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Cichlidae posted:
 Cichlidae posted:
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Apr 7, 2010 00:19
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I be a pirate sign, matey! Competin' wit yer attention because I want yer booty!
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Mandalay posted:Okay, what happened here? They cut the new loops right through the old ones. The pavement is in horrible quality, so the new loops are already exposed to the elements and broken. That phase is on recall, causing lots and lots of unnecessary delay.
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Apr 7, 2010 00:51
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Cichlidae posted:Vernon Field Trip I drive through this stretch of town quite often. Now I'll be looking for the improvements.
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Apr 7, 2010 04:10
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I went back to Vernon today to touch up the timings and make sure the signals were working properly. They weren't. Ohhhh no, they weren't. Anyone using the U-turn lane or the I-84 off-ramp or Dobson Road or Route 30 or Route 83, I just saved you anywhere from 5 to 70 seconds. You're welcome. Green Circle, though, is just screwed. The loops are bad, so they put in a microwave detector.... mounted at head height on a pedestrian pedestal with a clamp used for signs. It's facing a bush. Every time the wind blows, that phase gets called. WORK ZONE SAFETY TIME! I'll post a two-page spread every time I remember it.  Here, we meet our intrepid work-zone heroes. Ima Cone and Tyler Tube have learned the secret of invisibility. Unfortunately, it only works on their bases. Furthermore, Tyler's got a bad case of clown-mouth. Doris Drum is apparently on some sort of illicit substances, but I guess that's what it takes to show up to work every morning and get run over by tractor-trailers. Barri Cade, frankly, scares me. I feel he's going to come and murder me in my sleep with his non-crashworthy (crashunworthy?) battery packs.  Ima Cone explains the MUTCD color priority convention. This booklet makes some effort to rhyme, to the point of associating "brown" with "frown." On the other hand, they can't find any words to rhyme with "red." I can't help but think that Green, Blue, and Brown could have some more useful descriptions, but what do kids care about signs? Chances are, by the time they can drive, we'll be using coral pink and light blue. Join us next time for some coloring book action!
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Apr 8, 2010 02:18
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Yello be mello, yo. This is wonderful, thanks for posting it.
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Apr 8, 2010 06:43
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Cichlidae posted:
Looks to me like this was a sign that once had two posts and is now reduced to one. Look on the ground for the remains of a breakaway... this also explains the extra four holes.
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Apr 8, 2010 14:44
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kefkafloyd posted:Looks to me like this was a sign that once had two posts and is now reduced to one. Look on the ground for the remains of a breakaway... this also explains the extra four holes. It was knocked over months ago by a car, and they decided to put it back up for the inspection. I guess they only had one spare pole. Still not sure why they put the post backward; probably just weren't paying attention. Yes, though, you're right about the two-post thing.
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Apr 8, 2010 17:00
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Cichlidae posted:Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't California switch to a Nexus system a couple years back? It's mile-based, just slightly different in that it rounds each mileage up instead of grabbing the nearest milepoint. California is still getting around to numbering the exits, though. Some places are done, some are not. Last I checked, the northern half of my city's exits are properly labelled but the southern half still had no exit numbers (though I don't pay much attention so maybe it's done now, at least here). We also don't have the useful type of mile marker:  Rather, we have these tiny little while thingies which, if you notice them at all, give you the miles to whatever major city they've decided should be the next origin point.  (Hey look, we're 3.50 miles from Santa Barbara!)
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Apr 8, 2010 18:19
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Choadmaster posted:Rather, we have these tiny little while thingies which, if you notice them at all, give you the miles to whatever major city they've decided should be the next origin point. These actually go from south/west to north/east but reset at county lines, and the letters tell you what county you're in. Also, they're known as postmiles, as opposed to mileposts/mile markers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_postmile
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Apr 8, 2010 18:36
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Not nearly as useless as New York's tiny green signs with a billion white numbers on them. Click here for the full 972x1191 image.
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Apr 8, 2010 21:55
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That mile post thing was recently adapted for the entire UK motorway network to make it easier to identify your location to the emergency services. We had them previously but they were TINY and weren't much use. Info here: http://cbrd.co.uk/indepth/dls/
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Apr 8, 2010 22:07
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Dominus Vobiscum posted:These actually go from south/west to north/east but reset at county lines, and the letters tell you what county you're in. Also, they're known as postmiles, as opposed to mileposts/mile markers. That's very strange. I've rarely paid attention to them (given how absolutely useless they are) but driving towards Barstow on I40 yesterday they were most definitely counting down the miles to Barstow. Fake edit:  It occurs to me now that I40 ends in Barstow, hence the origin for the numbers there. And the random spot I picked in Street View just so happened to be ~4 miles from the SB County border to the east and the SB City border to the west. Thanks for the clarification.In any case, our mile markers are useless!
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Apr 8, 2010 23:56
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Choadmaster posted:That's very strange. I've rarely paid attention to them (given how absolutely useless they are) but driving towards Barstow on I40 yesterday they were most definitely counting down the miles to Barstow. Just remember, the mile markers aren't for you. They're for when you break down, so you can have a point of reference for the tow truck driver. They used to be useful for maintenance and cops, but with AVL (Automatic Vehicle Location), this role has largely gone by the wayside. Work Zone Safety!  Clownface Cigarette tells us to watch signs and signal heads while in the process of crossing the street. Personally, I think it's better to watch them before crossing, but I can't compete with a talking plastic tube. Let's ignore the fact that coloring a sign in "white" is a pretty useless exercise. The upright hand is not, in fact, RED. It is Portland Orange! And the walking man is Lunar White. Sure, I may not have those colors in my crayon box, but chances are the kid's already eaten the red crayon and is using Indian Red or Forest Green or Robin's Egg Blue anyway.  Ima Cone explains how channeling devices are chosen. I'd like to make one revision:  Also worth noting that, despite the ubiquitous color-by-numbering on the previous page, there is no note of where the orange and white go. I suppose that's fine, because they're going to be covered in mud after the first day on the site anyway. Cichlidae fucked around with this message at 01:33 on Apr 9, 2010 |
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Apr 9, 2010 01:30
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Once again, your informative posts, mixed with your snarky sense of humor, never fail to deliver. Keep 'em coming!
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Apr 9, 2010 01:43
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Cichlidae posted:Just remember, the mile markers aren't for you. They're for when you break down, so you can have a point of reference for the tow truck driver. They used to be useful for maintenance and cops, but with AVL (Automatic Vehicle Location), this role has largely gone by the wayside. I find them tremendously useful, especially for figuring out when you're coming up on the exit number you're looking for on a long empty stretch of rural freeway. Then again, I do a lot of cross-country road trips through unfamiliar territory. How exactly does AVL work? The only time I've had to pull over on the freeway, I immediately called 911 and the dispatcher says to me, "Are you such-and-such car just past exit X?" But that was only because some other driver had already called them in the 15 seconds it took me to pull over. We're so damned connected nowadays! :oldfogey:
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Apr 9, 2010 01:58
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Choadmaster posted:I find them tremendously useful, especially for figuring out when you're coming up on the exit number you're looking for on a long empty stretch of rural freeway. Then again, I do a lot of cross-country road trips through unfamiliar territory. With mile-based exit numbering, sure, mileposts become much more useful to drivers. So much, in fact, that an exit's number is chosen based on its physical proximity to the sign itself, not the actual milepoint, which can be several hundred feet away. As to how AVL works, I'm not about to grab my old ITS Primer textbook, but I'm pretty sure it's basically enhanced GPS. The plows and maintenance vehicles here use it to keep track of where they are, as standard GPS and maps are notoriously inaccurate.
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Apr 9, 2010 02:11
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... Back to traffic, a few months ago, I called the state police from I95 (it says something about driving in CT that I have their dispatch on speed dial, and probably not something good,) and said "I just passed mile marker ..." "I'm sorry, sir, we don't use mile markers anymore. Can you give me an exit number or approximate location?" Fortunately, I could. Too bad enabling location doesn't transmit for non-emergency calls.) GWBBQ fucked around with this message at 05:36 on Mar 20, 2012 |
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Apr 9, 2010 15:33
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GWBBQ posted:Back to traffic, a few months ago, I called the state police from I95 (it says something about driving in CT that I have their dispatch on speed dial, and probably not something good,) and said "I just passed mile marker ..." "I'm sorry, sir, we don't use mile markers anymore. Can you give me an exit number or approximate location?" Fortunately, I could. Too bad enabling location doesn't transmit for non-emergency calls.) Wait...they're switching AWAY from mile markers? WHY? And to then ask for an exit number, as if there was any logical way to number exits that didn't also correspond with mile markers... I thought we got rid of sequential exit numbering and moved to mile markers as the standard since it makes it so much easier to figure out how far you are from the exit you want.
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Apr 9, 2010 17:06
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GWBBQ posted:There's a certain sense of humor those of us with brains develop as we work for the state, isn't there? This reminds me, I have to reprint the sign for our auditorium podium that says "Please turn off your cell phone at the podium or you will startle the audience and the technician will laugh at you." The dean of our business school and Jim Himes are the only two people who ever actually turn their phones off, even though I remind everyone. I have enough Busway jokes to start my own Busway-oriented comedy club. Now if only traffic engineering came with a little more innuendo! quote:Back to traffic, a few months ago, I called the state police from I95 (it says something about driving in CT that I have their dispatch on speed dial, and probably not something good,) and said "I just passed mile marker ..." "I'm sorry, sir, we don't use mile markers anymore. Can you give me an exit number or approximate location?" Fortunately, I could. Too bad enabling location doesn't transmit for non-emergency calls.) That's how it worked in the Rhode Island TMC, too. All of our incidents were referenced to exit numbers, because saying "I-295 at the landfill exit" is easier to locate to than "I-295 Milepoint 7.5." Exit numbers are also better for incident management because we wouldn't put "Accident MP 3.8 Keep Left" up on a sign. Using one location system keeps things more consistent and reduces the chance for errors. Mile-based exit numbering would make this a moot point, of course. Connecticut's new policy is to put mileposts at 0.2-mile intervals, so hopefully the police will get it together and start using them for reference. Edit: wolrah posted:Wait...they're switching AWAY from mile markers? WHY? And to then ask for an exit number, as if there was any logical way to number exits that didn't also correspond with mile markers... CT currently only has mileposts every mile, and most people aren't going to walk half a mile down the freeway to the nearest one to see where they are. Once we switch to 0.2-mile markers, hopefully this will change. Also note that Connecticut, Rhode Island, and 6 other states still use sequential exit numbering. As I noted, it would be prohibitively expensive to renumber all of our exits. Cichlidae fucked around with this message at 17:14 on Apr 9, 2010 |
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Apr 9, 2010 17:11
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Cichlidae posted:I have enough Busway jokes to start my own Busway-oriented comedy club. Now if only traffic engineering came with a little more innuendo!
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Apr 9, 2010 19:27
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Mandalay posted:Oh god please give us this. I promise not to steal your jokes for my new website buswayjokes.info I hope you're ready for one Rell of a show! Thank you ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Busway Comedy Hour. Q: What's the difference between the Busway and your mom's pussy? A: Amtrak's not tearing up the Busway for another 20 years. Q: How many engineers does it take to design the Busway? A: Give Baker another $50 million and maybe they'll tell you. Q: What do you get when you cross a Busway with an active rail line? A: KABOOM! Q: Why couldn't the governor cut the red ribbon to inaugurate the Busway? A: After spending $750M on the project, she couldn't afford scissors. Q: When will the Busway be open for business? A: Late 2013. (it's a joke because it's been in final design for the last 10 years) Gee, tough crowd.
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Apr 9, 2010 20:35
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Cichlidae posted:Q: Why couldn't the governor cut the red ribbon to inaugurate the Busway?
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Apr 10, 2010 23:07
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GWBBQ posted:She was too busy frothing at the mouth slandering the state's workers for not taking more pay cuts and giving more concessions because pandering to Republicans is more important than finding real solutions to the budget crisis she did nothing to avoid in the first place. Boy, you don't mince words  I'm already losing 3% of my salary for the next 10 years to pay for retiree healthcare, and, in all likelihood, losing the vast majority of my retirement benefits.
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Apr 10, 2010 23:30
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Wow, more work zone safety! Holy crap, Ima, what happened to your arm? Looks like you got run over by one too many tractor-trailers. Anatomy aside, the cone is actually right. It's one of our subliminal tricks. Unfortunately, the people who actually put up barricades don't realize this. The best part, though, is that the diagonal stripes on the road actually go the opposite way. It looks pretty stupid, really; I suppose the intended effect is that you see chevrons pointing toward the middle of the road, the upper half displayed on the signs/barricades and the lower half painted on the road.  Tyler Tube explains a flagger's job. I'm loving how that sign changes shapes when it's flipped around. Unfortunately, Tyler's question is never answered. What DO flaggers do, indeed? Perhaps, one day, modern science will have an answer.
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Apr 12, 2010 00:17
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People have told me several times that there are 17 posts in between every mile marker on the highway. I can never get that count, and it always seems to range from 15-20 posts. Is there supposed to be a set number of them or is that all fluff? Living in Wyoming, it is not uncommon to have to drive through a pass, and god drat I still get tense when I'm on one. Are those guard rails actually going to do anything or am I really going to go careening off of Sand Draw Road if I drive like an idiot?
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Apr 12, 2010 00:33
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Star Man posted:People have told me several times that there are 17 posts in between every mile marker on the highway. I can never get that count, and it always seems to range from 15-20 posts. Is there supposed to be a set number of them or is that all fluff? You're talking about on a guard rail? There are a whole ton of different systems, all meant for different deflection limits. We mostly use RB-350 here, which normally has a post every 6.25 feet (nearly 1000 posts per mile), and twice as often when there's an obstruction between 2.5 and 6 feet from the back of the rail. That guard rail has a deflection of about 10 feet. If there's more room behind the rail, we can use 3 cable guide rail, which has posts every 16 feet and a deflection of 30 feet. If we can't have any deflection, like at a work zone, concrete barrier will do. This page (PDF) has some specs if you'd like more specifics. You may also be talking about edge delineators. You can see our delineator scheme here, sheet TR-1205_1 (PDF). Spacing varies with curve radius.
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Apr 12, 2010 01:01
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Cichlidae posted:Answering this alone because it's important. Vindication!!! Man, next time Mom back seat drives about going 65 she's gonna get broadsided.
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Apr 12, 2010 01:03
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Toussaint Louverture posted:Vindication!!! Man, next time Mom back seat drives about going 65 she's gonna get broadsided. Fight the power I wrote an article about speeding here if you want some more rhetoric.
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Apr 12, 2010 01:07
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Cichlidae posted:Tyler Tube explains a flagger's job. I'm loving how that sign changes shapes when it's flipped around. Unfortunately, Tyler's question is never answered. What DO flaggers do, indeed? Perhaps, one day, modern science will have an answer. "I like it when you drive by slow" sounds like it could be a great hook for a flagger rap song.
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Apr 12, 2010 02:26
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theflyingexecutive posted:"I like it when you drive by slow" sounds like it could be a great hook for a flagger rap song. The album also includes hits such as:
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Apr 12, 2010 02:47
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Cichlidae posted:You're talking about on a guard rail? There are a whole ton of different systems, all meant for different deflection limits. We mostly use RB-350 here, which normally has a post every 6.25 feet (nearly 1000 posts per mile), and twice as often when there's an obstruction between 2.5 and 6 feet from the back of the rail. Maybe? The posts I'm asking about are the ones like the far right one in this picture: 
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Apr 12, 2010 03:13
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theflyingexecutive posted:"I like it when you drive by slow" sounds like it could be a great hook for a flagger rap song. Guy Axlerod posted:The album also includes hits such as: We need to make this album. Somehow, someway. Star Man posted:Maybe? The posts I'm asking about are the ones like the far right one in this picture: Those are delineators, yes. They're mostly to help you find the edge of the road at night or when the roadway is covered in rain or snow.
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Apr 12, 2010 03:27
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Well that 85th percentile thing explains why some places have low speed limits. Granted up here in Maine I don't think anyone bothers strictly obeying the speed limit as a set number, more of a guideline. (At least from what I've seen from Central Maine/Bangor Region drivers. 65 in a 30 zone is common depending where it is located.) Any explanation on why a few certain roads need to be ripped up and re-done every 2-4 years? Or is that just standard road maintenance due to seasonal weather combined with being a higher speed major town road (compared to the in-town major road which doesn't seem to have as much work done on it)? Just asking because there's this one road in the next town over that seems to always get potholes every other year or so, and quite frankly I've gotten quite good at avoiding them on my way into town (Bangor/Brewer)
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Apr 12, 2010 04:20
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Hey, so this may have been brought up earlier, but in conjunction with the thing about speed limits, exactly which oatmeal head decided it would be a great idea to have all the truckers go 15mph slower than everyone else? I mean, I can understand it in certain unusual circumstances (steep grades, say), but why is it safer to have all the trucks doing 55 in the right lane, and all the cars weaving between the trucks and the passing lane (keep right laws, doncha know) at 70?
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Apr 12, 2010 04:28
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Star Man posted:Maybe? The posts I'm asking about are the ones like the far right one in this picture: Does your state's highway department commonly install ponies all over the place? I only ask this because a local girl scout troop once petitioned for this but CalTrans turned them down for budgetary reasons.
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Apr 12, 2010 07:09
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ThndrShk2k posted:Well that 85th percentile thing explains why some places have low speed limits. Granted up here in Maine I don't think anyone bothers strictly obeying the speed limit as a set number, more of a guideline. (At least from what I've seen from Central Maine/Bangor Region drivers. 65 in a 30 zone is common depending where it is located.) Since it's Maine, it's probably due to frost heaving. If there are large rocks beneath the pavement, they'll get shifted around each time water infiltrates and freezes, eventually cracking open the pavement and making a pothole. Full-depth reconstruction would solve the problem permanently, but some jurisdictions actually prefer having the regular repair work, and purposely leave the problem so their maintenance staff will have something to do. potato of destiny posted:Hey, so this may have been brought up earlier, but in conjunction with the thing about speed limits, exactly which oatmeal head decided it would be a great idea to have all the truckers go 15mph slower than everyone else? We don't do that in CT, but I can think of a number of benefits. Since trucks are the controlling factor in design speed, with a separate truck speed limit, you could design the road for a lower speed, and therefore save money. Another benefit is reduced fuel use. I'm not sure if it applies to trucks as well, but cars get the highest mileage around 45 mph. This was one of the big reasons for the nationwide 55 mph speed limit. In hilly terrain, a slower truck speed limit is mostly pointless because the trucks aren't going full speed uphill, and it forces them to jake break downhill. One last possibility is that setting a lower truck speed limit effectively exempts them from building climbing lanes. That's pretty devious, but I wouldn't put it past someone. Choadmaster posted:Does your state's highway department commonly install ponies all over the place? I've never heard the term "pony," but I assume you mean speed bump. We don't install any speed bumps on state roads, because they slow emergency vehicles, increase delay, and have the potential to cause life-threatening injury. There was (probably still is) a raised crosswalk on US 44 in downtown Providence, right between the statehouse and DOT headquarters. A state trooper drove over it at 50 mph+ on his way to an emergency and snapped his neck.
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Apr 12, 2010 12:41
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Cichlidae posted:We need to make this album. Somehow, someway. Cool, I'll set up a front as a contractor and get some of that sweet sweet DOT money.
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Apr 12, 2010 12:46
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Cichlidae posted:I've never heard the term "pony," but I assume you mean speed bump.
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Apr 12, 2010 12:53
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Socket Ryanist posted:I'm not sure if this is intentional or not but hahahahahahahaha Ha! Sorry Chichlidae, I was actually referring to the horses all over the road in that picture. Just a dumb joke. However, I suspect you're right that it could be a safety issue for emergency vehicles! On a mildly related and more serious note, what are the requirements for warning drivers about lage dips in the highway? I was cruising through the desert on I40 the other day and came across a sudden dip that went maybe threeish feet down and then back up over the course of a couple car lengths. At 90 MPH we almost went airborne, and I don't think it would have been much more comfortable at 70 or 75 (whatever the speed limit was).
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Apr 12, 2010 19:01
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Choadmaster posted:Ha! Sorry Chichlidae, I was actually referring to the horses all over the road in that picture. Just a dumb joke. However, I suspect you're right that it could be a safety issue for emergency vehicles! Well gently caress! quote:On a mildly related and more serious note, what are the requirements for warning drivers about lage dips in the highway? I was cruising through the desert on I40 the other day and came across a sudden dip that went maybe threeish feet down and then back up over the course of a couple car lengths. At 90 MPH we almost went airborne, and I don't think it would have been much more comfortable at 70 or 75 (whatever the speed limit was). There shouldn't be a warning; it should be re-graded to fix the problem. They could put up a "DIP" sign if it's too expensive to fix. Go on and make a complaint and there's a good chance they'll fix it. Regarding truck speed limits, again: I looked in the Green Book about climbing lanes and found this graph. I think it shows conclusively why lower speed limits for trucks are bad. 
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Apr 12, 2010 21:43
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