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Why aren't there more of those plastic lane seperators to prevent jerkhole commuters who drive all the way I'm a very empty lane and try to do a last minute lane change pissing off everyone and just slowing down traffic for everyone
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Apr 12, 2012 19:52
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EVIR Gibson posted:Why aren't there more of those plastic lane seperators to prevent jerkhole commuters who drive all the way I'm a very empty lane and try to do a last minute lane change pissing off everyone and just slowing down traffic for everyone Because they'd just merge in at the last minute at the end of the separator. You're only moving the problem downstream, not solving it. The only ways to keep people from cutting like that are: 1) Nobody lets them in 2) Cops give them tickets, which can't really be done since they're not breaking a law 3) Get rid of the congestion's root cause 4) Rocket launchers
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Apr 12, 2012 23:10
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When I was in Germany, people seemed really good about following rules and being courteous on the road. I'm not sure how they do it over there.
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Apr 12, 2012 23:17
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Mandalay posted:When I was in Germany, people seemed really good about following rules and being courteous on the road. I'm not sure how they do it over there. Excellent driver's education, expensive Führerscheine, and heavy fines for violation. There's a lot you'll get ticketed for in Germany than in the US: tailgating, traveling in the left lane, using fog lights when it's not foggy...
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Apr 12, 2012 23:24
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Cichlidae posted:Excellent driver's education, expensive Führerscheine, and heavy fines for violation. There's a lot you'll get ticketed for in Germany than in the US: tailgating, traveling in the left lane, using fog lights when it's not foggy... Also if you break down on the road you get fined for not properly maintaining your car
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Apr 13, 2012 03:48
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Cichlidae posted:4) Rocket launchers quote:I think it's getting worse. I'm talking about this habit people have of driving on highways in the left, or "passing", lane despite the fact that they aren't passing anybody. You used to see this mainly in a few abnormal areas, particularly Miami, where it is customary for everyone to drive according to laws of his or her country of origin. But now you see it everywhere: drivers who are not passing, who have clearly never passed anybody in their entire lives, squatting in the left lane, clogging up the transportation arteries of our very nation.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=DPW5uEm-5lI
GWBBQ fucked around with this message at 08:53 on Apr 13, 2012 |
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Apr 13, 2012 07:40
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Mandalay posted:When I was in Germany, people seemed really good about following rules and being courteous on the road. I'm not sure how they do it over there. Getting a license is a huge pain in the rear end and costs like thousands of dollars. Fear rules the roads.
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Apr 13, 2012 08:55
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My wife and I just came back from our honeymoon in North America. We were due to drive from Toronto up to Quebec City and back for a little road trip (I don't drive so it was all on her). After seeing how people drive over there, she was all nervous, and bailed on the plan and we stayed in Toronto all week instead. It was the same when we got to New York the week after. We couldn't believe how mental everything was. People overtaking in any lane they wanted. No hierachy of slower lanes leading up to faster lanes for overtaking. People doing all sorts of poo poo at the wheel that if anybody did in Europe they'd get hosed for and massively glared at by all and sundry. Turn right on red scared the crap out of us, as pedestrians. It was definitely an experience...
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Apr 13, 2012 09:54
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thehustler posted:My wife and I just came back from our honeymoon in North America. We were due to drive from Toronto up to Quebec City and back for a little road trip (I don't drive so it was all on her). After seeing how people drive over there, she was all nervous, and bailed on the plan and we stayed in Toronto all week instead. You don't mention which country you're from, but I assume it's not in southern or eastern Europe. People there drive way crazier than Americans. Try Istanbul or Athens, for example. But the bright side is, you get used to it! You'll be just as bad yourself after a few weeks in that environment.
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Apr 13, 2012 11:38
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thehustler posted:My wife and I just came back from our honeymoon in North America. We were due to drive from Toronto up to Quebec City and back for a little road trip (I don't drive so it was all on her). After seeing how people drive over there, she was all nervous, and bailed on the plan and we stayed in Toronto all week instead. To be fair, New York and Toronto aren't exactly representative examples of North American driving. Once you get out in the countryside, things are considerably calmer, and the drivers aren't as aggressive. They're just as stupid, though. I've been spending 10 hours a day doing VISSIM these past three weeks, and it looks like that's not ending anytime soon: the High Speed Rail guys want me to simulate every grade crossing along the New Haven - Springfield line so they can run trains through at 110 mph.
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Apr 13, 2012 12:30
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Sorry, we're from the UK. Edit: Also New Jersey we were in as well, on the highways, out in the sticks. Hippie Hedgehog posted:You don't mention which country you're from, but I assume it's not in southern or eastern Europe. People there drive way crazier than Americans. Try Istanbul or Athens, for example. But the bright side is, you get used to it! You'll be just as bad yourself after a few weeks in that environment. This is also a fair point. They're mental there. Maybe we're just good with rules. We like rules. thehustler fucked around with this message at 12:36 on Apr 13, 2012 |
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Apr 13, 2012 12:33
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EVIR Gibson posted:Why aren't there more of those plastic lane seperators to prevent jerkhole commuters who drive all the way I'm a very empty lane and try to do a last minute lane change pissing off everyone and just slowing down traffic for everyone Traffic flows best if all lanes are used all the way to the merging point. Merging early slows down traffic for everyone.
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Apr 13, 2012 12:44
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Cichlidae posted:To be fair, New York and Toronto aren't exactly representative examples of North American driving. Once you get out in the countryside, things are considerably calmer, and the drivers aren't as aggressive. They're just as stupid, though. Best drivers I've ever mingled with are in Chicago - fast, aggressive, cognizant. The people in Dallas were pretty spot on, too. I'd swap Chicago's drivers for KC's any day. They've been working their asses off around here the last 10 years to remove all grade crossings and make them over/unders.
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Apr 13, 2012 15:13
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thehustler posted:My wife and I just came back from our honeymoon in North America. We were due to drive from Toronto up to Quebec City and back for a little road trip (I don't drive so it was all on her). After seeing how people drive over there, she was all nervous, and bailed on the plan and we stayed in Toronto all week instead. It's different elsewhere; I drove ms.melt and I from San Francisco to Sacramento, then up rt50 to Lake Tahoe. The freeway was really easy-going, despite at one point noticing it was 12 lanes. Central SF was strange at first - hills and an automatic... where's the f*cking handbrake?! Cichlidae posted:To be fair, New York and Toronto aren't exactly representative examples of North American driving. Once you get out in the countryside, things are considerably calmer, and the drivers aren't as aggressive. They're just as stupid, though. Yeah, I think we get that here on a localised basis in the UK too. The M1 has good drivers, the M6 is a hellzone of Range Rover drivers. meltie fucked around with this message at 18:27 on Apr 13, 2012 |
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Apr 13, 2012 18:24
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Another crane fell over at the Moses Wheeler Bridge construction site. Most sites are saying injuries unknown, but a local news guy who has a scanner says EMTs reported the operator was "shaken, but not injured" and only taken to the hospital to be checked out. http://stratford.patch.com/articles/crane-accident-reported-behind-stop-shop
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Apr 14, 2012 19:25
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Hippie Hedgehog posted:You don't mention which country you're from, but I assume it's not in southern or eastern Europe. People there drive way crazier than Americans. I recently drove an American colleague to his hotel, from a town nearby. Going 80 on a two-lane motorway (well, two lanes going every way, so 4 in total) during a thunderstorm, overtaking trucks that ALWAYS block the right lane was...an experience for him. (*) (*) He didn't die
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Apr 16, 2012 10:34
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meltie posted:the M6 is a hellzone of Range Rover drivers. Cheshire 
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Apr 16, 2012 11:42
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EVIR Gibson posted:Why aren't there more of those plastic lane seperators to prevent jerkhole commuters who drive all the way I'm a very empty lane and try to do a last minute lane change pissing off everyone and just slowing down traffic for everyone Which is how you're meant to merge. Use the whole lane and take it in turns. More efficient use of roadspace. Zip merging.
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Apr 18, 2012 07:47
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DogGunn posted:Which is how you're meant to merge. Use the whole lane and take it in turns. More efficient use of roadspace. Zip merging. The tricky part is when it's an exit-only lane, not a merge. Queues in the second lane are disruptive to through traffic. If there's a third lane, some rear end in a top hat will inevitably block that, too. It's a lose-lose.
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Apr 18, 2012 12:25
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DogGunn posted:Which is how you're meant to merge. Use the whole lane and take it in turns. More efficient use of roadspace. Zip merging. Oh, you mean it's not "oh my god the right lane ends 7 miles up the road, better go camp in the left lane where it's safe and warm" ?
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Apr 18, 2012 18:04
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GWBBQ posted:Another crane fell over at the Moses Wheeler Bridge construction site. Most sites are saying injuries unknown, but a local news guy who has a scanner says EMTs reported the operator was "shaken, but not injured" and only taken to the hospital to be checked out. Some fun news about that project: Due to the Contractor's problems, the DOT has put the project on hold. The two cranes toppling are just the latest problem. Months ago, the Contractor made a huge gently caress-up: while preparing to pour a concrete column, they had placed the rebar cage upright, guyed it, and then built the wooden formwork around it. For reference, formwork is 70% of the cost of concrete construction. Well, some genius decided to cut the guys before the concrete was poured. The rebar cage toppled, crushing all the formwork. That's an "oh, gently caress!" moment for sure.
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Apr 20, 2012 22:15
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How feasible is it for the US to adopt "no speed limit" for interstates outside of the cities?
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Apr 20, 2012 22:51
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HotCarl posted:How feasible is it for the US to adopt "no speed limit" for interstates outside of the cities? Feasible? No problem. Legally defensible? No way. They'd get sued for every single accident, regardless of whether speed was at fault.
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Apr 20, 2012 23:08
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Cichlidae posted:Feasible? No problem. Legally defensible? No way. They'd get sued for every single accident, regardless of whether speed was at fault. Well, the German state does it somehow..
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Apr 20, 2012 23:30
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Mandalay posted:Well, the German state does it somehow.. German law != American law. Also, I've had Germans tell me that they love driving fast cars quickly like Americans love guns. If Americans had the same opinion, we'd enact the necessary laws to make it happen.
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Apr 20, 2012 23:40
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Mandalay posted:Well, the German state does it somehow.. Perhaps Germany has sovereign immunity. I know we've waived ours in Connecticut, because we get sued for every little thing. The most recent occurrence was when a tree fell on someone's car on the Merritt Parkway; we inspect the trees regularly, but it had rotted in the meantime and fell over.
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Apr 20, 2012 23:41
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Mandalay posted:Well, the German state does it somehow.. They also have extremely strict enforcement of traffic laws. I feel like a lot of Americans would freak out if they suddenly got hit with an avalanche of tickets for the kind of stupid poo poo they get away with all the time. It's not just the "Drive as fast as you feel comfortable going, while getting out of the left lane if someone is going faster than you" fantasy that a lot of people seem to have.
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Apr 21, 2012 04:23
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Crackpipe posted:They also have extremely strict enforcement of traffic laws. I feel like a lot of Americans would freak out if they suddenly got hit with an avalanche of tickets for the kind of stupid poo poo they get away with all the time. Idiot driver: Oh no, one of my headlights is out. I'll just drive around at night using my hi-beams in an urban area.  Me, driving a crush-loaded 40ft transit bus in front of the guy:
Varance fucked around with this message at 07:39 on Apr 21, 2012 |
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Apr 21, 2012 04:46
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Varance posted:As a professional driver, I say gently caress 'em. 1 in 10 drivers around where I am can't even bother to fix burnt out headlights/taillights, let alone drive properly. Could always be worse! A ton of people around here have cheapo "HID kits" that are basically blue or pink high-beams they keep on ALL THE TIME. I really wish those guys would get ticketed; it's startling to come over a hill and get blinded with blue light. One of my coworkers is among the guilty, and I've tried to explain to him why it's a bad idea: the beam reflectors aren't configured for that type of bulb, blue lights are illegal, HIDs don't actually help you see better at night because they don't provide good illumination near the vehicle, they work havoc on approaching drivers' night vision, all that good stuff. "But dude, they look awesome!"
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Apr 21, 2012 14:41
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All the MA State Troopers have super bright LEDs on their flashing lights now, and it's been suggested that it had actually led to more crashes because you really can't see poo poo especially if there is an officer standing there or not. They're too bright and I have to agree, I can't see anything near the vehicle with them on as I'm driving towards them.
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Apr 21, 2012 14:54
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Cichlidae posted:Could always be worse! A ton of people around here have cheapo "HID kits" that are basically blue or pink high-beams they keep on ALL THE TIME. I really wish those guys would get ticketed; it's startling to come over a hill and get blinded with blue light. Were you cut loose like a deuce, another runner in the night?
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Apr 21, 2012 22:10
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Cichlidae posted:One of my coworkers is among the guilty, and I've tried to explain to him why it's a bad idea: the beam reflectors aren't configured for that type of bulb, blue lights are illegal, HIDs don't actually help you see better at night because they don't provide good illumination near the vehicle, they work havoc on approaching drivers' night vision, all that good stuff. Those bulbs are generally made by just blue-tinting regular bulbs, which of course means they're actually less bright overall! What's worse, shorter wavelengths of light (blue, purple) scatter far more easily - hence the sky is blue. This applies in the lens and vitreous humor in the human eye, too, so more blue = more unavoidable glare and haze for both the user and oncoming drivers (one night look carefully at a neon "Open" sign at a local business - you'll notice the red neon is fairly sharp, while the blue neon has an obvious halo/glare). Throw rain/snow/fog into the mix and you're really loving over yourself and everyone else on the road...
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Apr 21, 2012 23:28
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kapinga posted:German law != American law. Montana used to have "reasonable and prudent" as the maximum daytime speed up to 1999. This was judged to be in conflict with the Montana constitution since it was so vague.
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Apr 22, 2012 00:08
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BrooklynBruiser posted:Were you cut loose like a deuce, another runner in the night? My god, have song references infiltrated all aspects of our society? Choadmaster posted:What's worse, shorter wavelengths of light (blue, purple) scatter far more easily - hence the sky is blue. This applies in the lens and vitreous humor in the human eye, too, so more blue = more unavoidable glare and haze for both the user and oncoming drivers (one night look carefully at a neon "Open" sign at a local business - you'll notice the red neon is fairly sharp, while the blue neon has an obvious halo/glare). Throw rain/snow/fog into the mix and you're really loving over yourself and everyone else on the road... I didn't even mention all the people I see with aftermarket blue fog lights. It used to get a chuckle out of me, but by now it's just sad.
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Apr 22, 2012 00:27
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Jasper Tin Neck posted:Montana used to have "reasonable and prudent" as the maximum daytime speed up to 1999. This was judged to be in conflict with the Montana constitution since it was so vague. That guy who sued over what was a $50 ticket (as I recall) is an rear end in a top hat who ruined it for everyone.
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Apr 22, 2012 00:29
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Choadmaster posted:What's worse, shorter wavelengths of light (blue, purple) scatter far more easily - hence the sky is blue. This applies in the lens and vitreous humor in the human eye, too, so more blue = more unavoidable glare and haze for both the user and oncoming drivers (one night look carefully at a neon "Open" sign at a local business - you'll notice the red neon is fairly sharp, while the blue neon has an obvious halo/glare). Throw rain/snow/fog into the mix and you're really loving over yourself and everyone else on the road... Combine this with the portion of the public with an astigmatism that causes lights to halo at night and especially while raining.
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Apr 22, 2012 04:03
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Cichlidae posted:Perhaps Germany has sovereign immunity. I know we've waived ours in Connecticut, because we get sued for every little thing. The most recent occurrence was when a tree fell on someone's car on the Merritt Parkway; we inspect the trees regularly, but it had rotted in the meantime and fell over. Jasper Tin Neck posted:Montana used to have "reasonable and prudent" as the maximum daytime speed up to 1999. This was judged to be in conflict with the Montana constitution since it was so vague.
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Apr 22, 2012 05:37
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Pretty good article in the Courant about one of the spans of the new Q bridge that will be opening soon: http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-green-new-haven-q-bridge-20120421,0,6916987.column I haven't been following the thread so I'm unsure if this is one of your projects or even your district.
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Apr 22, 2012 06:04
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GWBBQ posted:When they made the limit "reasonable and prudent," fatalities were halved. When they went back to numerical limits, fatalities doubled. The best definition I read was from the highway patrol and went something like "If we see Mario Andretti doing 200 per in a Ferarri F50, we won't pull him over. But Joe Blow in a rusted-out '73 Chevy pickup doing 80 is going to get a ticket." Basically same rules as the Autobahn. But Americans are stupid.
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Apr 22, 2012 06:22
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Bad Angus! Bad!
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Cichlidae posted:My god, have song references infiltrated all aspects of our society? He even got the lyrics wrong. When I bought my car that has (legitimate) super bright headlights believe me I reveled in finally being That rear end in a top hat. Particularly because I've usually driven smaller cars that are low enough to the ground that SUV/Truck headlights are shining directly into my eyes. Mine are also cool and adaptive 
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Apr 22, 2012 06:41
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