#traffic engineering

[civilotterneer]

Today's Civil Engineering Highlight

Asked a neighboring county for crash records for a stretch of road I needed to design an entrance to a business for. The area is rather rural and in the desert and here are my favorite parts of the report:

80% of accidents involved cows. The term "collided with a cow" is very common.

There were no fatalities of humans in any accident. This makes the entries of "Ejected from vehicle at 85mph" "Ejected through rear window into truck bed" and the later "fully consumed by fire" even more interesting.

"Vehicle 1 Traveling on road at 65mph collided with 3 cows"

An entry that is literally only: "Veh vs cow". No other details provided.

An entry ending in "left the road edge and into the desert then was fully consumed by fire".

"Driver didn't know if he hit something in the road or just wandered off the road. But the driver wrecked the bike". Can't get the image of the biker being airborn suddenly and just being like "What happened?"

"Veh 1 collided with black cow as it limped off to the East. Veh 2 collided with already injured cow a second time as it limped off to the west. Cow was not found at scene." Wait, so not only was the cow hit twice, but it kept going? Dang, really had somewhere to go, didn't they? And no collisions nevermind two would stop them.

[whumpster-fire]

Mad geneticists this, mad physicists that, let's hear it for Mad Traffic Engineers. I want to see a really fucked up interchange with nine levels of swooping spaghetti ramps spread out over a 5 square mile area. Towering over the unimpressive skyline of the mid sized midwestern city where it's built. Streets and freeways weaving in and out with no conceivable pattern. There's an entire community encircled by it, in the shadow of one of its loops. Streets weave in and out with no rhyme or reason. You can drive from on ramp to on ramp indefinitely without ever leaving. There's a gas station inside the interchange in case you get lost. It includes the only 4-digit Interstate Highway, the other end of which just kind of meanders off into nowhere. There's also a stupid fucking light rail line running on the median of one of the freeways, with a completely pointless station in the middle of the tangled ramps. There's also a bike lane / pedestrian bridge running right through this clusterfuck for no conceivable reason because it takes at least an hour to get from end to end, until you understand that its true purpose is to provide a vantage point to appreciate the majesty of the interchange. When viewed from above the lanes form an eldritch glyph of ludicrous complexity that summons nameless beings from beyond the stars to laugh at the fucking interchange. The primary traffic is tourists from throughout the tri state area who come to visit the interchange, since it's otherwise kind of out of the way and not very useful.

[eltristanexplicitcontent]

Lego Traffic Jam

[big-gbugd]

Proposed change to MUTCD pedestrian crossing signing

In the US currently, the sign W11-2 (Pedestrian) is used to both warn of pedestrian crossing points ahead, and to indicate the exact location of pedestrian crossings, usually using the 'ahead' and "⬋" plaque.

Pedestrian crossing signs are always supposed supposed to be used with one of these plaques, however these signs are frequently used without the plaques for both advance warning and indications of pedestrian crossings

To fix this problem I would propose the new R9-28 (Pedestrian crossing) sign, and slightly changing the design of the existing W11-2 sign to be more consistent with the proposed R9-28 sign

An example of how these signs would be applied is shown in the following diagram

Signs would also be made for trail crossings, disabled pedestrian crossings, and school crossings

[ttpa]

Traffic Engineering

TTPA is a boutique consultancy established in 1994 to provide evidence-based traffic engineering and transport planning advice to Developers, Architects, Local Governments and TfNSW. We are renowned for our expertise in land use planning and development, and have a long and successful track record in developments involving Industrial, Retail, Aged Care, Land Subdivision and High-Rise developments

[factumobscura]

Did you know? The first cloverleaf interchange opened in New Jersey in 1929

The first cloverleaf interchange was built in Woodbridge, New Jersey, USA, and opened in 1929. It was designed to allow two major highways (Routes 25 and 4, now US 1 and US 9) to cross without traffic signals. The design used four loop ramps in each quadrant, enabling drivers to make left turns by circling around, eliminating dangerous cross-traffic. Although revolutionary at the time, cloverleaf…

Did you know? The first cloverleaf interchange opened in New Jersey in 1929

[brokentripod]

I've said before that if it was possible to summon a demon by chanting, a child would have done it accidentally by now.

If it was possible to summon a demon by inscribing runes, a traffic engineer would have summoned one by now.

[georgewiman]

"E-Bikes" are not just one thing

VERY IMPORTANT ARTICLE for city council members, traffic engineers, campus safety directors, and anyone who cares about micromobility solutions

"E-Bikes" are not just one thing.

Not only are there differences in power, but in how they function as well.

Rise in e-motos leading to patchwork policies at the expense of e-bikes | Active Transportation Alliance

In recent years, the micromobility market has been inundated with devices that resemble e-bikes but do not adhere to industry […]