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Here are some of my favorite intersections. First we have the three bores of the Caldecott Tunnel, on Highway 24 between Oakland and Walnut Creek:  The center bore switches direction around noon most days to flow in the direction of heaviest traffic. When the center bore is going southwest-to-northeast, note the area in the green square. Can you guess what about 1 in 4 cars in the left lane do here? Yes, that's right: suddenly merge with the right lane, because WOAH, the lanes just disappear! And there's a new lane on the left. There is no traffic merging in that left lane, becuase it's the contraflow lane, it connects to the north bore which is always flowing the opposite direction. There are also no signs warning you that the left lane is about to cross over a dotted line and/or disappear (depending on your perspective), and if you're in the leftmost lane, you need to very quickly and sharply cut across that line to avoid being forced into the right lane, since entering the actual tunnel is already a moderate left turn. Next we have the intersection of Noe and Market in the Castro district of San Francisco:  This isn't that bad, there's a traffic light (well, several). But if you do what I often do and approach the intersection from Noe street at the bottom of the picture, turning right, you have two options: a hard right onto 16th street, or a soft right onto Market street. And, you have a protected green-arrow turn. Great! But! If you take that protected green arrow soft right onto Market, you pull out into the intersection and are suddenly confronted with a red light. They're the lights for northeast-bound traffic on Market, but you cannot see them from Noe, and it's a huge intersection, and man oh man does it seem like you're supposed to stop. But you're not. You're supposed to run that loving red light. Worse, there's a crosswalk and while the locals know what's what, there are plenty of tourists here in the summer and they look up and see the red light for Market traffic, cannot see the green arrow for Noe, and cannot see the cars on Noe, so they start to cross the loving intersection right in front of you. And if you DO stop for that red, you block traffic from like three different directions, and everyone yells at you. It is seriously hosed turning that right corner and actually being supposed to run that red light. Finally, we have the intersection of Sloat, Portola, Junipero Serra, St. Francis, and West Portal Avenue:  It's actually just a five-way intersection, plus a light rail that runs down W. Portal and then gets its own non-road right of way to the southwest. What is hosed up here is the lane markings, especially inside the oval. If you approach from the west on Sloat, there are three left turning lanes. The leftmost one is for W. Portal, and it's fairly clear. When you get a green arrow, you keep hard left and guide yourself onto that street. But then there's the two "soft left" lanes for Portola. Look at that loving line on the road. If you are in the center lane, and you are looking at that line (as you would, as the driver) your lane widens... and widens... and uh, oh poo poo, you are now head-on into oncoming traffic! It seriously looks like your lane splits into two lanes and one of them goes the wrong way up that street. Also check out the people coming from the top-right towards the bottom-center (portola on to Junipero Serra): there's three lanes, but where do they go? The white concrete of the light rail has no markings on it, most of the dotted lines just disappear completely, and for a good 50 feet or more of Junipero Serra it looks like there's only two lanes! And if you're not familiar, you might easily just head right down the train tracks instead. It is a loving mess, and this is after they've gone over and re-done that intersection in the last 10 years. I don't think I've ever been through the intersection without seeing someone do a last-second swerve, slow way down, accidentally change lanes in the intersection, or otherwise gently caress it up in some way. Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 08:06 on Sep 22, 2013 |
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Sep 22, 2013 08:04
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 23:13 |
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