Upgrades come with speed drop

Dear Mahatma: Formerly two lanes, there is a section of Arkansas 7 just north of Hot Springs that now sports sidewalks, curbs, bicycle lanes and a continuous center turn lane. Why did the speed limit go down from 50 to 45 mph? — Villager

Dear Villager: Word on the street comes from Deric Wyatt, state maintenance engineer for the Arkansas Department of Transportation.

Turns out 45 mph is normal practice for highways with curb and gutter sections and a center turn lane. This section of road also has a bike lane and sidewalks.

Based on these factors, traffic volume, number of driveways and a school zone, it was determined to post speed at 45 mph.

Vanity plate on an Escalade: OKAYBYE.

Hi, I’m watching the Tour de France and noticed that none of the roundabouts are built up more than the height of a blade of grass. This way anyone approaching can actually see if any traffic is coming. Unlike the roundabouts around here where you risk your life. What is wrong with us? — Sent from iPhone

Dear Sent: We would send more messages via our phone, if we could find it.

Your blanket statement about traffic circles in these parts is, gosh, a blanket statement. Drive around Conway. Plenty of traffic circles with good views. But we concede that a traffic circle also can be a good place for public art.

As for “us,” presumably us folks should be more like the French. Or Europeans.

This is reminiscent of the occasional effort to get the United States to adopt the metric system.

If only we had metric!

Dear Mahatma: Appreciated the nod to John Prine in last week’s column: “Through Kentucky we drove, down by the Green River where paradise lay.” While I’m not certain how J.P. originally penned the lyric, since the song is about a town named Paradise, I’ve assumed the key word should be capitalized. I bet either a copy editor or autocorrect sabotaged you. —Judge Vic

Dear Judge: The fault lies not in the copy desk or a computer system, but in ourselves.

The Kentucky Atlas and Gazeteer tells us that Paradise was a town in Muhlenberg County. In the 1960s it became the site of coal-fired generators operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority. A generator powered by natural gas now occupies the place.

Dear Mahatma: Our daughter and her family lived near Franklin, Tenn. We discovered Interstate 840 then. But watch out for low-flying turkeys. — John

Dear John: We wrote last week about I-840, the long outer bypass around Nashville, a city with at least thirteen hundred and fifty-two guitar pickers. Also horrible traffic on Interstate 40.

Vanity plate: ALLDAY3. Perhaps a reference to pro golfer Glen Day, a famously slow player whose nickname was “All.”

Answers to traffic questions, 5 cents. Fjfellone@gmail.com