|
sleepy.eyes posted:I have a question. At a roundabout, bicycles can either take the lane like a car, or hop up onto the sidewalk via a dedicated bike ramp. That sign's right at one of the bike ramps. I'd wager it's to warn bicycles re-entering the traffic stream from the ramp to yield to traffic (or perhaps to pedestrians).
|
#
?
Mar 4, 2015 23:27
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 20, 2024 04:41 |
|
|
sleepy.eyes posted:I have a question. I believe that's a joke. In high school, some friends of mine plowed down a stop sign, then haphazardly jammed it into the dirt on the side of the road on the very long one-way driveway up to the high school. People would still stop even though they're on a single-lane one-way road.
|
|
#
?
Mar 5, 2015 00:59
|
|
|
babyeatingpsychopath posted:I believe that's a joke. Nah, it's a legit sign. Just baffling.
|
|
#
?
Mar 5, 2015 02:44
|
|
|
sleepy.eyes posted:Nah, it's a legit sign. Just baffling. My guess is that it is intended for bicycles coming off the sidewalk into the bike lane. Note how the bike lane is dashed there so a car could legally be in it. That is just a guess, but it is right at a cut out for that purpose. That bike lane is complete poo poo too and why many bicyclists hate bike lanes. It is extremely narrow and would encourage cars to pass closely while collecting road debris. nm fucked around with this message at 08:31 on Mar 5, 2015 |
|
#
?
Mar 5, 2015 08:28
|
|
|
That is a terrible bike lane. I thought the footpath was the bike lane but it goes right up to a grate and a swale and just... suddenly ends. https://www.google.com/maps/@27.44917,-82.636815,3a,75y,52.88h,57.68t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1s0q24aMmXQId3QB80CSbwlQ!2e0 It ends right next to a sign saying "Bike Lane" which I would assume refers to the footpath if I hadn't seen some road markings earlier on. I would love to know what was going on with the planning of that. Did they literally build it all the way out there before realising they couldn't move it further?
|
|
#
?
Mar 5, 2015 08:52
|
|
|
Lobsterpillar posted:That is a terrible bike lane. I thought the footpath was the bike lane but it goes right up to a grate and a swale and just... suddenly ends. In Florida, most sidewalks are built by a developer either when the land is developed, or by the county when a road is improved as a direct result of a nearby development via impact fees. We've got sidewalks that do this all over our suburbs, simply because the area isn't built out yet. Also, that's a standard 3 foot bicycle lane, which is required by Florida law on all roads that have full pavement markings, regardless of where they are. Varance fucked around with this message at 09:11 on Mar 5, 2015 |
|
#
?
Mar 5, 2015 09:08
|
|
|
Varance posted:In Florida, most sidewalks are built by a developer either when the land is developed, or by the county when a road is improved as a direct result of a nearby development via impact fees. We've got sidewalks that do this all over our suburbs, simply because the area isn't built out yet. Ah I thought it looked really narrow - here in New Zealand the absolute minimum cycle lane width is 1.6m (just over 5 feet), so I don't think I've ever seen cycle lanes that narrow. There might be some build decades ago that are narrower. But then again, we don't require them on every single road.
|
|
#
?
Mar 5, 2015 09:22
|
|
|
Lobsterpillar posted:Ah I thought it looked really narrow - here in New Zealand the absolute minimum cycle lane width is 1.6m (just over 5 feet), so I don't think I've ever seen cycle lanes that narrow. There might be some build decades ago that are narrower. But then again, we don't require them on every single road. Also, our bike lands tend to be notoriously dangerous, if only because they end up on roads where the speed limit is 45-55 MPH and either getting brained with a mirror or getting sucked into travel lanes by the draft whipped up by trucks traveling at that speed are both deadly occurrences. We just had a community meeting out in Brandon, FL where people spent 2 full hours nonstop complaining about how they have a bicycle gathering cobwebs in their garage because it's not safe to use it anywhere near their house. Varance fucked around with this message at 09:48 on Mar 5, 2015 |
|
#
?
Mar 5, 2015 09:27
|
|
|
How hellishly out of compliance are yield signs on unsignalled at-grade railroad crossings? I came across one of those in Rockingham NC this week on a fairly busy road and was shocked because even the one-lane dirt roads across tracks that I know to be permanently out of service have legit stop signs in South Carolina.
|
|
#
?
Mar 5, 2015 09:42
|
|
|
"Can we all just take a moment to admire this incredibly impressive feat of engineering that's called Brisbane? " https://twitter.com/lennartnout/status/572945445581824001  https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-27.445607,153.0337925,474m/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en Impressive? Yes. Logical, good? No.
|
|
#
?
Mar 5, 2015 13:31
|
|
|
drunkill posted:"Can we all just take a moment to admire this incredibly impressive feat of engineering that's called Brisbane? " And now we know what happened to him after that.
|
|
#
?
Mar 5, 2015 13:41
|
|
|
Lobsterpillar posted:Ah I thought it looked really narrow - here in New Zealand the absolute minimum cycle lane width is 1.6m (just over 5 feet), so I don't think I've ever seen cycle lanes that narrow. There might be some build decades ago that are narrower. But then again, we don't require them on every single road. Yeah I'm pretty sure the Netherlands has an absolute minimum requirement of 1.25m (4') and tends to aim for 5' or more for bike lanes. 3' is barely wide enough for a bike, let alone a bike plus trailer or to provide adequate separation from motor traffic. Varance posted:Yeah, we can't even repave a road without bike lanes without adding either bike lanes or sharrows during the repave. Some higher speed roads don't get repaved until there's funding available to rebuild curbs to add another 2-3 feet to the roadbed on each side for bike lanes. Yeah this exactly. Bikes tend to average around 10 MPH or less. That little separation with a 40MPH speed differential is insanely dangerous. On a road like that, you really need to have a physical barrier or curb between the bike lane and traffic, or better still, route the bike path away from the road entirely. What are the chances of changing your state bike lane standards? E: remove weird double-quote. Lead out in cuffs fucked around with this message at 22:56 on Mar 5, 2015 |
|
#
?
Mar 5, 2015 22:49
|
|
|
Bike lane is essentially a euphemism for narrow paved shoulder in that case, so a physical barrier is right out.
|
|
#
?
Mar 5, 2015 22:54
|
|
|
I nearly get tin-foil hatty with bike-lane policy in north america. I wouldn't be surprised if they are purposefully being implemented in the worst ways possible to discredit them, and always painted-on so it's easy to get rid of them once they're deemed a useless waste of tax money serving a tiny special interest group. poo poo like that happens all the time in government so it's not exactly a far-out conspiracy. Most likely though it's just a lack of funding mixed with planners who don't really know what they are doing, so everyone just does the absolute minimum needed to put a check mark next to "bike lanes" on some checklist most everyone involves thinks is a wasteful political imposition.
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2015 00:55
|
|
|
Baronjutter posted:I nearly get tin-foil hatty with bike-lane policy in north america. I wouldn't be surprised if they are purposefully being implemented in the worst ways possible to discredit them, and always painted-on so it's easy to get rid of them once they're deemed a useless waste of tax money serving a tiny special interest group. poo poo like that happens all the time in government so it's not exactly a far-out conspiracy. When you combine "we can only afford to restripe half a mile of this road this year" and "we must do everything in our power to avoid right-of-way takes since it will kill the project," narrowing the travel lanes by a foot and painting the shoulder green is about the best you're going to get.
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2015 02:48
|
|
|
Cichlidae posted:The Governor released his transportation plan for the next 30 years today, and it's pretty comprehensive. A few of my big projects are included. I watched his budget speech and read all the literature he released on his transportation plan. I was absolutely thrilled. And I'm so happy to see that they included the suggestion I made to the TransformCT website in July for the BRT line from Stratford to Stamford (although I'm 100% certain I'm not the only person to have ever thought of this). Now if only they could tell Newtown to suck it and finish the Route 25 expressway my morning commute wouldn't suck anymore. Is there any hope of rerouting 84 slightly north and west of Hartford when they replace the Aetna viaduct?
|
|
#
?
Mar 8, 2015 18:29
|
|
|
Minenfeld! posted:I watched his budget speech and read all the literature he released on his transportation plan. I was absolutely thrilled. And I'm so happy to see that they included the suggestion I made to the TransformCT website in July for the BRT line from Stratford to Stamford (although I'm 100% certain I'm not the only person to have ever thought of this). Now if only they could tell Newtown to suck it and finish the Route 25 expressway my morning commute wouldn't suck anymore. We've been looking very seriously at this, trust me - and it's better in a lot of ways than anything we could do on the existing alignment. But a new I-91/I-84 interchange would absolutely wreck the Meadows and all the car dealerships around it. At this point, the political climate is super super averse to any impacts at all. I can sort of understand that; this whole project is one big hornet's nest and we're trying to carefully rebuild it piece by piece without getting stung.
|
|
#
?
Mar 9, 2015 01:45
|
|
|
This piece (actually a long stretch of the A23 in those parts) of Autobahn in Vienna is congested to poo poo during peak hours. https://www.google.com.au/maps/@48.1928203,16.4176045,600m/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en Is that just a result of our tiny roads or could that be fixed with redesign (is it because it's a 4-leaf clover?)? Also check out that awesome European non-car traffic system. Metro, Buses and Trams throughout the whole downtown region means I have literally never seen a single traffic jam in there.
|
|
#
?
Mar 10, 2015 02:45
|
|
|
DatonKallandor posted:is it because it's a 4-leaf clover? Pretty much. We figured out that clover-leaf interchanges have bad operations a long time ago. The problem is the short weaving distance when you look at connecting two adjacent "loops".
|
|
#
?
Mar 10, 2015 02:51
|
|
|
Devor posted:Pretty much. We figured out that clover-leaf interchanges have bad operations a long time ago. The problem is the short weaving distance when you look at connecting two adjacent "loops". Ha we have the wikipedia diagram of what roads not to make because of weaving literally less than a hundred meters from the first maps location I posted. https://www.google.com.au/maps/@48.1955386,16.4138486,315m/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en Textbook bad weaving right there I guess. That part is horrible to drive.
|
|
#
?
Mar 10, 2015 03:02
|
|
|
DatonKallandor posted:Ha we have the wikipedia diagram of what roads not to make because of weaving literally less than a hundred meters from the first maps location I posted.  Also it looks like they've got a big-rear end project going on there, with some new bridges over the river. What are they doing?
|
|
#
?
Mar 10, 2015 03:17
|
|
|
The Deadly Hume posted:
Not sure where you mean, I can' spot any construction or new bridges.
|
|
#
?
Mar 10, 2015 03:28
|
|
|
As one of my other jobs, I teach a grad school course on traffic engineering. I gave out the mid-term exam today, and GOD drat, did a lot of the students blatantly cheat! I don't even know what to do in a situation like this. The weirdest part is, the ones who cheated did a lot worse than the ones who didn't. Some of them had the right answer, then crossed it out and wrote in their neighbor's incorrect response. This is our next generation of engineers 
|
|
#
?
Mar 10, 2015 03:40
|
|
|
Cichlidae posted:As one of my other jobs, I teach a grad school course on traffic engineering. I gave out the mid-term exam today, and GOD drat, did a lot of the students blatantly cheat! I don't even know what to do in a situation like this. The weirdest part is, the ones who cheated did a lot worse than the ones who didn't. Some of them had the right answer, then crossed it out and wrote in their neighbor's incorrect response. This is our next generation of engineers Your university faculty handbook will have a section offering advice for instructors on responding to academic dishonesty. I'm not sure how blatant you're talking about, but personally I would suggest either having them retake the exam for a maximum of a 70% grade, or simply flunking them on the exam. Unfortunately cheating is indeed part of the new normal, but there's no reason to accept it as an instructor. Indeed if you do then you'll just feel worse about it. If you're talking about a whole lot of grad students (more than half a dozen), then I'd suggest bringing the matter to your department head before making any accusations - but they'll probably advise going through the formal complaint process. Alternatively, you can see it as a reflection on your own teaching/testing methodology, and construct improved procedures for the future that will prevent such cheating. You'd think that graduate engineering students wouldn't require proctored exams, but there you go. Ultimately your kids are going to be driving over their bridges, and living in their houses. Some policy examples: http://studentlife.mit.edu/citizenship/faculty http://cet.usc.edu/resources/teaching_learning/docs/teaching_nuggets_docs/5.2_Responding_to_Academic_Misconduct.pdf http://uodos.uoregon.edu/StudentConductandCommunityStandards/StudentConductCode.aspx#Academic_Misconduct http://www.college.columbia.edu/facultyadmin/academicintegrity/responding Kaal fucked around with this message at 05:03 on Mar 10, 2015 |
|
#
?
Mar 10, 2015 04:51
|
|
|
I did some grading in college and had a group of kids who always had the same answers on their homework. One week the homework included a small essay question, something like "what's your favorite [thing]?" and all of the kids had the same answers. One kid's homework had the original words erased and replaced with synonyms. I brought it up to the professor and he did nothing and then let me go at the end of the semester.
|
|
#
?
Mar 10, 2015 05:27
|
|
|
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDDmE4qoCns This video was posted in the Cities Skyline thread of a design for a new interchange style that almost essentially looks like a turbo roundabout. The idea seems to make sense but I'm curious to hear an engineers perspective on it. I imagine a design like that looks pretty big and possibly expensive.
|
|
#
?
Mar 10, 2015 07:36
|
|
|
Chemmy posted:I did some grading in college and had a group of kids who always had the same answers on their homework. One week the homework included a small essay question, something like "what's your favorite [thing]?" and all of the kids had the same answers. One kid's homework had the original words erased and replaced with synonyms. That's what I'm worried about. I can't be the only professor who's seen this sort of thing, so institutionally, it's implicitly accepted. I'll talk with the dean about it casually without mentioning any names and see what their take is. Opals25 posted:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDDmE4qoCns That is a turbine interchange with one small difference - the through movements go around the circle along with the turning movements. In a turbine interchange, the through movements go right through the middle with both left and right movements exiting on the right. In general, it's best to keep through traffic going in a straight line through interchanges with minimal curvature or grade change. Since we discourage left-hand exits, this particular design would be considered inferior to a standard turbine. It's still very elegant.
|
|
#
?
Mar 10, 2015 12:09
|
|
|
Give them orange vests and picker sticks, take them to the highway, and tell them that every large piece of trash they collect is worth one point. Then when they collect a whole bag, throw it off an overpass onto a semi, and say "whoops, there goes your grade!" You will teach them a valuable lesson about cheating, and urban planning.
|
|
#
?
Mar 10, 2015 15:31
|
|
|
Opals25 posted:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDDmE4qoCns It's very cool looking, but I scratch my head at the idea of using the space inside the interchange. What exactly is supposed to go inside? Certainly it isn't a useful residential or commercial space. Maybe you could put in a solar field or a monument - something that doesn't need to be accessed very much - but it seems like a lot of compromises just in order to get a few acres of land that still can't be easily used. edit: Wait wait wait, low-level nuclear waste repository. It'd be perfect. I like it now. Kaal fucked around with this message at 18:25 on Mar 10, 2015 |
|
#
?
Mar 10, 2015 18:21
|
|
|
Volmarias posted:Give them orange vests and picker sticks, take them to the highway, and tell them that every large piece of trash they collect is worth one point. Then when they collect a whole bag, throw it off an overpass onto a semi, and say "whoops, there goes your grade!" You will teach them a valuable lesson about cheating, and urban planning. Tell them to make up the points, they can do a traffic count for you. Then put out electronic counters exactly where they are counting and throw out their results, because you can't trust those little shits to get an accurate count. But seriously, from reading the whining about students thread, it seems that cheating among students is really prevalent, premed students and engineering students are up there with the biggest cheaters. Many universities also have policies such that its a really tedious process for the teacher to prove cheating and sometimes the result is only a slap on the wrist. quote:It's very cool looking, but I scratch my head at the idea of using the space inside the interchange. What exactly is supposed to go inside? Certainly it isn't a useful residential or commercial space. Maybe you could put in a solar field or a monument - something that doesn't need to be accessed very much - but it seems like a lot of compromises just in order to get a few acres of land that still can't be easily used. A great use for that space could be for stormwater treatment - put in a big rain garden or some engineered wetlands or something and divert your stormwater through it.
|
|
#
?
Mar 10, 2015 18:21
|
|
|
Lobsterpillar posted:A great use for that space could be for stormwater treatment - put in a big rain garden or some engineered wetlands or something and divert your stormwater through it. That's a good idea, but you'd have to design the space fairly carefully to overcome the same issues that prevent agricultural use - namely all the fumes and oils being emitted by all the traffic going around it.
|
|
#
?
Mar 10, 2015 18:33
|
|
|
Are there any good book on traffic engineering? How it's designed and urban planning?
|
|
#
?
Mar 10, 2015 20:10
|
|
|
Lobsterpillar posted:But seriously, from reading the whining about students thread, it seems that cheating among students is really prevalent, premed students and engineering students are up there with the biggest cheaters. Many universities also have policies such that its a really tedious process for the teacher to prove cheating and sometimes the result is only a slap on the wrist. I talked with a tenured professor and that's basically what she said. Since my syllabus doesn't explicitly have a "if you are suspected of cheating..." section, the most I can do is have a stern talk with them. I could report them to some committee, but then I'd have to go through an appeals process and provide hard evidence. So basically, cheating isn't condoned, but it's tolerated.
|
|
#
?
Mar 10, 2015 22:28
|
|
|
Thanks for the info on the Aetna viaduct. How did the DOT get approval back in the 50s and 60s to tear apart Bridgeport, New Haven, Hartford and other cities to put these expressways through given the challenges in doing similar things today? And two quick questions: 1) I've already been accepted to a graduate program for history, but I'm seriously rethinking doing this and trying for something that would let me do urban development or transportation planning. What types of programs should I be looking at? 2) Has the DOT given up on Route 25? The expressway portion ends in Trumbull and there's that long exit in Newtown that looks like it was supposed to be for merging more traffic with 84. Is it dead or will it be widened? It wasn't mentioned in Malloy's transportation plan and I haven't seen any DOT stuff mentioning it outside of the resurfacing done a few months ago.
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2015 00:24
|
|
|
Krataar posted:Are there any good book on traffic engineering? How it's designed and urban planning? AASHTO Green Book is the bible of nuts-and-bolts design of roadway design https://bookstore.transportation.org/collection_detail.aspx?ID=110 MUTCD is the bible of "traffic" engineering, signs and signals and pavement marking, at least in the US http://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/ Urban planning is its own deal
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2015 00:28
|
|
|
Minenfeld! posted:Thanks for the info on the Aetna viaduct. How did the DOT get approval back in the 50s and 60s to tear apart Bridgeport, New Haven, Hartford and other cities to put these expressways through given the challenges in doing similar things today? The FHWA injected a tremendous amount of money into these programs, and gave extra bonus cash for "slum clearance." That should tell you pretty much everything you need to know. Minenfeld! posted:And two quick questions: 1) I've already been accepted to a graduate program for history, but I'm seriously rethinking doing this and trying for something that would let me do urban development or transportation planning. What types of programs should I be looking at? 2) Has the DOT given up on Route 25? The expressway portion ends in Trumbull and there's that long exit in Newtown that looks like it was supposed to be for merging more traffic with 84. Is it dead or will it be widened? It wasn't mentioned in Malloy's transportation plan and I haven't seen any DOT stuff mentioning it outside of the resurfacing done a few months ago. 1) I've got no idea, but if you find some good urban planning grad programs, let me know. I'd love to get my Master's in urban planning. 2) Route 25 between 111 and 84 isn't going to happen. The ROW is mostly clear, I don't think there are any big environmental issues, but rich people live there, it would be expensive, and the demand probably isn't there, especially since I-84 is only two lanes in each direction to the east and west. Much as I'd like an easier route between Danbury and the coast, I don't think finishing the Route 25 freeway will be anywhere near the top of the DOT's priority list for the next 50 years.
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2015 00:56
|
|
|
Cichlidae posted:1) I've got no idea, but if you find some good urban planning grad programs, let me know. I'd love to get my Master's in urban planning. You should probably check out the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning's (ACSP) guide to graduate (and undergraduate) education. In particular look for programs that have Planning Accreditation Board (PAB) or Canadian Institute of Planners (CIP) accreditation, but note that this guide doesnt rank their list in any way. A shorter list here just has schools that are part of the ACSP and what accreditation and degree levels they offer.
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2015 01:17
|
|
|
Cichlidae posted:As one of my other jobs, I teach a grad school course on traffic engineering. I gave out the mid-term exam today, and GOD drat, did a lot of the students blatantly cheat! I don't even know what to do in a situation like this. The weirdest part is, the ones who cheated did a lot worse than the ones who didn't. Some of them had the right answer, then crossed it out and wrote in their neighbor's incorrect response. Change tests to open notes and make the questions much more in depth and difficult. Cheating doesn't work if the questions are tough enough.
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2015 01:37
|
|
|
mamosodiumku posted:Change tests to open notes and make the questions much more in depth and difficult. Cheating doesn't work if the questions are tough enough. The test was open-note, and they had to use their computers, too, since it's a class on the practical use of software. It doesn't help that there's a TREMENDOUS language barrier problem. One of my students last year didn't say a single spoken word throughout the entire semester. Another one has been taking notes in pen on the palm of his hand  As for in-depth questions, I do what I can, but I'm afraid about making them too complex, since even a sentence like, "what type of pedestrian phase is ideal for intersections with a lot of pedestrian traffic?" gets a few students scratching their heads. I don't mean to blame them so much. I know I wasn't trained as a teacher, and I'm probably not great at it.
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2015 01:54
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 20, 2024 04:41 |
|
|
If you're really industrious, make a different version of a test for each student. Have a set of questions that reference a picture of a particular intersection or interchange, and change the selected diagram for every student. Make said set of questions worth half the test grade. Students that blatantly cheat pretty much fail and come running to your office afterward trying to figure out why, during which time you can have some fun with them. "Your answers are incorrect for the diagram on this page. However, they would be correct if the intersection were the same as the one the person to your left got. Do it again and pay the price." Varance fucked around with this message at 02:03 on Mar 11, 2015 |
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2015 02:00
|
|