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Cichlidae, is this what your nightmares look like? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruLM9fVXDKQ
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Jun 19, 2011 23:25
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GWBBQ posted:Cichlidae, is this what your nightmares look like? Is it just me or would this have been a lot less hosed up had it gone to flashing red in all directions? With what looks to be decent traffic levels in all directions, having yellow flashing for one road and red for the other means that those on the red road are pretty much hosed, thus they eventually just start driving out whenever they see a gap.
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Jun 20, 2011 01:48
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GWBBQ posted:Cichlidae, is this what your nightmares look like?  (The part that actually freaked me out a bit was seeing reflections on the window, perfectly sited so they looked like ghost cars in the road.)
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Jun 20, 2011 02:08
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wolrah posted:Is it just me or would this have been a lot less hosed up had it gone to flashing red in all directions? Thel posted:
I also want to disclaim that I called the police on a non-emergency number and gave them a summary of the situation before I even thought of starting to record.
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Jun 20, 2011 02:40
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GWBBQ posted:Cichlidae, is this what your nightmares look like? The lack of pedestrian traffic helps a lot, that is a major intersection with a University campus that is currently not in session - for most of the year, the near-right crosswalk connects the campus to the only parking space accessible to anyone there, the near-left crosswalk connects the campus to the walking route to the nearby train station, and that's how ~2000 get there daily. The bridge at the top of the picture is the convenient route across a river to the west side of the city. I have been brushed by cars quite a few times at that intersection when they blew a really late red light or opted to stop on the crosswalk.
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Jun 20, 2011 02:40
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GWBBQ posted:Cichlidae, is this what your nightmares look like? loving intersections, how do they work? I'm flatly astonished by the free flow of traffic in the directions with flashing reds at several points in the video. The sheer number of people who don't know what a flashing red means... I mean, that's not even "oh, I thought everybody had a flashing red" at that point, that's full-blown "what, it's not the same as a green light?". Also, I kept hearing heavy things shifting in the building you were in and thinking I was hearing car impacts offscreen.
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Jun 20, 2011 02:56
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That looks like any intersection at any given time in Korea. The bus I was on this morning almost slammed into a semi truck loaded with hydrogen tanks, which helpfully were only labeled "HYDROGEN GAS" in English and not Korean.
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Jun 20, 2011 03:24
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GWBBQ posted:Cichlidae, is this what your nightmares look like? Was that during the thunder storms last week? I'm surprised there wasn't more honking. When two major roads intersect like that, it's debatable whether to go all-red or artery-yellow. Looking at that, I'd say that both would have operated the same way; people don't pay attention no matter what. There's pretty much nothing short of a battery backup that would fix the situation.
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Jun 20, 2011 03:25
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Around here they flash all-red on a power outage. Although I have approached an intersection once with the lights completely out. Now that was scary as gently caress because the average tard will see an unlit traffic signal as meaning "full speed ahead". Getting two tards together under those circumstances is pretty damned easy but I didn't wait around to see that.
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Jun 20, 2011 03:43
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The thing I find most interesting about that video is that most people are actually driving fairly sensibly, and then you get the occasional one (like the gold car at around 50 seconds in) who decides to be a complete cock, and just go wherever he wants, gently caress everyone else. I've never really understood that mindset - cars are big and scary, why wouldn't you be careful?
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Jun 20, 2011 07:59
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Wolfsbane posted:The thing I find most interesting about that video is that most people are actually driving fairly sensibly, and then you get the occasional one (like the gold car at around 50 seconds in) who decides to be a complete cock, and just go wherever he wants, gently caress everyone else. I've never really understood that mindset - cars are big and scary, why wouldn't you be careful? Let alone pulling in front of a school bus (who legally has the right of way). For all the complaining people do about keeping children safe, they certainly don't worry about endangering them when they're in a hurry.
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Jun 20, 2011 12:23
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Yup, that was during the big thunderstorm. I was also surprised at how little honking there was, although when one person started they all did it. There was one near-accident when a guy coming from the top right jammed on his brakes after apparently not seeing a car from the top left in front of him, but no crashes in over half an hour I was watching. I was pretty impressed by that and the fact that most people were sensible.
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Jun 20, 2011 17:30
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Cichlidae posted:Problem easily solved: The state parking lot in the bottom right of that picture is also insane. They use it for parking for the Bushnell Theater at night, and the spots are about two feet narrower than they should be. I guess they fit in more cars but I bet every one has a ding on the door.
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Jun 20, 2011 19:11
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smackfu posted:The state parking lot in the bottom right of that picture is also insane. They use it for parking for the Bushnell Theater at night, and the spots are about two feet narrower than they should be. I guess they fit in more cars but I bet every one has a ding on the door. Yeah, and the aisles are super narrow, and people like to park outside the designated spaces. Time to bite the bullet and build a proper parking garage.
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Jun 21, 2011 00:39
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What in the actual gently caress where they thinking when they designed this. The two red lines are stop signs and the green lines are stop lights. Cross traffic does not stop going east on the northern road.  Edit: Yes, Millstone you would be right. Also I feel like I should add that that is supposed to be a 4 way stop light, but I apparently neglected to tell you that. Guess that's why you're the I'm not the traffic engineer. Qwertyiop25 fucked around with this message at 16:05 on Jun 21, 2011 |
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Jun 21, 2011 04:13
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Qwertyiop25 posted:What in the actual gently caress where they thinking when they designed this. The two red lines are stop signs and the green lines are stop lights. Cross traffic does not stop going west on the northern road. Do you mean going east? Because going west you've painted a stop sign there.
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Jun 21, 2011 06:20
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Qwertyiop25 posted:What in the actual gently caress where they thinking when they designed this. The two red lines are stop signs and the green lines are stop lights. Cross traffic does not stop going east on the northern road. I suspect that the eastbound traffic is supposed to stop, but the stop sign is missing; the west entry to that intersection has a clear stop bar. This seems like a maintenance problem more than a design problem. 
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Jun 21, 2011 19:12
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Besesoth posted:I suspect that the eastbound traffic is supposed to stop, but the stop sign is missing; the west entry to that intersection has a clear stop bar. This seems like a maintenance problem more than a design problem. Yeah, seems to be. I've seen weird stop sign arrangements, but letting eastbound traffic freeflow there doesn't make much sense. Having no stop sign northbound is because of the short distance to the lower intersection, but signalizing the frontage road is REALLY the best idea. Here, I made a signal phase diagram.  Some-way stops are actually a really bad idea. First off, you have to put supplementary signs on each approach saying "traffic from left/right/oncoming does not stop." Next, you can't stick a stop sign on the missing approach if things aren't working, because people are used to not stopping and will ignore it. The only option is signalization.
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Jun 21, 2011 20:25
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I've been in some areas where 4-way stops are the norm and a lot of the time there is no "4-way" or "all-way" sign under the stop sign. Is this compliant?
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Jun 21, 2011 20:30
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Socket Ryanist posted:I've been in some areas where 4-way stops are the norm and a lot of the time there is no "4-way" or "all-way" sign under the stop sign. Is this compliant? It must have an "All-way" plaque. The MUTCD says: 04 At intersections where all approaches are controlled by STOP signs (see Section 2B.07), an ALL WAY supplemental plaque (R1-3P) shall be mounted below each STOP sign. The ALL WAY plaque (see Figure 2B-1) shall have a white legend and border on a red background. 05 The ALL WAY plaque shall only be used if all intersection approaches are controlled by STOP signs. 06 Supplemental plaques with legends such as 2-WAY, 3-WAY, 4-WAY, or other numbers of ways shall not be used with STOP signs.
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Jun 21, 2011 20:36
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What does the MUTCD say about construction speed signs like this They're always tiny and hard to spot.
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Jun 21, 2011 21:36
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nm posted:What does the MUTCD say about construction speed signs like this Not legally enforceable. If you get a ticket for running one of those, you can probably get out of it, so long as you weren't going unreasonably fast. Standard: 01 TTC regulatory signs shall comply with the Standards for regulatory signs presented in Part 2 and in the FHWA's "Standard Highway Signs and Markings" book (see Section 1A.11). http://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/htm/2009/part6/part6f.htm#section6F06
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Jun 22, 2011 00:18
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This is why Europe is awesome. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-AbPav5E5M
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Jun 24, 2011 03:17
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Cichlidae posted:The trenching is probably for cables between the mast arms, if they're using mast arms. Once they lay down conduit, they can pull all the wire they need through without having to dig up the pavement again. I don't know of any kind of detection currently in use that requires trenching. Are they not installing induction loops anymore? Similarly, it seems like most traffic signals around here have a camera now. Not a red light camera, this is a camera mounted on the same mast as the light, aimed at oncoming traffic. It seems like there's too many for TxDOT or a city to monitor for anything, am I correct in thinking these have something to do with the signals? Seems like the only places I don't really see these are on older (pre-90s) signals.
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Jun 24, 2011 05:26
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some texas redneck posted:Are they not installing induction loops anymore? They are detection cameras, they are used instead of copper loops in the asphalt to detect when a car is approaching the intersection.
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Jun 24, 2011 06:52
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nielsm posted:This is why Europe is awesome. It's true. Those drat pedalists are everywhere! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46jQR3oow8U
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Jun 24, 2011 10:43
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nielsm posted:This is why Europe is awesome. Heck yes. That's thousands of vehicles per hour that won't be using the roads. We're finally taking a cue or two from the Europeans: the latest revisions to the MUTCD suggest bike lanes should be painted a separate color from motor vehicle pavement. some texas redneck posted:Are they not installing induction loops anymore? Those don't require trenching, just 1/2"-wide sawcuts in the existing pavement.
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Jun 24, 2011 12:32
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Hey, State of CT Employee buddy, looks like we're hosed!  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/25/nyregion/connecticuts-budget-plans-are-upended-by-state-workers-vote.html
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Jun 24, 2011 21:34
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GWBBQ posted:Hey, State of CT Employee buddy, looks like we're hosed! Yeah. Anyone hiring? I'll take a job pretty much anywhere at this point! Come on, you know I've got the skills. My lease is up, I'm trilingual, and I'm priced to move.
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Jun 24, 2011 23:14
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Can I come too, fellow "we're hosed" buddies? Oh, and re: Europe being awesome. It's not just because Europe is more bike friendly. They also have much more mass transit than we do. For example, I spent the better part of a year in France, and they have trains everywhere. Where the trains don't go, often there are buses. One city I went to had free buses city-wide. The buses were paid for by a special tax on the local businesses. Can you imagine what a poo poo-storm that would create if we tried to do something like that here? Add to that, their gas is a lot more expensive than ours (higher gas taxes), so people don't drive nearly as much, so the mass transit actually ends up getting used by people other than "the poors." Oh and their driver education programs are much more stringent, so they tend to be much better drivers too. Yeah. France was pretty ballin.' I'd love it if we'd take a page or two out of their transportation book.
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Jun 25, 2011 04:49
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You can't just plop down that kind of transit in suburban Los Angeles. Good transit and transit-oriented development are a bit of a positive feedback cycle.
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Jun 25, 2011 05:26
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I don't want any taxes raised, also I want our roads and highways and bridges and rails and dams fixed
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Jun 25, 2011 05:28
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bear shark posted:I don't want any taxes raised, also I want our roads and highways and bridges and rails and dams fixed Obviously we have to cut government spending and lay off our engineers and maintainers to solve these problems! 
Cichlidae fucked around with this message at 14:43 on Jun 25, 2011 |
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Jun 25, 2011 12:23
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Mandalay posted:You can't just plop down that kind of transit in suburban Los Angeles. All you need is money (a lot of money)
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Jun 25, 2011 20:52
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nm posted:They had one back in the day. Suburban LA didn't much exist back in the day, it was all citrus groves. But yeah, if they'd stuck with it, LA might have grown very differently. Edit: vvv Touché Choadmaster fucked around with this message at 08:02 on Jun 26, 2011 |
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Jun 26, 2011 00:11
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Choadmaster posted:Suburban LA didn't much exist back in the day, it was all citrus groves. But yeah, if they'd stuck with it, LA might have grown very differently. http://www.lastreetcar.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Relief_Map_Pacific_Electric_Railway.jpg Certainly not the massive clusterfuck it is now, but the network is still bigger than metrorail is now.
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Jun 26, 2011 01:15
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Silver Falcon posted:Can I come too, fellow "we're hosed" buddies? Cichlidae posted:Obviously we have to cut government spending and lay off our engineers and maintainers to solve these problems!
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Jun 26, 2011 01:35
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Mandalay posted:You can't just plop down that kind of transit in suburban Los Angeles. Good transit and transit-oriented development are a bit of a positive feedback cycle. Oh yes, I know. I've spent a great deal of time out West. Mostly Phoenix. Phoenix has similar transportation issues as L.A. However, European models of transit, especially mass transit, would work great out here (northeast). But yeah... with L.A. we really should never have let it get that bad! 
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Jun 26, 2011 01:43
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nm posted:It was pretty spread out even back in the day (1920): That's an impressive network by any modern city's standards. Back in that time, even the tiny cities around here all had pretty extensive streetcar networks. It's amazing that almost none of them had the foresight to hold on to that right-of-way. GWBBQ posted:The worst part is that I'll bet we can each name a few people who the state could do without, and they're not going to be the ones laid off. Don't even need to lay them off; given the average age of engineers here, the retirement rate is something like 10%/year. That doesn't include all of the younger engineers who leave to go join consultants because the pay is so much higher. My unit alone has lost 6 of its 30 engineers in the last 3 years, and we're mostly young guys. Layoffs will probably knock out another 6-10 of us, leaving just the 40- and 50-somethings who are nearing retirement age.
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Jun 26, 2011 02:08
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Cichlidae posted:That's an impressive network by any modern city's standards. Back in that time, even the tiny cities around here all had pretty extensive streetcar networks. It's amazing that almost none of them had the foresight to hold on to that right-of-way. There was a short movie made in the 1990's, Taken for a Ride, that claimed the mass dismantling of the American streetcar system in the 1940's was a deliberate move on the part of the US automakers to increase sales of buses and cars. It's sad that mass transit was so much more useable 70 years ago. youtube- Taken for a Ride That map of the Pacific Electric Railway is amazing. South from San Fernando all the way to Costa Mesa- that's 60 miles. From Santa Monica east all the way to San Bernadino- that's another 60 miles. Los Angeles would be so much more accessible if the rail system had been kept intact.
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Jun 26, 2011 03:56
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