When the Spokane Street Department closes a street down for repairs, you'd better not park there.
Some East Central residents found out the hard way this week when the parked along Fifth Avenue. The street was closed-off with signs and completely torn up to make way for repaving, but some residents chose to leave their cars there anyway.
They were towed. Ouch. That's one expensive lesson.
Southwest Airlines has launched a new feature on its website, focused on travelling with children.
Its annoyingly misspelled name aside (Kids Korner), the offering does give parents a few good tips for flying with the kids.
Unfortunately for the rest of us, the advice centers on ways to entertain, diaper and otherwise care for offspring in the air, rather than advising parents about how they can keep their kids from driving everyone else on the flight insane.
By and large most kids behave well on the plane, but the few that don't sure make you wish you had a parachute.
UPDATE: Highway 195 is expected to be closed until 7 p.m. or 8 p.m. tonight as crews clean-up liquid asphalt spilled from one of the trucks.
A two-semi-truck collision on Highway 195 near Plaza will necessitate the closure of the highway until 4 p.m. today as the wreckage is cleaned up.
Both drivers were seriously injured and the crash involved several other vehicles.
JULY 20 UPDATE: The Keller Ferry is now running again.
The Keller Ferry is still out of service today, as crews await parts to repair the engine. It may open tomorrow morning.
That means motorists need to take the long way between Keller and Wilbur, via Highway 174.
The Washington Department of Transportation Sprague Lake rest areas will be closed through Friday on Interstate 90 for parking lot pavement sealing.
The kids better listen this time when you tell them to go at home before the trip.
Traffic fatalities worldwide topped 1.2 million last year according to the World Health Organization.
In the United States, crashes in 2003 claimed the lives of more than 43,000 people.
The World Health Organization wants to bring more awareness to this issue.
While we work to find cures for diseases, most traffic deaths are seen as individual tragedies rather than a problem of a larger magnitude demanding global solutions.
Well, it probably won't come as a surprise to anyone that the Washington State Department of Transportation has decided to lower the speed limit in the I-90 work zone between Argonne and Sullivan to 50 mph.
Impatient and inattentive people have caused more than 30 crashes there in the last few months.
Better pay attention to the lowered speed limit come Monday folks. The State Patrol says its going to be out there in force to enforce.
My new favorite travel tool is a website called SideStep. The downloadable program (Don't worry: no spyware, no viruses) simultaneously searches different travel, airline, hotel and rental car sites to find you the best deals and best places for your trip. It even searches airline sites like Southwest that other travel sites like Expedia and Travleocity don't check.
Here are the results for a sample search for an imaginary Spokane to Phoenix vacation from Aug. 3-Aug. 9. (I know such a trip in the middle of summer would be crazy.)
Flights: 31 options ranging from a $280.50 roundtrip on Alaska Airlines to a $411.18 ticket on Frontier Air.
Hotel: 17 options (two to four stars) ranging from $36.75 per night at Ho-Jo's to $96.67 per night for a suite at the Pointe South Mountain Resort. Golf anyone? How about a spa day?
Car: 9 economy car choices ranging from the $13.99 per day rate at Dollar to $28.33 per day with Avis (They may "try harder," but their rate in this case isn't so good).
You can adjust the searches in many ways, for instance to upgrade your car or look at single star or really ritzy hotels. It's kind of fun to see what that trip, oh, to Paris, would be like ...
“Have you thought about reviewing the rules of the road when it comes to merging when a lane ends?” asks Libby Forsyth of Nine Mile Falls. “Maybe I’m mistaken, but when the line says ‘left lane ends,’ isn’t it the responsibility of the person in the left lane to merge safely into the right? I have nearly been in an accident two or three times a week where the lanes merge on Northwest Boulevard near Audobon Park.”
Libby, you are correct. When a lane ends, motorists in that lane must merge with drivers in the remaining lane.
Get that folks?
Sorry kids, but your parents can now keep track of your driving habits.
A program called “Teen Arrive Alive” is now offering parents extensive opportunities to track their kids’ driving.
The decal program includes a bumper sticker with an ID number and toll-free phone number for people to report driving behavior, and parent can get notification of any new messages via e-mail.
If that’s not enough, Teen Arrive Alive also offers a global positioning program which offers parents complete information about where the teen is driving and how fast.
Or how about both?
The options range in price from $10-$20 per month, not including the required cell phone service.
Avista Utilities has reported a power outage in North Central Spokane, and you guys know what that means for traffic signals.
It's bad timing, but drivers returning home for the evening commute are likely to find dark signals along Post, Washington, Division and Monroe.
Remember, when the signal isn't working drivers must treat intersections as a four-way stop.
I was on vacation the latter half of last week, so I didn't write my weekly "Getting There" column and missed getting information about work on Stevens Street in downtown Spokane into the paper.
Here's the scoop. City crews are resurfacing Stevens between Spokane Falls Boulevard and Third Avenue and the street will be reduced to two lanes between 6 a.m. and 4 p.m. daily for the next month.
My apologies to those of you who hit this mess today without any warning.
Heading to Bremerton will be a little easier come August.
The Kitsap Ferry Co. will begin providing four passenger-only, round trips daily between Seattle and Bremerton starting Aug. 1. Each ferry will hold 250 people.
The trip will take about 40 minutes on the "Spirit of Adventure."
Tickets will be $7 each way.
Rush hour could get interesting Thursday with President George Bush's visit to Spokane. He is scheduled to head downtown about 5:30 p.m.
The Secret Service isn't about to give us POTUS's route between Fairchild Air Force Base and the Spokane Convention Center, but the options are limited.
So here's the deal: Getting There is recommending that you avoid Highway 2, Interstate 90 and the Sunset Highway from about 4:30-8 p.m. tomorrow if at all possible.
Though any route Bush's motorcade takes won't shut down those roads for that entire time, the precise schedule isn't available and any closures could back-up traffic for some time.
As for good spots from which to catch a glimpse of the President's motorcade, I'm not even going there. Don't want to get the Secret Service mad at me. But let me know if you see him and what kinds of traffic impacts you experience tomorrow. I'll include your reports in this blog and in my column on Monday.
Is your Washington state road map a little tattered after years of folding it the wrong way?
Well the Washington State Department of Transportation is giving out free maps. The 2004 highway map features sites that Lewis and Clark visited during their journey through the state 200 years ago.
Cartographers used 142 different levels of information to create the map which includes topographic and road information. The state prints 1 million copies of it every two years. The first was printed in 1931.
And while William Clark used crude tools to make his maps, this map was created digitally. Clark didn't do too bad, though. His map was just 50 miles off when measuring the distance from St. Louis to the mouth of the Columbia.
Click here to order your map online. Or call (360) 705-7279
Blech. If you're bemoaning losing airline food, check out this tale about a woman, an Austrailian flight, a salad and a frog. I mean, what gives? It's not like it was Air France.
Fuel prices in the Inland Northwest are at record highs now _ an average of $1.92 per gallon of regular unleaded in Spokane, $1.90 in Coeur d'Alene.
Here's a little something to help you laugh through the tears.
As a Boston University graduate and Red Sox fan (don't worry the Mariners are still my number 1 team), I'm concerned about a recent development in the saga of the ``Reverse the Curse'' sign along Boston's Storrow Drive.
The sign was originally intended to indicate a ``reverse curve'' along the roadway, but years ago a Red Sox fan painted the now famous message to try to rid the team of Babe Ruth's curse. But after years of replacing the sign with a fresh one, only to have the graffiti reappear, officials are fed up. An article by Boston Globe writer Mac Daniel explains the options:
1. Keep it and keep replacing it when it is defaced.
2. Install a new sign that uses a graphic rather than words since the graffiti hasn't changed the curse yet.
3. Take it down and present it to the Red Sox.
Personally, I'd hate to see the sign go.
Are there any local signs that have special Inland Northwest importance? E-mail me with your thoughts by clicking my name below.
Public Citizen, the consumer safety group formed by Ralph Nader, is taking on the auto industry for failing to make sure that seatbelts will work in rollover crashs. Six of 10 car occupants killed in rollover crashes were wearing their seat belts, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Public Citizen says that a number of factors contribute to higher death rates in rollovers than other crashes. Belts sometimes come undone or allow drivers and passengers to be partially ejected. Weak roofs can also crush vehicle occupants.
They're urging carmakers to install better belts and strengthen car SUV roofs.
The Inland Empire Mustang Club will be celebrating the car's 40th birthday tomorrow between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. at Gus Johnson Ford.
The group averages about 130 families, says club President Jim Fox, and cars range from the very old to newer Mustang models. Fox owns a 1970 convertible and a 1980 coupe.
In addition to babying their cars, club members also work hard to help local charities. So while some will be at the Gus Johnson Ford celebration Saturday, you can also see others at KHQ's Spokane Guild School penny drive tomorrow.
