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Cichlidae posted:God drat, how hard is it NOT to turn in front of a tram? It's not like they vary wildly in speed or direction. Heck, if you're going to make an illegal left turn across train tracks, why wouldn't you look over your shoulder or check your mirror? It seems like in a few of those accident, the person is already waiting to turn left way ahead of the tram, so maybe they are waiting on something else for their cue to go. They fixate on that one thing, then don't check to make sure that tram didn't sneak up on them.
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Feb 20, 2012 19:20
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NPR talks about pavement testing and stuff like that.
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Feb 20, 2012 19:24
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Jonnty posted:Does this actually work? Here we use priority signs for very short, low traffic roadworks - they give one direction priority over the other - and that seems to work quite well. I don't see how for higher levels of traffic stop signs, especially ones that encourage multiple cars to go in, wouldn't just result in one direction dominating the other in the same way. From what we've seen, it does indeed work. It's basically a traffic signal that lets up to 3 cars go in each direction. Of course, we've only used them in more rural, relaxed parts of the state. If we tried putting them down near NYC, I'm guessing people wouldn't be as courteous. We don't use priority signs here because of the potential for head-on accidents at speed; we'd prefer everyone stop before proceeding through the work zone. Heck, even with a signal, sometimes we force it to rest on red for both directions.
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Feb 20, 2012 19:30
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Cichlidae posted:From what we've seen, it does indeed work. It's basically a traffic signal that lets up to 3 cars go in each direction. Of course, we've only used them in more rural, relaxed parts of the state. If we tried putting them down near NYC, I'm guessing people wouldn't be as courteous. Ah right, fair enough. I think over here it's limited to places where you have a clear view of the other side and have a lot of time to slow down so I guess it's not so much of an issue here. Plus, we don't use stop signs as much as you do I guess.
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Feb 20, 2012 19:56
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I guess also in the UK/Europe we are more used to having half the road physically blocked from on street parking in residential areas, even on quite major thoroughfares, with one direction usually having priority depending on which side the car(s) are parked.
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Feb 20, 2012 20:44
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Gat posted:I guess also in the UK/Europe we are more used to having half the road physically blocked from on street parking in residential areas, even on quite major thoroughfares, with one direction usually having priority depending on which side the car(s) are parked. Yup, France has signs for that all over the place. There really is no good translation for American audiences.
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Feb 20, 2012 22:54
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FISHMANPET posted:Speaking of stupid drivers, has this been posted here before? Is that Houston? Of course it's Houston. The funny thing is that people still drive on the tracks and those that get caught on tape just happen to get hit by the train. They did make it a hassle to take a left. You kinda have to go right, right, and then right again to cross. Not that laziness is an excuse... but those trains aren't exactly not hard to see.
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Feb 21, 2012 07:22
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Speaking of trafic signalling, but over here in Denmark you'll occasionally see something referred as "negative green" (or mirrored signal) rather than a turn arrow. It's only for turning left in an intersection and its either a signal that only has two lights (Red/Yellow) or the green is turned off and it has a tape cross on it. The idea is that what you're actually seeing is what the oncoming traffic sees on their traffic light, so when you're sitting in the intersection you know that when it turns red the light is also red for anyone that could otherwise smash into you and you're good to go. I don't quite get why you wouldn't just get a turn arrow unless they're really expensive or something.
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Feb 21, 2012 21:18
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MrBling posted:Speaking of trafic signalling, but over here in Denmark you'll occasionally see something referred as "negative green" (or mirrored signal) rather than a turn arrow. It's only for turning left in an intersection and its either a signal that only has two lights (Red/Yellow) or the green is turned off and it has a tape cross on it. That's used to eliminate the Left-Turn Trap that results from lead-lag protected-permissive left-turn phasing. It's basically the same as Dallas Phasing, which is using a copy of the opposing through signal head for the non-arrow indications of the left turn lane. The fake signal indications are louvered so that the adjacent through vehicles can't see it. Lots of jargon, I know, but that's exactly it 
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Feb 21, 2012 22:44
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I just saw this on reddit and couldn't help but share.
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Feb 23, 2012 17:38
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That picture reminds me of one of the communities we designed/reconstructed the roads in a subdivision for. Originally it called for much wider road which actually allowed for parking on both sides of the street at the expense of some of the trees on the the terraces. There was a huge number of complaints about it and residents even started a website about it that was actually titled something like "saveour108trees.com" or some such very literal website name. They did manage to successfully lobby the city to get them to want it narrowed down considerably to just barely being able to support two lanes and occasionally parking on one side of the street. This was a good sized subdvision area too - half of a section or roughly a half mile square. But if it makes you feel better, they saved a lot of their trees. But they can't park on the street in the winter anymore at all. Sometimes you are really at the whim of the residents on things. Sloober fucked around with this message at 21:17 on Feb 23, 2012 |
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Feb 23, 2012 21:14
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A street right near my house growing up had that same issue. Pretty major cut-through roadway, paved right around the tree, with maybe 16' pavement width. The town only cut it down when they proposed building an elementary school in that lot. I guess you could always see it as some kind of primitive traffic calming...
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Feb 24, 2012 00:50
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Chaos Motor posted:I just saw this on reddit and couldn't help but share.  Why would you do this? Wouldn't they have some sort of liability for someone driving and hitting a loving tree?
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Feb 24, 2012 16:01
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I imagine the process was that the town decided to widen the road, the residents complained about this great old tree being cut down, it was a bitter fight, and the town lost but refused to spend any extra money to redesign things and paved right around it to hopefully kill it. Small town stuff gets nasty.
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Feb 24, 2012 16:22
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Judging from the large trees flanking in front and behind it on the right side it's probably photoshopped. Municipalities are unlikely to expose themselves to that level of risk of having a very large object in a driving lane no matter how much residents bitch about it. If they gave in there would at least be some kind of barrier seperating you from smashing into it facefirst. Temporarily allowing a tree to be around while a currently endangered species raises its hatchlings in it though is a possibility for doing something like that; however yeah, it'd have a lot of signange and probably barricades or something else setup.
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Feb 24, 2012 17:48
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This is the entrance to UMass Boston...the circled area is a red light that goes off with the normal cycle (It's not only for the crosswalk) WHY GOD WHY 
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Feb 24, 2012 18:15
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Elendil004 posted:This is the entrance to UMass Boston...the circled area is a red light that goes off with the normal cycle (It's not only for the crosswalk) Hey, at least Morrissey Blvd wasn't flooded that day, it seems.
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Feb 24, 2012 20:45
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Sloober posted:Judging from the large trees flanking in front and behind it on the right side it's probably photoshopped. You might think so, but it's not. They linked to the Google street view image and bam, there it is. Funny thing, the warning signage is on the wrong side, to boot.
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Feb 24, 2012 22:16
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Looks like that street has on-street parking, and the tree is in the parking area, not the travel lanes, but still looks bizarre.
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Feb 24, 2012 22:39
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grillster posted:Is that Houston? Of course it's Houston. The funny thing is that people still drive on the tracks and those that get caught on tape just happen to get hit by the train. (reverse the directions for US usage)
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Feb 25, 2012 13:16
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I live in the relatively small town of North Andover, MA. Rt. 114 and Rt. 125 are two major state highways that run through it, but I've got a quick question about the "Old Centre" as it's called. It used to be set up like this: Then, around four years ago, they completely murdered all through traffic and spent a nice six months of SUMMER WEATHER to build this:  Did they do the right thing? Simple curious, I like the way it is now far better but the rotary is so small that if you go anything over 15, your car might flip. I'll admit, it looks really nice aesthetically though.
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Feb 25, 2012 23:17
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For clarification, here's the roundabout in question. And here it is before:  Image courtesy of MassGIS. Their GIS viewer, OLIVER, is great aside from being slow as poo poo and sometimes not working. I called their office, and they said they're working on it. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt, since they did such good work otherwise with OLIVER. If anyone does give OLIVER a try, use an alternative basemap (bottom right corner of the map display).
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Feb 26, 2012 04:56
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Chaos Motor posted:I just saw this on reddit and couldn't help but share. This actually happens alot in small towns and counties in Texas. I remember when they upgraded and relocated the county road that runs next to my family's ranch from literally a cattle trail to a black top in the early 90's, for about 10 years afterwards the relocated road had a 500 year old, 10 ft diameter Live Oak in the middle of it. When they finally decided to remove it in 2000-ish it took them two weeks to chop it down.
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Feb 26, 2012 07:33
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exo posted:Hook turn? Some of the rail runs through parts of town with a lot of one-way streets. Main street runs next to the rail for about four miles. A few right-to-left crossings don't have left turn signals. If you want to turn left, you pass your street, hang the next right, hang another right to back track, and then hang a right on to your destination street to pass over the tracks and where you were a moment before.
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Feb 26, 2012 09:55
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FFStudios posted:I live in the relatively small town of North Andover, MA. Rt. 114 and Rt. 125 are two major state highways that run through it, but I've got a quick question about the "Old Centre" as it's called. It used to be set up like this: They sure did! That's a well designed modern roundabout, and the redesigned intersection of Johnson and Salem uses the curb bump-out to help guide traffic as well as reduce pedestrian crossing distance. That's a great example of fixing up a horrible condition. Ron Pauls Friend posted:This actually happens alot in small towns and counties in Texas. I remember when they upgraded and relocated the county road that runs next to my family's ranch from literally a cattle trail to a black top in the early 90's, for about 10 years afterwards the relocated road had a 500 year old, 10 ft diameter Live Oak in the middle of it. When they finally decided to remove it in 2000-ish it took them two weeks to chop it down. Wow, that wouldn't happen up here, especially with such a magnificent tree. We have an official Tree Warden who ensures that a road would be built around such a tree, not through it.
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Feb 26, 2012 16:35
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grover posted:Looks like that street has on-street parking, and the tree is in the parking area, not the travel lanes, but still looks bizarre. I think this. If you look carefully, the shot is composed in such a way that it makes the tree look like it's in the middle of the road, but it's really probably a foot or two from the curve, then 3-4 feet wide. But since you see cars on both sides further up the road it's like 'omg middle of street!'
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Feb 26, 2012 18:14
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grillster posted:Some of the rail runs through parts of town with a lot of one-way streets. Main street runs next to the rail for about four miles. A few right-to-left crossings don't have left turn signals. If you want to turn left, you pass your street, hang the next right, hang another right to back track, and then hang a right on to your destination street to pass over the tracks and where you were a moment before. Hook turns are only used when turning across the rails, not crossing them full stop. In your example you would travel in the right hand lane, enter the intersection and line up perpendicular to the right-to-left traffic waiting to cross, and then turn when that queuing traffic receives a green signal.
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Feb 26, 2012 20:03
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exo posted:Hook turns are only used when turning across the rails, not crossing them full stop. In your example you would travel in the right hand lane, enter the intersection and line up perpendicular to the right-to-left traffic waiting to cross, and then turn when that queuing traffic receives a green signal.
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Feb 29, 2012 11:32
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grillster posted:I'm not talking about hook turns at all. I'm talking about having to actually make three right turns. And I'm suggesting an alternative to this madness.
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Feb 29, 2012 12:42
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exo posted:And I'm suggesting an alternative to this madness. What's the benefit to doing a hook turn instead of just turning, possibly with a protected turn phase?
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Feb 29, 2012 17:08
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You don't delay trams or run the risk of having one t-bone the driver's side of the car.
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Feb 29, 2012 21:08
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exo posted:You don't delay trams or run the risk of having one t-bone the driver's side of the car. You're still crossing the tracks so that doesn't make any sense. I'm perfectly capable of not turning right in front of a light rail vehicle.
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Feb 29, 2012 21:34
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Okay now average it out for a zillion drivers x instances.
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Feb 29, 2012 21:49
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Koesj posted:Okay now average it out for a zillion drivers x instances. Seeing as how it's used nowhere in the US that has streetrunning rail vehicles or even next-to-street running rail vehicles, what's your point? If someone is dumb enough to hit a train making a regular turn, they're dumb enough to hit it making a hook turn.
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Feb 29, 2012 21:56
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Shades of gray... I'm playing devils advocate here but it might just as well be that the accident rate is significantly different.
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Feb 29, 2012 21:58
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My fingers feel like they're just about to fall off. I've been multi-tasking between redoing all of our typical traffic control plans from scratch and tracing 350 miles of pavement markings in CADD. It doesn't help that our "standard sheets" for pavement markings nearly as vague as the MUTCD's drawings, which is to say there's a lot left up to interpretation. I'm deciding state policy on the fly, which is... well, actually, it's a lot of fun. I'm the Mad Scientist of Traffic, and my power is slowly growing!
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Mar 1, 2012 04:21
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Elendil004 posted:This is the entrance to UMass Boston...the circled area is a red light that goes off with the normal cycle (It's not only for the crosswalk) Cichlidae I'm curious your thoughts on this awful design, or if there's a reason I'm not seeing.
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Mar 1, 2012 05:22
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Cichlidae posted:I'm deciding state policy on the fly, which is... well, actually, it's a lot of fun. What does this mean? What sorts of things are you deciding? Would you be able to change the lane dashes to dicks if you wanted to?
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Mar 1, 2012 05:42
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Elendil004 posted:Cichlidae I'm curious your thoughts on this awful design, or if there's a reason I'm not seeing. I don't really have an answer, except that there was probably a pedestrian or two who got run over there, and it was a reactive response. Those freeflow rights are a real killer for pedestrian crossings, and that's a big part of why we've been getting rid of them throughout the region. Airconswitch posted:What does this mean? What sorts of things are you deciding? Would you be able to change the lane dashes to dicks if you wanted to? Indeed I could, though I'd catch unholy hell for it soon afterward. I've already slipped a couple Easter eggs into my work (like including that nerdy logo on our new TCPs).
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Mar 1, 2012 13:24
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Install Gentoo posted:You're still crossing the tracks so that doesn't make any sense. I'm perfectly capable of not turning right in front of a light rail vehicle. I'm not saying you should out of the blue decide to start making hook-turns, it was more a question to Cichlidae and other Americans whether you think this would be a viable alternative to improve safety and reduce delays for both LRV vehicles (by reducing accidents) and drivers (by negating the ned for triple-right turns). Guess the answer is a no, as the concept is clearly foreign and confusing. exo fucked around with this message at 14:17 on Mar 1, 2012 |
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Mar 1, 2012 14:12
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