Freshman Jacoby Cameron doesn’t ever need to drive his car anywhere.
“Everything I really need is here on campus, whether it’s food at Selleck or condoms at the Union’s sexual health booth. I’m usually pretty good” said the geology major.
However, sometimes Wal-Mart offers something that the University just does not have. But recently Cameron has been having some trouble getting there because every street he wants to take is under construction.
“The dilemma starts when I’m trying to get out of the parking garage and both exits are closed to fix the barrier arms that have never been used. So I have to sneak through the police exit, which usually results in a traffic ticket. Then I have to make it to one-way Q Street, which is also under construction. But after dodging all of the orange cones and upcoming traffic, it usually gets a lot harder.”
The construction problem has come up after Lincoln’s good-natured attempt to improve streets. But instead of spacing it out over the course of the year, The city’s construction has made the decision to start it all at once, creating a ripple in people’s routes.
Usually Cameron’s trip to Wal-Mart takes about seven minutes, but now it can take a couple of days just to get to 27th Street from Abel, his dorm.
“I’ve heard that some people have died on this trip. It makes sense. If you don’t properly prepare for the journey and take the right routes, you could die of dehydration or the construction zombies will come and eat your tires.”
Oliver Manning, city planner, believes that all of this will be over soon. “We will soon be done with all of the construction as quickly as possible so that we can now begin starting construction on the street that we repaired two months ago.”
Cameron is angry about all the construction, but does not blame the local construction workers.
“Apparently when you’re given lots of money for social work, the only thing you can do is fix all the streets at the same time, thanks Obama.” Cameron said as he finally turned in to the Wal-Mart parking lot.
