can't get there from here

First impression of Phoenix? Driving north on 51 to get from the airport to the hotel, it was impossible to exit the highway. The first three exit ramps were all closed for some sort of road work...new paint for the lines maybe. There was no action, just highway patrol cars at the first two, and a DOT truck at the last. You figure they could have done every other one, so that all the exiting traffic wouldn't have gotten off at the first available and jammed things up. You would have thought that, but you'd be wrong.

Also, Phoenix reminds me of SW Dade county (FL). Flat (well, the valley part, obviously not the mountains around the city), lots of traffic and strip-malls and 4-way intersections. Bleh suburban blight.

(update)...seems that it was a protest against legislation that would impose severe crackdowns on illegal immigrants that was most likely responsible for the shut-down of the exits.