Temple Square in the wintertime is an astounding sight, it really is. Thousands of people flock from Utah, around the country, and around the world to come and see it every year. Every tree on the ground of Temple Square with lights elegantly entangled within the bare wintery branches. Oh, don't let me forget about the annual Mormon Tabernacle Christmas Concert!
Yeah, well, it's all real cute unless you're a resident, innocently trying to navigate through downtown to grab some dinner at a decent restaurant. I can't say I've ever really driven downtown on the night of a Mo-Tab Christmas Concert until these past Thursday and Friday nights. But I have an extremely difficult time when it's my turn to move forward every 5-7 minutes. Literally. I mean, we've got SLC Police Dept. directing traffic while traffic lights are doing their thing, even UTA employees directing traffic. Yeah, the people that drive buses and trains were directing traffic.
Listen. To keep from rambling, I'll get to the point. I think it goes without saying that traffic lights were invented to do exactly what they do: direct traffic. Really, let them do that. You couldn't get anywhere downtown those two nights. It was painful. But the kicker to the story is that traffic was directed into Capitol Hill area just north of Temple Square where there aren't traffic lights, just 4-way stops. It would only seem logical to me that they have cops and I guess, if entirely necessary, UTA personnel, directing traffic to allow pedestrians to cross safely. Drivers obey traffic lights.
Next year let's maybe do some planning. After all, this has been a traditional, annual event for how many years now? You'd think it would have been streamlined. You'd think they could patent their crowd control methods by now. But, as fate would have it, it seems the Nazis still sit above the LDS Church/SLC Police Dept./UTA for crowd control.
Merry Christmas!
