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Drunk Tomato posted:The game "Cities in Motion" is on sale via Steam today for $6.75. Any other urban planner / transportation dorks have any experience with this game? Is it fun and/or a somewhat accurate representation of transportation systems? Here's our thread on it. http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3381277
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Jul 19, 2011 03:39
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Cichlidae posted:
Sure, if you think it's necessary. Per fucked around with this message at 15:04 on Jul 19, 2011 |
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Jul 19, 2011 04:39
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Danish goons
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edit: ignore this post!
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Jul 19, 2011 21:19
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Fizzle posted:Before you flee the state, I want to buy you a drink. Have we ever determined where/when we were going to have a mini traffic goon meet? I will arrange it, no worries! And Danish goons, thanks a bunch. I just sent my application out. We'll see what they make of it!
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Jul 20, 2011 01:20
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We started getting our layoff notices at work today. That was depressing.   Whenever I drive by the Capitol and Trinity intersection, I think of the fix you posted for it. I wish they could put it in. That thing is such a pain.
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Jul 20, 2011 01:37
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Hey Cichlidae, if the layoffs are avoided, will you still be planning on changing jobs?
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Jul 20, 2011 11:12
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porkfriedrice posted:Hey Cichlidae, if the layoffs are avoided, will you still be planning on changing jobs? Likely, though I'll probably stick around at least a year so I can get my PE. I'd really like to get out before five years are up so I can get back all the money I've put into retiree healthcare.
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Jul 20, 2011 12:19
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Watching the Tour de France yesterday I noticed that the in one of the overhead shots looking down on the pavement, in front of the stop lines it said "STOP". Why in English? I mean, I get that it might be hard to fit "Arretez-vous" in the same space but...?
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Jul 21, 2011 18:51
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Knockknees posted:Why in English? I mean, I get that it might be hard to fit "Arretez-vous" in the same space but...? I believe it is newer rules for uniformity throughout the EU.
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Jul 21, 2011 19:10
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Knockknees posted:Watching the Tour de France yesterday I noticed that the in one of the overhead shots looking down on the pavement, in front of the stop lines it said "STOP". "STOP" is just as well recognized in France as "ARRET" (which is more popular in Canada). While the two technically mean the same thing, "Stop" has taken on the context of driving, kind of similar to "Brake" in English. Not literally, of course, because that would be "Freiner." Internationally, the message may be in either the native language or English; many nations opt for bilingual signs.
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Jul 21, 2011 22:38
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Cichlidae, which font does your state use on signage? Here in BC (Canada) they switched to Clearview from Highway Gothic a while ago. (2006 I believe.) I thought everyone did but it seems that's not the case. Also while looking it up I found this sign that uses both typefaces on the same sign. (left) 
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Jul 21, 2011 22:41
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Connecticut still uses good old FHWA Series fonts. The scourge of Clearview has, so far, managed to stay out of New England. I WOULD prefer mileage-based exits, but that seems like a bridge too far at the moment. That photo on A20 in QC is familiar, I've driven it many times. The Clearview must be new, I don't recall it the last time I was on my way to Montreal.
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Jul 21, 2011 22:49
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kefkafloyd posted:Connecticut still uses good old FHWA Series fonts. The scourge of Clearview has, so far, managed to stay out of New England. I like Clearview. 
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Jul 21, 2011 23:12
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less than three posted:Cichlidae, which font does your state use on signage? We use the FHWA E-series font. kefkafloyd posted:I WOULD prefer mileage-based exits, but that seems like a bridge too far at the moment. I am not sure if I should go public with this, but there have been high-level talks with the FHWA recently. The decision is being pretty much made by myself and an intern for the FHWA, since we're the one compiling the costs of changing over. From the looks of things, it's going to be on the order of hundreds of millions to make our current freeways MUTCD-compliant, and tens of millions to just rivet plaques over our existing exits. Not only that, but if we go down that road, then we would have to follow the requirement that ALL of our freeway exits should be numbered. There are so many weird routes and mileage systems in the state (look at where I-691 and Route 66 meet, for example, or how Route 72's exit numbers go backward) that changing over would probably create more problems than sticking with sequential numbers.
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Jul 21, 2011 23:58
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If I wanted to look up some sort of road bible or what ever what the heck would I even search for? I basically want to research what the signage and lane painting and general construction standards are for where I live. Do handy guide books with pictures exist? I'm not even sure what to search for here. I live in BC Canada PS oh I'm an idiot this was fairly easy to find. http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&sourc...N9P0j59fWKGMVyg Baronjutter fucked around with this message at 00:10 on Jul 22, 2011 |
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Jul 22, 2011 00:06
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A tractor trailer sized moving van on the parkway hit the East Rocks Road bridge today. 
GWBBQ fucked around with this message at 03:03 on Jul 22, 2011 |
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Jul 22, 2011 00:41
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Baronjutter posted:If I wanted to look up some sort of road bible or what ever what the heck would I even search for? I basically want to research what the signage and lane painting and general construction standards are for where I live. Do handy guide books with pictures exist? I'm not even sure what to search for here. I live in BC Canada PS Yeah, most regional governments have their own standards book.Here, it's done state-by-state, with the MUTCD providing general guidelines that everyone's supposed to follow. GWBBQ posted:A tractor trailer sized moving van on the parkway hit the East Rocks Road bridge today. : toot: Not my unit, but I'll gladly give the guys across the hall poo poo about it tomorrow 
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Jul 22, 2011 02:29
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Neutrino posted:I believe it is newer rules for uniformity throughout the EU. It makes sense with English becoming/being the common language of Europe. Your options would be native language and confuse visitors, 20 languages so everybody knows, or English. Official signs in Korea are almost always in Korean and English, sometimes also Japanese.
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Jul 22, 2011 02:44
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Cichlidae posted:Not my unit, but I'll gladly give the guys across the hall poo poo about it tomorrow I counted 14 signs that say "Vehicles over 10'6" must use next exit" and 4 advising of the height warning device, which has strobes and an audible alarm. The stupid fucks in the van probably followed their GPS and would have ended up turning right into a lake if the bridge hadn't stopped them.
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Jul 22, 2011 03:07
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Grand Fromage posted:It makes sense with English becoming/being the common language of Europe. Your options would be native language and confuse visitors, 20 languages so everybody knows, or English. Official signs in Korea are almost always in Korean and English, sometimes also Japanese. An oddity in Russia is that the word on their stop signs is also STOP, but in the Cyrillic alphabet, so it's actually written "Стоп". I'm sure there's another logic behind it, but to me they'd seem to be getting the worst of both worlds by using a word alien to locals by language and to foreigners by alphabet
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Jul 22, 2011 04:20
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Saw this on mefi, thought I'd ask how goons feel about the topic: When Design Kills: The criminalization of walking http://www.metafilter.com/105753/Criminalization-of-walking http://t4america.org/blog/2011/07/18/prosecuting-the-victim-absolving-the-perpetrators/ "gently caress you for being poor and/or Black" Vanagoon fucked around with this message at 04:57 on Jul 22, 2011 |
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Jul 22, 2011 04:49
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As a counterpoint (seriously, the situations described in those articles is horrible), I submit this article from the New York Times. It's about how city planners in Europe are working to make cities as un-friendly to cars as possible.
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Jul 22, 2011 17:03
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I don't think this thread is really an appropriate place to discuss the social-political merits of pedestrian vs car culture (or the specific incident mentioned in Vanagoon's articles- check out the gassed GBS thread for that), but it is an interesting point about engineering roads to accommodate cars, bicycles and pedestrians. What is the relative ease of adding sidewalks to a road when it's constructed? Is it relatively cheap to do since all the equipment is there and workers in-place, or does it still cost millions of dollars per mile? How much does a protected crosswalk cost?
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Jul 22, 2011 18:03
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grover posted:I don't think this thread is really an appropriate place to discuss the social-political merits of pedestrian vs car culture (or the specific incident mentioned in Vanagoon's articles- check out the gassed GBS thread for that), but it is an interesting point about engineering roads to accommodate cars, bicycles and pedestrians. It's an extra 5 feet of right-of-way, and maybe $50/linear foot of concrete. That's a million bucks every four miles, not counting property acquisition or beautification.
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Jul 22, 2011 23:12
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Sent you a PM, Chiclidae. Going to see you tomorrow? If not, no big.
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Jul 23, 2011 04:08
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kefkafloyd posted:Sent you a PM, Chiclidae. Going to see you tomorrow? If not, no big. Absolutely. Look for the guy with the Sogea hat. 
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Jul 23, 2011 04:51
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grover posted:I don't think this thread is really an appropriate place to discuss the social-political merits of pedestrian vs car culture (or the specific incident mentioned in Vanagoon's articles- check out the gassed GBS thread for that), but it is an interesting point about engineering roads to accommodate cars, bicycles and pedestrians. For any construction project there are mobilization costs involved. Sometimes that is a separate bid item, other times that is included in existing bid items. Once the contractor is mobilized with equipment, workers, traffic control, erosion control, etc, then it is cheaper to add sidewalk than do it under a separate contract. In general you want to separate the public walk from the roadway instead of adding it to the back of the curb. Where we can we add a several foot grass area where trees, signs, streetlights, hydrants and the like are located. In a more urban environment we place a full walk to the back of curb but still need to make it wide enough to accommodate the appurtenances without interfering with pedestrians. The incident in Georgia highlights the need for a pedestrian crossing at the intersection adjacent to the accident scene. At a minimum, it would require zebra striping and advanced warning signs which is inexpensive and could be done for about $1,000. Flashing signals could be added to improve visibility but in her case those probably would not have helped against a drunk driver. If, by protected you mean a traffic signal, it may not be warranted even with that one incident. You generally need a history of incidents to require a traffic signal although politics can play a part in getting a signal placed when there is no major need. Nevertheless, when an incident like that happens, the city is opened up to all sorts of liability. Even with her conviction she could sue the city for failure to provide a safe crossing and probably win a very good settlement. Neutrino fucked around with this message at 14:14 on Jul 26, 2011 |
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Jul 26, 2011 14:09
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The arterials around Smyrna and Marietta are definitely lacking in pedestrian accommodations. It's not uncommon to have stretches of half a mile or more between crosswalks on busy roads full of residences and businesses, and sometimes much more; there's a fairly built-up stretch of South Cobb Drive with over a mile between crosswalks, for instance. One of the busiest intersections in the area, US 41 and Windy Hill Road, doesn't even have crosswalks or pedestrian signals, and there are many stretches of US 41 (which is one of the major commercial roads in the area) that don't even have sidewalks, including one terrifying spot between Cumberland Blvd. and Paces Mill that doesn't even have a shoulder, just a steep unfenced twenty-foot dropoff right on the edge of the travel lane on both sides. The US 41 bridge over the Chattahoochee is also terrible; no sidewalks on either side, and while the bridge itself does have a "sidewalk" of sorts on the south side, there's another dropoff and a guardrail there that make it inaccessible without walking in the right-hand lane for a hundred feet.
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Jul 28, 2011 00:29
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Neutrino posted:In general you want to separate the public walk from the roadway instead of adding it to the back of the curb. Where we can we add a several foot grass area where trees, signs, streetlights, hydrants and the like are located. In northern climes, this is also where you dump the snow. dennyk posted:The arterials around Smyrna and Marietta are definitely lacking in pedestrian accommodations. It's not uncommon to have stretches of half a mile or more between crosswalks on busy roads full of residences and businesses, and sometimes much more; there's a fairly built-up stretch of South Cobb Drive with over a mile between crosswalks, for instance. One of the busiest intersections in the area, US 41 and Windy Hill Road, doesn't even have crosswalks or pedestrian signals, and there are many stretches of US 41 (which is one of the major commercial roads in the area) that don't even have sidewalks, including one terrifying spot between Cumberland Blvd. and Paces Mill that doesn't even have a shoulder, just a steep unfenced twenty-foot dropoff right on the edge of the travel lane on both sides. The US 41 bridge over the Chattahoochee is also terrible; no sidewalks on either side, and while the bridge itself does have a "sidewalk" of sorts on the south side, there's another dropoff and a guardrail there that make it inaccessible without walking in the right-hand lane for a hundred feet. Honestly, we have several roads like this here, too. Many of them are upgraded carriage paths, so the right-of-way just isn't there. I recently had a sidewalk installation project on US 1, putting in some nice stamped concrete walks down about half a mile of the road in a downtown tourist area. Right in the middle, though, there's a wetlands area, heavily wooded. We can't build a sidewalk there, or even widen the road to make a wide shoulder, so what options do we have? There is a crosswalk at a signal, but it's a couple hundred feet away; some people will use it, but most will just walk in the shoulder.
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Jul 28, 2011 12:22
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So I'm driving out in the hellish suburbia way outside my city, it's a sort of rural/suburbia area that used to be our hick/redneck area but is now becoming full of "lifestyle centers" and the like. Anyways, what confused me was a TINY median along a long straight road. On the right was gravel and bushes, no sidewalk, on the left was a sort of sidewalk/path and houses/driveways fairly evenly spaced. The entire road was straight for almost a kilometer without any other roads intersecting it. And, for absolutely no apparent reason was a tiny, maybe 2-3m long median in the road. Why would they add this? Is it to keep drivers attentive? Some random small object for someone to hit in an otherwise long unobstructed road?? http://maps.google.com/maps?q=langf...,59.36,,0,14.17 WHY DOES THAT EXIST???
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Jul 28, 2011 22:15
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That whole area looks strange. Look at Hoffman Ave, just to the north. It doesn't connect with itself. I'd guess it was all meant to be "fancier", but budgets got pulled back.
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Jul 28, 2011 22:20
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Yeah, they tried to turn a ex-urban / rural area into a suburban area so they cut up roads to make them all awful dead-end "calmed" roads. It's extremely confusing to drive around there. A mix of dirty rural lanes, dead-end suburban masses, and jammed highways and parkways...
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Jul 28, 2011 22:52
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It looks like a median island intended for traffic calming.
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Jul 29, 2011 00:15
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Baronjutter posted:WHY DOES THAT EXIST???
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Jul 29, 2011 01:33
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Dominus Vobiscum posted:It looks like a median island intended for traffic calming. Yes, definitely for traffic calming. That looks to be a long, straight road in a residential area, and I could see speeds hitting 60 kph easily there. Narrowing the lane and introducing an obstacle, while it won't help with safety, certainly slows people down.
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Jul 29, 2011 02:59
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Baronjutter posted:WHY DOES THAT EXIST??? I think it is related to the school crossing sign and may be a school bus loading area. Typically the signs are placed before the crossing here in the US but maybe Canada is different in that respect??
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Jul 29, 2011 20:05
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Neutrino posted:I think it is related to the school crossing sign and may be a school bus loading area. Typically the signs are placed before the crossing here in the US but maybe Canada is different in that respect?? Just like in the US, Canada has different standards by municipality, region, county, provincial and federal law, so it could be something you'd only see in that city in BC. I don't recall seeing something like that in Ontario, but we also don't do schizophrenic street layouts like that very often either.
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Jul 30, 2011 08:29
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Millstone posted:Just like in the US, Canada has different standards by municipality, region, county, provincial and federal law, so it could be something you'd only see in that city in BC. I don't recall seeing something like that in Ontario, but we also don't do schizophrenic street layouts like that very often either. Speaking of Canadian road signs, what is the second language used on the distance signs in BC? I think it's a Native/First Nations language. When did BC decide to put both names on the signs?
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Aug 1, 2011 04:07
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BuckT.Trend posted:Speaking of Canadian road signs, what is the second language used on the distance signs in BC? I think it's a Native/First Nations language. When did BC decide to put both names on the signs? I'm not sure but we don't normally put it on signs. It was an exception.
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Aug 1, 2011 04:50
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less than three posted:I'm not sure but we don't normally put it on signs. It was an exception. On a recent trip from Seattle to Whistler, every distance sign I saw had both English and the Native word for the location. That's why I was curious.
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Aug 2, 2011 04:09
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