom’s, and none of these people or the locals struck me as using bad grammar. The blood aunt lives in AZ for umpteen decades and out there with her 4 kids never noticed much special beyond aunts manner of speaking. Another bro moved to Portland OR and his kids and the people there, nothing much to notice. My brother moved to L.A. 40 years ago and again, nothing special out there beyond his wife’s Filipina accents with their kids and the Valley Girl thing. I’ve been around the south plenty with many vacations and it’s not very shocking compared to their depiction in movies.

I’d like to see your examples of bad grammar in other regions because I just can’t think of it, and I have a strong affinity for anything related to sound.


39 posted on 08/26/2019 9:34:39 AM PDT by the OlLine Rebel (Common sense is an uncommon virtue./Federal-run medical care is as good as state-run DMVs)
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To: the OlLine Rebel

The implied (dropped) verb BE, or mis-conjugation of it, is something I have been exposed to my entire life.... the implied (dropping of it) is more prevalent in Appalachia in the US in my experience.. and the mis-conjugation of it is common pretty much EVERYWHERE, particularly in area of lower socioeconomics. This isn’t something that is distinct to the US, as it is known in the UK as well. Though better education there has lessened its use over the centuries.

Its not a lack of education, teachers in these areas correct their english and teach the forms and use of “be”, but in daily talk, it is just implied and understood.

If you want me to mock this region’s language, believe me I can list you out numerous things I find amusing here, and words I have never heard anywhere else I have ever traveled or lived... The lack of enunciation of vowels in certain words I find far more entertaining that the implied “be”..

Like pronouncing soft “a” as “or” in some words:
worsh = wash

or the substitution of the soft “e” sound for the soft “o” sound:

keller = color.

or the substitution of the “ah” sound for the “ow” sound:

dahntahn = downtown

Then there were words I had never heard used anywhere else...

redd up = tidied up, picked up, cleaned up

Or the dropping of “er” in some words:

slippy for “slippery” ie : Its slippy out.

However, probably one of my favorite is hearing grown adults order “dippy” eggs

Dippy = over easy IE: I’d like two dippy eggs, toast and bacon.

The following is a completely valid sentence:

Yinz need to redd up da house n’at before we can go dahntahn.

There is one other thing about Pittsburgh area at least that I noticed when I moved away for a while.... 1 its probably the only place you will hear Donny Iris on the radio semi regularly... and 2 outside of the Detroit/Michigan area, you will not hear Bob Seger on the radio more often anywhere else.


40 posted on 08/26/2019 9:54:23 AM PDT by HamiltonJay
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