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 http://mydarlingatlanta.com/2015/02/02/atlantas-human-responsibility-issues/ I can't imagine living around that level of infrastructure related danger. Having to risk your life crossing some 7 lane highway every day just to get anywhere seems not just stupidly dangerous, but so dehumanizing.
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Feb 2, 2015 18:47
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Baronjutter posted:
Yeah, you pretty much need to have a car to live most places in the US. I'd prefer to live in a city, myself, but my job's waaaaay out in the 'burbs and it really wouldn't save me anything.
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Feb 2, 2015 19:17
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How much additional pollution is put into the air every time a highway of that size grinds to a halt so one person can walk across it? Not that pedestrians shouldn't be able to cross, but absent an intersection with another road, just build a pedestrian bridge instead of a pair of signal arms or something. Or are the costs not as similar as they might seem? Javid fucked around with this message at 19:39 on Feb 2, 2015 |
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Feb 2, 2015 19:32
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Javid posted:How much additional pollution is put into the air every time a highway of that size grinds to a halt so one person can walk across it? I mean the first step is to actually give a poo poo about poor people and that ain't happening.
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Feb 2, 2015 19:40
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Javid posted:How much additional pollution is put into the air every time a highway of that size grinds to a halt so one person can walk across it? Typically, the accident costs more than exceed the delay costs. A life is worth about $5-8M, regardless of whether it's a pedestrian, bicyclist, or motorist. If you can build a $1M ped bridge and it'll save one life, you've just saved a LOT of money. If you install a signal, and it results in an additional $10k/year of delay costs and also saves a life, it's still worth it. But if that signal isn't warranted and is generally ignored and causes a bunch of rear-end accidents, then you've erased all that benefit. And if your ped bridge isn't designed properly, or collapses on someone, you've got a bunch more issues. It's something that would have to be evaluated at each individual ped crossing, unfortunately, and most engineering bureaus aren't equipped to do so. You can see why it's a complex issue, even before bringing politics into it.
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Feb 2, 2015 19:43
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Defaulting to "do nothing" doesn't seem to be great either. I feel like we should've just stopped breeding when somebody had to invent the traffic light.
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Feb 2, 2015 19:49
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Javid posted:Defaulting to "do nothing" doesn't seem to be great either. Nothing to do with population, everything to do with transport planning. Or in Atlanta's case, balls out racism and classism.
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Feb 2, 2015 20:02
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Javid posted:Defaulting to "do nothing" America!
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Feb 2, 2015 20:06
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Cichlidae posted:It's something that would have to be evaluated at each individual ped crossing, unfortunately, and most engineering bureaus aren't equipped to do so. You can see why it's a complex issue, even before bringing politics into it. Also, people hate going out of their way to use a pedestrian bridge. When a bridge takes just as long as staying at-grade, you get 60-70% usage. When it takes 50% longer than staying at grade, you get zero usage. Underground passages have slightly higher usage rates, but still not much tolerance for going out of their way (understandably). 
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Feb 2, 2015 20:11
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I don't know how well this'll come across to an international audience but this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPUZc2i3NL4 about the early years of the Dutch Motorway Traffic Management System (in Dutch, unfortunately) is hilarious to me in both its quaintness and the way things have pretty much stayed the same.
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Feb 2, 2015 20:11
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Koesj posted:I don't know how well this'll come across to an international audience but this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPUZc2i3NL4 about the early years of the Dutch Motorway Traffic Management System (in Dutch, unfortunately) is hilarious to me in both its quaintness and the way things have pretty much stayed the same. Those "Porsche trooper" cops man. "Don't mind me, just inspecting this accident in my Porsche 911 convertible and my dashing white half trenchcoat and white and orange leather helmet and goggles.  What happened to cops with uniforms like that that drive convertible sports cars? I think it would really lighten up my day to see that scene after a hour of delays due to a accident
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Feb 2, 2015 20:30
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You got to visit places like Dubai for those kinds of things these days.
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Feb 2, 2015 20:44
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Devor posted:Also, people hate going out of their way to use a pedestrian bridge. Where was this data taken? I could imagine significant differences cropping up based on location.
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Feb 2, 2015 20:46
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Koesj posted:I don't know how well this'll come across to an international audience but this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPUZc2i3NL4 about the early years of the Dutch Motorway Traffic Management System (in Dutch, unfortunately) is hilarious to me in both its quaintness and the way things have pretty much stayed the same. Note the various people working right alongside moving highway traffic and nothing but a few orange cones to warn cars away. Or operate heavy machinery with little to no safety equipment. Safety regulations today are orders of magnitude more stringent and road workers still die regularly.
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Feb 2, 2015 21:12
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Grundulum posted:Where was this data taken? I could imagine significant differences cropping up based on location. Dunno, but the chart is pulled from the 2004 AASHTO Pedestrian Guide.
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Feb 2, 2015 21:30
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Koesj posted:I don't know how well this'll come across to an international audience but this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPUZc2i3NL4 about the early years of the Dutch Motorway Traffic Management System (in Dutch, unfortunately) is hilarious to me in both its quaintness and the way things have pretty much stayed the same. That's interesting. Those electronic signs are - or were? - not made with LEDs or anything, which is what I would have expected. The narrator explains that each one is powered by a single bulb, and the sign is created by sending the light into glass fiber tips. For safety reasons, the red cross, indicating a closed lane, is powered by three bulbs.
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Feb 2, 2015 23:55
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Devor posted:Also, people hate going out of their way to use a pedestrian bridge. Yeah, I am this pedestrian. Until they finished the jersey barrier on both sides of las vegas boulevard near intersections I would just jump the one and run across cause
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Feb 3, 2015 01:22
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A picture of Melbourne. The two elevated changeovers and portals were built a few eyars ago when this area was upgraded. There is a bridge turnoff which leads to the airport about 1km to the left of this picture, so there is lots of lane reorganising overpasses in this area and two tunnels just around the bend in the top right. 
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Feb 3, 2015 02:30
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drunkill posted:A picture of Melbourne. The two elevated changeovers and portals were built a few eyars ago when this area was upgraded. There is a bridge turnoff which leads to the airport about 1km to the left of this picture, so there is lots of lane reorganising overpasses in this area and two tunnels just around the bend in the top right. Man it's always striking how small and low the cores of Aussie cities tend to be.
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Feb 3, 2015 02:42
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Nintendo Kid posted:Man it's always striking how small and low the cores of Aussie cities tend to be.
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Feb 3, 2015 02:47
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Qwijib0 posted:Yeah, I am this pedestrian. Until they finished the jersey barrier on both sides of las vegas boulevard near intersections I would just jump the one and run across cause
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Feb 3, 2015 06:29
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I heard ya'll like turbines, so we're going to build a turbine inside of a turbine so you can turbine faster (for a price). Click for PDF Varance fucked around with this message at 08:40 on Feb 4, 2015 |
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Feb 4, 2015 08:26
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The Deadly Hume posted:My comfortable riding speed on a bike is 25-30 (obviously more than that downhill or with a good tailwind) which is too fast for footpaths, yet not enough for roads with heavy traffic, so it is a issue. The other reason why cyclists shouldn't use sidewalks (besides not being an rear end in a top hat endangering pedestrians), is that drivers are conditioned to look for people going at walking speed when they approach a crosswalk. Someone on a bike (or mobility scooter) can dive out into a crosswalk pretty quickly, and most drivers simply aren't trained to anticipate and respond to that. This doesn't excuse that learner driver running over your grandfather, but it is another reason why it's dumb to have vehicles going at that speed on infrastructure designed for pedestrians.
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Feb 4, 2015 18:15
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Whats the professional etiquette for you guys posting details about what you're currently working on in this thread? Is it okay because they're public works that don't require any sort of confidentiality, and the information is publicly available anyway?
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Feb 4, 2015 19:11
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While I don't work in the industry anymore I can sefely say that especially public works projects can be rife with paranoia about information just being *out there*. Be it for political, organizational, or legal/contracting reasons.
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Feb 4, 2015 19:14
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Lead out in cuffs posted:Someone on a bike (or mobility scooter) can dive out into a crosswalk pretty quickly, and most drivers simply aren't trained to anticipate and respond to that. Like I posted earlier, most of them have the absolute top speed of 6 mph, which is a slow jog, and that's with the little motor going flat out and severely reducing range. Even the fastest ones designed for "off road" usage go like 10 mph max, and those are ones that cost nearly twice as much as a typical one. If drivers can't handle something going 5 mph they must surely be hitting a ton of people who are hurrying to cross a road.
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Feb 4, 2015 19:16
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A lot of people do get hit when running across a sidewalk when they have a green by idiots turning right. A lot of drivers time everything based on typical walking speed and anyone faster than that speed, even by a little, can throw them way off. When I run for a walk signal I always stop running a couple meters before I hit the sidewalk, have had way too many close calls with people turning left or right into me even when my signal is still green. A lot of joggers will jog in the bike lane too after too many close calls with cars blasting out of driveways.
Baronjutter fucked around with this message at 19:39 on Feb 4, 2015 |
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Feb 4, 2015 19:29
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Nintendo Kid posted:Speaking of new interchanges, this project is finally coming along nicely: Still terrible, still can't go 42N to 295S or 295N to 42S. Don't understand why if they were going to redesign the Interchange fixing that wouldn't be one of the design goals.
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Feb 4, 2015 19:38
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fordan posted:Still terrible, still can't go 42N to 295S or 295N to 42S. Don't understand why if they were going to redesign the Interchange fixing that wouldn't be one of the design goals. Dude, the project isn't going to be complete until like 2021. They just finished the first phase. The ramps for 42N to 295S and 295N to 42S are part of either phase 3 or phase 4, scheduled to be ready in 2019 and 2021 respectively. Baronjutter posted:A lot of people do get hit when running across a sidewalk when they have a green by idiots turning right. A lot of drivers time everything based on typical walking speed and anyone faster than that speed, even by a little, can throw them way off. When I run for a walk signal I always stop running a couple meters before I hit the sidewalk, have had way too many close calls with people turning left or right into me even when my signal is still green. A lot of joggers will jog in the bike lane too after too many close calls with cars blasting out of driveways. And mobility scooters usually go at normal walking speed, so what's the problem with them again that doesn't also exist for a regular person walking and then choosing to jog?
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Feb 4, 2015 20:01
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Lobsterpillar posted:Whats the professional etiquette for you guys posting details about what you're currently working on in this thread? Is it okay because they're public works that don't require any sort of confidentiality, and the information is publicly available anyway? Most of what I'm posting is made available to the public via Florida's "sunshine" transparency laws. As a result, Florida tends to make much more data available than the average state because we're basically compelled to by state law. Diagrams for every proposed project and associated financials must be made available on the interwebs so that they can be accessible to the public. Here's our local transit agency's accounts payable for December: http://www.gohart.org/transparency/finance/expenditures/ap_2014-12.pdf And how much everyone made: http://www.gohart.org/transparency/finance/expenditures/payroll_2014-12.pdf Varance fucked around with this message at 21:24 on Feb 4, 2015 |
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Feb 4, 2015 21:01
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Nintendo Kid posted:And mobility scooters usually go at normal walking speed, so what's the problem with them again that doesn't also exist for a regular person walking and then choosing to jog? 6mph isn't normal walking speed, and you didn't source your claim that that's how fast they go.
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Feb 4, 2015 21:34
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Lead out in cuffs posted:6mph isn't normal walking speed, and you didn't source your claim that that's how fast they go. 6 mph is their top speed typically, and people rarely go flat out on them. Check out the manufacturers and retailers themselves: http://www.spinlife.com/category.cfm?categoryID=4 Here's one example: http://www.spinlife.com/Drive-Medical-Ventura-DLX-4-Wheel-4-WheelFull-Size-Scooter/spec.cfm?productID=98983 Costs $1800, top speed 5 mph, carries 350 pounds, will go 15 miles max between charges. Oh and it takes just 8 hours to recharge from empty! The idea that there is an epidemic of people going super fast on these things and causing problems is insane. Hell some of the more affordable ones can only go up to 4 mph...
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Feb 4, 2015 21:44
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Nintendo Kid posted:Man it's always striking how small and low the cores of Aussie cities tend to be. There's a bit of forced perspective happening here - the tall building on the right hand side is 975 feet tall. It's no New York or Chicago, but it's hardly low.
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Feb 4, 2015 23:44
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exo posted:There's a bit of forced perspective happening here - the tall building on the right hand side is 975 feet tall. It's no New York or Chicago, but it's hardly low. It's more that that's all there is. You have a "city" of 4 million people and the skyline is about the same as, say Jersey City, population 250,000: 
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Feb 4, 2015 23:51
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In Australia they probably care about using up space even less than in the USA. Compare the Dutch city of Utrecht (pop. ~331000), that has barely any high-rise buildings at all, and those that do exist are mostly at the city edges.  (There are some more large buildings behind the photographer.) This partially has to do with the fact that there's simply no place for new stuff in the old city center, and partially because Utrecht has an unwritten rule that there may be no buildings within city limits that are taller than the historical, monumental Dom church tower (112 m / 368 ft) which doubles as the city symbol. The city council won't allow it and even if they did, they'd have to deal with the inhabitants' wrath.
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Feb 5, 2015 00:44
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Jersey City is a bit of an outlier as part of - and real estate spillover for - a 20m+ inhabitants metro area, don't you think? I've never been there but at least heightwise the Melbourne CBD looks like it fits in the same ballpark as, say, Dallas or Atlanta, and the latter didn't impress me with its density when I was there. e: ^^^ but if you turn that camera around for a bit you'd see a number of largeish office buildings near the Central Station, one of which is nearly as tall as the Domtoren. Dutch cities on a medieval footprint can be quaint, but as soon as you hit areas that were built after 1870 or so the scale can go up quite considerably. Koesj fucked around with this message at 00:52 on Feb 5, 2015 |
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Feb 5, 2015 00:46
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Koesj posted:Jersey City is a bit of an outlier as part of - and real estate spillover for - a 20m+ inhabitants metro area, don't you think? I've never been there but at least heightwise the Melbourne CBD looks like it fits in the same ballpark as, say, Dallas or Atlanta, and the latter didn't impress me with its density when I was there. Dallas and Atlanta are similarly sprawltrash. However Atlanta proper is under half a million people and Dallas about 1.2 million city proper.
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Feb 5, 2015 00:51
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Nintendo Kid posted:Dallas and Atlanta are similarly sprawltrash. However Atlanta proper is under half a million people and Dallas about 1.2 million city proper. Come on now, 'city proper'? You could argue all kinds of semantics because of differing legislative divisions in the US and Australia. The point that you were making is that Australian cities (or rather, metropolitan areas) have a pretty tiny core of density, all things considered, right? poo poo that goes for a whole slew of 'Western' places that saw rapid growth in the 20th century. Across pretty much the whole Anglosphere outside Britain for instance, and gently caress me if they aren't making even bigger mistakes in the Middle East right now.
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Feb 5, 2015 01:00
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Koesj posted:Come on now, 'city proper'? You could argue all kinds of semantics because of differing legislative divisions in the US and Australia. The point that you were making is that Australian cities (or rather, metropolitan areas) have a pretty tiny core of density, all things considered, right? poo poo that goes for a whole slew of 'Western' places that saw rapid growth in the 20th century. Across pretty much the whole Anglosphere outside Britain for instance, and gently caress me if they aren't making even bigger mistakes in the Middle East right now. Well yeah that's kind of the point. It's just so odd that Australia doesn't have any traditional cities with significant built-up center cores. Also it's kinda sad that there's no city proper equivalent area of Aussie cities with comparable population to anywhere in the US.
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Feb 5, 2015 01:04
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Koesj posted:Come on now, 'city proper'? You could argue all kinds of semantics because of differing legislative divisions in the US and Australia. The point that you were making is that Australian cities (or rather, metropolitan areas) have a pretty tiny core of density, all things considered, right? poo poo that goes for a whole slew of 'Western' places that saw rapid growth in the 20th century. Across pretty much the whole Anglosphere outside Britain for instance, and gently caress me if they aren't making even bigger mistakes in the Middle East right now. Tampa, Florida. 340k living in city limits, another 900k in the unincorporated county. Less than 10k live in or near the CBD. The rest is 1000 square miles of sprawl. Pop density of 1,205/sq mi (465/kmē). That's less density than Adelaide, and slightly better than Sydney. And that's not counting the neighboring cities of St Petersburg, Clearwater, Bradenton, Sarasota, Lakeland, etc. There are 3 million people living in Tampa Bay, across 5000 square miles of pure sprawl. Now repeat that again for Miami, Orlando and Jacksonville. Varance fucked around with this message at 01:16 on Feb 5, 2015 |
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Feb 5, 2015 01:07
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