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Right when I graduated from college I used to work down the road on Industrial Drive (right by the Milton Bradley and now Hasbro plant) and the thing about that intersection is that it's not even a proper rotary/roundabout, it's a mishmash of intersections with differing right of way rules. Some are stops, others are yields, it's an absolute mess. If they turned it into a true roundabout (not gonna happen) then 95% of the issues would be solved, but I don't think there's space to fix the geometry. quote:Also, I grew up in Longmeadow and went to college in Worcester. That point of the turnpike where it goes down to 2 lanes (each way) right after the I-84 connection is not cool, especially when the only times you travel on it are massive holiday traffic. It's actually worse heading east on the 3-lane part with all of the traffic from I-84 going towards Boston. Nothing like 10 MPH bumper to bumper traffic on a major (toll!) highway to encourage you to stay in Worcester and party over break. yup, that merge is awful. It really ought to be four lanes from 84 to 290 in both directions. Two lanes can peel off and on with no merges. It really should be three lanes from I-91 to I-84 but I doubt that will ever happen during my lifetime. Now that I live near Boston, visiting my parents for holidays is often a chore. I could take Route 2, but that has its own set of problems.
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Jun 7, 2012 19:54
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While I'm going on about the rear end end of the turnpike: Where are the freaking lights on the side of the road? When there isn't crazy traffic jams, that whole stretch of road is pitch black.
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Jun 7, 2012 20:48
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We had some decent thunderstorms roll through yesterday. Lots of lightning, lots of fun power stuff during the peak of it, plus some hail. With the added bonus of a very expensive sounding "hummmmBZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZAPKABOOM" from a transformer nearby, coupled with the lights going off for a couple of seconds. Anyway, after the storm, I noticed about 1/2 of the traffic lights around campus and downtown were flashing red, instead of reverting to normal. What caused this? I would think if there had been a nasty surge, everything in that immediate area would have been fried. But it seemed pretty random which lights were affected. I'm assuming since they were flashing red in all directions, the conflict monitor got involved somehow, right?
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Jun 8, 2012 00:43
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WrecklessSandwich posted:This goddamn rotary thing in East Longmeadow. Please help. I am familiar with this, uh, "traffic area." What else are you going to do with 7 roads coming together in the middle of a town? You can't build bypasses, you can't build a traffic circle big enough to hit all the approaches, the volumes are too high to close half the legs, there's no way you can grade-separate, and there are pedestrians, which makes life even harder. Pave the whole thing over and put up signs that say "enter at your own risk." some texas redneck posted:We had some decent thunderstorms roll through yesterday. Lots of lightning, lots of fun power stuff during the peak of it, plus some hail. With the added bonus of a very expensive sounding "hummmmBZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZAPKABOOM" from a transformer nearby, coupled with the lights going off for a couple of seconds. Something probably got damaged by a power surge. At that point, yes, the CMU would kick in. Unless the CMU gets fried; you're short on luck in that case.
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Jun 8, 2012 01:26
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WrecklessSandwich posted:While I'm going on about the rear end end of the turnpike: Where are the freaking lights on the side of the road? When there isn't crazy traffic jams, that whole stretch of road is pitch black. Rural highways tend not to have roadside lighting. It can actually be counterproductive in some cases. It wouldn't be as much of a problem if they actually gave a poo poo about striping and maintaining said stripes. Without good reflective stripes, your sight distances at night go down considerably. Massachusetts is, predictably, terrible at maintaining stripes. kefkafloyd fucked around with this message at 12:44 on Jun 8, 2012 |
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Jun 8, 2012 12:36
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http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/texas-highway-first-allow-85-mph-speed-limit-154924311.html Is there a national guideline on whether 85 is "safe"?
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Jun 8, 2012 19:58
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Mandalay posted:http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/texas-highway-first-allow-85-mph-speed-limit-154924311.html  I can't wait until all 55mph freeways are marked realistically.
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Jun 8, 2012 21:20
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Cichlidae posted:I am familiar with this, uh, "traffic area." What else are you going to do with 7 roads coming together in the middle of a town? You can't build bypasses, you can't build a traffic circle big enough to hit all the approaches, the volumes are too high to close half the legs, there's no way you can grade-separate, and there are pedestrians, which makes life even harder. Ah, the Italian approach. 
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Jun 8, 2012 21:54
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Hah, I knew where that was before even clicking your maps link. Driving in Italy is pretty universally inferior to its northern neighbors, from the Autostrada to the countryside.
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Jun 8, 2012 22:06
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Mandalay posted:http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/texas-highway-first-allow-85-mph-speed-limit-154924311.html In some cars, you can go 120+ without any ill consequences. Drivers need to know their own limits, and the limits of their equipment. John Dough posted:Ah, the Italian approach. Being as it's Italy, my wager would be that those pavement markings are purely for decoration.
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Jun 8, 2012 22:47
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Cichlidae posted:Being as it's Italy, my wager would be that those pavement markings are purely for decoration. * I love driving in Italy. They drive like I wish I could in the US, but would get arrested or killed if I tried.
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Jun 9, 2012 01:01
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rednocare posted:When roundabouts go dumb: Highway in Australia just means a major road that connects towns, cities or suburbs. It's not a motorway or freeway, it's just a highway (or major carriageway). The choice of roundabouts are smart. Better than having an intersection controlled by signs, or by traffic lights. It's not even that fast of a road, only 80KM/h.
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Jun 9, 2012 07:38
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Cichlidae posted:Clearly that segment isn't meant to be a freeway. They're planning to build up some development there, it seems. "Some development" is right. It's one of the major growth corridor of South East Queensland and the road was more about providing a serviceable route than being a true replacement for the Ipswich Mwy alignment. The right of way is preserved, and once development springs up along the route it will be upgraded as necessary. Incidentally, the Ipswich Mwy to the north was massively upgraded over the last 5 years or so along with a heap of other infrastructure improvements in the area. For a quick overview, I've cut some pages from a development prospectus which features some of the SEQ Infrastructure Plan and Ipswich Regional Council documentation: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/696628/Western%20Growth%20Corridor.pdf exo fucked around with this message at 02:35 on Jun 11, 2012 |
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Jun 11, 2012 02:32
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Quote is not edit.
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Jun 11, 2012 02:33
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Here is a new addition to our interchange bestiary: A Two-Level Signalized Intersection, growing in popularity in China. The footprint, as you can see, is pretty small, and the only conflicting movements are left turns. It was noted that these don't do so well when there are uneven volumes on the two through movements, but otherwise, they have impressive throughput. As for safety, I don't think it's all that good. Unprotected lefts across 3 lanes, no good place for pedestrians, and sharp right-turn radii. In other news, I'm working on a reconstruction for this little "interchange": http://binged.it/KGe6vH The signing plan has over 150 sign panels. Fuckkkkkk!
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Jun 13, 2012 21:48
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I love unprotected lefts but drat that is a long distance to traverse given that you can't just camp up next to the orthogonal path forward (because of the conflicting left). Also, what about bike safety? Seems important given that it's China.
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Jun 14, 2012 00:19
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Mandalay posted:Also, what about bike safety? Seems important given that it's China. "Safety" doesn't seem important in China.
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Jun 14, 2012 00:20
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It's not like they're short of people, after all.
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Jun 14, 2012 02:30
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Okay, how about bike throughput?
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Jun 14, 2012 02:46
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Mandalay posted:Okay, how about bike throughput? Honestly, I'm not entirely up to date on bike volumes in China, but last I saw they outnumbered motor vehicles. Once you have that kind of bike density, you just stick 2 to a lane and act like a car. Ideally, if we were very concerned about safety and wanted high throughput as well, we'd have a completely separate bike roadway network. Design standards for bicycles are understandably much simpler than those for cars; they can accelerate and decelerate in a shorter distance, have a lower top speed, and don't need 12-foot lanes. It makes a lot of sense to give them their own bikeways.
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Jun 14, 2012 03:02
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Cichlidae posted:
As someone who lives near that "interchange" and avoids that part of town because of it, I can't wait to see what you come up with! Also, this thread has been amazing and it's incredible that you've kept up with it, thank you for a good read!
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Jun 14, 2012 03:55
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Cars are everywhere in China now, I barely saw any bikes in Beijing. Also no one cares about traffic laws or safety in Asia so it doesn't matter. Maybe they do in Japan but not anywhere I've been. http://beijingcream.com/2012/05/the-basics-of-driving-in-china-a-diagram/
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Jun 14, 2012 03:56
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Just came across this photo of my old home city. Neat use of forced-perspective on a bike path where there's been a lot of bike-pedestrian accidents. The area ahead where the green bollards are is a pedestrian crossing with a ferry terminal on the left and the walkway through to the city university on the right. The bike path is a the major cycling thoroughfare into the CBD.
exo fucked around with this message at 13:10 on Jun 14, 2012 |
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Jun 14, 2012 13:08
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Stargle posted:As someone who lives near that "interchange" and avoids that part of town because of it, I can't wait to see what you come up with! I'll post some plans once I get around to putting all of those signs in CAD. Basically, we're taking out Route 1o bridge over 322, realigning the Old Turnpike/10 intersection, widen the Old Turnpike/322 intersection, remove the little Norton Street ramp, make a signal between 10 and 322, and put turning lanes everywhere. Magic! Grand Fromage posted:Cars are everywhere in China now, I barely saw any bikes in Beijing. Also no one cares about traffic laws or safety in Asia so it doesn't matter. Maybe they do in Japan but not anywhere I've been. Reading those diagrams, it all makes such vivid sense. exo posted:Just came across this photo of my old home city. Neat use of forced-perspective on a bike path where there's been a lot of bike-pedestrian accidents. The area ahead where the green bollards are is a pedestrian crossing with a ferry terminal on the left and the walkway through to the city university on the right. The bike path is a the major cycling thoroughfare into the CBD. Awesome; I tried to get them to put similar trompe l'oeil markings on the Busway, since there was no room to mount signs, but Maintenance refused to re-paint them if we did. Can I see it from the other direction?
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Jun 15, 2012 00:49
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Cichlidae posted:Reading those diagrams, it all makes such vivid sense. The original blog has some more fun traffic stuff too. A video of a Beijing left: http://soimgoingtochina.blogspot.kr/2009/07/live-action-left-turn-2009-beijing.html And the Chinese Dragon, which is new to me--this one isn't done in Korea as far as I've seen. http://soimgoingtochina.blogspot.kr/2007/08/oh-what-hey-one-last-traffic-graphic.html
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Jun 15, 2012 01:03
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If you want to see some magic, the next time I'm in China I'll try and record how they intermix "optional" lights on a semi-busy street (only 4 lanes each way) while having half the intersection closed due to construction as well as pedestrians crossing whenever they feel like it (pausing between vehicles even), and scooters going every direction (mostly the wrong way) in Wuhan, China. Much more insane traffic than Shanghai or Beijing. Oh, and everyone uses everything else as a shield. Have a scooter crossing? Once he jumps in front of a car, all the peds start crossing too, even if huge amount of traffic traveling at high speeds. The cars will either stop, hit you, or go around you without slowing down. And yeah, bikes in most cities have fallen off. Scooters are the #1 mode of transportation now.
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Jun 15, 2012 01:16
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Grand Fromage posted:
Huh, this "Chinese Dragon" is basically an emerging-behavior, driver-created Continuous Flow Intersection (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuous-flow_intersection), where left-turning vehicles cross oncoming traffic to turn left from the very left side of the road. Very interesting that drivers can come up with these efficient solutions organically.
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Jun 15, 2012 07:59
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Grand Fromage posted:The original blog has some more fun traffic stuff too. A video of a Beijing left: I'd be very interested in seeing how intersection capacity in China compares to here.
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Jun 15, 2012 12:29
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Crossposted from AI's stupid poo poo thread: is this even legal? Speaking of which, why aren't speed bumps universally banned in favor of much safer (and less damaging) speed control measures? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UB9gA9Af5Tw grover fucked around with this message at 20:41 on Jun 15, 2012 |
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Jun 15, 2012 18:39
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They're facing some tough engineering challenge with widening the A27 Ring Utrecht East here in the Netherlands. We're looking at going from just under 200k AADT towards 300k in the next couple of decades so there will have to be at least another two full lanes in each direction (they're already doing a temporary widening from 4-4 to 4-6) and a partial rebuild of the Rijnsweerd and Lunetten interchanges. All on the cheap of course. The problem is that they A: built the freeway in a concrete trench back in the 80s next to the Amelisweerd protected area, so it'll be super expensive to widen. And B: 'solved' sky-high construction costs towards Lunetten interchange by building the road in an open cut with a polyvinylchloride blocking sheet underneath to avoid permanent mechanical drainage. The sheeting can't be perforated during construction because the entire road would flood but they think they can add a maximum of 16m on each side of the current embankments by walling and flooding them to provide downwards pressure against the swelling groundwater while building heavy underwater concrete slabs as a roadbed. Super low-risk solution! Those railway bridges can't be widened as much though. Luckily the sheets are anchored to the bridges and don't continue underneath them so a couple of new bridge supports can be added but maximum width will be 10,5m so no hard shoulders. Seeing as how the A28w - A27s and vice versa is the most important link here how would you roughly distribute traffic loads through this corridor Cich?
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Jun 15, 2012 18:40
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grover posted:Crossposted from AI's stupid poo poo thread: is this even legal? Speaking of which, why aren't speed bumps universally banned in favor of much safer (and less damaging) speed control measures? Wow that's bad. There aren't many legal standards for speed bumps and it looks like that's a private driveway which wouldn't necessarily be held to those standards anyways, so it's probably legal unfortunately (IANAL and all though). That said, a good lawyer would probably be able to make a case for damage to a lower-riding vehicle because it is an idiotic design. Whoever decided to put that in needs to never be allowed near a driving surface again though.
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Jun 15, 2012 20:13
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grover posted:Crossposted from AI's stupid poo poo thread: is this even legal? Speaking of which, why aren't speed bumps universally banned in favor of much safer (and less damaging) speed control measures? Must be near an auto body shop. Why not just drop a big rock in the middle of the road? That will slow people down! I'd love to ban speed bumps, I really would. In the meantime, just honk whenever you drive over one. Honk twice if it's late at night or early in the morning. With any luck, it'll be taken out soon. Koesj posted:Seeing as how the A28w - A27s and vice versa is the most important link here how would you roughly distribute traffic loads through this corridor Cich? If that land to the east of A27 is protected (looks like there are a couple of castles/forts there), it's untouchable, so any improvements need to be to the west. The intersection of Waterlinieweg and A28 will be critical during construction. A flyover in the WB>SB direction would divert ~50k cars, provided there's enough capacity downstream. ----- Everyone likes to design SimCity-style "ideal road networks", but almost all of them I've seen are orthogonal. I decided to try something different, and I like how it turned out. I'll be playing with it in detail in VISSIM for a while, but in the meantime, have a look:  Black = freeway Cyan = ramp/frontage road Dark blue = divided arterial Red = collector The scale is about 2 km between interchanges on the freeways, or signals every 500m on the arterials.
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Jun 15, 2012 20:22
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That is, uh, a lot of freeways. Even LA doesn't have that kind of freeway density.
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Jun 15, 2012 20:38
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I really like that. Looks like it would have a lot of self-healing around accidents and construction, too.
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Jun 15, 2012 20:42
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Mandalay posted:That is, uh, a lot of freeways. Even LA doesn't have that kind of freeway density. You can scale it up or down as needed; that's the most dense, downtown area, and the central hexagon is 4km wide. Put three or four arterials per freeway if you want, but the capacity drops accordingly.
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Jun 15, 2012 20:45
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Cichlidae posted:
I wish I could get some next to my house. What used to be a driveway to get to my house was turned into an unofficial road by the city, so sometimes I have people doing 30+ MPH next to my house, which is only 2 feet from the road. And my bed is only 3 feet away from that wall everyone is driving next to. Is there another solution you could think of that would work to slow people down? I've tried the police, but that only works when they see them. As soon as they are gone, everyone is back to doing the same thing all over again.
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Jun 15, 2012 22:05
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Goontastic posted:I wish I could get some next to my house. What used to be a driveway to get to my house was turned into an unofficial road by the city, so sometimes I have people doing 30+ MPH next to my house, which is only 2 feet from the road. And my bed is only 3 feet away from that wall everyone is driving next to. Put up a physical barrier so that people can't use the road to get between other roads. If you had a speed bump I assure you there'd be a lot more noise from people going over that then has been made merely from them going 25 mph instead of 30 mph.
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Jun 15, 2012 22:09
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Is this your personal property? If so, put out a couple of warning signs and a spike strip.
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Jun 15, 2012 22:24
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Cichlidae posted:You can scale it up or down as needed; that's the most dense, downtown area, and the central hexagon is 4km wide. Would you mind if I used that design for a RPG session, it feels so "FUTURE DESIGNED MEGACITY OF THE 22nd Century" and it looks awesome.
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Jun 15, 2012 22:32
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Install Gentoo posted:Put up a physical barrier so that people can't use the road to get between other roads. It was for me and and the back way to a few houses on my street. The city has taken it over and maintains it once every year or two, so I doubt a barrier would work. It's not really the speed that's loud, it's people basically flooring it as soon as then do a 90 degree turn onto it, which I'm right next to.
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Jun 15, 2012 22:53
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