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Can you guys go back to paving highways with concrete again? Please? I-84 crumbles every five years because The Powers That Be insist on going with asphalt, yet the concrete sections have been holding up since before I was born. I know there is often concrete beneath the asphalt, but it isn't helping.
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Jul 27, 2009 23:13
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Have you planned any busways? Both L.A. and Boston have run into serious problems with the pavement essentially collapsing after a short while. I think the Orange Line in L.A. is on its 2nd re-pavement or so since 2005, while the roadway of the Silver Line tunnel in Boston is literally crumbling back to gravel. Is this "normal" given the weight of the buses and the fact they're traveling over the same narrow patch of pavement pretty much constantly, or is it just shoddy construction? Cichlidae posted:Ask as often as you like, but your complaints will fall on deaf ears. We've been using asphalt for so long here that it's very unlikely things will change in the near future. Bah, have it your way traffic engineers! Cichlidae posted:Edit: If you think the concrete sections of I-84 are in good shape, assuming you mean the CT portion, take a close look at the Aetna Viaduct, which is currently under emergency repair work. It looks like cheesecloth in some places. Yeah, I was thinking of the sections immediately west of Manchester which aren't in the best shape, but they're older than several typical goons combined.
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Jul 27, 2009 23:51
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Rt. 6 in CT Begin you rant. 
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Jul 30, 2009 00:48
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Does chip sealing actually do anything to improve roads, or does it just leave them dangerous to bicycles, and coated in oil once the rocks get worn away after a year? The town I grew up in back in CT started chip sealing everything back in the early 90s. Even a fresh repaving job would get that poo poo dumped on it.
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Aug 30, 2009 17:24
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Winter Light posted:You must live in a nice town. I've noticed that there are two different ways that roads get chip-sealed in CT. The first way dumps tar on the pavement and then a shitload of chips and then calls it a day. The second way involves doing the same but either uses finer chips or has a steamroller come and flatten everything out afterword. Nicer towns use the second method and everybody else in the Northeast part of the state uses the first. Absolutely true. Love the piles and piles of chips forming miniature dunes along the side of the road, while the nearby vegetation is covered in oil and poo poo.
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Aug 31, 2009 19:53
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Cichlidae posted:Chip Seal Thank you for asking them! Novachip seems like it actually has a decent lifespan and a bicycle friendly nature.
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Sep 28, 2009 06:13
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Are you as amused by the curves some of the I-84 on / off ramps in Vernon as I am? My parents used to drive them all the time when I was little, and at 27 it still blows my mind how sharp they are. I joke the former is kept as is to make sure SUV drivers are a little more aware of their surroundings than they might otherwise be. It pretty much dares your vehicle to flip. (The latter might not seem that sharp to people who haven't driven it, but trust me on this one.)
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Dec 5, 2009 20:37
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I seem to remember that you touched on it a bit some months back, but in a world where you could lay down the law Sim City-style, how would you fix Rt. 6?
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Apr 27, 2010 04:11
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Can they just spin it that the trees are being removed to ensure the safety of motorists and their families, and said trees are being relocated to another part of Vernon?
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Apr 29, 2010 05:28
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BklynBruzer posted:Sometimes I really really dislike people. This is one of those times. This on the other hand, is amazing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSqNx7vJLDE
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May 18, 2010 03:25
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Cichlidae posted:
Railroad crossings being the notable exception to this.
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May 27, 2010 04:00
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Boston / Storrs / New London / New York City rail link. Make that happen. Or better yet... Boston / Storrs / New London / New York City BUSWAY. Connect to the Silver Line stub tunnel on Atlantic Ave. in Boston and make a beeline for UCONN. Do it underground so they buses will have to go 1/2 the speed they would in mixed traffic and drive along that horrible pavement the T used for the SL (it's already failing). The sad thing is, it would probably attract more riders than the one CT is trying to build*. And somehow cost less. * Not including lost tourists who think they're on their way from Logan to Faneuil Hall.
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Jun 4, 2010 04:45
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Cichlidae posted:Acela doesn't go through Storrs. No train does, as a matter of fact! I was surprised to find out the Vermonter (née Montrealer) used to stop in Willimantic for a time. Did they tell them to wait for their train on the pile of needles along the track?
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Jun 4, 2010 20:05
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Cichlidae posted:Norwich got pretty angry. The mayor said, "But we need that traffic! Those people on the way to the casinos, they stop in Norwich and buy soda and candy bars!" The proposal to swap the numbers didn't go through. That is the saddest things I've read in a while. I don't know why it bothers me so much.
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Jun 5, 2010 17:59
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Stafford and Willimantic in the same day? You poor thing.  The footbridge in Willimantic is awesome though. I'll completely lose my poo poo if they ever propose changing anything about it.
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Jun 8, 2010 05:35
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thehustler posted:What is that software you use and is it possible to get an evaluation copy or what? I would love to play with making some crazy roads. Just keep in mind the diagonal is a lie.
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Jun 13, 2010 18:08
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I've noticed a number of four-way intersections will have red on all approaches for a solid 15-30 seconds without offering a pedestrian phase in this timeframe. Why would this be a good idea?
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Jun 26, 2010 04:59
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smackfu posted:For an actual call, you can always use some kind of hands-free headset, which I think are considered acceptable for road safety. They're not. They produce the same degradation in driver ability as a handheld cell phone or alcohol.
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Jul 12, 2010 15:34
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I was driving on 84 into Hartford a few week ago when my Dad commented on the large route signs you guys painted onto the pavement. He thinks they're pretty much the greatest thing ever.
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Jul 21, 2010 22:45
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Not maintaining brutalist structures and then complaining about their decrepit appearance is fashionable these days. Keep in mind, i'm not a fan of "towers in a park" either.
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Aug 10, 2010 20:26
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Just need to rage for a moment... A town nearby just repaved a road by throwing down a thin layer of asphalt on either lane, leaving a huge gap of older, lower pavement that ranges randomly from a few inches to a few feet (passive-aggressive towards motorcyclists, are we?). Its been like that for almost two weeks. The new pavement isn't smooth by any means, and looks like total rear end. I'm not sure if this is better than their chip sealing jobs which inevitably end up with huge patches of traction-free oil where there was once asphalt. I'm sure they'll either pave the street again for real, then immediately chip seal it so it can quickly wear down and be dangerous once more. or simply chip seal what's there now and call it a day. OK, I'm better now.
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Sep 11, 2010 19:07
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GWBBQ posted:Do they at least run a steamroller over it when they're done? Fairfield did another road a few weeks ago where they just dumped rocks and called it a day. I think they do steamroll the street now, but the asphalt suffers from so many cracks and frost-heaving that it'll probably accelerate the decay. Whoohoo! At least they don't use twice as many rocks, like the used to. When I was little, there were rock drifts on the side of the road, and the plants looked like BP had started doing roadwork.
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Sep 13, 2010 05:57
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The street outside is getting sealed today. The grass isn't getting filled with rocks or oil, and there doesn't seem to be much of any excess. Obviously, they're doing it wrong. EDIT: Wow, stupid Aperture exported at the wrong size and stupid Crackpipe didn't double check it before posting.
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Sep 15, 2010 17:23
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Nesnej posted:Night time is unfortunately the right time for railway maintenance because that's the only time nobody needs to use the rails. And as this thread has proven, it looks cooler.
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Sep 17, 2010 19:19
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You would think that economies of scale would come into play given how many intersections there are out there.
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Sep 17, 2010 22:56
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I still hate driving on Rt. 6, and I'd gladly support any project that might give Willimantic a glimmer of hope. Such a sad little city with no real connection to anything anymore.
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Sep 18, 2010 17:31
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Groda posted:I was there visiting architecture students, so it was fitting that 50 m later I happened upon the headquarters of WAM Architecture. Never heard of them?: Ah yeah, obnoxious PoMo that also looks like cheap poo poo. I was hoping that era had ended. ProTip: If an architect ever uses the word "witty" to describe their design... run.
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Oct 26, 2010 20:57
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Hello confirmation bias.
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Nov 22, 2010 00:08
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Millstone posted:You know what I hate about American signals is that they're usually hanging from wires, with the signal heads dangling right over my car. Like what the gently caress, how am I supposed to see that? That's not usually the case if you stop behind the white line.
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Jan 7, 2011 00:05
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Maniaman posted:The state recently chip and sealed one of the local highways that just got fresh pavement a couple years ago. The road was still in good condition. If they thought it needed work, why chip and seal it instead of just throwing down a new layer of asphalt, which they'll have to do in a few years anyway? Chip and seal is a lot less expensive. It sucks when the pavement underneath is completely crap and it's treated like a magic fix for a road that is crumbling to dust.
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Mar 24, 2011 22:29
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Cichlidae posted:That's an impressive network by any modern city's standards. Back in that time, even the tiny cities around here all had pretty extensive streetcar networks. It's amazing that almost none of them had the foresight to hold on to that right-of-way. There's a great book on the history of transit in LA that I'll need to dig up more info about when I get home, but it goes into the whole notion of LA city planners making a conscious choice to force car use. It was very much tied into the idea of mass transit being an outmoded concept that has no place in modern urban society. There was the explicit desire to erase it from the urban landscape. Holding onto a ROW was simply not going to happen.
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Jun 26, 2011 21:41
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Mandalay posted:Let us know when you find out what that book is, because I live here in SoCal and would love to check it out from a local library. I didn't forget! Los Angeles and the Automobile: The Making of the Modern City Mandalay posted:e: a transportation museum would be badass Boston has an library devoted entirely to mass transit. It's open to the public 5 days a week, and very few people know it's there.
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Jul 2, 2011 19:56
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Mandalay posted:What's it called? Does it have any cool exhibits? The Institute of Transportation Library at Berkeley has some really cool books: literally more than I can ever hope to read. (They also have a copy of SimCity 4 on their shelves) Right now it's simply "The State Transportation Library" (might be renamed soon) and it's located in an impossible-to-just-stumble-upon-it part of the State Transportation Building in Park Plaza. It's filled with documents and photos, and plans for crazy poo poo that never came to pass because Massachusetts decided to go all "gently caress mass transit, unless it's the commuter rail or buses" some time ago. Boston Goons: Go to the food court in the State Transportation Building, go up the escalator, present your driver's license to the guard at the top and tell him where you want to go. FISHMANPET posted:NYC has a transit museum in an old unused subway station in the Bronx. Apparently you can have kid's birthday parties there? I feel like that would be the coolest thing ever. It's incredible. Absolutely incredible. I felt kinda rushed going through it when I visited because I had to catch a bus home, but I could have spent most of the day there if I had the time. You don't have to be a spergy train nerd to completely geek out over the amount of cool stuff on display. Crackpipe fucked around with this message at 19:36 on Jul 4, 2011 |
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Jul 4, 2011 19:34
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Mandalay posted:This sounds incredible. I'll try to make it out to the East Coast from California later this year to check this poo poo out Be sure to check out every model of turnstile ever used in NYC ever:  And yes, each one gets an entire wall panel of text explaining all sorts of stuff about them. But the best part is below. You've got one of almost every subway car ever used in NYC. And they're open and powered-up.
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Jul 5, 2011 07:12
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Come to LA and help make 30/10 happen. (and not suck)
Crackpipe fucked around with this message at 03:12 on Jul 15, 2011 |
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Jul 15, 2011 03:09
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Speed bumps at stop signs - has this ever been tried? I have fantasies of cars bottoming-out when they refuse to even slow down when they reach the intersection at the end of I-84 off-ramps. A man can dream.
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Aug 14, 2011 17:11
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Cichlidae posted:I like the study's recommendations: add another interchange for direct mall access, punch another road across I-84, and upgrade the intersection of Buckland Hills Drive and Buckland Street if the volumes are still high. I vote for a gigantic flyover that skips the hell of Dening St. and Hale Rd., and dumps you directly into the
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Oct 17, 2011 02:38
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Mandalay posted:Well, the German state does it somehow.. They also have extremely strict enforcement of traffic laws. I feel like a lot of Americans would freak out if they suddenly got hit with an avalanche of tickets for the kind of stupid poo poo they get away with all the time. It's not just the "Drive as fast as you feel comfortable going, while getting out of the left lane if someone is going faster than you" fantasy that a lot of people seem to have.
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Apr 21, 2012 04:23
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Okan170 posted:Well, it looks like more stupid roadblocks to LA ever getting a reliable transit network. The idea is to connect Santa Monica to Los Angeles proper, which is one of the huge bottlenecks, possibly eventually sending a line down to LAX. Every time they try and extend the line, Beverly Hills throws a fit about it (apparently they already blocked the 2 Highway going west as well.). I guess I can hope that one day it'll go through, I don't see how theres any other way to eventually get LA moving, especially after reading this thread. Grrr LA! The Good News: The Metro will be going to the sea. The Bad News: The Subway to the Sea will not go to the sea, no matter what happens in Beverly Hills. The plan to extend it to Santa Monica died years ago, and now it'll make it as far as the VA hospital. Around 2036. I'm not even kidding. The Silver Lining: The Expo Line will stop 3 blocks short of the beach in 2016. And yes... it will be obscenely overcrowded the moment that happens.
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May 9, 2012 05:02
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| # ¿ Apr 24, 2024 00:44 |
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Mandalay posted:So what you're saying is that 30/10 isn't happening It is -- the Regional Connector just got approved the other day! The Purple Line extension just got completely screwed by financing. Timetables of the actual construction will make you wonder if they plan on having nothing but two guys with shovels down there. It's actually because each segment needs to be financed and built separately, adding 14 years to the construction timetable. The mayor is trying to get the Feds to front Metro the $$$ to do it all at once, with the city eventually paying it back in full) Crackpipe fucked around with this message at 08:42 on May 9, 2012 |
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May 9, 2012 08:34
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