Scritchy Raccone and the Pylon Wars

I live in a weird place. Happily, it’s often a good type of weird. Sadly, it’s also a place where, in general, motorists aren’t very concerned with things like “obeying laws” or “not hitting people”. Recently, there’s been a lot of consternation around bike lanes. I won’t go deep into the lore here, but we’ve elected some people who seem to value unsustainable suburban sprawl over having a nice downtown. But there have been some wins. One of them is the Allan-Oak Local Street Bikeway. Part of this is a traffic-calming diverter that doubles as a cyclist/pedestrian crossing. It was approved in 2018, but only implemented recently after a legal battle with some residents. A quirk in the plan for the diverter was that it needed to accommodate snow removal in the winter months, and emergency vehicles at all times. For most of the year, flexible bollards would be installed. Ambulances, fire trucks, etc. can plow through those, but most drivers won’t want to mess with them. During the first…