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Baronjutter posted:No specific questions, just a request for funny stories, stupid people, and stupid pictures of funny stories. We may or may not have figured out who ruined our traffic circle. You can't tell too well in this picture because my phone's a piece of poo poo, but this car may well be totaled. Airbags deployed, fender is pressing against the tire, the bull-bars are just sorta hanging there.  They CLAIM the car was hit in a police pursuit two nights ago, but nobody had heard anything about one prior to this, and no suspect was caught after his vehicle allegedly struck the patrol car (otherwise we'd have seen it in the impound lot). And the parts that I picked up out of the circle match the color of the patrol car as well. Also, my truck in the background. Part of it. The dump truck behind the pickup truck. Apparently last night somebody hit and killed a deer, so instead of just dumping it in this pit WSDOT uses near us for that purpose, the police, for whatever reason, brought the damned thing to our shop and just sorta dumped it there. Taking their cue, I also decided to make it somebody else's business and called animal control. Job avoided successfully. If you have a child's mind like me, every day there is a funny story. Our work includes whacking and blowing (lots of blowing), and we often get called to help lay pipe. I'll try to think of specific memorable episodes, but at the moment they all escape me. We just did 10 hours of sidewalk-scraping to remove moss on the side of a 4-lane road in town. In the sun, it was rather exhausting. Dusty Baker 2 fucked around with this message at 02:31 on Jun 24, 2015 |
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Jun 24, 2015 02:29
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Wow lovely it was the cops who did it. They'll circle the wagons and make your life miserable if you press with the evidence 
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Jun 24, 2015 03:02
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Baronjutter posted:Wow lovely it was the cops who did it. They'll circle the wagons and make your life miserable if you press with the evidence Yup, which is why we're gonna smile and go with the story e: I got hit by a bird a few weeks ago. That's a funny story. I was mowing this section of grass beside a pedestrian bridge using a standing ride-on mower and a seagull freaked out when I went past (I guess it was chilling under part of the bridge on the ground for some reason) and took off in a panic right into my head. It shat and I got a little on me, which was pretty terrible, and three people saw it happen so I couldn't play it off. Dammit, nature. Dusty Baker 2 fucked around with this message at 03:28 on Jun 24, 2015 |
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Jun 24, 2015 03:21
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That is hilarious. Please don't get yourself fired by posting poo poo on the internet though. Here's some nonsense that CalTrans just did here... They widened a freeway overpass, and added a dedicated right turn lane onto the 101. The dedicated right turn lane meant they had to have the bike lane do that thing where it crosses the right turn lane so that cars turning right aren't running bikes over during their turn. So far, so good. BUT, they also inexplicably CONTINUED the bike lane on the right side of the right turn lane as well. When they first striped it, simply ended at the onramp - as if bikes were going to use it to turn right onto the freeway. When they came through for the second pass (where they added the green bike lane paint) I think they realized their fuckup and created a cheap and dirty "solution". Sequence of pics because I don't want to try to edit my dash cam video, last one is the money shot:    
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Jun 24, 2015 03:28
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lol That's definitely the point where you should slap a cheap cycleway bridge over the freeway somewhere nearby.
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Jun 24, 2015 14:06
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Chemmy posted:Many people intentionally get themselves hit by cars in order to defraud and inconvenience car drivers. [citation needed] "Many"? Compared to the number of pedestrians accidentally killed in collisions with cars? That seems like a pretty ridiculous claim. Ninja edit: Or are you joking, in that case it went right over my head...
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Jun 24, 2015 16:01
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Hippie Hedgehog posted:"Many"? Compared to the number of pedestrians accidentally killed in collisions with cars? That seems like a pretty ridiculous claim. Do you know what it's like as a driver to be falsely accused of hitting a cyclist or pedestrian? It can be life destroying, you'll be the victim of a witch hunt. There's a lot of car-hating pedenazi's out there just jumping at the chance to falsely accuse innocent drivers. No, we need to put the onus entirely on the "victim" and even then only have incredibly light punishments. Besides, have you seen what some of those cylists wear? All tight clothing and flashing lights, they're basically asking for an object-fixation related crash.
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Jun 24, 2015 18:28
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Koesj posted:lol Nobody here is going to spend $3 million to remove the bike lane from the street for a few hundred feet. And this city is in the top 10 for percentage of bicycle commuters in the U.S. (it would be nice if we cared that much, but yeah...) They could, however, change the sign and erase the nonsensical right side lane they put in instead of slapping down a little more paint to "fix" it in the most dangerous way possible.
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Jun 24, 2015 19:10
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Baronjutter posted:Do you know what it's like as a driver to be falsely accused of hitting a cyclist or pedestrian? It can be life destroying, you'll be the victim of a witch hunt. There's a lot of car-hating pedenazi's out there just jumping at the chance to falsely accuse innocent drivers. No, we need to put the onus entirely on the "victim" and even then only have incredibly light punishments. Besides, have you seen what some of those cylists wear? All tight clothing and flashing lights, they're basically asking for an object-fixation related crash. Nicely done, sir. 
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Jun 24, 2015 19:17
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Choadmaster posted:Nobody here is going to spend $3 million to remove the bike lane from the street for a few hundred feet. And this city is in the top 10 for percentage of bicycle commuters in the U.S. (it would be nice if we cared that much, but yeah...) To be honest, I'd guess that a separate bridge would cost quite a bit more than $3 million. Anyway, I think a better compromise would be to have separate phases on the traffic light for bike traffic going through vs car traffic turning.
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Jun 24, 2015 19:20
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Choadmaster posted:Nobody here is going to spend $3 million to remove the bike lane from the street for a few hundred feet. And this city is in the top 10 for percentage of bicycle commuters in the U.S. (it would be nice if we cared that much, but yeah...) Deleting those 24 or so feet of extra ped+cycle width on the rail overpass alone could have gone *some* way towards paying for a dedicated facility to the east. Also, unsegregated bike 'lanes' on a 25k aadt main thoroughfare 
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Jun 24, 2015 19:55
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Koesj posted:unsegregated bike 'lanes' on a 25k aadt main thoroughfare north_american_bike_infrastructure.txt Here's a good one from Vancouver. They "built" that for the 2010 Winter Olympics.
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Jun 24, 2015 22:59
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Lead out in cuffs posted:north_american_bike_infrastructure.txt There's totally absolutely enough room to make all the lanes just a tiny bit smaller and add a nice 1' curb between the cars and bikes. You'd think there must have been a major BC Liberal donor that built curbs around that time...
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Jun 24, 2015 23:15
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Pssh, you guys need to learn from Florida, the deadliest state in North America to ride a bicycle. 80k AADT, 50MPH speed limit, unsegregated bike lanes, yo! https://www.google.com/maps/@27.937605,-82.271792,3a,39.5y,102.39h,82.53t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1szSsZjiWPBnsE9-dF8WkqYg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
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Jun 25, 2015 02:17
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Cargo culting mixed mode infrastructure: the next deadliest thing is already here.
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Jun 25, 2015 02:36
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poo poo like that is why we ride on sidewalks.
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Jun 25, 2015 06:37
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Javid posted:poo poo like that is why we drive. FTFY. Judging by the frequency at which we have to replace bus shelters around here, the sidewalks are just as unsafe.
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Jun 25, 2015 07:02
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I'll take the extra two feet of grass + curb between me and traffic, along with the ability to swerve into that yard without mounting the curb myself. I'd love to have that as the hardest choice to make, anyway. The situation around here generally looks like this: 
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Jun 25, 2015 21:46
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Javid posted:I'll take the extra two feet of grass + curb between me and traffic, along with the ability to swerve into that yard without mounting the curb myself. Is that signed as a bike route or something? Not every road is going to have bike facilities. Next to a river like that, retrofitting to add them would be pretty costly.
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Jun 26, 2015 03:11
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There's a dedicated bike lane for about 200 yards where that highway connects to the nearest city, then it's "lol gently caress you share the road" They put up those signs instead of actually doing anything about how godawful every route between these two cities is to bike. USA.txt
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Jun 26, 2015 05:00
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Heh. Well, not all American bike infrastructure is that terrible. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raRcYkvnoZ0 Well, it's getting less terrible, anyway. E: Cross-posted from the Bike Commuting thread.
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Jun 26, 2015 20:09
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Javid posted:I'll take the extra two feet of grass + curb between me and traffic, along with the ability to swerve into that yard without mounting the curb myself. Where is this anyway?
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Jun 26, 2015 20:13
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Nintendo Kid posted:Where is this anyway? Roughly here: https://www.google.com/maps/@42.422953,-123.192096,3a,75y,224.16h,68.88t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s52o097e4kpyfMjBT9DM8HQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
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Jun 26, 2015 23:10
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Why are there not more diagonal crossings at 4-way stops in the UK? Everyone does it anyway so just paint the loving lines on and make it official!
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Jun 26, 2015 23:40
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thehustler posted:Why are there not more diagonal crossings at 4-way stops in the UK? Everyone does it anyway so just paint the loving lines on and make it official! Because then you have to increase the clearance times by 1.41 to match. It's easier to allow enough time for the slowest users to cross one leg at a time, but assume that everyone else will cross diagonally if they'd like.
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Jun 26, 2015 23:49
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Yeah, as a pedestrian I'd rather have the light timing close to what it takes to cross the street, so I can arrive at an intersection, cross which ever way is green, and by the time I'm at the other side have the other way turn green. I've been places with the diagonal cross where there's an all-pedestrian phase and it just means way longer wait times if you don't catch the green. And unless a road is super busy I'm just going to cross the moment there's a break in traffic anyways like most people.
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Jun 26, 2015 23:54
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 Intersection near my apartment. It's a rather high-traffic area as there are a few apartment/housing complexes on one side of the freeway and a bunch of stores on the other. Any location marked with an X in this picture has a non-functioning crosswalk light. This isn't a huge deal during the day, but at night those are blind corners, under the bridge is dimly lit so you can't see pedestrians, and pedestrians have no way of triggering a red light long enough to cross some of those roads (the lights change very rapidly at times). That's another issue, the lights themselves: some of the traffic lights at this location (Olympia, WA -- Black Lake Blvd./WA-101 interchange) literally light green for one second before changing to yellow and red again. Drivers like to run reds here. A lot. So non-functioning crosswalk lights combined with a notoriously dangerous intersection means there will be some sort of an incident there soon, and somebody will have some answering to do. I've made several reports to Olympia Public Works but I guess nobody has gotten around to it yet. If it were literally a block further to the south-west, it would be within Tumwater's jurisdiction and I'd be able to complain directly to the guy in charge of traffic signals. Alas, I'm powerless. By the way, to any college students reading this, always always always check with your local public works department starting around february or march for seasonal job openings. They usually pay a few dollars more per hour than minimum wage, you have steady work schedules and it's a government job so it's a different animal than the private sector. I highly recommend applying for one. They're usually just seasonal assistant-type jobs, but sometimes they specialize in what you'll be doing (RoW maintenance, pavement repair, etc).
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Jun 27, 2015 05:54
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Baronjutter posted:Yeah, as a pedestrian I'd rather have the light timing close to what it takes to cross the street, so I can arrive at an intersection, cross which ever way is green, and by the time I'm at the other side have the other way turn green. I've been places with the diagonal cross where there's an all-pedestrian phase and it just means way longer wait times if you don't catch the green. And unless a road is super busy I'm just going to cross the moment there's a break in traffic anyways like most people.
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Jun 27, 2015 07:47
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The Deadly Hume posted:Depends on the situation. Our scramble crossings are in the main shopping street where there's a lot of ped activity and you should only be driving down the street if you're looking for a car park, not using it as a through road as there are other roads designated for that nearby. In that case, the best practice is to increase the walk time, not the flashing don't walk time (which is dependent on the max crossing distance). Otherwise, you're just increasing the cycle length, which effectively makes pedestrians wait longer. Short cycle lengths are best for peds.
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Jun 27, 2015 17:18
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Yeah, in my city they added one on the main tourist drag that's practically a ped-only street (there's 2 lanes one way but no parking along it and basically no reason to ever drive on it). It's usually so packed with peds that the peds just critical-mass and muscle the cars out and cross where ever the gently caress they want. They added a scramble but I've found it just ends up confusing people and it's made the cycle longer so people just ignore it. I've also never once seen someone cross diagonally, it doesn't feel safe or normal to do. They'll cross one street, see the other street is also still green and cross that. Or they'll miss the 2nd one but just cross anyways. Cars will also get confused because they'll see the opposing light turn red and get ready to go but nope, it's a scramble you still have to wait. Pointlessly confusing and everyone just "jay-walks" mid-block anyways. They totally make sense in some Toyko shopping district crossing a busy 4+ lane intersection (with actual marked diagonals), not so much in a super low to no traffic tourist area with narrow lanes. 
Baronjutter fucked around with this message at 04:59 on Jun 28, 2015 |
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Jun 28, 2015 04:54
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thehustler posted:Why are there not more diagonal crossings at 4-way stops in the UK? Everyone does it anyway so just paint the loving lines on and make it official! As a fellow dirty foreigner (and frequent pedestrian), I'll have to side with Baronjutter on this one. Having an all-ped phase makes no sense to me either, and London would work better with normal light cycles.
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Jun 28, 2015 10:38
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Whhhyyyyyyyyy http://i.imgur.com/1ALkAky.webm
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Jun 29, 2015 21:11
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EoRaptor posted:Whhhyyyyyyyyy I guess he likes his balls (and dick) getting hit.
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Jun 29, 2015 21:19
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EoRaptor posted:Whhhyyyyyyyyy There has to be a listing on FetLife for this.
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Jun 30, 2015 01:19
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EoRaptor posted:Whhhyyyyyyyyy The US Winter Olympics Slalom Team, everybody.
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Jun 30, 2015 02:56
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EoRaptor posted:Whhhyyyyyyyyy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nk2wViKSh_M
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Jun 30, 2015 11:34
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Traffic thread, I need to show you this short film. It was made because the Tour de France is starting in Utrecht this year - and they actually asked David Attenborough to narrate it, but sadly, he denied. It would've been perfect. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuDeF6pd2DA
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Jul 1, 2015 14:26
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What are your thoughts on Diverging Diamond Interchanges?
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Jul 2, 2015 14:17
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drgnwr1 posted:What are your thoughts on Diverging Diamond Interchanges? Cichlidae chimed in on that topic on page 1.
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Jul 2, 2015 20:18
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| # ? May 10, 2024 14:26 |
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 How about a phallic interchange?
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