|
Hedera Helix posted:A long-proposed project to replace the I-5 bridge between Portland and Vancouver, Washington was officially canceled today. It faced ferocious opposition from Washington Republicans due to its accompanying light-rail extension. I've started and given up on a reply on this development a dozen times. All I can say is that I'm in full agreement with you. Disappointing as hell.
|
#
?
Jul 2, 2013 07:13
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 28, 2024 16:41 |
|
|
This thread reminded me of a roundabout my mother designed about 30 odd years ago. At the start there were quite a few accidents, though back then that was said to be due to the drivers not being familiar with the concept of roundabouts. Now with a recent population increase in the area, that stretch of road sees more traffic and the accident rate has gone through the roof. My mother still thinks her design fits the purpose perfectly and mainly blames the drivers. What do you think? How could it be improved?  picture of roundabout with a recent accident for severed limbs.
Leanfat fucked around with this message at 20:22 on Jul 2, 2013 |
|
#
?
Jul 2, 2013 20:12
|
|
|
^^^ Looks about as bad as the uncontrolled intersections my mom did 27 years ago 
|
|
#
?
Jul 2, 2013 20:29
|
|
|
Circles generally work better without lights you say? Pedestrians don't belong in the center island, you say? Welcome to Hell. quote:The crossroad of Easton's two busiest streets, Centre Square serves as a hub of city activity. The Easton Farmers' market sets up shop here each summer, and it becomes a giant Christmas decoration every winter.
|
|
#
?
Jul 2, 2013 22:14
|
|
|
Has this been posted? I don't think it has. Pittsburgh has no real main road going south of the city, so you get a bunch of semi-major roads that carry the traffic. One of them has a particularly nasty intersection with, what, 8 or 9 light phases? I'm not even sure. Turns out they're finally fixing it (PDF). Some of those pictures in there of bridge conditions are moderately terrifying.
|
|
#
?
Jul 2, 2013 23:16
|
|
|
I've got to head out for a moment, but please take a moment to have a look at Connecticut's most recent highway accident: http://www.wfsb.com/video?clipId=9050485&autostart=true
|
|
#
?
Jul 2, 2013 23:30
|
|
|
Was he filming that on a handheld camera/cell phone, while driving, during a mini-tornado? Good god some people make just the worst decisions.
|
|
#
?
Jul 3, 2013 00:00
|
|
Yes, it's like a lava lamp.
|
Cichlidae posted:I've got to head out for a moment, but please take a moment to have a look at Connecticut's most recent highway accident: So this is what it feels like to be an economically important fish.
|
|
#
?
Jul 3, 2013 00:22
|
|
|
Hedera Helix posted:A long-proposed project to replace the I-5 bridge between Portland and Vancouver, Washington was officially canceled today. It faced ferocious opposition from Washington Republicans due to its accompanying light-rail extension. Jeez... It's like Florida's spreading. I'm sorry for your loss. Leanfat posted:This thread reminded me of a roundabout my mother designed about 30 odd years ago. Get rid of parking in the middle, make all approaches yield, shore up your approach tapers, introduce splitter islands, and invest in a LEGO re-education program. you ate my cat posted:Has this been posted? I don't think it has. Pittsburgh has no real main road going south of the city, so you get a bunch of semi-major roads that carry the traffic. One of them has a particularly nasty intersection with, what, 8 or 9 light phases? I'm not even sure. Turns out they're finally fixing it (PDF). Some of those pictures in there of bridge conditions are moderately terrifying. Hey, a jughandle! It'll still be a clusterfuck, but at least it should function better. Really not crazy about having a Rite-Aid drive so close to the intersection, though. That parcel should be bought up and turned into green space. PittTheElder posted:Was he filming that on a handheld camera/cell phone, while driving, during a mini-tornado? Good god some people make just the worst decisions. A real tornado, in fact! And yes, because this is America and we're all about freedom! There were a bunch of kids in that sports dome when the roof flew off, but there were no major injuries. Don't know if I can say the same about the drivers on I-91.
|
|
#
?
Jul 3, 2013 01:06
|
|
|
PittTheElder posted:Was he filming that on a handheld camera/cell phone, while driving, during a mini-tornado? Good god some people make just the worst decisions. I like that he turns around to film his face, just in case the police had any doubt of who he was.
|
|
#
?
Jul 3, 2013 05:33
|
|
|
The one time I visited the States, we happened to get caught in one of those Arizona summer 'storms'. Those things are short but strong. It's like all of a sudden someone keeps dropping helicopterfulls of water on you. You literally can't see more than a few meters in front of you. I've seen one of those only once in my own country. It was so dangerous/difficult to drive that a lot of cars actually stopped to the side of the road to wait it out. Most others just drove really slowly. So, in Arizona, we were on a highway and slowed down to an appropriate speed for those weather conditions, and it was still kinda tricky. And then big trucks started passing us. At full highway speed. The water they splashed up made it even harder to see anything. I was really quite scared then. It's so easy to lose control and start slipping when a dry road suddenly gets really wet. Made me wonder if American (truck) drivers are crazy. Land of the free. Yes. If I remember right it was the I-40, near the Petrified Forest which we were visiting that day.
|
|
#
?
Jul 3, 2013 06:20
|
|
|
Speaking of Arizona, does the record heat that's hitting the southwest right now make roads wear out faster? I would think the heat must increase the malleability of the surface, which probably shouldn't be good for it.
|
|
#
?
Jul 3, 2013 06:34
|
|
|
Carbon dioxide posted:The one time I visited the States, we happened to get caught in one of those Arizona summer 'storms'. Those things are short but strong. It's like all of a sudden someone keeps dropping helicopterfulls of water on you. You literally can't see more than a few meters in front of you. I've seen one of those only once in my own country. It was so dangerous/difficult to drive that a lot of cars actually stopped to the side of the road to wait it out. Most others just drove really slowly. They do that in the snow, too. Nothing like a truck passing you at 50 mph and spraying 18 wheels worth of slush onto your windshield! PittTheElder posted:Speaking of Arizona, does the record heat that's hitting the southwest right now make roads wear out faster? I would think the heat must increase the malleability of the surface, which probably shouldn't be good for it. It's been a while since my asphalt class, but from what I remember, asphalt's viscosity is halved for every ten degrees celcius. Your job mix formula should be designed to maintain adequate viscosity at the maximum expected pavement temperature, but still be able to flow from an asphalt truck, which isn't very easy when your pavement can fry an egg. Unless the engineers planned for that heat, the asphalt will take a huuuuuge beating, especially in the form of rutting.
|
|
#
?
Jul 3, 2013 12:21
|
|
|
Carbon dioxide posted:The one time I visited the States, we happened to get caught in one of those Arizona summer 'storms'. Those things are short but strong. It's like all of a sudden someone keeps dropping helicopterfulls of water on you. You literally can't see more than a few meters in front of you. I've seen one of those only once in my own country. It was so dangerous/difficult to drive that a lot of cars actually stopped to the side of the road to wait it out. Most others just drove really slowly. Monsoons!  Some of the summer rain just started here, they can hit really hard in summer, but winters in Southern Arizona can have crazy storms too. A couple years back we had a week long storm with just about every weather warning that could be reasonably be issued for the state. Between Tucson and Phoenix is a small highway town of Casa Grand that is the epicenter of Interstate 10 being closed in at least one direction a couple of times every year due to terrible dust storms. I can't speak for Flagstaff which is near where you were driving, but with it rains hard in Tucson traffic on I-10 will come to a nice safe crawl usually, not too certain has I have only been on it once during a bad enough storm to slow people down.
|
|
#
?
Jul 3, 2013 14:18
|
|
|
Cichlidae posted:They do that in the snow, too. Nothing like a truck passing you at 50 mph and spraying 18 wheels worth of slush onto your windshield! Pfft, silly Americans, that's why you just go faster than all the trucks. Problem solv  Eh, nevermind. quote:It's been a while since my asphalt class, but from what I remember, asphalt's viscosity is halved for every ten degrees celcius. Your job mix formula should be designed to maintain adequate viscosity at the maximum expected pavement temperature, but still be able to flow from an asphalt truck, which isn't very easy when your pavement can fry an egg. Unless the engineers planned for that heat, the asphalt will take a huuuuuge beating, especially in the form of rutting. Yeah, rutting is about what I'd expect. Is rutting usually just expected wear-and-tear on roads with large volumes of truck traffic? The roads in my local industrial park are super messed up rut-wise, and I assume that's why.
|
|
#
?
Jul 3, 2013 16:38
|
|
|
Cichlidae posted:I've got to head out for a moment, but please take a moment to have a look at Connecticut's most recent highway accident: Here's another video from the same storm: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10200897869267477 At 2:33, some more interesting debris blows across the road.
|
|
#
?
Jul 3, 2013 17:02
|
|
|
What are those huge streamer things? Air ghost snakes?! Tobacco netting... what? Man that was scary, glad we don't have anything like that here. Baronjutter fucked around with this message at 17:10 on Jul 3, 2013 |
|
#
?
Jul 3, 2013 17:07
|
|
|
This made me think of you: http://ctboom.com/20-things-youve-said-to-yourself-while-driving-in-connecticut/
|
|
#
?
Jul 3, 2013 22:09
|
|
|
you ate my cat posted:Some of those pictures in there of bridge conditions are moderately terrifying.
|
|
#
?
Jul 3, 2013 22:31
|
|
|
Presto posted:Welcome to Pennsylvania. For three summers I drove to work across the Rankin Bridge. It sure was fun driving over a bridge where you can see the river 75 feet below through the holes in the pavement. Especially on the days where it was completely packed with cars from end to end. There are some bridges around here that I refuse to go over unless absolutely necessary. The Greenfield bridge, the one with the nets and smaller bridge underneath to catch the bits that fall off, is on that list also. I hear they're planning on removing and rebuilding it starting next year? I think I'm going to have to move to the other side of town before that happens. I just learned that some dude has a blog about our roads. Do other cities have a blog about their bad roads, or is this another "Pittsburgh Thing"?
|
|
#
?
Jul 4, 2013 01:05
|
|
|
PittTheElder posted:Yeah, rutting is about what I'd expect. Is rutting usually just expected wear-and-tear on roads with large volumes of truck traffic? The roads in my local industrial park are super messed up rut-wise, and I assume that's why. If the mix design is done properly, you won't get rutting. It's a problem with the asphalt binder in high temperatures, or the aggregate not being angular enough. Elendil004 posted:This made me think of you: http://ctboom.com/20-things-youve-said-to-yourself-while-driving-in-connecticut/ Truth is stranger than fiction, eh? ----- Look what I found at work!  It's from 1976; the preface is about the Bicentennial and how much transportation has changed in 200 years. The book is about the state of the art in transportation technology - much of which (disturbingly) is still relevant today. I can scan some pages if you folks would like to see. The section on computers is especially nice - punch tape and magnetic core memory. Ooh, also 6-bit bytes and 12-bit memory addressing (it's good enough for 4k!)
|
|
#
?
Jul 4, 2013 02:10
|
|
|
^^^ Please do! I love reading about old tech.
|
|
#
?
Jul 4, 2013 04:42
|
|
|
Yes, please scan excerpts of it for us. It looks like it's going to be something special indeed. 
|
|
#
?
Jul 4, 2013 04:57
|
|
|
Cichlidae posted:If the mix design is done properly, you won't get rutting. It's a problem with the asphalt binder in high temperatures, or the aggregate not being angular enough. Well, that's certainly depressing to learn.
|
|
#
?
Jul 4, 2013 05:57
|
|
|
I was out on my bike today (second time on my first bike in 15 years...whew), when I passed an electronic speed sign like this: There were no other vehicles around, and I was clocked at 12 MPH. Are these signs accurate for bikes? The speed seems about right, but I'm curious.
|
|
#
?
Jul 4, 2013 19:28
|
|
|
Kakairo posted:I was out on my bike today (second time on my first bike in 15 years...whew), when I passed an electronic speed sign like this: They'll be relatively accurate as long as you present a large enough radar target. They can accurately measure people on motorcycles, after all. Usually if they can't measure you properly, they can't measure at all, so they won't read anything or will be reading the speed of something else near you, like a car following close behind.
|
|
#
?
Jul 4, 2013 19:36
|
|
|
Kakairo posted:I was out on my bike today (second time on my first bike in 15 years...whew), when I passed an electronic speed sign like this: 12 is pretty easy. I was able to do a little over 20 MPH on flat ground and out of shape at the time without much effort.
|
|
#
?
Jul 5, 2013 00:39
|
|
|
uapyro posted:12 is pretty easy. I was able to do a little over 20 MPH on flat ground and out of shape at the time without much effort. Yes, but what about an average speed over a distance of 5+ miles?
|
|
#
?
Jul 5, 2013 01:09
|
|
|
Hedera Helix posted:Yes, but what about an average speed over a distance of 5+ miles? That I'm not sure about. Pretty much everywhere I rode had frequent stop signs that were about 1 to 2 blocks apart. The only roads that really didn't were 4 lanes and had drivers with the mentality of "this bicyclist better get out of my way before he gets ran over"
|
|
#
?
Jul 5, 2013 03:27
|
|
|
Kakairo posted:I was out on my bike today (second time on my first bike in 15 years...whew), when I passed an electronic speed sign like this: I rode past one on a biggish ride in Vancouver, and it was clocking speeds for the riders that looked about right, too (20-30km/h on roughly flat terrain). PS: Come to YLLS. We have bike threads.
|
|
#
?
Jul 5, 2013 04:10
|
|
|
Thanks for the answers. Good to know my easy riding is at a good pace. Also, the YLLS bike thread intimidates me. All sorts of serious cycling stuff, and me with my Schwinn from Target (I did have a local bike shop check it out, though).
|
|
#
?
Jul 5, 2013 18:56
|
|
|
Presto posted:Welcome to Pennsylvania. For three summers I drove to work across the Rankin Bridge. It sure was fun driving over a bridge where you can see the river 75 feet below through the holes in the pavement. Especially on the days where it was completely packed with cars from end to end. Indeed. That bridge was a nightmare including the interchange at the end. Most of the holes in the surface did show you the nice chemically infested Mon river. I'm glad they were able to make the significant repairs, now all they need to do is drop the asinine speed limit on it.
|
|
#
?
Jul 5, 2013 21:28
|
|
|
Kakairo posted:Thanks for the answers. Good to know my easy riding is at a good pace. Come to the Bike Commuting megathread, it's more friendly to folks on lovely department bikes, even if 50% or more of the posters are hardcore spandex-clad road warriors. /derail
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2013 00:03
|
|
|
you ate my cat posted:There are some bridges around here that I refuse to go over unless absolutely necessary. The Greenfield bridge, the one with the nets and smaller bridge underneath to catch the bits that fall off, is on that list also. 
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2013 00:52
|
|
|
http://www.pittsburghfederalprojects.com/index.php/greenfield-avenue/ At least they're planning on replacing the bridge 
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2013 08:14
|
|
|
Hold the gently caress up. Are they imploding the bridge ONTO the parkway below? Parkway closed for 5 days? Christ, I have to move to another part of town before that poo poo happens.
|
|
#
?
Jul 7, 2013 03:43
|
|
|
Lead out in cuffs posted:Come to the Bike Commuting megathread, it's more friendly to folks on lovely department bikes, even if 50% or more of the posters are hardcore spandex-clad road warriors. Thanks, I've just started reading the thread and it's already more what I was looking for. 
|
|
#
?
Jul 7, 2013 04:26
|
|
|
Sorry for the wait, guys, I was out of state for a while. First off, some looks at the state of computer technology in 1976.   Anyone who went to college in the 1970s has horror stories about punch cards. Sorry for the flashbacks, guys.  Storage has come a pretty long way. The highest-capacity disk array mentioned was about 100MB; note, however, that they're talking about 6-bit bytes. Fifteen years later, I got a home computer hard drive that stored 80MB; that was a 3.5" drive, compared with the minifridge-sized arrays they mention here. Also note the way they brush off CRT monitors as an 'alternative' display medium.  Now you know what your LPT port is named after. The text says that these had a tremendously high output rate, something like thousands of characters per minute. Must have sounded like machine guns.   Programming a timer is as easy as forcing a buffer overflow. Some parts of this are just as relevant now as when they were first printed. The paragraph about building a balanced system is especially important if you build computers like I do. Other things... well, I guess most computers back then couldn't multi-task.   What happens when your program is bigger than your available memory? Also, what is software? Bugs, though... bugs never change.   You can get free software, but it may not compile on your machine and probably has bugs. That second page is a must-read: almost 40 years old, and some of that stuff hasn't changed one bit. A typical CPU back then had dozens to hundreds of registers; yours and mine, in all likelihood, have 16-32. Also note that CPUs back then cost $50-$200, which is still a pretty good price range for mid-range enthusiast CPUs. They also predict CPU prices of $10/chip soon, which hasn't really materialized, at least not for x86 chips. Some things have improved, though: system size and memory capacity are chief among them.   More predictions of how microcomputers will change the world. Their $400-$3000 price bracket still fits very nicely with today's typical PC prices. I guess the idea of a general-purpose computer wasn't around back then, because they assume all microcomputers are specialized, one-task systems.  And you thought your internet connection was slow!  Computers are for nerds, though! Let's see how out-of-date their transportation engineering stuff is, eh?  That's, uh, essentially still how we do closed-loop coordination...   ITS equipment (before it was called ITS), including something called ERGS, which we'll see shortly... Seems Highway Advisory Radio had the same drawbacks in 1976 as it does now. I am not a big fan of HAR, so this is vindicating.  Antique cars, and... same exact ramp metering equipment we use now.    A high-tech ramp metering technique to help cars shoot the gap, installed in Boston. Must not have caught on. Also please note the vintage Mustang.  Variable message signs in 1976. Essentially identical to what we use today. They even had travel time messages!  That ERGS thing? It's a freakin' GPS! I mean, without the satellite part, of course, and with a crude interface, but it serves the same purpose. The text says you plug in your destination, and it tells you where to turn. Furthermore, it can react to incidents via radio link and re-route you.   Everything in here about CCTVs is still freakishly accurate. The only thing that makes these pages look dated is how small the TVs are.  Man, I wish we had all this ITS stuff. That control center looks awesome. And all those loop detectors!  They had live maps back then. They weren't computerized, but they did the same thing. Also, everyone had sideburns.  Ask a 12-year-old to draw a modern radar or ultrasound detector, and you'd get about the same result.   FINALLY something out-of-date! We only have a few electromechanical signal controllers out in the field now. All the same, they had exactly the same capabilities as the controllers we use now.  Signal controllers were a little taller back then, and a little groovier, but just as stupid. All in all, this book was a pretty depressing read. The worst part was recognizing one software package mentioned (TRANSYT), which is still very much in use today. What the hell, transportation? Why are we still stuck in 1976???
|
|
#
?
Jul 9, 2013 01:52
|
|
|
On the one hand: wow, how times have changed! On the other: wow, how they haven't.
|
|
#
?
Jul 9, 2013 02:07
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 28, 2024 16:41 |
|
|
It's the future...today!
|
|
#
?
Jul 9, 2013 02:39
|
|
