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Chris Knight
Jun 5, 2002

me @ ur posts


Fun Shoe
Clearly it's the bike lanes that are to blame.
https://twitter.com/bikeviewca/status/1331290923649658882

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Jethro
Jun 1, 2000

I was raised on the dairy, Bitch!
The maniacs finally did it
https://twitter.com/wbz/status/1338242433361059842?s=19

kefkafloyd
Jun 8, 2006

What really knocked me out
Was her cheap sunglasses
They've been working on it for the past two months, starting on the south coast.

pkells
Sep 14, 2007

King of Klatch
Finally. I grew up there, and was really confused when I moved down south at these weird non-sequential exit numbers. But I’ve grown to love them, and get confused when I go back north now. Some of my Boston friends are bitching about it because it’s going to be confusing, but they’ve never lived anywhere else. They’re also the same ones who claim to love snow and Boston winters and couldn’t imagine living somewhere that has moderate winters, so I can’t trust their opinions.

That Works
Jul 22, 2006

Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy


pkells posted:

Finally. I grew up there, and was really confused when I moved down south at these weird non-sequential exit numbers. But I’ve grown to love them, and get confused when I go back north now. Some of my Boston friends are bitching about it because it’s going to be confusing, but they’ve never lived anywhere else. They’re also the same ones who claim to love snow and Boston winters and couldn’t imagine living somewhere that has moderate winters, so I can’t trust their opinions.

Ignore anyone from MA's opinions about anything highway related

barnold
Dec 16, 2011


what do u do when yuo're born to play fps? guess there's nothing left to do but play fps. boom headshot
idk MA has done some pretty good things when it comes to highways unlike a lot of American cities. it's the arterial and local roads that you have to toss the opinions directly into the garbage

Carbon dioxide
Oct 9, 2012

This might be interesting to some: https://traffic-simulation.de

Proust Malone
Apr 4, 2008

Are there many roundabouts on California state highways? Are there rules about where they can or cannot be built?

Devor
Nov 30, 2004
Lurking more.

Proust Malone posted:

Are there many roundabouts on California state highways? Are there rules about where they can or cannot be built?

The first rule of roundabouts is always build roundabouts

https://www.google.com/maps/@34.6098377,-120.0551448,201m/data=!3m1!1e3

Happy Noodle Boy
Jul 3, 2002


I almost built a beanabout but trucks hosed up the design. Trucks are the worst

Devor
Nov 30, 2004
Lurking more.

Happy Noodle Boy posted:

I almost built a beanabout but trucks hosed up the design. Trucks are the worst

The answer is always more apron

Chris Knight
Jun 5, 2002

me @ ur posts


Fun Shoe
One cool thing I've noticed being rolled out in Toronto is that the walk lights at some intersections go on before the green for traffic.

Peanut President
Nov 5, 2008



Devor posted:

The first rule of roundabouts is always build roundabouts

https://www.google.com/maps/@34.6098377,-120.0551448,201m/data=!3m1!1e3



you're the boss


this roundabout is 5 years old, for anyone curious

Peanut President fucked around with this message at 23:28 on Mar 10, 2021

Javid
Oct 21, 2004

:jpmf:

Mine GO BOOM
Apr 18, 2002
If it isn't broken, fix it till it is.

Chris Knight posted:

One cool thing I've noticed being rolled out in Toronto is that the walk lights at some intersections go on before the green for traffic.

NYC does this too throughout the city at what seems like random intersections. I've also noticed that some taxis have learned this behavior and know they can run the red light longer at the cross street. And tourist can't understand tens of different lights at one intersection, which means they'll go through the red light because the crosswalk light turned on. And cars further back see the crosswalk light on and begin honking because they think the front car isn't moving on the green light.

Happy Noodle Boy
Jul 3, 2002



Ok I want to know about whatever the hell happened here.

Jaguars!
Jul 31, 2012


Probably another road planned or cancelled on the right side of the roundabout.

Fuschia tude
Dec 26, 2004

THUNDERDOME LOSER 2019

Also looks like there was another road heading south from the roundabout to what's now a parking lot, but at some point it was unpaved and replaced with planters and sidewalk.

Lobsterpillar
Feb 4, 2014

Chris Knight posted:

One cool thing I've noticed being rolled out in Toronto is that the walk lights at some intersections go on before the green for traffic.
An early start, we call it here. Not sure what US traffic engineers call it. It's a fairly low cost improvement as it shouldn't need physical changes, just software changes. Unless the infrastructure is ancient.

Devor
Nov 30, 2004
Lurking more.

Lobsterpillar posted:

An early start, we call it here. Not sure what US traffic engineers call it. It's a fairly low cost improvement as it shouldn't need physical changes, just software changes. Unless the infrastructure is ancient.

Leading pedestrian phase

And the cost is traffic throughput! There's a handful at high accident locations in my city, though.

NightGyr
Mar 7, 2005
I � Unicode
I've usually seen LPI, leading pedestrian interval. Nice thing in NYC is that they recently legalized bikes to take the pedestrian light and beat cars through the intersection.

Proust Malone
Apr 4, 2008

Devor posted:

The first rule of roundabouts is always build roundabouts

https://www.google.com/maps/@34.6098377,-120.0551448,201m/data=!3m1!1e3



Yeah that’s the only one I could think of. They’re putting in one here though:


https://goo.gl/maps/5Hqm1S2tX7mmhEW2A

Lobsterpillar
Feb 4, 2014

Devor posted:

Leading pedestrian phase

And the cost is traffic throughput! There's a handful at high accident locations in my city, though.

Another way to put that is that the cost is that car drivers take marginally longer to get to their destination.

Hippie Hedgehog
Feb 19, 2007

Ever cuddled a hedgehog?

Devor posted:

The first rule of roundabouts is always build roundabouts

https://www.google.com/maps/@34.6098377,-120.0551448,201m/data=!3m1!1e3



Assuming that those two roads both take a fair amount of traffic, is there anything particular that's wrong about making a roundabout there?

I mean, I can see that it takes up a lot of space compared to a level intersection, but it doesn't seem like an expensive piece of real estate. Roundabout should be quite a bit safer and have better throughput, no?

Devor
Nov 30, 2004
Lurking more.

Lobsterpillar posted:

Another way to put that is that the cost is that car drivers take marginally longer to get to their destination.

When you have a signalized intersection that goes over capacity, particularly if it's one of the most busy/important intersection in the vicinity, when you push it further over capacity, you tend to get much worse results than you would expect. This is because traffic demand continues to queue up from the approaches, while a smaller and smaller percentage of the standing queue is cleared each time. You then get gridlock as drivers fail to clear adjacent intersections, and suddenly even the alternate routes that could avoid that intersection are awful.

This is not to say that pedestrian safety should be ignored, but that the traffic mitigation that is required can be massive.

Hippie Hedgehog posted:

Assuming that those two roads both take a fair amount of traffic, is there anything particular that's wrong about making a roundabout there?

I mean, I can see that it takes up a lot of space compared to a level intersection, but it doesn't seem like an expensive piece of real estate. Roundabout should be quite a bit safer and have better throughput, no?

I was not being facetious when I said that roundabouts should always be considered. This particular roundabout has a lot of bypass lanes, so you get less pedestrian/bike safety improvements than you normally would, but it's in the middle of nowhere so it's probably not a problem.

Things that make you not build a roundabout :

1. Costing too much due to real estate, utility relocations, weird intersection geometry
2. Unbalanced traffic volumes in particular configurations, or otherwise volumes that make the roundabout need too many lanes
3. High percentage of truck or other large design vehicle that cannot make one of the movements due to geometry

Lead out in cuffs
Sep 18, 2012

"That's right. We've evolved."

"I can see that. Cool mutations."




Devor posted:

less pedestrian/bike safety improvements than you normally would, but it's in the middle of nowhere so it's probably not a problem.

What exactly are the pedestrian/bike safety improvements that you "normally" get with roundabouts? My understanding is that it's fairly established that they decrease pedestrian and bike safety.

Varance
Oct 28, 2004

Ladies, hide your footwear!
Nap Ghost

Devor posted:

The first rule of roundabouts is always build roundabouts

https://www.google.com/maps/@34.6098377,-120.0551448,201m/data=!3m1!1e3



Utah loves roundabouts. We put them on top of our parking structures and in the middle of our rail lines.





... and then there's this mess, where someone managed to play Cities in Motion with actual infrastructure. Let's combine a SPUI with some frontage roads, an offset-T and a continuous flow intersection. Eh, gently caress it, let's give it a roundabout as well.

Varance fucked around with this message at 12:01 on Mar 12, 2021

Entropist
Dec 1, 2007
I'm very stupid.

Lead out in cuffs posted:

What exactly are the pedestrian/bike safety improvements that you "normally" get with roundabouts? My understanding is that it's fairly established that they decrease pedestrian and bike safety.

https://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2015/10/13/explaining-the-dutch-roundabout-abroad/

Greg12
Apr 22, 2020
L.O.S. can eat my A.S.S.

who's down with vmt?

every last homey.

Lead out in cuffs
Sep 18, 2012

"That's right. We've evolved."

"I can see that. Cool mutations."





Oh for sure, I've read that one. But that depends on 1) Dutch road law which places the onus on drivers not to hit pedestrians and cyclists and 2) actually designing both the roundabout and the surrounding infrastructure to Dutch standard. I'd love for both to be the case, but in the North American context a roundabout is just giving drivers greater opportunity to scream through a crosswalk at high speed without checking if there's anyone in it.

stevewm
May 10, 2005
Local roundabout to nowhere check...




This was built in 2013 with the intention of connecting 2 business districts, and hopefully creating a 3rd. They ran into many obstacles, as such projects tend to do. The first phase was finished in 2015. It took until 2020 to finish acquiring right-of-way for the second phase. Supposedly to be completed in 2022.


It has been in this state since about 2015, the road just ending.



When done it will take more or less this path, snaking right between the bank and the burger king. The burger king's parking lot and drive-through has already been relocated and a building in the way torn down, so maybe they might actually hit that 2022 date...

Happy Noodle Boy
Jul 3, 2002


That’s a good roundabout and multi-use path right there.

lavaca
Jun 11, 2010
Skagit County has a lot of roundabouts but these two are the best.


You might think that these are entrances to the lumberyard but they've both been blocked for as long as there have been roundabouts here. My guess is that the city built them assuming that the roads will eventually be connected once the lumberyard shuts down.

Also, I'm a bad person because the diagonal road is called F&S Grade Road and in my head that automatically gets converted to "gently caress & Suck Grade Road".

Fuzzy McDoom
Oct 9, 2007

-MORE MONEY FOR US

-FUCK...YOU KNOW, THE THING

Varance posted:

Utah loves roundabouts. We put them on top of our parking structures and in the middle of our rail lines.



Nice arboretum you got there, would be a shame if somebody afforested it.

Devor
Nov 30, 2004
Lurking more.

Fuzzy McDoom posted:

Nice arboretum you got there, would be a shame if somebody afforested it.

Look at this guy who thinks they put the trees out where any looky-loo walking by can see it.

You gotta put the trees way back so that only paying customers can enjoy nature.

Varance
Oct 28, 2004

Ladies, hide your footwear!
Nap Ghost

Fuzzy McDoom posted:

Nice arboretum you got there, would be a shame if somebody afforested it.
The Arboretum is technically the entire University of Utah campus. Why the marker is in the middle of the medical center by the light rail station, where there are few trees... who knows?

https://universityofutah.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapTour/index.html?appid=7c12aab3af204f35b74c22a8febcaf50

Varance fucked around with this message at 21:23 on Mar 14, 2021

devicenull
May 30, 2007

Grimey Drawer
What requirements are there for fences ~10ft off the road? Someone nearby wants to build 24x24 columns for a fence along the road, which seems like a hazard.

Devor
Nov 30, 2004
Lurking more.

devicenull posted:

What requirements are there for fences ~10ft off the road? Someone nearby wants to build 24x24 columns for a fence along the road, which seems like a hazard.

$300 if you want to be sure

Roadside Design Guide

But short answer is, depends on speed and traffic volumes. Send a street view of the road and the speed limit and we can guess

10 feet is ~probably~ fine

devicenull
May 30, 2007

Grimey Drawer

Devor posted:

$300 if you want to be sure

Roadside Design Guide

But short answer is, depends on speed and traffic volumes. Send a street view of the road and the speed limit and we can guess

10 feet is ~probably~ fine

https://goo.gl/maps/YGdag4MmrRauWAvW8

Note the streetview is a few years old - they've already built the pillars that you can see in satellite view. It's a 45mph road.

I think the pillars are ~4ft tall, they're planning on doing some kind of solid fence between them.

The whole thing is super creepy from the ground - they're essentially building a compound in the middle of a residential area.

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Devor
Nov 30, 2004
Lurking more.

devicenull posted:

https://goo.gl/maps/YGdag4MmrRauWAvW8

Note the streetview is a few years old - they've already built the pillars that you can see in satellite view. It's a 45mph road.

I think the pillars are ~4ft tall, they're planning on doing some kind of solid fence between them.

The whole thing is super creepy from the ground - they're essentially building a compound in the middle of a residential area.

I see like 24 feet from the edge of the travel lane (which is what we would measure) if the below image is what you're talking about

It's almost certainly fine.

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