5 Things That Everyone Who Drives on Loop 250 Knows (or Will Know Now)
If you drive on Loop 250 every day then you know these 5 things about driving on the loop.
- It is not a complete loop, yet - There were plans when the loop was originally designed to have 2 phases of Loop 250. The first phase was the north loop to be completed from I-20 on the west to I-20 on the east side. Then 10 years or so later to complete the south loop from I-20 on the east side to I-20 on the west side. That was all supposed to be done by 2000, the only problem was the last big bust that we had in 1985 screwed all of that up and now we are still working on completing the north loop on the east side from Fairgrounds to the east intersection of I-20 here in 2021. But there are future plans to complete the south loop but who knows when that will be since we are already 21 years behind the original schedule.
- The speed limit is 60 - This is of course ignored because we are all in a hurry so some people, like me, are going the same speed as Hwy 191 topping out at 70-75 mph. But you do need to watch out for speed traps because the police know this and they will set up speed traps anywhere along the loop.
- Watch out for the "no-yielders" - These are the people from back in the old days of the loop when we had yield signs on the service roads and they didn't want to have to yield so they would get on the entrance ramp and then exit to avoid having to yield to traffic merging from the exit lane onto the service road. Now we don't have the yield signs anymore but the "no-yielders" are still entering and exiting the loop just like the old days.
- If you want to avoid having to slam on your brakes, you stay in the far left lane - this is especially true if you are getting on the loop and planning to drive several miles on it. Not so good if you are only traveling a couple of exits.
- A partial loop is better than nothing - At least we have a loop, some towns around the country would love to have a highway around their city to get them to all the best places to eat and shop.
Be safe out there!!
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