Weekend remainders: The Cedar Rapids edition

I was very sad last year to see how little progress my home city has made since the 2008 flood.  Denise pointed me to this essay on Huffington Post that explains the sadness very well.

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According to the Gazette, Cedar Rapids and Linn county are considering roundabouts.   I may well live in the roundabout capitol of the world... certainly of the Emirates.  They are everywhere in this city.  Here's a picture from one of very few rainy days:

Unlike the tiny roundabouts Iowa has in places like this one in Coralville...

 

... many of the roundabouts here are massive... allowing three lanes of traffic in and out. 

I love roundabouts.  Not "like," or think they are "a good idea."  I love them here.  They can move a tremendous amount of traffic through an intersection without using a stoplight.  On less travelled roads (like the boonies where I live) it is slow and go when you come to an intersection.  I rarely have to stop as I travel through the last three roundabouts before I get home. 

So, yeah, I love them. 

And I hope Iowa doesn't adopt them. 

Roundabouts on busy intersections work if the drivers are pricks aggressive.  Iowans are simply way too polite and have too many people who drive slow.  This is not a slight on my hometown; quite the contrary.  I appreciate driving and not having someone flash lights trying to get me to move over and I can't think of the last time I had to lay on the horn while driving in Iowa. In Iowa I don't have the sense that driving will get me killed like I do here.  But for me here that just adds to the excitement.  It's why I prefer county fair rides to Adventureland.  Knowing the guy with four teeth assembled the ride adds an extra thrill.

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I’ve been trying to remember the last time Cedar Rapids was mentioned in a movie.  Was it Titanic?  (The elderly survivor/heroine of the movie was living in Cedar Rapids.) 
But now we have our very own movie titled simply enough “Cedar Rapids.”

I do want to see it but from the preview there’s nothing Cedar Rapidian about this Cedar Rapids movie.