Baldwin County versus Mobile County
I was riding the bicycle along Highway 90 in Baldwin County the other day and noticed how clean the nice wide paved shoulder was. That caused me to take a closer look at major bicycle route roads in Mobile County. The difference in the maintenance of the shoulders between Mobile County and Baldwin County roads is like night and day.
Unlike the smooth clean shoulders in Baldwin County, the asphalt shoulders of Mobile roads seem to never be swept. Some paved shoulders like on Rangeline Road were so full of truck debris that the rumble strips were completely buried under an inch of dirt, sand, and rocks giving the right-of-way grass a good place to grow. ALDOT seems to be neglectful of their roads putting the public at higher risk for accidents by allowing rumble strips to be buried with dirt. The narrow tires on road bicycles do not ride very well on dirt causing them to ride out in the lane of traffic instead of on the road shoulder.
Not sure who is responsible for Telegraph Road in Mobile but that road is one neglected roadway. Much of the sidewalk is buried by railroad rocks. Places where there is asphalt shoulder is dotted with rocks big enough to cause bicycles to wreck, not to mention they are being taken over by vegetation and trash.
Why can the roads in one county be so clean and in the other county be so neglected? Someone in Mobile County needs to be fired.