ACHD's Road Wizard Sunday, March 18, 2018

The "snow" board was originally installed by ACHD on Bogus Basin Road north of Curling Drive as a way for ski resort staff to display real-time weather conditions, crash alerts and parking information.

But it became more of a tube hill status report during the last few years of operation. Eventually the aging sign was taken down by ACHD because parts were becoming hard to come by, and repairs were more time consuming. Nearly all ski operations-related information can be found through multiple types of electronic devices anyway.

The sign remnants will be removed in the future because some of the infrastructure will be in the way of an upcoming sidewalk project scheduled in a couple of years. The plan is to connect existing sidewalk further up Bogus Basin Road with Curling to provide a walk route to Highlands Elementary School.

You have already waited a while for an answer to this question but you will also still have to wait at that signal without a flashing yellow arrow.

ACHD carefully considered installing the signal at this "left" out turn. In fact the agency has evaluated nearly all of the 430-plus signalized intersections in Ada County for the use of flashing yellow arrow signals.

At Americana and Shoreline, sight distance for northbound left-turning vehicles is compromised because the oncoming traffic approaches at a curve. This can cause tall vehicles in an oncoming lane to block the view of vehicles in the other through lane. There is a lot of big-sized vehicle traffic at this intersection due to the nearby post office, so a yellow arrow signal is not planned.

A common explanation for Five Mile and Ten Mile is that they were named after creeks by those names. And those creeks were those distances from the Boise River, or perhaps Boise itself.

The origin of the name Black Cat Road may be lost to history. The daughter of the original owners of the Kit Kat Klub building at Black Cat and Franklin Road lived on Black Cat in the 1940s. Her family even named their club "Black Cat." There was also a Black Cat farm at the time. But the road was called Black Cat before all of that and apparently the explanation for the name wasn't clear even back then.