Road medians a bother in Placer County

California roads are about to drive me mad. I was born here, and have many fond memories of travels along these Northern California roads. However, I was just a child when I lived here last and now feel a slight bit differently.This may be a shared feeling, though, as what I'm about to describe seems to be of the newer design. It's the medians: the grand, glorious islands of carefully-placed rocks atop cement beds rose ever so slightly to the level that it would damage your car if you attempted to cross a median for a better and easier way to get to a store. They infuriate me.Not even a year ago I moved back to this sunny state of my birth from the South's heart of Dixie. I prefer California for many reasons, the greatest being the lack of humidity and wonderful evenings of Delta-breeze coolness even after the hottest summer days. But what makes me long for Alabama is a common turning lane between opposite lanes of traffic.You see, while driving through a smaller town such as Lincoln while in Alabama, there would be no medians near business and shopping center driveways. People were trusted to look right and left, understand where they were coming from and going, and make their turns into the right store or restaurant. Did everything occur so peacefully? No. There were times that an odd situation would arise between drivers when both tried to turn opposite at the same location. But, it would be figured out.On a recent day of weekend travel and curiosity as to exactly what shops are around, I had just left a fast food restaurant in a Rocklin shopping center slightly east of Highway 65 on Galleria Boulevard. There was another enclave of shops across the street and I aimed toward it. I soon saw, however, that I couldn't just drive across the street because of a thin median in the middle of the road. To get to the shopping center, I evidently would have had to go to the boulevard light, turn left, drive across the highway overpass, make a U-turn instead of going south on 65 and eventually make it back - all while passing through or waiting for a few traffic lights. That took too long to explain and I felt it would have taken too long to perform.Now, after speaking with my father in the construction business who has worked over many commercial and retail developments, he informed me road engineers are drafting such inane designs to reduce collisions. I'm sure there are some grand and glorious figures that could be pulled and some beautiful illustrations made to demonstrate the stupidity of California's average driver and the benevolence of the designers. But I'm one to disagree. First of all, I thank Alabama and even old California road designers who trusted the intelligence of the average Joe. Secondly, I think medians are placed as such just to make all vehicles drive around a full complex to get to one store, thereby making us costumers aware of all the stores and probably stop to buy - because we are all that impressionable.Case in point: Our newer Safeway shopping center used to have a large space between opposite lanes of traffic on 65. It allowed us to more quickly drive into whatever portion of the Lincoln Hills Shopping Center our business of interest was located. Then a median was installed. Although it was done quite quickly and I'm impressed to have not seen one splash of cement atop any of the seemingly polished rocks, it aggravates me.Through a light is my only southbound mode of entrance. Like cattle whipped down a crowding alley, I am led through a pattern of excess length.But the median that infuriates me most of all is the one on the road beside Target in Rocklin. Why is it there? The road is no highway. I seriously doubt there is an adequate excuse for preventing me from turning left out of the parking lot. Although I could guess it's a matter of traffic management between highway onramps, I still find the silly race between fast- and slow-lane drivers to be the first to slip through the median's curved passageway into Target more bothersome.--Joshua Bingham is editor of the Lincoln News Messenger. He can be reached at joshuab@goldcountrymedia.com.