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I live in Denver - it's got the Standard American Design on every junction (every junction is a SAD junction) There's a house near here that was written about

I live in Denver - it's got the Standard American Design on every junction (every junction is a SAD junction) There's a house near here that was written about in an article - it's at the end of a long straight road, and then there's a curve, and often-enough people go way too fast on the road, don't catch the curve, bounce through a bunch of grassy median and end up HITTING THIS HOUSE! It's been hit so many times. so, I really like bollards (https://josh.works/bollards https://josh.works/bollards) and I went to his house to see about adding some. He'd already had large rocks (1000lbs) placed in his yard, and after the most recent car hit them (and bounced one of them into his house) he added some 3000 lb rocks. It's still not a full layer of protection, but it's better. Anyway, the real danger is the junction, not him having good enough or not good enough bollards. So, there was a meeting at his house the next day with city traffic engineering staff, police, city council, lots of neighbors... and I'm popularizing a fix that I'm calling 'the traffic bean' - it's a shared-space junction, that is as effective as the existing junction, and much, much safer: https://josh.works/traffic-bean https://josh.works/traffic-bean The director of Denver's DOTI has been looking it over, as a city council person has been pushing for it to get approved, and it might get approved! This would be basically the first real improvement in how american junctions are designed in decades. It's currently just my side-project wish. All I want is to live near and use a road network that doesn't deal death constantly to others. i fear for my kid's life, the same way these kids lives were affected. American road networks are horrific, I cannot take seriously anyone who takes them seriously.

alistairSH 1y ago
Is that effectively a double roundabout/traffic circle? I'm not sure I intuitively understand how to navigate the bit of the "bean" that's round but doesn't have a central circle to flow around? [I'm totally fine with UK-style traffic circles, single, double, multi-lane, etc]
- wonder_er 1y ago
  the junction in it's current form is like a wild, light-controlled, two-or-three lane hybrid between a roundabout and a standard junction. If you can do UK-style traffic circles, you'd be fine on this junction. My proposal to to shape down all inbound lanes of traffic to a single lane, then connect them all to the inner circulating channel - it's a little lumpy, thus 'bean shaped' instead of 'circle shaped'. But as far as using it, from the POV of the driver of a vehicle, it's identical to a roundabout.
drcongo 1y ago
There's a couple of these in Bodmin [0], Cornwall that I've driven through a few times. It used to be traffic lights and was constant jams at each junction. I'd never seen one before when they first changed it, I approached cautiously, drove onto it cautiously, and exited pretty impressed. I do wonder what less considerate drivers are like on it though. Local residents apparently complain about it [1], but then it seems to be part of the British psyche to complain about anything new and different, especially if it's done by your local council. [0] https://maps.app.goo.gl/LQ9kSNZxQwYV8S9C9 https://maps.app.goo.gl/LQ9kSNZxQwYV8S9C9 [1] https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/bodmin-roundabouts-arent-really-roundabouts-4528840 https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/bodmin-round...
- alistairSH 1y ago
  As somebody who has visited and driven around the UK quite a few times, I would assume that was a roundabout and treat it as such. Other than the lack of blue roundabout traffic sign, it looks just like one of many other roundabouts. Or, put another way, why is it shaped like a circle, and not just a normal 4-way uncontrolled intersection?
  - drcongo 1y ago
    Well, until today and reading the parent's blog posts I hadn't actually realised it wasn't a roundabout, and in use, it seems everyone kinda behaves like it is anyway. It's certainly an improvement on what was there before though.
    - nmeofthestate 1y ago
      It used to be a roundabout and now everyone treats it as a roundabout, and it's an improvement - I'm somewhat baffled.
      - drcongo 1y ago
        No, it used to be traffic lights with long queues at each entrance. I mentioned that in my original post.
tim333 1y ago
The house two down from my mums kept having cars crash through the garden wall and into the garden. They fixed it with speed bumps and a junction redesign as two mini roundabouts. View of them from near where the crashes were https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Sun+Ln,+Harpenden+AL5+4HA/@51.8234423,-0.3552209,3a,75y,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sqRFWbsAwPnAzlTn5WylGNg!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D0%26panoid%3DqRFWbsAwPnAzlTn5WylGNg%26yaw%3D0!7i16384!8i8192!4m6!3m5!1s0x48763842500283d3:0x248bdc9b4dbee793!8m2!3d51.8234017!4d-0.354837!16s%2Fg%2F1tg2c_4v?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDgxMy4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Sun+Ln,+Harpenden+AL5+4H... before it was just a crossroads. The tree in the road wasn't there - you could blast straight through if you didn't crash. Must have reduced crashes 10x.
nmeofthestate 1y ago
It's not at all clear to me how this "traffic bean" works from looking at the linked page. Is it just a free-for-all zone that makes drivers slow down due to being confused? This seems to be a philosophy that's gaining ground - make no-rules areas and cars will be forced to slow down to navigate the zone, and this makes things safer (I'm skeptical about that bit).

alistairSH 1y ago

Is that effectively a double roundabout/traffic circle? I'm not sure I intuitively understand how to navigate the bit of the "bean" that's round but doesn't have a central circle to flow around? [I'm totally fine with UK-style traffic circles, single, double, multi-lane, etc]

wonder_er 1y ago
the junction in it's current form is like a wild, light-controlled, two-or-three lane hybrid between a roundabout and a standard junction. If you can do UK-style traffic circles, you'd be fine on this junction. My proposal to to shape down all inbound lanes of traffic to a single lane, then connect them all to the inner circulating channel - it's a little lumpy, thus 'bean shaped' instead of 'circle shaped'. But as far as using it, from the POV of the driver of a vehicle, it's identical to a roundabout.

drcongo 1y ago

There's a couple of these in Bodmin [0], Cornwall that I've driven through a few times. It used to be traffic lights and was constant jams at each junction. I'd never seen one before when they first changed it, I approached cautiously, drove onto it cautiously, and exited pretty impressed. I do wonder what less considerate drivers are like on it though. Local residents apparently complain about it [1], but then it seems to be part of the British psyche to complain about anything new and different, especially if it's done by your local council. [0] https://maps.app.goo.gl/LQ9kSNZxQwYV8S9C9 https://maps.app.goo.gl/LQ9kSNZxQwYV8S9C9 [1] https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/bodmin-roundabouts-arent-really-roundabouts-4528840 https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/bodmin-round...

alistairSH 1y ago
As somebody who has visited and driven around the UK quite a few times, I would assume that was a roundabout and treat it as such. Other than the lack of blue roundabout traffic sign, it looks just like one of many other roundabouts. Or, put another way, why is it shaped like a circle, and not just a normal 4-way uncontrolled intersection?
- drcongo 1y ago
  Well, until today and reading the parent's blog posts I hadn't actually realised it wasn't a roundabout, and in use, it seems everyone kinda behaves like it is anyway. It's certainly an improvement on what was there before though.
  - nmeofthestate 1y ago
    It used to be a roundabout and now everyone treats it as a roundabout, and it's an improvement - I'm somewhat baffled.
    - drcongo 1y ago
      No, it used to be traffic lights with long queues at each entrance. I mentioned that in my original post.

tim333 1y ago

The house two down from my mums kept having cars crash through the garden wall and into the garden. They fixed it with speed bumps and a junction redesign as two mini roundabouts. View of them from near where the crashes were https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Sun+Ln,+Harpenden+AL5+4HA/@51.8234423,-0.3552209,3a,75y,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sqRFWbsAwPnAzlTn5WylGNg!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D0%26panoid%3DqRFWbsAwPnAzlTn5WylGNg%26yaw%3D0!7i16384!8i8192!4m6!3m5!1s0x48763842500283d3:0x248bdc9b4dbee793!8m2!3d51.8234017!4d-0.354837!16s%2Fg%2F1tg2c_4v?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDgxMy4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Sun+Ln,+Harpenden+AL5+4H... before it was just a crossroads. The tree in the road wasn't there - you could blast straight through if you didn't crash. Must have reduced crashes 10x.

nmeofthestate 1y ago

It's not at all clear to me how this "traffic bean" works from looking at the linked page. Is it just a free-for-all zone that makes drivers slow down due to being confused? This seems to be a philosophy that's gaining ground - make no-rules areas and cars will be forced to slow down to navigate the zone, and this makes things safer (I'm skeptical about that bit).