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Not that it matters to anyone else, but having driven across that bridge dozens of times with my kids, this is just shocking. It’s one of the main corridors in
by jxdxbx 3y ago
Not that it matters to anyone else, but having driven across that bridge dozens of times with my kids, this is just shocking. It’s one of the main corridors in the area. Thank god it happened in the middle of the night, though that’ll be no consolation to the families of those who may have died.
- hiddencost 3y agoI don't think that's quite right. People in Dundalk will suffer a fair bit, as will folks in Glen Burnie and Annapolis, but most people are going from DC to Delaware, and go north rather than over the Key bridge. I think this is most harmful for commuters. Blocking the Baltimore harbor is brutal although I suspect the passage will be cleared as quickly as possible.
- dgfitz 3y agoI think 30-35k cars a day cross that bridge. Being local to the area, is is going to make traffic in the entire metro area much worse, and it is already awful.
- desro 3y agoReport from CBS News mentions the bridge handled "11.5 million" vehicles a day. EDIT: That number seemed fishy; I think the reporter is referring to the traffic along the entire I-95 corridor. https://x.com/CBSNews/status/1772556368106450953?s=20 https://x.com/CBSNews/status/1772556368106450953?s=20
- senordevnyc 3y ago[dead]
- dgfitz 3y agoIt is between 30-35k/day, about 12.5 million/yr.
- CydeWeys 3y agoLOL, that figure is clearly off. That's double the population of the entire state! Per another comment it's much closer to correct for the annual number of vehicle crossings.
- dredmorbius 3y agoOne way to assess these numbers is to conduct a quick sanity check. How many cars per minute or second would this be? 11.5 million cars/day is equivalent to : ~48,000 cars/hour ~8,000 cars/minute ~130 cars/second Clearly, somethings ... a tad off. 11.5 million cars per year however works out to: 31,000 cars/day 1,300 cars/hour 21 cars/minute Or roughly a 3 second headway per vehicle. Given four traffic lanes (two in each direction), that would be a vehicle every twelve seconds per lane, which seems far more reasonable. That's spread out over the day, so peak-hour traffic would be much higher. Peak capacity for a highway lane is just shy 2,000 vehicles/hour: <https://www.mikeontraffic.com/numbers-every-traffic-engineer-should-know/ https://www.mikeontraffic.com/numbers-every-traffic-engineer...> Which would put the Key Bridge's maximum capacity at about 192,000 vehicles/day. For comparison, the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge saw about 42.7 million paid toll crossings. As these are metered only in the westbound direction, actual crossings are likely double that, or 85.4 million/year, or about 230,000/day. (The bridge sees 1/3 the total traffic of all California state-owned bridges.) <https://mtc.ca.gov/operations/programs-projects/bridges/san-francisco-oakland-bay-bridge https://mtc.ca.gov/operations/programs-projects/bridges/san-...>
- millzlane 3y agoLocal to the area. This was devastating news to wake up to. I don't know what's wrong with me but seeing this and knowing there were casualties made me cry. Edit: Maybe I'm just tired and need more sleep.
- CaptainBanger 3y agoNo shame in feeling human friend
- jrwiegand 3y agoIt is shocking and that does not sound like an inappropriate response.
- throwanem 3y agoHey, don't be too hard on yourself. I'm feeling it too, all the way from Medfield. It's a loss.
- iglio 3y agoThere’s nothing wrong with you. It’s okay to sit with these feelings.
- mcv 3y ago> I don't know what's wrong with me but seeing this and knowing there were casualties made me cry. I think that's called "having feelings". Nothing wrong with it.
- wizerdrobe 3y agoIt’s called being human. I worked next door to the church that was shot up in Charleston and felt similarly moved despite not knowing them, never having been inside the building, and not having even been a Christian at the time. It is a bit strange at some level - not having any true connection beyond proximity but you should probably worry if you _don’t_ at least feel a little something.
- 68b329da9893e34 3y ago[flagged]
- jrwiegand 3y agoThat was my exact thought. Thankfully, I woke up to messages that my family members were safe and sound. I hope they find everyone but at this point it seems unlikely.
- dmead 3y agoGrowing up my grandmothers house was on the watet across the Bay from Baltimore. This bridge was literally in the backdrop of my childhood. Scary stuff.
- AndrewKemendo 3y agoI agree. I lived in PG county for years and this is a big deal The 295 bridge collapse a decade ago was similarly shocking U.S. infrastructure is beyond crisis level.
- mixedmath 3y agoI'm not sure if I would expect any bridge to survive being struck by an enormous container ship.
- mikeyouse 3y agoOlder bridges no, but newer bridges should absolutely. The Bay Bridge was struck in 2007 and came away mostly unscathed due to earlier efforts to prevent catastrophic damage in that scenario; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosco_Busan_oil_spill https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosco_Busan_oil_spill Though the Maryland accident looks like it struck it dead on - just a massive amount of energy to absorb.
- boringg 3y agoGlancing blow of the Cosco Busan was a big deal but it wasn't a direct impact. Different order of the magnitude of forces that impact. Not comparable.
- Baxxter 3y ago'The Bay Bridge' refers to something else in this part of the country. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chesapeake_Bay_Bridge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chesapeake_Bay_Bridge
- smrq 3y agoHacker News:California::Internet:USA It's assumed that everyone comes from California unless proven otherwise.
- 3y ago
- kerbs 3y agoMemories of the Minneapolis bridge collapse. I lived <1 mile from it at the time it went down, and had crossed it earlier in the day on my commute.
- lanthade 3y agoYeah. I was out of town hiking in Wyoming at the time and was told it was the 35E bridge by a passing hiker who relayed the news to me. My mom drove the 35E bridge twice a day. I couldn’t hike out and call home fast enough. I didn’t know anyone who was on the bridge when it fell but I do know many who missed being on it by minutes. Scary stuff.
- pwenzel 3y agoI remember standing not far from edge of that shortly after it happened (https://www.flickr.com/groups/35w-bridge-disaster/ https://www.flickr.com/groups/35w-bridge-disaster/), and still get a little panicky when I'm in slow traffic on a bridge. This event will affect the city, the port, and its people for a long time.
- ajdude 3y agoI was incredibly worried about my dad, he's a truck driver and drove that bridge just an hour prior to this happening. I'm hearing there were at least 20 cars and a truck on the bridge, plus construction workers, at the time; my heart goes out to those families
- divbzero 3y agoGlad to hear your dad made it across safely. According to current reports, the Maryland Transportation Authority Police responded to the ship’s “mayday” and stopped traffic in the minutes before the catastrophe, but 6 construction workers are still unaccounted for. https://www.baltimoresun.com/2024/03/26/key-bridge-collapses-into-patapsco/ https://www.baltimoresun.com/2024/03/26/key-bridge-collapses...
- Systemling0815 3y ago[dead]
- JohnMakin 3y agoThey keep reporting this, and maybe it was because the video was sped up, but it looked like there was still traffic going across until very close to the collision
- jcranmer 3y agoThe last car crossing that I can see clears the span about 1:28:06; the bridge collapses about 1:28:48. That's about 40 seconds of gap between the traffic and the collapse. I haven't timed how frequently cars are coming, but it seems to be about every 30 seconds or so, which--combined with the time it takes to cross the bridge--is evidence that a bridge closure was effected just before the bridge collapse.
- randerson 3y agoWhoever was driving that last car had better go buy a lottery ticket right away.