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Cichlidae posted:Each state interprets the standards differently, it seems. Our interpretation used to require lights, and our oldest sign supports have sealed conduit holes from the old days. For the last couple decades, at least, we say that, if the signs are properly retroreflective, they don't need lighting. Our overhead signs have reflective buttons, and are regularly inspected, so lighting would be a waste. I need to take a drive up the Hardy Toll Road because I'm pretty sure it has the last button copy in abundance in the state of Texas and probably the southern United States. Texas has been zealous in getting rid of overhead lighting and more recently Highway Gothic signs.
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Jan 12, 2013 06:13
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Hey Cichlidae, I see not only you're here in CT, but you were working on the busway! How is that going? I haven't heard anything about it in a while.(although on the plus side it also means I haven't heard/read people complaining about their taxes being on gross buses) Is Hartford-New Britain essentially the whole scheme, or is the busway eventually supposed to reach further down? Also any news on the goings of the New Haven-Springfield line or is that outside your area? e: Also, do you know of the Downtown Crossing project in New Haven? As someone who actually does this stuff for a living do you think it is as atrocious as us cycling/walking people think it is?  I need to get out of the NYC-New Haven area more, sometimes I forget these things exist. I get spoiled here in New Haven, especially as a cyclist. Yeah we have plenty of terrible infrastructure, including the infamous highway to nowhere, but by American standards it's pretty decent here. I should've expected off the bat that pic to have a good chance of being from Florida, but it's fabulous though that pic is not only from Florida but from Tampa as well. My friend is currently in Tampa and when she called the other day we were actually discussing this. She was sitting on some bench at a little man made pond by the road and she was commenting on how just utterly alone she felt because there was just this vast boulevard of traffic and absolutely no people actually not in a car around despite being in a "busy" area. Amused to Death fucked around with this message at 08:20 on Jan 12, 2013 |
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Jan 12, 2013 07:44
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Cichlidae posted:How do those develop their numbers? Doing things proportionally is one thing, but then you've got to take into account geometry, location, speeds, all that stuff. For example, the volumes going from 91 NB to 2 EB are lower than proportions would suggest, because most of that traffic would've taken the Putnam Bridge instead. The ramp from 91 NB to 15 SB has a 15 mph advisory speed and is super uncomfortable, so cars tend to take local road connections instead. That sort of thing. Well basically each edge is going to have a set of variables, and you have a function that describes each node. Usually you're doing computer stuff with it like bandwidth, latency, availability, available capacity, pricing, but all of those things have analogs in traffic, and there's nothing stopping you from using the proper variables and functions for your needs. Each juncture would be the node, which would have its own state (not State, like government, but state, like the data that describes it). Normally these are done in the abstract or using large geographical areas, but there's no reason you can't use one to model a traffic network on a smaller scale. You also don't look at end to end data just point to point so its probabilistic not deterministic. Maybe I'm just not understanding the work you're doing, but it does seem like using weighted edge graphs would simplify this for you. Generally this stuff falls into our Data Structures & Algorithms classes, and some in Discrete Math. Here's an okay primer that was easy to find. http://www-sop.inria.fr/members/Frederic.Havet/Cours/edge-weighted.pdf Also some footage of our local traffic cams: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhqiDFLz9Ds Chaos Motor fucked around with this message at 09:00 on Jan 12, 2013 |
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Jan 12, 2013 07:54
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Amused to Death posted:I need to get out of the NYC-New Haven area more, sometimes I forget these things exist. I get spoiled here in New Haven, especially as a cyclist. Yeah we have plenty of terrible infrastructure, including the infamous highway to nowhere, but by American standards it's pretty decent here. I should've expected off the bat that pic to have a good chance of being from Florida, but it's fabulous though that pic is not only from Florida but from Tampa as well. My friend is currently in Tampa and when she called the other day we were actually discussing this. She was sitting on some bench at a little man made pond by the road and she was commenting on how just utterly alone she felt because there was just this vast boulevard of traffic and absolutely no people actually not in a car around despite being in a "busy" area. The popular term right now in the city proper is "Road Diet" - removing lanes from roads in Downtown, Westshore, Temple Terrace and USF to create pedestrian/bike-friendly corridors with dedicated left turn lanes, pedestrian islands, roundabouts, bike lanes, bus bays, etc. I like to point to 40th St between Hillsborough and USF as an early example of what they've been doing. The road was widened, but it's now a boulevard instead of the typical 4-lane strip of asphalt. 3 intersections were replaced with roundabouts, bus bays, bike lanes and an offset sidewalk. South of Hillsborough (US-92) is still under discussion, as the road carries US-41 into the Tamiami Trail. Anything in Wesley Chapel or Brandon is exurban commuter hell. I avoid the area at all costs. ------------------------ Random fact: Staring in 1945, Florida switched to a highway numbering grid for major routes. East-West roads are even number, descending from north to south. North-South roads are odd, descending from east to west. SR91/SR91A (I-75/I-275) and SR93 (Florida/"Ronald Reagan" Turnpike) are exceptions, as the numbers they should have were already taken when constructed decades later. 3 digit roads ending in 00 are major diagonals. Other 3 digit roads are numbered based on latitudinal position within the state between roads divisible by 10. For example, SR592 would be between SR50 and SR60. 4 digit state roads are orphaned sections of state roads that have been bypassed and are eventually redesignated/given to local authorities (IE SR4080 is an orphaned portion of SR408). Also, nobody calls the Florida Turnpike by its designated name (Ronald Reagan Turnpike). Varance fucked around with this message at 22:59 on Jan 12, 2013 |
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Jan 12, 2013 12:09
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Amused to Death posted:Hey Cichlidae, I see not only you're here in CT, but you were working on the busway! How is that going? I haven't heard anything about it in a while.(although on the plus side it also means I haven't heard/read people complaining about their taxes being on gross buses) Is Hartford-New Britain essentially the whole scheme, or is the busway eventually supposed to reach further down? Also any news on the goings of the New Haven-Springfield line or is that outside your area? I've got a signal inspection for the Busway on Monday, as a matter of fact. The idea was never to expand it, but rather to get through buses off I-84, and reduce I-84 commuter volumes in the process. Whether it'll succeed is up for debate; the goalposts have been moved so far that, even if ridership maxed out, it would still fall far short of the initial expectations. As for the New Haven-Springfield line, I got to witness the beginning of construction last month. Amtrak has their own schedule, so I've no idea when it'll be in service, but it's definitely happening. Connecticut's lost out on a lot of funding in the last couple years, but I think it's a matter of 'when', not 'if.' Amused to Death posted:e: I was called on to analyze New Haven's simulations last year, and my assessment was pretty grim. You'll find more about it in past pages - just search for Route 34. I tried contacting the press to tell them about the unethical poo poo going down, but they didn't ever reply.
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Jan 12, 2013 18:50
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quote:I was called on to analyze New Haven's simulations last year, and my assessment was pretty grim. You'll find more about it in past pages - just search for Route 34. I tried contacting the press to tell them about the unethical poo poo going down, but they didn't ever reply. I found the posts, it's even worse than I thought  I love how we fudged numbers to the feds so we can spend all kinds of money from all levels of government on terrible project yet we wouldn't put up $100,000 to get a large grant to study bringing back light rail to New Haven. quote:As for the New Haven-Springfield line, I got to witness the beginning of construction last month. Amtrak has their own schedule, so I've no idea when it'll be in service, but it's definitely happening. Connecticut's lost out on a lot of funding in the last couple years, but I think it's a matter of 'when', not 'if.' What did we do to lose the funds? Last I heard the feds had released a new grant, though that too was a while ago. That's kind of sad about the busway though, a single line(of what, 12-15 miles?) between just New Britain and Hartford doesn't seem like a good goal post. I thought inevitably they were going to try to expand it south to New Haven. Although I guess a lot of the route would be redundant once the commuter railroad is going.
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Jan 12, 2013 23:39
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Cichlidae posted:I was called on to analyze New Haven's simulations last year, and my assessment was pretty grim. You'll find more about it in past pages - just search for Route 34. I tried contacting the press to tell them about the unethical poo poo going down, but they didn't ever reply. Varance posted:Also, nobody calls the Florida Turnpike by its designated name (Ronald Reagan Turnpike).
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Jan 13, 2013 03:00
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Varance posted:Also, nobody calls the Florida Turnpike by its designated name (Ronald Reagan Turnpike). It's actually "Florida's Turnpike" but nobody calls it that either. It's just the Turnpike, unless you're looking at the signs, just like the "Beachline" in Orlando is still the Beeline to all the locals.
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Jan 13, 2013 03:09
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GWBBQ posted:It pisses me off to see how urban development people in CT have been trumpeting the Downtown Crossing as a model project after seeing your summary. Not knowing who you contacted, I'm amazed that it wasn't picked up by at least News 12 or NBC 4, it seems like the kind of poo poo they would love to stir up. I think people think that the filling in of the last two exits(as well as the construction of buildings along the rest of the "no man's zone" between Frontage rd and Legion Ave is going to finally lead to this thriving area downtown instead of the giant knife of nothing that cuts through the city right now. Instead we're just creating a corridor of death, literal death since I'm pretty sure this will be a disaster zone for any humans whether in cars, on bike or on foot. I mean we're going from 2 and 3 lane roads in each direction now with no bike lanes, to essentially something that if the green bike lane is put in, is going to be 6 lanes. And that's just on one side. Let's not forget this project is so hosed that there had to be a public outcry for the city to be allowed to own the sidewalks. Yes, DeSteffano was going to allow the developer to own the sidewalks outside.(Part of the outcry on top of it was they wanted really narrow sidewalks which wasn't exactly conforming to the illusion of pedestrian friendly) To anyone reading, here's what it looks like above  The circle green part is part of Rt.34, the highway to nowhere, the part that is supposed to be filled in anyways. As you can see, it cuts a giant path of nothingness through the middle of downtown. The purple part is the the section of the highway that was never built and remain in state hands.(it continues for another 1,500ft or so before hitting a main road). Now as it stands, Legion Ave and Frontage Rd essentially create a no man's land cutting through the city. One part from sheer emptiness, the other part being cars speed down the roads trying to get across the city from either off the highway or onto the highway. I think people are convinced this project by sheer virtue of existing and not being the emptiness that has been there for decades will finally reconnect the city and create this thriving commercial/residential area. What's happening instead is a monstrosity of a 4-5(6 if count the green bike lane they want to put in) lane road that will in fact be carrying mostly highway traffic is now just going to cut through the city instead. At least near Rt.34. Something that divides the city is in fact going to dive the city even more, except a developer gets a big fancy building and cars from the suburbs get easy access(which isn't even true, since it's going to be a traffic nightmare). I hope to god the plans for further down where it's supposed to be mixed residential/small commercial doesn't become a death corridor as well. e: Reading the city's Tiger grant application quote:Downtown Crossing dramatically improves the safety of motorists, pedestrians and cyclists in the medical 
Amused to Death fucked around with this message at 05:45 on Jan 13, 2013 |
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Jan 13, 2013 04:36
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Cross postin' from the funny pictures thread. How does this happen? Am I missing something ?
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Jan 13, 2013 07:16
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Dominus Vobiscum posted:It's actually "Florida's Turnpike" but nobody calls it that either. It's just the Turnpike, unless you're looking at the signs, just like the "Beachline" in Orlando is still the Beeline to all the locals. Hillsborough County, FL is in the process of standardizing road names, as most of our non-numbered arterials are named after people (either local leaders, nationally influential figures like JFK/MLK or military personnel). Kennedy Blvd (SR60 in Tampa) is in the process of being renamed to the full John F Kennedy Blvd (Dale Mabry/Kennedy got full mast arms last week with the updated name). Fletcher, Fowler, Adamo, Gunn, MacDill, Himes, McKinley, Sheldon, Waters, Howard, Armenia, Gandy, etc. will all be transferred to their historical name eventually, as the change causes minimal confusion while reinforcing local history. ----- Speaking of mast arms, Florida's modified their traffic light standards for 2013 to be more like other states. Dual strand is a thing of the past (prestressed concrete tower, using single span catenary and steel/aluminum tubing), unless retrofitting an existing strand light. All signal heads must have louvered backplates (not just E/W signals), with the edge of the backplate covered in yellow reflective tape (so that a dark intersection/fallen signal head is easily recognized at night). Backlit street signs are still required, as well as mast arms near the coast. Example: 
Varance fucked around with this message at 15:59 on Jan 13, 2013 |
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Jan 13, 2013 15:28
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Chaos Motor posted:Well basically each edge is going to have a set of variables, and you have a function that describes each node. Usually you're doing computer stuff with it like bandwidth, latency, availability, available capacity, pricing, but all of those things have analogs in traffic, and there's nothing stopping you from using the proper variables and functions for your needs. Each juncture would be the node, which would have its own state (not State, like government, but state, like the data that describes it). Normally these are done in the abstract or using large geographical areas, but there's no reason you can't use one to model a traffic network on a smaller scale. You also don't look at end to end data just point to point so its probabilistic not deterministic. Maybe I'm just not understanding the work you're doing, but it does seem like using weighted edge graphs would simplify this for you. Generally this stuff falls into our Data Structures & Algorithms classes, and some in Discrete Math. We do similar things in dynamic traffic assignment classes, except that each link has an equation associated with it, rather than a fixed number. The results are often counter-intuitive, and I'll give an example from my most recent DTA class. A very detailed, very accurate analysis was done of all the streets in Washington, DC. It took into account traffic signal coordination, volumes, speeds, all that fun stuff. Then, using the same method in that paper, they plotted the best route for a car going from downtown to the suburbs. The path weaved through side streets, cutting though neighborhoods, going pretty far out of the way, lots of bizarre stuff, but it was definitely the fastest route. Of course, nobody would go that way. The researchers then constrained the path to a fiat corridor and limited the number of turns, which resulted in a more realistic path. They gave the route to a bunch of commuters, but almost none of them followed it. The vast majority decided that their preferred routes were better. Amused to Death posted:I found the posts, it's even worse than I thought Welcome to Local Government! A few of us were hoping to get the bicycle lobby in New Haven engaged, because those few bicycle advocates who'd seen the design thought it was utterly atrocious. And, as bad as the current design is, the original design was much, much worse. Our in-house bike guy got brought into a big meeting, though he hadn't had a single chance to look at the project yet. He took one look over the plans, about ten seconds total, and said, "I don't like this." Ten seconds. Amused to Death posted:What did we do to lose the funds? Last I heard the feds had released a new grant, though that too was a while ago. That's kind of sad about the busway though, a single line(of what, 12-15 miles?) between just New Britain and Hartford doesn't seem like a good goal post. I thought inevitably they were going to try to expand it south to New Haven. Although I guess a lot of the route would be redundant once the commuter railroad is going. There were a couple rounds of funding we lost out on. For one of them, I guess the paperwork wasn't filed in time or something; I'm still not clear on how exactly that happened. It was a really big embarrassment. For another round, I think after Florida refused its HSR funds, Connecticut asked for its share, but got zero. Nothing at all. That was a HUGE insult, because we have the #1 highest ridership commuter rail line in the country, and some of its oldest infrastructure. I don't remember too many of the details, but I posted about it in this thread.
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Jan 13, 2013 15:42
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Amused to Death posted:I think people think that the filling in of the last two exits(as well as the construction of buildings along the rest of the "no man's zone" between Frontage rd and Legion Ave is going to finally lead to this thriving area downtown instead of the giant knife of nothing that cuts through the city right now. Instead we're just creating a corridor of death, literal death since I'm pretty sure this will be a disaster zone for any humans whether in cars, on bike or on foot. I mean we're going from 2 and 3 lane roads in each direction now with no bike lanes, to essentially something that if the green bike lane is put in, is going to be 6 lanes. And that's just on one side. Oh, and I forgot one of the best parts: This is the main ambulance route for the Medical District. Yes, let's improve safety by diminishing ambulance access to the emergency room! I'm so glad I'm not involved with the project anymore. I was just brought in to look at the VISSIM, and now that that's over (I hope), I just have to avoid New Haven. Baronjutter posted:Cross postin' from the funny pictures thread. Happens all the freakin' time. I've seen similar situations at least twice in the past two years out in the field. Typically, it's due to a recent change in traffic patterns. Either someone misses a sign during the survey and it never gets removed/replaced, or someone just orders/installs the wrong sign. Sometimes it's just a short-term thing, because it's next to impossible to install signs right when they're needed. Sometimes, it takes months (or years) to fix the problem. The guys in the field don't question the plans, and the guys in the office don't know what's going on in the field. Varance posted:Yep. Here in Tampa, people took to the Selmon Crosstown rename pretty quick. Everyone I know calls it "the Selmon." Everyone liked Lee Roy Selmon. Hartford did something similar recently when they renamed Ann Street to Ann Uccello Street. I didn't know who Ann Uccello was until I just now looked it up, but we had to change a few overhead signs to extend the road name. Everyone downtown still calls it Ann Street, though. Varance posted:Speaking of mast arms, Florida's modified their traffic light standards for 2013 to be more like other states. Dual strand is a thing of the past (prestressed concrete tower, using single span catenary and steel/aluminum tubing), unless retrofitting an existing strand light. All signal heads must have tapered backplates (not just E/W signals), with the edge of the backplate covered in yellow reflective tape (so that a dark intersection/fallen signal head is easily recognized at night). Backlit street signs are still required, as well as mast arms near the coast. I think our municipalities would throw a fit if we tried to use concrete poles anywhere. Some of 'em even have their own details, and won't let us put DOT standard poles in their districts.
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Jan 13, 2013 15:58
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Cichlidae posted:I think our municipalities would throw a fit if we tried to use concrete poles anywhere. Some of 'em even have their own details, and won't let us put DOT standard poles in their districts. You either work with FDOT, or FDOT pulls funding from the project. It's very effective for enforcing standards. Bigger cities like St. Petersburg are indeed assholes about it, but they at least try to follow standards (knowing that anything substandard will get wrecked by a hurricane). Tampa's slowly ditching their old decorative stuff in favor of gloss black/white FDOT standard mast arms. That said, there's tons and tons of decorative mast arm and lighting pole in the state. As long as the stuff meets FDOT's base requirements, it can be accommodated. Did I mention that we have decorative interstate highways around Tampa? Hillsborough's motto is that if you have to spend hundreds of millions on better expressways, what's a few million more to make them aesthetically pleasing? Stackimus Prime over by the airport is quite pleasing, as will the Selmon/I-4 connector be when it's done. The Veterans/Suncoast will get an aesthetic upgrade as it's widened, and the Crosstown already has one at night... if we could just get our light rail projects going, the city would be in good shape going forward.   Watch the second half of the video, the amount of art that's going into the Selmon connector is ridiculous for what's best described as elevated spaghetti. Orlando gets points for some of their new stuff like the beltway and the East-West rebuild, plus they've been painting all the old I-4 stuff beige and green. All of St Petersburg's stuff is unremarkable, as is Miami's. I try to stay away from Jax. Edit: Forgot to mention the Sunshine Skyway. The cable-stayed portion of the Skyway is in Hillsborough County waters, which the county pays to maintain (even though it connects Pinellas and Manatee Counties. The only reason the Skyway needs the elevated section is for all of the shipping and cruise ship activity headed for... the Port of Tampa. If we ever rebuild the Skyway with an even wider/taller span... Tampa's paying for it.  Varance fucked around with this message at 18:56 on Jan 13, 2013 |
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Jan 13, 2013 16:08
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Cichlidae posted:Welcome to Local Government! A few of us were hoping to get the bicycle lobby in New Haven engaged, because those few bicycle advocates who'd seen the design thought it was utterly atrocious. And, as bad as the current design is, the original design was much, much worse. Our in-house bike guy got brought into a big meeting, though he hadn't had a single chance to look at the project yet. He took one look over the plans, about ten seconds total, and said, "I don't like this." Ten seconds. The problem I think was, as was said above, a whole lot of people, including some who should know better, are just head over heels about the idea since its something new and exciting that's finally filling in that giant gap. I know some people were grumbling that it was just impossible to stop the momentum of the project despite how terrible it was since the public at large was into it. I think cycling groups here were worried if they pushed hard enough to stall the project that there'd be public backlash against them. So all they did was protest in vain. If I recall, Elm City Cycling as well as the New Haven Urban Design League a day before the final vote on this phase of the project put out a letter rescinding their support for it. And then it was over  quote:There were a couple rounds of funding we lost out on. For one of them, I guess the paperwork wasn't filed in time or something; I'm still not clear on how exactly that happened. It was a really big embarrassment. For another round, I think after Florida refused its HSR funds, Connecticut asked for its share, but got zero. Nothing at all. That was a HUGE insult, because we have the #1 highest ridership commuter rail line in the country, and some of its oldest infrastructure. I don't remember too many of the details, but I posted about it in this thread. I can't believe we got none of that money given how much mass transit we have relative to everyone else. I guess I owe my friend in Florida an apology. He was angry that Scott canceled the project for such blatantly obvious political motives, so I of course was all like "Thanks for the extra money, maybe Metro-North will get even more of those fancy M8 cars now  ". Welp, I was wrong. I guess this means the proposed extension of the Danbury line will be put off even longer.
Amused to Death fucked around with this message at 18:29 on Jan 13, 2013 |
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Jan 13, 2013 18:23
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Amused to Death posted:I can't believe we got none of that money given how much mass transit we have relative to everyone else. I guess I owe my friend in Florida an apology. He was angry that Scott canceled the project for such blatantly obvious political motives, so I of course was all like "Thanks for the extra money, maybe Metro-North will get even more of those fancy M8 cars now The good news is, we've gotten a decent amount of funding since then. Our US Congressmen/women were very good about getting the Secretary of Transportation up here and showing him Metro-North. I think one of them was actually a sponsor of the HSR bill to begin with, but I don't remember which one. Dodd, maybe?
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Jan 13, 2013 18:47
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Amused to Death posted:I can't believe we got none of that money given how much mass transit we have relative to everyone else. I guess I owe my friend in Florida an apology. He was angry that Scott canceled the project for such blatantly obvious political motives, so I of course was all like "Thanks for the extra money, maybe Metro-North will get even more of those fancy M8 cars now See, you're problem is that Congressman Mica, head of the House Transpo Committee, is from Florida. We get special treatment. The funding was indirectly redirected to Orlando's light rail and commuter rail projects (Orlando is his district). Which reminds me, the light rail project is not light rail anymore... it's Maglev (or in Orlando's case, fancy monorail from MCO to OCCC/SeaWorld/Universal, with a future expansion to Disney World). 
Varance fucked around with this message at 19:15 on Jan 13, 2013 |
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Jan 13, 2013 18:57
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Cichlidae posted:The good news is, we've gotten a decent amount of funding since then. Our US Congressmen/women were very good about getting the Secretary of Transportation up here and showing him Metro-North. I think one of them was actually a sponsor of the HSR bill to begin with, but I don't remember which one. Dodd, maybe? I'm not sure either, I imagine it could be just about anyone, either of the two senators, and every congressional district but the 5th has serious mass transit in it.(And the 5th could if the Danbury line is extended!) On a side note, not everything is  in New Haven. They released a plan to redo the Green and I think it's pretty decenthttp://www.pps.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/New-Haven-Green-Placemaking-Plan-v2.pdf (page 8 for the moneyshot) Traffic wise, there's plans to experiment with shutting down Temple St more often. Meanwhile, they want to make Chapel St just two lanes along the Green like it is past the green.(I'm not exactly sure what they're doing about the bus stops there). Separately, but what could seriously factor into it, on the other side of the green, cycling groups are pushing for the cycle track along Elm St that the city promised in their 2009 report since 2013 was the date they listed for construction of it back then. I wouldn't mind if Temple St was just closed all the time during warm months, but I realize that would potentially cause a lot of headaches. Any cars coming down Elm or from Temple east would have to go down to State St before being able to go west, and of course all the bus stops on Temple in front of the churches. e: Hey Cichlidae, since you may know the streets of New Haven and perhaps behind the scenes feelings on what they may want to do in the future, what do you think of my probably terrible engineering plan for bicycle routes. I was showing it to some over at Elm City Cycling and it's actually not that different from their finalized grand strategy, just more modest. Basically, is it even feasible at a pipe dream and would it be hugely expensive?  The orange is existing bike lanes to my knowledge(although I think there's one on Humphry St), the light green are the bike lanes proposed for the new corridor of death, the darker green where I think any sane plan will inevitably extend them, the purple are the two cycle tracks the city already proposed in 2009, and the yellow the proposed routes. Unlike Elm City Cycling I tried to stay realistic. Unless it was a main corridor that I thought inevitably had to be done like Forbes Ave, I tried to stay with streets that seemed wide enough where just repainting and eliminating parking on one side could potentially accommodate a bike lane. Hence no lanes on Chapel St in Wooster Sq, Ferry St or on on Willow, since the roads are so narrow there it'd require some serious construction and widening despite the fact when looking at it on a map, those routes are just begging for bikes. Do you think it's something realistic over a decade or am I dreaming? Amused to Death fucked around with this message at 22:15 on Jan 13, 2013 |
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Jan 13, 2013 19:08
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Is there any rhyme or reason to which streets in downtown New Haven are one ways and which direction?
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Jan 13, 2013 23:16
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Cichlidae posted:We do similar things in dynamic traffic assignment classes, except that each link has an equation associated with it, rather than a fixed number. The results are often counter-intuitive, and I'll give an example from my most recent DTA class. Well, the variables can easily represent equations, it's just simpler if you let them be a variable, figure out your first order results, then plug in the equations with their variables, and crank out the final number. CompE's do a lot of that kind of abstraction to make things easier. Also relevant is that the Djikstra spanning algo is just a simple example of what you can do. More complicated algos deal with things like total throughput - how can you get the most possible data from link to link - or node failure - for example in power transmission where all of your transmission lines are running near their max carrying capacity, and going over the max capacity burns the link, which causes it to fail, when one of your connections goes down, how do you migrate traffic through other nodes without overloading and subsequently burning them out, leading to a total network collapse as each link becomes overloaded (which is what happened in the '06 NE Blackout). Actually there's so many similarities between traffic design and network design, especially routing protocols, I'm surprised the practices don't steal each other's techniques more often than they do.
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Jan 13, 2013 23:49
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Amused to Death posted:e: Hey Cichlidae, since you may know the streets of New Haven and perhaps behind the scenes feelings on what they may want to do in the future, what do you think of my probably terrible engineering plan for bicycle routes. I was showing it to some over at Elm City Cycling and it's actually not that different from their finalized grand strategy, just more modest. Basically, is it even feasible at a pipe dream and would it be hugely expensive? New Haven isn't my district, and I'm only incidentally involved, but the Forbes Ave bridge is getting bike facilities, if it doesn't have it already. My buddies in the railroad section were talking about the grade crossing at the East end of the bridge, and how much a pain in the rear end it will be to bicyclists until they're shifted to the other side of the bridge. smackfu posted:Is there any rhyme or reason to which streets in downtown New Haven are one ways and which direction? The whole downtown section is laid out on a grid. The harbor sections are built on fill, so they were added after the fact, a lot like in Nutmeg. One of the oldest roads in town, Whitney Avenue, was the old Hartford - New Haven Turnpike, portions of which are now used as the Berlin Turnpike and Maple Ave. The rest of the city just kind of sprawled out around that in a semi-orderly fashion. Chaos Motor posted:Well, the variables can easily represent equations, it's just simpler if you let them be a variable, figure out your first order results, then plug in the equations with their variables, and crank out the final number. CompE's do a lot of that kind of abstraction to make things easier. It does sound like it'd be applicable. Assuming the algorithm is robust, you could probably even model disobedient drivers that ignore all your efforts to redirect them, right?
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Jan 14, 2013 01:01
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Cichlidae posted:New Haven isn't my district, and I'm only incidentally involved, but the Forbes Ave bridge is getting bike facilities, if it doesn't have it already. My buddies in the railroad section were talking about the grade crossing at the East end of the bridge, and how much a pain in the rear end it will be to bicyclists until they're shifted to the other side of the bridge.  It must be coming soon. I read a few weeks ago the city was getting a grant to upgrade the tracks there in conjunction with what they already got to do the street so the harbor can again be connected to rail since currently they have to truck things up a few streets if they want to load them onto freight trains. So I guess for economic development as well. Thanks Malloy for the money.
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Jan 14, 2013 01:26
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After taking a look at the Downtown Crossing's website, two things jump out at me: * The site is very vague as to what the final design would actually look like, especially given that it's out of the design phase (I think?). There's no mention of the number of lanes anywhere, aside from the TIGER grant, where they mention expanding it from 3-4 lanes to "meet future traffic demand". There's also a conceptual rendering which is missing the much-promoted bike lanes, and have a cyclist who's well within the danger zone when it comes to being doored. Other than that, there's nothing. * The Reconnecting the City page has a stock photo that's totally taken from Portland, with all the license plates cropped out. This amuses me far more than it should.
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Jan 14, 2013 03:13
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Oh god, I didn't know there was a website for it. I love how they show pictures from pre 1950 of the bustling Oak St neighborhood. Dense row houses and businesses, small streets with people all around ect. Then show what it currently looks like, then show images of dense small scale shops on a normal two lane street and such from another city like that is what they're going back to Of note though, if you go to the New Haven Independent and search their Downtown Crossing articles, you may find more artist conceptions. I remember the renderings there at least showed the green bike lane, so they may be better/more up to date in general.
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Jan 14, 2013 04:40
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Hedera Helix posted:After taking a look at the Downtown Crossing's website, two things jump out at me: This is fairly recent and has a lot of nice diagrams showing various options for streets that might interest this thread: http://downtowncrossingnewhaven.com/documents/pub_mtgs/11-14-12/communitymeeting_Presentation_11_14_12.pdf Edit: Heh, one of the proposals has a traffic circle on Orange Street. smackfu fucked around with this message at 15:23 on Jan 14, 2013 |
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Jan 14, 2013 15:11
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Cichlidae posted:It does sound like it'd be applicable. Assuming the algorithm is robust, you could probably even model disobedient drivers that ignore all your efforts to redirect them, right? Maybe, maybe not, there's really no similar concern in data routing because everything "must" go where we tell it, it's more like a railway than a roadway. But in power transmission, you can have stray charges, which may be similar. Hedera Helix posted:There's also a conceptual rendering which is missing the much-promoted bike lanes, and have a cyclist who's well within the danger zone when it comes to being doored. Other than that, there's nothing. I almost doored a bicyclist in Spain, but why in God's name would you ride within inches of a taxi that has JUST stopped? Clearly people are going to be getting out. At some point the cyclist has to be responsible for himself.
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Jan 14, 2013 15:31
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What do you think of the Queensway project? I think it's been discussed earlier in the thread but the topic's come back into the news again. It seems like they're very dismissive of the possibility of reopening the line. http://secondavenuesagas.com/2013/01/09/wrestling-the-rail-option-away-from-queensway/
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Jan 14, 2013 15:37
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Just saw this, figured people in this thread (especially those of us in CT) would appreciate it. http://www.theonion.com/articles/i95-diagnosed-with-highway-cancer,30893/
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Jan 14, 2013 18:40
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Man it seems like New Haven would have been a lot better served by a nice sunken freeway with surface frontage roads and parks or light development over top than by anything else really. Sunken freeways have certain safety problems and all, of course, but they're great for short runs of road through the middle of cities without getting in the way. You know, like the Trans-Manhattan Expressway or Vine Street Expressway.
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Jan 14, 2013 19:16
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Install Gentoo posted:Man it seems like New Haven would have been a lot better served by a nice sunken freeway with surface frontage roads and parks or light development over top than by anything else really. Sunken freeways have certain safety problems and all, of course, but they're great for short runs of road through the middle of cities without getting in the way. Two factors. First, this highway doesn't really go anywhere. Most people aren't going from end-to-end, they are going from one end at I-95 to one of the three exits that drop them into downtown New Haven. If you buried it, most of the traffic would just move to the frontage roads. Second, New Haven really wants those new 10-20 story commercial buildings. Lots of tax revenues there, in newly created land, that probably doesn't require holding off on taxes for a decade to get the buildings built. And no Yale involvement, with their "oh, we'll buy as much of downtown retail as we can, and then we don't have to pay taxes on it, but we'll be nice and give voluntary payments".
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Jan 14, 2013 19:44
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The amount of land Yale owns is pretty hilarious. Like you think it's just the school buildings and the medical buildings, but nope. Something is wrong with school-city relations when a child on a bike feels the need to scream at tourists do a walking tour of Dixwell(it was discussing the failures of Urban Renewal there in the 50's) DONT TAKE MY NEIGHBORHOOD YALE Question, LED bulbs, are these the new standard replacement for all bulbs that need to be replaced anywhere, or are they just for the city slickers?
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Jan 14, 2013 23:03
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Amused to Death posted:The amount of land Yale owns is pretty hilarious. Like you think it's just the school buildings and the medical buildings, but nope.
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Jan 14, 2013 23:22
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smackfu posted:And no Yale involvement, with their "oh, we'll buy as much of downtown retail as we can, and then we don't have to pay taxes on it, but we'll be nice and give voluntary payments". Holy poo poo, this sort of behavior (voluntary payment of taxes) was a joke in a Terry Pratchett Discworld novel involving the Unseen University. I had no idea it had basis in reality.
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Jan 15, 2013 00:04
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ConfusedUs posted:Holy poo poo, this sort of behavior (voluntary payment of taxes) was a joke in a Terry Pratchett Discworld novel involving the Unseen University. I had no idea it had basis in reality. Oh it's fabulous. Actually kind of on topic since it involves streets, part of Wall St in New Haven that is mostly inside the Yale campus has been closed off to traffic since 1990 as control was handed over to Yale in exchange for some  . There was a vague clause in the contract calling for the city to reevaluate it after 20 years. Well, some in the city were either talking about reopening the street to the traffic(which I think is a terrible idea anyway), and asking more in the deal from Yale to keep the street closed.(Also of note, Yale gets to keep parts of High St closed). Yale responded with "Well, sure, you can do that, but it'd sure kind of suck if we had to suddenly reevaluate our voluntary taxes, now wouldn't it? Yeah, thought so "I can't actually tell or not if this is the libertarian version of capitalism mixed with government put into actual reality or not.
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Jan 15, 2013 01:12
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ConfusedUs posted:Holy poo poo, this sort of behavior (voluntary payment of taxes) was a joke in a Terry Pratchett Discworld novel involving the Unseen University. I had no idea it had basis in reality.
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Jan 15, 2013 03:29
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Amused to Death posted:Oh it's fabulous. Actually kind of on topic since it involves streets, part of Wall St in New Haven that is mostly inside the Yale campus has been closed off to traffic since 1990 as control was handed over to Yale in exchange for some Well, they're actually paying money that isn't being pried from their claws, so I'm not sure how Liberatian it is.
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Jan 15, 2013 05:41
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After 5-10cm of snow in the western and southern parts of the country, the Netherlands just broke its record for traffic jams. The previous record stood at a total of 975km somewhere in 1999, today we managed 1007km, compared to about 200km on a normal tuesday morning. I decided it was a good day to stay off the highways and bike to the head office instead.
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Jan 15, 2013 10:54
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NightGyr posted:What do you think of the Queensway project? I think it's been discussed earlier in the thread but the topic's come back into the news again. It seems like they're very dismissive of the possibility of reopening the line. I find rails-to-trails projects pretty depressing. You've got a corridor that's perfect for quick, efficient transit, and you shoot yourself in the foot by turning it into a footpath. Heck, most rail lines have some nasty stuff in their ballast. Do you really think that's a good place for your kids to play? Install Gentoo posted:Man it seems like New Haven would have been a lot better served by a nice sunken freeway with surface frontage roads and parks or light development over top than by anything else really. Sunken freeways have certain safety problems and all, of course, but they're great for short runs of road through the middle of cities without getting in the way. I-95 in Providence pulls it off quite well, too. New Haven really doesn't have any excuses for its poor access. I think everyone would've been better off if I-95 just skirted the North side of the city, perhaps an interchange or two with Route 15, plenty of room for expansion... I-91 could stay where it is, giving commuters a stub into the city. Amused to Death posted:Question, LED bulbs, are these the new standard replacement for all bulbs that need to be replaced anywhere, or are they just for the city slickers? They are indeed the standard. There's no good reason not to use them. Heck, you can even get little gratings in front of the bulbs that make them look identical to incandescents. John Dough posted:After 5-10cm of snow in the western and southern parts of the country, the Netherlands just broke its record for traffic jams. The previous record stood at a total of 975km somewhere in 1999, today we managed 1007km, compared to about 200km on a normal tuesday morning. I decided it was a good day to stay off the highways and bike to the head office instead. Not bad at all! I don't think anyone keeps statistics like that here, which is too bad; they'd be pretty useful for me.
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Jan 16, 2013 00:49
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Jethro posted:I think it's pretty standard for any large, non-profit institution (i.e. university or hospital) that is in the middle of a city. UPenn has an amazing fiefdom of gentrification going on in West Philadelphia. They basically picked out a certain area of the city and have their security patrol it. You go a few blocks beyond that and you're solidly in lower-income neighborhoods.
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Jan 16, 2013 09:44
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Cichlidae posted:Not bad at all! I don't think anyone keeps statistics like that here, which is too bad; they'd be pretty useful for me. Do you guys archive your historic AADT figures? I've had some problems comparing congestion in European urban areas, definitions tend to change over time and space. LOS levels are roughly calculable though.
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Jan 16, 2013 10:42
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