tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660090614793277371.post5012484762483853947..comments2024-03-19T21:14:01.007-07:00Comments on The Compass Rose: Caltrans & its "Solutions" - Who's in Charge ??Curtis Favillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06213075853354387634noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660090614793277371.post-43342526520585591832009-10-16T21:27:29.227-07:002009-10-16T21:27:29.227-07:00i am often riddled with anxiety upon returning fro...i am often riddled with anxiety upon returning from visits in the car to mpls<br />the tension in my back and neck is ridiculous<br />all basically a factor of the combined pet peeves of modern driving you so beautifully and rationally list here<br /><br />does it not appear that all the generations driving since gameboyz came out are learning to drive with their thumbs or in long hours playing race car videos on the screens<br /><br />i wonder how many people are just out driving around tonite simply because they can they have no objective other than to tool about in a car listening to their iPods and talking on the cellphones texting driving 80 mph and arriving at nowhere only to have spinned about driving to fast assaulting tailgating and being basically unconscious about what other people might be experiencing because of their driving<br /><br />i don't know<br />when i return to my monastic cell<br />it seems like a truly necessary place far away from the mayhem<br />of roadways and speedways and zum zum zoom<br /><br />to drive in this country is to say i will accept the nuisance factor and the nervewracking reality of people in a neurotic hurry to go absolutely nowhere<br /><br />it looks crazy<br />i may be wrong but<br />i'm saying<br />it has all gotten very crazy<br />and i guess we needn't overlook the <br />humour in that until<br />of course it becomes<br />tragic<br />but that slows down nothing<br /><br />jjhhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10043530995274885830noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660090614793277371.post-27088086663414508242009-10-16T07:20:58.111-07:002009-10-16T07:20:58.111-07:00Actually, I'm a negative growth advocate, so e...Actually, I'm a negative growth advocate, so expanding hiways is pretty far down the list of my order of priority. Build them, and the tract developments will flower! But I do think that if we're going to pay for these things, and use them, we at least should get good engineering. Don't you think?<br /><br />Automobiles sold in the last 25 years have all been about zippy get up and go. "Zoom zoom zoom" as the commercial goes. Small, light, high-torque engines, etc. Encourages people to drive way too fast, and recklessly. <br /><br />My pet peeves: <br /><br />1) Speeding in the diamond lanes. Why do people think that because the diamond lane is on the far left, it must be the fast lane? Get in the diamond lane, and you get relentlessly tailgaited--at 75 even? Diamond lanes are for multiple occupancy, not speeding!<br /><br />2) Tailgaiting at high speeds. This is, in my view, the major cause of accidents on the freeways. Anyone who "hugs the butt" of the vehicle in front is begging for a collision--they literally have NO reaction buffer. The Hiway Patrol does NOTHING to stop this, and routinely tailgates itself! Why is it that no one seems to mention this, or enforce it?<br /><br />3) Aggressive lane changing. Squeezing between one lane and the next in dense traffic, often two or three lanes at a time. <br /><br />4) Too many trucks on the hiways. Why don't we use our train system more for shipping? Wouldn't that get rid of a lot of expensive, and wasteful road space, and energy use? Trucks purportedly also tear up the roads at an accelerated rate, but pay very little in use fees. Increasingly, trucks cause more serious collisions. Get them off our roads!<br /><br />5) People enter curves way too fast, believing (I guess) that modern cars are better designed to take centrifugal stresses than older sprung chassis. But in wet weather, especially, this can be a recipe for disaster. Hydroplaning occurs in precisely these situations. <br /><br />6) Have drivers forgotten that meeting on a steep hill, the driver coming up has the right of way? Seems so. It's gotten so bad, that when I stop to let a car approaching me from below pass, the car behind me tries to pass me, blocking the upcoming vehicle. In Europe (except in Italy, where the law of the jungle prevails) drivers take pride in courteously letting others pass.Curtis Favillehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06213075853354387634noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660090614793277371.post-60139301812792392252009-10-16T04:55:49.957-07:002009-10-16T04:55:49.957-07:00looks like a pretty flimsy structure to me.
they ...looks like a pretty flimsy structure to me.<br /><br />they use "S" cirves (around here) for when they build from two opposite ends and the "engineers/surveyors<br /><br />just don't get the two ends to meet in the middle in a straight line... so this is the "solution" to tie things together..<br /><br />at least 4 "S" curves around our 495 Beltwayn around D.C><br /><br />cases bou-coup accidents and huemongou traffic back-ups<br /><br /><br />which boosts our economy more $$$$ for petrol products and more for auto repair shops.<br /><br />Know where the concrete came from? (China?) or the rebar/ I-bee-ams? (India) or the labor? <br />(Mexico?) or the money?<br /><br /> etc.<br /><br />and whta's gonna happen when a 2-sami or cat 5 hurry-cane hits? and I betcha that chunks of concrete are already dropping offEd Bakerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11285310130024785775noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660090614793277371.post-9248784187879631582009-10-15T23:41:53.315-07:002009-10-15T23:41:53.315-07:001) Among Caltrans doozies, you neglected to includ...1) Among Caltrans doozies, you neglected to include the Cypress structure, which killed so many during the Loma Prieta earthquake.<br /><br />2) People drive too damn fast. Too fast for the curves, the onramps and offramps, the telephones, the radios, the tires, the width of the lanes, the condition of the pavement. Too close together, too. The only way to slow them down, I think, is to remove pavement altogether and return to gravel roads.Charles Sherehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10480432901356490235noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660090614793277371.post-29341389835198449562009-10-15T21:28:55.431-07:002009-10-15T21:28:55.431-07:00I concede we will not really know until we drive t...I concede we will not really know until we drive the new transition into and out of the tunnel when its finished four or so years from now.<br /><br />See the route (very rough presentation, but it looks far milder than the current temporary "S") at teh following URL:<br /><br />http://baybridgeinfo.org/projects/ybi-ti<br /><br />The State horribly mismanaged the warning signs for the temporary "S" curves, especially on the upper, west-bound, deck (which for reasons I can't yet explain is harder to negotiate than the one on the lower deck).Steven Famahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13733977161680651117noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660090614793277371.post-91994222734496674212009-10-15T21:07:37.128-07:002009-10-15T21:07:37.128-07:00Steven:
That may well be, but how in the world ca...Steven:<br /><br />That may well be, but how in the world can this enormous displacement be managed, without some kind of extensive restructuring of the tunnel itself?<br /><br />The plan to build the new span beside the old one (while it was still being used) necessitated an alteration of the splice to the tunnel opening. The original tunnel require/d/s a fairly sharp--but well structured--turn. But the new alignment will require two curves (hence, the "S"). <br /><br /> <br /><br />Looking at what presently exists, it's doubtful that this displacement can be sensibly accommodated.Curtis Favillehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06213075853354387634noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660090614793277371.post-20775741484164972332009-10-15T20:51:00.875-07:002009-10-15T20:51:00.875-07:00Dear Curtis,
Do you understand that the "S&q...Dear Curtis,<br /><br />Do you understand that the "S" curve is temporary, until the new transition structure can be built and tied into the new suspension bridge?<br /><br />Your critique here seems to suggest you think it permanent. It's temporary. The ultimate new roadway near the tunnel appears, from the schematics available on-line to NOT have the "S."<br /><br />There was NO engineering alternative to the "S" curve currently in place, other than to close the entire bridge for at least several months (instead of just one long weekend) and probably for several years until the new bridge was complete. <br /><br />The temporary "S" curve is a doozy because drivers speed on the bridge, and the warning signs were -- until today -- practically non-existent. <br /><br />It may still be a problem now that additional warning signs are in place, but let's hope not. But again, there was NO alternative, it is temporary, and the permanent new structure doesn't have the "S."Steven Famahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13733977161680651117noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660090614793277371.post-20095140144845725292009-10-15T14:50:38.575-07:002009-10-15T14:50:38.575-07:00Curtis,
I'm a little amazed sometimes at the ...Curtis,<br /><br />I'm a little amazed sometimes at the number of topics on which you can speak always so competently and elegantly. Most of sites I've visited recently (including those of Silliman, Bernstein, et al) seem very limited, issues very seldom going beyond poetry & literary theory, as if these people have really lived in a bubble all their lives.<br /><br />I'm glad Ed Baker brought me here. Always a learning experience for me.Conrad DiDiodatohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18312831623791642286noreply@blogger.com