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I don't know the greater context of the neighbourhood, but in situations like that it's often good to just dead-end (for cars) all but 4 of the roads. This is a horrible intersection in my town.  The two roads that go off the top and bottom of the map carry most all the traffic, the road going off the left edge is more of a local neighbourhood street. Because of how wide the intersection is there's huge gaps between each phase of the light to make sure the slowest person turning the widest left has time to clear. Both main roads will get backed up for over a kilometer easily every day during rush hour. Because of the traffic bottle necking at this awful intersection a lot of people would try to bypass it by driving through the local streets. This got residents very upset because instead of 1 car driving past their house every 20 min, it was a car every 5 min sometimes! Sometimes multiple cars at a time! So they blocked off most of the streets in the area forcing even more traffic through the intersection. Planning would love to change the intersection to just 4 lane, which would speed up the light phasing so much, but that would mean re-opening the closed streets so that that stupid little road that goes off to the left had another way. There's only like 100 houses and some "farms" that would be affected, and all the traffic would still be local traffic, but it's apparently politically impossible.
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Nov 28, 2016 22:14
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MrBling posted:So this has been the most dangerous rundabout in Denmark for some time apparently: (Not entirely sure what makes it so dangerous, it looks fairly normal to me) It has a combination of some pretty dangerous things: - Cycling lane on the roundabout (rather than separated). If the lane was at the spot where the sidewalk is now, cars would have a nice place to wait for cyclists when turning off it. Good that cyclists have priority though. - Non-turbo multilane roundabout in combination with that. It's hard enough to watch for traffic in two lanes, now add a bike lane... I don't think I've ever seen that in the Netherlands - More than four legs. It's unconventional and it gets difficult to keep up with what's going on at the upcoming legs, and might make it harder to find your way. - Bike path and crosswalk are not next to each other. Drivers will have to put more effort into watching both. It'd be better if the bike path was directly adjacent to the crosswalks. - I've also never seen a multilane roundabout with so many legs, that doesn't give you any space to safely move from one lane to the other as a driver!
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Nov 28, 2016 23:05
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smackfu posted:http://www.lohud.com/story/news/local/westchester/2016/09/01/taconic-exit-numbers/89580634/ Ah, thanks for that.
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Nov 28, 2016 23:31
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Baronjutter posted:
Baronjutter posted:The two roads that go off the top and bottom of the map carry most all the traffic ... if it weren't for that fact. Right?
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Nov 30, 2016 15:24
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That doesn't stop Dutch traffic planners from building roundabouts. Even if most of the traffic uses the same two branches, it still allows people from the lesser used branches to turn safely, and serves as a traffic calming measure. I've even seen roundabouts around here with three branches where the third one is just a dead end or some farmer's yard. Example: https://goo.gl/maps/8qha3XXh4kA2 This used to be just a straight road along the east-west canal, but then they built a new neighbourhood along the canal and a new road around it (the southern branch). They then cut off the former main road so that it is only a local road for the old houses along the canals, and it is a dead end (the small one going off to the east). But apparently this still deserved a roundabout - all of these changes were made at the same time. Even though there are just three branches and one is only used to access a few houses, and 99% of people follow the main route from the west around the new neighbourhood or the opposite way. Entropist fucked around with this message at 16:28 on Nov 30, 2016 |
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Nov 30, 2016 16:22
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Yeah, that case seems a bit extreme, but I guess you're right. I thought the common understanding was that traffic lights are preferred in these situations, but it really does make a lot of sense to put in a roundabout in Baronjutter's example. There seems to be plenty of space for it if you can eat up a bit of the parking lot to the west. Probably a bit of the plot to the south of the crossroads is already a commons, at least looks like that by the hedge shape, so shouldn't be a problem using that, too, without having to ED anyone.
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Dec 1, 2016 13:52
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They use roundabouts a lot in the UK when new developments go in next to major roads. I think it's partially a default preference for roundabouts here, and partially to do with traffic flow. If a lot of cars are trying to turn across traffic at once (say when everyone heads home in the evening) it can cause slowdown at a regular junction. With a roundabout the turning traffic effectively has priority, so it's not an issue. It doesn't help people leaving the development, but I guess that's not the traffic planners' problem.
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Dec 1, 2016 15:47
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Wolfsbane posted:They use roundabouts a lot in the UK when new developments go in next to major roads. I think it's partially a default preference for roundabouts here, and partially to do with traffic flow. If a lot of cars are trying to turn across traffic at once (say when everyone heads home in the evening) it can cause slowdown at a regular junction. With a roundabout the turning traffic effectively has priority, so it's not an issue. It doesn't help people leaving the development, but I guess that's not the traffic planners' problem. Roundabouts are great when the through movement is the major one - most traffic doesn't have to stop. Roundabouts are okay when two approaches next to each other are the major movement - some traffic has to wait to make sure the people in the roundabout are actually continuing on, but mostly it just works well. Roundabouts are less good when there are more than two major approaches, or heavy movements are crossing over each other on one-way approaches - see the link below. Roundabout traffic volume problem During peak hour, the traffic approaching the roundabout from the google car's perspective is almost continuous - this prevents any trafffic approaching from the right from entering the roundabout. They had to modify the roundabout with a traffic signal that operates during the peak to give that approach gaps.
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Dec 1, 2016 15:58
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Sooo... who wants to talk about connected and automated vehicle tech? A plethora have been rolling around in my downtown this week from all of the major players, plus we're preparing to take bids for a driverless circulator bus route in the downtown core. We also started our first two transit-operated rideshare zones around major suburban bus hubs a couple weeks ago, with two more on the way in a couple of weeks and a commitment from Tesla Motors to eventually convert our rideshare service over to driverless operation. Ah, but baby steps. Baby steps. First, we're allowing limited testing in our downtown and one of our expressways. The state of Florida is developing a facility in Central Florida called SunTrax to test these technologies (driverless freight convoys, large numbers of connected vehicles in a freeway environment with/without human operated vehicles mixed in, etc.) in real world applications without putting drivers in harms way. https://twitter.com/SiemensUSA/status/804423662447136768 (Hint: The tech in the video is similar to the wireless tech we just installed on our streetcars for signal priority, but instead it's implemented on a personal car with a HUD that is able to advise the driver on which route will result in the fastest travel time by avoiding red light interruptions and whatnot.) Varance fucked around with this message at 05:14 on Dec 2, 2016 |
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Dec 2, 2016 04:49
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Today in a local news article, some Belgian town is claiming to have "the smallest roundabout on the continent". 
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Dec 3, 2016 09:35
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[Insert joke about belgian roads]
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Dec 3, 2016 12:22
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Carbon dioxide posted:Today in a local news article, some Belgian town is claiming to have "the smallest roundabout on the continent". There's a pool at the planning council for how many times a
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Dec 3, 2016 16:49
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Since I know you know the area, some folks are proposing this third (in blue) bridge over the cape cod canal. Pretending for a moment that you could get the road through a top secret military installation and a bunch of houses, would this help with cape cod traffic? I've always assumed that without making 3, 25 and 6 all wider, it would be pretty pointless. But people do drive like real idiots on the bridges now, slowing way down without traffic, so maybe there's merit?
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Dec 4, 2016 15:21
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I don't think a third specific Cape crossing would be very helpful without other significant improvements to the Bourne and Sagamore. I get the proposal, it's based on a reasonable traffic solution, but IMO it doesn't solve the root of the problem. What would fix cape traffic? 1. South Coast Rail. Stuck in perpetual stupidity, but getting rid of cars helps a lot. 2. Twinning the Bourne and Sagamore to eliminate two-way traffic on one span. This won't happen. 3. Eliminate the Bourne rotary. 4. Provide a direct MA-25 to US 6 connection. This is outlined in that proposal but I have little faith it will go through. 5. Expansion of MA 25 and MA 3. Route 3 needs to be widened, and MA 25 would need accomodations for said US 6 connection. 6. Expansion of the Mid-cape highway to 3 lanes to Barnstable. This would all be more expensive than the proposal image above, but it would fix the majority of problems for the foreseeable future.
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Dec 4, 2016 19:06
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I am involved in lifting and transport within my company. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bb0asQn-ZMk We destroyed a bridge for TU Delft some weeks ago on purpose. It was a test to see how much the bridge could hold still. http://www.slideshare.net/elantsoght/load-testing-of-reinforced-concrete-bridges-in-the-netherlands Orions Lord fucked around with this message at 13:06 on Dec 5, 2016 |
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Dec 5, 2016 12:02
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Orions Lord posted:I am involved in lifting and transport within my company. Like this? 
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Dec 6, 2016 02:54
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So, I was at a transportation conference earlier today and ran into some of the Remix (Transitmix) devs. My agency has a license, so I thought I'd say hi and discuss other ways it could be used beyond transit planning. At some point in the conversation, this happened: Me: I remember when you guys were Transitmix. I played around with the beta quite a bit. Them: Oh, wow. Not many remember Transitmix. How did you find out about it? Me: Through a forum on a comedy website called Something Awful. Them: 
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Dec 14, 2016 07:08
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Did you ask them if they had stairs in their house?
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Dec 14, 2016 17:22
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Elendil004 posted:Did you ask them if they had stairs in their house?
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Dec 15, 2016 13:12
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Varance posted:... no. Good that was a test and you passed.
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Dec 15, 2016 19:33
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I drove through the most pointless roundabout in the universe last night and thought it warranted posting:
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Dec 15, 2016 21:38
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it looks like they removed an exit on the left and it was cheaper / easier to leave it be rather than reconstruct it as a curve.
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Dec 15, 2016 22:09
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Javid posted:I drove through the most pointless roundabout in the universe last night and thought it warranted posting: Incorrect. 
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Dec 15, 2016 22:38
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 This might be more pointless.
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Dec 15, 2016 22:44
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Looks more of a truck turnaround?
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Dec 15, 2016 22:50
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Javid posted:I drove through the most pointless roundabout in the universe last night and thought it warranted posting: Clearly you need a motorcycle in your life. Never again will a roundabout be pointless! 
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Dec 15, 2016 23:01
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Happy Noodle Boy posted:Looks more of a truck turnaround? Correct, it's so tanker trucks can access the gas station.
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Dec 15, 2016 23:10
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This is pretty bad.
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Dec 16, 2016 03:07
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Elendil004 posted:This is pretty bad. That's for that dude who's parked on the lawn to get out.
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Dec 16, 2016 04:33
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Peanut President posted:Incorrect. Okay, if there's a story here, I want to hear it.
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Dec 16, 2016 07:44
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SpaceDrake posted:Okay, if there's a story here, I want to hear it. Presumably the imminent construction of a labyrinth of mcmansions.
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Dec 16, 2016 07:50
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I think the "two entry roundabout intended for future development" might be fairly common though. On the other hand, the intersection the above road leads to:  (left hand drive) It doesn't seem to confuse the locals too much, tbqh, given that there's not much land to work with next to the creek and the homestead inside the off ramp, and the SE road gets a modest amount of traffic compared with the freeway and the north-south road, but I can't help thinking there would've been a better way to do it.
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Dec 16, 2016 07:54
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"Abandoned" roundabouts are usually linked with abandoned development. Site work begins to setup the road grid for a new subdivision or other construction project,. The economy goes south or the plans fall through in some other way, resulting in a bunch of rotting infrastructure. There are hundreds of them in the United States. Suburban and "retirement" counties lure development to try to get that sweet, sweet ad valorem money, only to have it blow up in their faces in a grand way (it turns out to be a scam). Let me introduce you to the horrors of South Florida failed developments: Placidia, FL: https://www.google.com/maps/@26.8559315,-82.2230436,4044m/data=!3m1!1e3 Lake Placid, FL: https://www.google.com/maps/@27.2455822,-81.3112101,2015m/data=!3m1!1e3 Lake Placid, FL, a couple of miles away from the last one: https://www.google.com/maps/@27.3383912,-81.4423809,4027m/data=!3m1!1e3 Palm Bay, FL: https://www.google.com/maps/@27.9361943,-80.6983361,4005m/data=!3m1!1e3 Best part is the scam to repave all of those empty roads in that last one: http://www.pbfl.org/home/showdocument?id=4918 "Repave all these empty roads and build an expressway for us so we can build 100 homes! Pleaaaaaase?" Varance fucked around with this message at 08:51 on Dec 16, 2016 |
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Dec 16, 2016 08:22
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SpaceDrake posted:Okay, if there's a story here, I want to hear it. As others said, just future undetermined development. The whole road was some big project, has a chicken lane and sidewalks and everything.  This is the whole town, the roundabout in the west. Peanut President fucked around with this message at 10:11 on Dec 16, 2016 |
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Dec 16, 2016 10:08
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What is a chicken lane??
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Dec 16, 2016 18:55
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Baronjutter posted:What is a chicken lane?? Another name for a center turn lane that's used by both sides of a road. You might more commonly hear it called a suicide lane. 
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Dec 16, 2016 19:05
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I generally call it a turn lane myself.
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Dec 16, 2016 19:06
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I call it a left turn lane extender. And shoulders are right turn lane extenders.
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Dec 16, 2016 19:21
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We just call them turning lanes here. I could see how it could be called a chicken lane since cars in theory could be traveling both directions and play chicken with each other. Usually they have little planters and things set up and marked so you can only really use them in in one direction. But if you have a "death road" lined with strip malls and lots of driveways I guess it makes sense to just have a big old turkey lane down the middle. I'm sure no one uses them as a passing lane or does anything dangerous in them when traffic gets bad. I've never seen one totally uninterrupted though, always have something to disrupt the lane every block or so so people can't just speed down it or use it for anything other than turning. 
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Dec 16, 2016 19:36
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fishmech posted:Another name for a center turn lane that's used by both sides of a road. You might more commonly hear it called a suicide lane. Or a "parking lot" if you live in South Philly. 
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Dec 16, 2016 19:39
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