4 Comments to 'Media SmartFIX coverage overblown?'
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Media SmartFIX coverage overblown?
Posted By katie allison granju
Barry says those of us working in Knoxville media have made far too much of the SmartFIX traffic disruption:
And 9/10 of a mile stretch of the interstate in downtown Knoxville is about to be closed for repair and enhancement. Knoxville and Knox County residents react with a frenzy that’s equal to 10 impending-snowstorm-grocery runs. Running in the streets, cats and dogs living together, mass hysteria…
The media - that includes newspapers, TV stations, radio, etc - has made every effort to make this small change in traffic flow into a major, major traffic disruption. And that’s now just what it will become, because people believe it will be.
What do you think? Did the media make too much of the issue? How should it have been handled? And how much will the changes affect your own daily life?
May 1st, 2008
Nice Ghost Busters allusion.
And yes, the media made too much of the change. As was said on tv this morning, TDOT did a good job of preparing everybody, so this morning’s commute was just different, not life changing.
I try to allude to Ghostbusters, Back to the Future, etc whenever possible
Maybe folks will be smart and the change won’t be that noticeable. I haven’t had occasion to drive through or around downtown yet so I can’t say anything with first-hand experience as of now.
Saturday I’ll be driving to my parent’s house in Ftn City and will be taking 640 East to Broadway. We’ll see what the traffic’s like going and coming back later that afternoon.
It appears to me that TDOT has probably been encouraging this kind of hyper-coverage. Being involved in government, I think I understand what their motivation is. The fewer the number of confused folks driving around on our highways, the better the system works. Even when only a few miss turns and have to exit to double back and start over, it creates both congestion and a greater potential for accidents.
Many people pay attention to what’s going on. They read papers, watch the local TV news, check out local blogs, etc. Still, there always seems to be some percentage who come up clueless no matter how hard you try to get the word out. We live in an age of distraction, and most of us are a lot more distracted than we like to think we are.
I’m still of the belief that the more hyped that there will be a problem, the more people will make themselves believe it’s true. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy, by something like the power of suggestion.