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Sydney tunnel water screen stop sign for oversized vehicles [video]

• bluedevil2k 13y ago
  It's a really cool idea, but I couldn't help but think they should move the water stop sign to well BEFORE the million dollar damage point. Some big trucks would have a hard time seeing the stop sign, reacting to it, slamming on the brakes, and coming to a complete stop in time before they cause damage to the overhang and beams.
  • Smerity 13y ago
    The advantage with the signs before the final water sign is that they should be enough for any reasonably alert driver and don't make the environment more hazardous. You really want to have the water screen projection, which douses the road with water, as the last line of defence. Water on the road is likely to make it far more difficult to stop a large truck like that. Having it earlier could actually be detrimental to their stopping ability[1]. We're also assuming the unexpected water doesn't cause additional accidents from all the other vehicles. A wall of water could provoke some quite irrational reactions. I drive that road on a fairly common basis and even a small accident there could well result in an expensive pile-up. [1]: Conjecture
    • chris_wot 13y ago
      Better a wall of water than a truck crashing into the tunnel!
    • astrodust 13y ago
      I worked near a train bridge that was constantly being hit by trucks. It was a near weekly event at times. They installed big, flashing lights and drivers would still blow through.
      • fduran 13y ago
        Same thing here for this tunnel in Louisville http://www.wave3.com/story/21389005/wave-3-investigates-stuck-trucks-damaging-railroad-viaduct http://www.wave3.com/story/21389005/wave-3-investigates-stuc...
      • jld 13y ago
        Check out 11foot8's YouTube channel for some great examples of how common this can be in some places. http://www.youtube.com/yovo68 http://www.youtube.com/yovo68 http://11foot8.com/ http://11foot8.com/
        • masklinn 13y ago
          An other fun one is "2m40" (after the tunnel's height, of 7ft10), on the tunnel de l'etoile in Paris: http://www.2m40.com/ http://www.2m40.com/ (in 2009, a truck crashed into it every 10 days and there were bets on the time the hanging sign would last)
    • dlhavema 13y ago
      signs and "plackards" go ignored all the time. i worked in a computer lab and had to put up signs when things were broken ( internet, printer, etc.. ) and we always got people ignoring them...
      • Kluny 13y ago
        "Placards" is the word you're looking for. Yeah, nobody likes reading, and even when they do, they assume that they can disregard the signs if they have a good reason - such as, they reaaaally want to. At some point you have to accept this, do some A/B testing and find the way to actually get people's attention. For instance, a WET PAINT sign will be ignored. But "This paint was wet at 8:32 AM, please do not touch til after noon" might be more effective. A sign on the printer that just says it's broken will be blithely ignored. But if you cover it with a sheet, and the sign says "Printer out of order on May 10th, tech has been notified", that's a lot tougher to miss. The burden of communication is on the communicator, not the recipient, so if the sign's not working, get better at making signs.
        • DanWaterworth 13y ago
          Sort of related: I heard a story where a decorator would write signs that said "wet pant" instead of "wet paint", because the "wet paint" sign would cause people to touch the paint to see if it was indeed wet. The "wet pant" signs, however, would cause people to point out the spelling error instead of leaving finger marks.
        • twistedpair 13y ago
          True, but not always. There will always be the 1-3% of the population that can't do something right, no matter how elegant the UI or detailed the sign. These trucks fall into that bin. Some people are just going to plow through whatever you put in their path.
        • dlhavema 13y ago
          I have to agree.. thanks for the reply I guess i never thought of that while i worked there, i just kept thinking "why don't they read the signs...", we did try a few different ones, and also made them 2 feet from the door sometimes, but it was still ultimately our responsibility to inform them of whatever the situation was.. @placards: i figured i spelled that wrong, thanks
    • danielharan 13y ago
      No. The whole point is to make this work for the sleep-deprived, inattentive drivers. Designing for "any reasonably alert driver" will result in horrible accidents.
      • jessedhillon 13y ago
        When we have reliable, safe, self-driving cars this is the first industry that should be replaced by robots. How archaic is it that we pay people to ruin their bodies while attempting the inhuman task of keeping perfectly alert for several boring hours, while piloting a giant mass at lethal speeds.
        • steve-howard 13y ago
          Unfortunately when we have reliable, safe, self-driving cars, the loudest complainers will be truck drivers who now have to find new careers. I hope I don't sound too mean to hope their concerns are ignored.
          • devrelm 13y ago
            I predict legislation saying that certain self-driving vehicles cannot be unmanned. This benefits the truck driver while still maintaining a reason to have one. Besides, someone will still have to fill the thing with diesel. In the long term, though, you're most likely right; truck drivers will have to find new careers. However, said legislation combined with what I believe will be slow adoption due to high cost should give truck drivers a decade or two to migrate to other jobs.
            • steve-howard 13y ago
              Someone can fill the thing with diesel at the gas station. You'll get full-service pumps outside of Oregon and New Jersey! (Another industry that requires regulation to avoid firing unnecessary people).
            • danielharan 13y ago
  • mootothemax 13y ago
    It's a really cool idea, but I couldn't help but think they should move the water stop sign to well BEFORE the million dollar damage point I thought the stop sign was only visible because of the dark background (i.e. moderately lit tunnel) behind it? My first thought was similar - it needs to be seen sooner - but I presume that even some braking before slamming into concrete is better than none.
    • chris_wot 13y ago
      You mean, before the 3 flashing stop signs BEFORE he got to that point? A better idea might be a low bar that causes the truck damage well before they reach the tunnel. Only issue is how to make it safe and very obvious it's done the truck damage?
      • smackfu 13y ago
        The problem with a barrier that is hit is that you need to make sure it is structurally sound before you allow any other traffic past it. And if it leaves debris on the road, that needs to be cleaned up too. It's already a slow process to back out the oversized truck, so you don't want countermeasures that make it even slower.
        • mikeash 13y ago
          I wonder if a clearly labeled "all trucks go into this lane" well before the tunnel would work. You could have your barrier there, and not impede the rest of the traffic. You could even divert trucks into the car lanes while you clean up. One one hand, they're already ignoring signs. On the other hand, a sign that says "ALL TRUCKS go this way" might get a better, or at least different, response from "YOU are too tall".
      • dredmorbius 13y ago
        Depending on the truck, load, and barrier, that could be a hazard to other vehicles and occupants. Likely less so than the tunnel itself.
      • 13y ago
  • ChuckMcM 13y ago
    That and apparently some active enforcement about load heights. Load height is one of the things that is checked and enforced at truck inspection stops on US highways and interstates for this exact reason (to try to prevent over tall loads from damaging bridges).
  • sgift 13y ago
    We have a variant of this installed on a tunnel (which is probably safer, but not as cool :) ): Directly after the last highway exit before reaching the tunnel is a light barrier installed. If something breaks the barrier the tunnel entrance will be closed by boom barriers (and warning lights, so nobody drives into the boom barriers). Then the police drives out to the tunnel, finds the culprit, pulls him out and unlocks the tunnel again. Obviously, this only works because there is enough time after the last exit to block the tunnel before the truck reaches it.
  • Devilboy 13y ago
    There are already THREE HUGE flashing stop signs that light up on the way to the tunnel if your truck is too big. The water sign is a last resort only.
• leeoniya 13y ago
  ironically, the water on the road makes it that much more difficult to stop
  • pyre 13y ago
    The sign was mounted just inside the tunnel. If the truck were there, then it's already too late.
  • obituary_latte 13y ago
    ironically, physics would preclude an oversized truck from reaching the wet pavement.
    • rz2k 13y ago
      It has carefully designed overhead friction surfaces?
    • jack-r-abbit 13y ago
      also some geometry at work there.
  • shabble 13y ago
    I daresay you could engineer a drainage grate or something beneath the sign jets to minimise the problem.
• jevinskie 13y ago
  The footage of the 20 ton beam getting knocked out of the tunnel ceiling by a truck was remarkable. I hope there were no injuries!
  • pavel_lishin 13y ago
    I'm surprised a truck was able to knock it down. A 20 ton beam sounds like something that's rather important, I figured it would be attached fairly securely.
    • sp332 13y ago
      Well if the common use-case is for force to come from the top, they probably didn't optimize for the case of lots of force coming from the side.
• aashaykumar92 13y ago
  What a neat idea! But if these trucks are PURPOSEFULLY breaking the laws and continuing to go through the tunnel, I am not sure that this solution will hold up for too long; after all, the clever truck drivers will know it is a mere illusion. Furthermore, instead of a water screen, wouldn't a brick screen be more effective? Personally, I wouldn't mind going through water nearly as much as I would be running into a brick wall. Nonetheless, as I said before, a really neat idea and definitely a solution for some instances--limitations need to be addressed though.
  • beebs93 13y ago
    Funny, I also thought a stop sign wasn't severe enough (I wanted the water screen to project an oncoming semi to scare the sh*t out of the driver), but illusions like that would cause some drivers to panic and endanger motorists around them.
    • VLM 13y ago
      "would cause some drivers to panic and endanger motorists around them." About to smash out the top of a tunnel and crush the neighboring cars under your rubble? If you're not already in a panic, its certainly time to start...
  • narcissus 13y ago
    I don't think the water is used to make the driver think he's about to drive into a wall of water: I figured the water is used as a medium for projecting the huge stop sign in front of them?
  • sdfjkl 13y ago
    Err, they're not going through the tunnel. They're too tall for it. They crash into the roof of the tunnel, causing severe damage to the infrastructure, their trucks and anyone who happens to pass by.
    • goblin89 13y ago
      There's likely some space left between actual tunnel height and truck height limitation (for safety), and clever driver's incentive to go through the tunnel (if it's a nice shortcut) might be stronger than any kind of sign.
• didsomeonesay 13y ago
  low-tech solution: http://vanishingpoint.at/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/bruecke-warnhinweis.jpg http://vanishingpoint.at/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/1... (edit: actual image url instead of article)
  • dagw 13y ago
    If you hit that sign chances are you'll rip it down and drop it on the car behind you, as can be seen happening in the video in the linked article.
  • crymer11 13y ago
    A fairly low bridge (high enough for a standard trailer, but any oversized loads on a flatbed could easily hit it) in my area had what were essentially large metal cans hanging by wires along a sign warning about the height. Anything tall enough to hit the bridge would hit the bits hanging from the sign and clang them around/together/against the vehicle which makes a pretty audible noise for the driver.
  • to3m 13y ago
    More severe low-tech solution: https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=blackwall+tunnel&hl=en&ll=51.496467,0.002017&spn=0.003841,0.009645&client=firefox-a&hnear=Blackwall+Tunnel,+London,+United+Kingdom&t=h&z=17&layer=c&cbll=51.496422,0.002184&panoid=PxV8zQOysXqalADtmkbjSA&cbp=12,359.88,,0,-2.48 https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=blackwall+tunnel&hl=en&... (Blackwall Tunnel, northbound, London) And again, just in case you missed the scraping sounds the first time: https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=blackwall+tunnel&hl=en&ll=51.498531,0.001545&spn=0.00384,0.009645&client=firefox-a&hnear=Blackwall+Tunnel,+London,+United+Kingdom&t=h&z=17&layer=c&cbll=51.498663,0.001526&panoid=1CoD-kL0V2llH65kjm_5Pw&cbp=12,359.68,,0,-2.48 https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=blackwall+tunnel&hl=en&... (For some reason they don't appear to have anything similar going south...)
    • tomarr 13y ago
      There is a diversionary slip road for overheights (OHT) on the approach to Blackwall after the first pic and before the second. If you've made it to the second (having ignored a good few red lights), expect to be prosecuted.
• joyeuse6701 13y ago
  It was cool seeing it in action (I wonder who thought of it, and got passed the bureaucracy to make it happen). I wonder whether they considered industry standard truck height when building that tunnel.
  • smackfu 13y ago
    Overheight vehicles are 4.3m and over in New South Wales, and this tunnel is signposted at 4.4m (and probably has a bit of leeway). Trucker often have to deal with road limits: they are expected to know the size of their vehicle and pick an appropriate route. And if they don't, they are expected to read the signs along the route that indicate road limits ahead.
  • kamjam 13y ago
    If anyone was at the London 2012 Olympics then they may have seen this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwNTczEIaDI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwNTczEIaDI They may well have these in many other places of course, I thought it was dead cool.
    • peterkelly 13y ago
      When I'm rich I'm going to build an RSS reader that works like this
  • libria 13y ago
    Cool enough that some exec is wondering how they can utilize it for future advertising. Looks like that water screen even had space in the corner for a "Glasses not working? 1-800-CONTACTS".
  • goatforce5 13y ago
    Sydney's harbour tunnel was built to relieve congestion on the famous Sydney Harbour Bridge, and both the bridge and tunnel follow very similar paths. This tunnel doesn't need to accommodate every vehicle size as there's a perfectly serviceable bridge right above you.
• S_A_P 13y ago
  What if it was a convertible truck??
  • astrodust 13y ago
    It'll end up convertible if it wasn't before. Crashing into a bridge like that can peel the top off like it was hit with a can-opener.
    • wiredfool 13y ago
      Double decker buses too.
• darkstar999 13y ago
  Nice blog spam. A youtube video with no article.
• jere 13y ago
  You might think that trucks ignoring multiple, obvious flashing warning signs wouldn't be that common. This hilarious video proves otherwise: http://gizmodo.com/5955244/watch-this-bridge-destroying-dozens-of-trucks-and-buses http://gizmodo.com/5955244/watch-this-bridge-destroying-doze...
  • VLM 13y ago
    "multiple, obvious flashing warning signs wouldn't be that common." Unfortunately they are way too common. Did you know there's wild animals living outdoors and they cross roads? 75 miles away a divorced family is having a custody dispute so here's abduction alert #243 for the year as a punishment from one parent to the other? There's a terrorist hiding behind every tree stump? Next month some roadwork is planned although nothing so far has been done other than put up the warning sign and barrels and collect higher traffic ticket fees? Six months ago a long term road work lane closure happened so everyday commuters now completely ignore a giant bright flashing warning that lanes have changed? The bright flashing overhead sign reports that 30 miles away where you aren't even going, there is a traffic jam? This is before I even get started on the billboard advertisements designed to distract you from driving. If everything's an emergency, then nothing is an emergency. Including, unfortunately, bridge height.
    • HarryHirsch 13y ago
      These yellow flashing signs are useless, as you say, but you'd think that drivers are conditioned to obey traffic lights, and most every tunnel in existence - including the one in Sydney - has these red and green lights up top that allows the tunnel crew to block lanes individually. I couldn't tell why truckers see these and still blow through them.
    • btbuildem 13y ago
      Precisely right. Overabundance of signage only conditions drivers to ignore individual signs.
  • Kluny 13y ago
    It's easy to not see stuff when you've been driving for 16 hours straight.
• mherdeg 13y ago
  Perhaps they need more cowbells: http://runningahospital.blogspot.com/2013/02/why-bus-crashed.html http://runningahospital.blogspot.com/2013/02/why-bus-crashed...
• NDizzle 13y ago
  This article made me take a trip to one of my favorite often-forgotten websites, http://11foot8.com/ http://11foot8.com/
• blinkingled 13y ago
  They could get more creative and put up a projection of Steve Irwin with crocodile in hand, going "Crikey. An oversized vehicle. Watch out boys and girls - DANGER! DANGER!!".
• josh_fyi 13y ago
  Why not have a plastic flap hang down and thwack the top of the too-tall truck? Next, if that's ignored, a plywood barricade hanging down: Better some splintered plywood than a jammed tunnel.
  • Supermighty 13y ago
    And lastly a large flashing sign, or water sign, saying there is tire damage up ahead. Then have tire damage spikes come out of the road. It's the drivers responsibility to not damage the tunnel or bridge. Better to damage some cheap tires on a truck than the tunnel.
    • sp332 13y ago
      That's not a good idea. Tire damage reduces control of a multi-ton vehicle in the middle of traffic, and vastly increases the amount of time it will take to get the vehicle back out. Even the flying rubber tire parts have huge amounts of energy and can damage nearby cars or even kill people.
      • Supermighty 13y ago
        The trick then is to have something negative happen before the tunnel that isn't so dangerous to other drivers.
    • tomkarlo 13y ago
      A vehicle with its tires blown will take longer to stop than one with its tires intact and brakes applied. This would just turn it into an 40-ton wrecking ball - what if there's stopped traffic in the tunnel?
    • rtkwe 13y ago
      Yeah about that, giving some severe tire damage to a truck isn't the best way to bring it to a safe halt.
  • ctdonath 13y ago
    Because nothing communicates "STOP" better than A GIANT F'ING RED GLOWING STOP SIGN AS BIG AS YOUR TRUCK RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOUR FACE. ('shouting' to convey the brain-slamming scale of the message it communicates, not yelling at you.)
• tibbon 13y ago
  I wish they had this Storrow Drive in Boston. Every year during school move-in, then uHauls get stuck. What a mess.
  • bernardom 13y ago
    Its sister on the other side of the river, Memorial Drive, does: http://goo.gl/maps/jdTtx http://goo.gl/maps/jdTtx But that doesn't stop everyone: http://bit.ly/10LXX53 http://bit.ly/10LXX53 http://bit.ly/10FmQLa http://bit.ly/10FmQLa
• jayferd 13y ago
  The video is down :(
• diffsir 13y ago
  Blogospam Direct link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoTMC-uxJoo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoTMC-uxJoo
• diffsir 13y ago
  How is this HN content?
• speeder 13y ago
  And I think some people will STILL crash on the tunnel anyway. I made a arcade game once: www.abril.com.br/blog/campus-party/2011/01/19/fanatico-por-jogos-leva-seu-proprio-fliperama-para-a-arena/ It has instructions printed on the sides of the screen... It was VERY, VERY, VERY common to someone ask people around them what a button do (sometimes to even random passerby people, or for example a couple arrived at the machine, and the guy would start to play and ask stuff to his girlfriend), and then the asked either looked confused, or pointed to the instructions, and the people asking would behave surprised, confused and shamed. Why people ignored the instructions and asked for example their girlfriends, random people and so on instead? Why people see a huge sign blocking the way to a ATM saying it is out of order, they remove the sign from the way and attempt to use it anyway?
  • fosap 13y ago
    Or alert boxes: Don't assume people read them. Most don't. They just click them away. Even if given several choices.
  • dustingetz 13y ago
    its because most instructions are unhelpful and a waste time to read, so we're conditioned to ignore them.
    • purplelobster 13y ago
      bingo
    • xradionut 13y ago
      Even when you make great, easy to understand documetation, people are fucking lazy. That fact keeps the most of people in our support department employed.
      • Joeboy 13y ago
        I don't think you read the parent comment.
      • 13y ago
• ww520 13y ago
  This is a very innovative idea. I have seen those water displays shown in the malls for fun. This is a very cool application of a fun technique to save lives and property damages.
• olefoo 13y ago
  I'm mildly surprised that requiring trucks to file travel plans has not become a more widespread practice. What with terrorism concerns, and the widespread use of GPS monitors on trucks it's both feasible and plausible. It seems like major metro areas could institute a slightly tighter control of large load vehicles; which could actually benefit from coordinating with traffic control signals in some cases.
  • frugalfirbolg 13y ago
    I'm also surprised that the drivers or their company failed to check a truck atlas when planning the route. I imagine the company has just as much incentive to prevent incidents.
    • joezydeco 13y ago
      Did you notice the truck in the video was overloaded way above the normal height of the bed? The truck could have easily passed any checks on paper, but the load itself is what causes the interference.
      • frugalfirbolg 13y ago
        Yeah, in theory they would check the heights in the atlas versus the effective height of a given load, not just the height on paper. Why the truck was overloaded also begs a look at company policies. If this particular site is experiencing this issue 2 or 3 times a month then I wonder if the cost of guessing wrong and congesting the tunnel isn't high enough compared to just sending two trucks.
  • twistedpair 13y ago
    Since Garmins and other GPS devices have lane information and speed limit information, you'd think you could punch in your load height and get a route that worked for it. Anyone want to go collect 500K bridge heights for the database?
    • olefoo 13y ago
• fab13n 13y ago
  That's a cute high-tech solution. A simpler one is to put a horizontal bar, the same height as the tunnel's ceiling, which will physically stop the truck before causing millions worth of damages. It's often done in France, sometimes with an early warning: a first arch with chains hanging to the maximal height. It makes a lot of noise on the truck's top, but won't destroy it.
  • Osmium 13y ago
    A similar solution is used in my area yet perplexingly it still doesn't seem to stop it happening... so I think new ideas like this are definitely a good thing.
  • evan_ 13y ago
    Did you see the truck in the video take out an enormous steel beam that was presumably attached to the structure of the tunnel in some kind of permanent way? How would your solution avoid the same fate?
    • gojomo 13y ago
      The warning beam is several stopping-distances before the tunnel itself, and far easier to replace/reconstruct. I'd try a 3-stage contact-warning system: (1) hanging bar that makes noise on contact but causes little damage. This might even go before a suitable turn-off. (2) breakaway cord with trailing noisemakers. This would be torn from its mast by the collision, and drag noisy items behind, emphasizing the need to stop and investigate. (3) hard bar providing some slowing/resistance (but almost certainly not full stopping power, given the position and expense). By design this would actually damage the vehicle (and even risk harming the driver), approaching the same level of damage that would occur at functional tunnel-entry. But, it'd happen earlier where easier to clear/repair.
      • numbsafari 13y ago
        And yet, with this solution, no repair is needed for either the truck or the infrastructure. The vehicle is able to be removed under its own power, the driver is not injured, there is no debris. If you are in a vehicle behind a truck that has damage to its top, you very likely will have damage to your vehicle from flying debris.
• meatsock 13y ago
  great article but terrible slug -- headline reads like a zippy the pinhead punchline.
• alan_cx 13y ago
  The drivers cannot be not simply ignoring the signs. The sign is telling them that later down the road they will absolutely get in to problems, and get literally stuck. No one would continue with that certainty of getting stuck or in trouble. On top of that, it cant be repeat offenders either. Some one who has been there before must have gotten caught out, one way or another. Its not like drivers on small roads who see a 6ft width restriction sign, but know through local knowledge that really you can squeeze 7ft wide car through the lane. What we have is drivers who do not know the road, and in their minds don't think the big huge warning signs are meant for them. In their heads they think it for a another driver on the road in close proximity, even if there is no sign of one. The problem with road signs is making it known to specific individuals that the message is absolutely for them. The brilliant last resort sign absolutely makes it clear who the message is for. So the key is to some how make driver know that the message is actually for them specifically.
  • cnvogel 13y ago
    I think truck drivers are more or less trained to ignore everything but the last-resort sign. Near where I live, there's a small bridge (railroad on top, road crosses below) with not enough height. It has some limit on vehicle height that is posted on the streets quite some distance away, so that drivers can choose an alternative route. Of course the bridges always will be higher than the posted limit, taking account inaccuracies of the actual vehicle height and movement during driving, so drivers take a certain amount of leeway for granted. Now I've seen them back out after having touched the posted bar in front of the bridge and having (almost or actually) touched the structure countless times. Probably with the consecutively more noticable signs in the video, it's made such that the later signs trigger just at slightly bigger heights than the earlier ones, to avoid scaring drivers that made it through the earlier ones un-warned. So I can see that a driver would try testing the later ones, just because he's pretty sure that he might fit, eventually.
  • devrelm 13y ago
    In the US, there's a system called PrePass[1]. It's intention is to be used to allow a truck to bypass weigh-ins. The in-vehicle transponder has a red and green light on it. It could be repurposed to flash red when the vehicle triggers a too-tall warning, though this would be of minimal benefit since it's a small flashing red light most likely in the driver's peripheral vision. However, I'm unsure if there's any similar system in place in Australia (or most other countries, for that matter.) [1] http://www.prepass.com/services/prepass/Pages/PrePassTransponder.aspx http://www.prepass.com/services/prepass/Pages/PrePassTranspo...
• eric_the_read 13y ago
  The first three or four times I read this post title, it made no sense at all to me. It might as well have read "Sydney tunnel correct horse battery staple". Once I clicked through to the article it made sense, but this is one of the few times I wish the mods had edited the title to match the article.
• gojomo 13y ago
  Eventually the tunnels will have "soft walls" which send large trucks a remote-braking command if collision seems likely... and the trucks themselves collision-avoidance radar. And soon after that all the trucks will be self-driving.
  • jlgreco 13y ago
    This would make Speed interesting.
• gambiting 13y ago
  Or they could you know....just build a tunnel big enough to fir every vehicle size? I don't think this problem exists in the UK, I've driven through many different tunnels and they will accept any vehicle size.
  • preinheimer 13y ago
    Really? "any vehicle size"? Including trucks carrying around 40ft tall construction equipment (like cranes) on flatbeds? What about those huge wind-turbine pieces? You can't plan for "any", especially with shrinking government budgets globally. You plan for "most", and work to ensure the remainder has some sort of possible route.
    • gambiting 13y ago
      I knew somebody was going to point out that oversized vehicles won't fit. For your knowledge, these vehicles are not normally legal to drive(in the EU), they need to have special permissions, display "oversized" badge on the back and on the front, but most importantly, they need to have their route planned and approved days in advance from actually driving anywhere. So none of these vehicles would ever crash into a tunnel, because such a route would not be approved in the first place. By "any" I mean any of the sizes approved for legal road use, and there is not many of them. Trailers can only be of a certain height and width, and most tunnels are built to accomodate for those dimensions. And usually, tunnels are built to either make the route shorter, or redirect traffic out of the city. So if the biggest vehicles on the road cannot use them, and have to go through the city, then it defeats the point of building the tunnel altogether.
      • preinheimer 13y ago
        Cool, clearly Australia is a bit different.
  • peterkelly 13y ago
    And computer manufacturers should just include hard drives that are big enough to store as much data as people want.
• marban 13y ago
  I'm somewhat more impressed by this water screen than the iphone's retina display.
  • ricardobeat 13y ago
    Water screens are very simple (and old) tech. It's just a perforated tube and a projector. This is much more interesting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gusJeslMbLc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gusJeslMbLc, but still a weekend project, not billion-dollar research :)
    • mxfh 13y ago
      There was the bit.fall project (ca. 2005) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AICq53U3dl8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AICq53U3dl8 by Julius Popp and before that Stephen Pevnick's Graphical Waterfalls® (1977) http://www.pevnickdesign.com/gwhtml/history.html http://www.pevnickdesign.com/gwhtml/history.html
• ck2 13y ago
  Put a metal sign on a hinge that is at the too-tall height several hundred feet in front of the tunnel. When they hit it, they will definitely stop, and replacing the sign is a fraction of the cost of the water sign, which they can drive through anyway.
  • TranceMan 13y ago
    > When they hit it, they will definitely stop, and replacing the sign is a fraction of the cost of the water sign Other comments seem to suggest this doesn't work [Low bars etc..] I am not sure how large a problem this is [No audio on vid :(] Asking people to stop sharply on a suddenly wet road doesn't seem an ideal solution. I think an addition would be to charge the drivers the cost of repair, this is not a tax on stupidity - it is a lesson in taking responsibility in driving an extra-ordinary sized vehicle on a public road. Thankfully my driving instructor knew the importance of taking responsibility and understanding what that means before you get behind the wheel.
    • larrys 13y ago
      "I think an addition would be to charge the drivers the cost of repair" The cost of a repair to a bridge? Maybe if the driver's employer is Fedex perhaps but even then the worse case scenario is the driver looses his job but I'm sure that already happens regardless of cost impact.
      • TranceMan 13y ago
        > The cost of a repair to a bridge? It was a tunnel ;) >Maybe if the driver's employer is Fedex perhaps but even then the worse case scenario is the driver looses his job but I'm sure that already happens regardless of cost impact. I don't really want to punish somebody retrospectively for their actions in this case. If my family and I were to be behind this over-sized vehicle at this time - I would think probably think much different.
    • Tomis02 13y ago
      That would be an expensive lesson, don't you think? Not only for the guilty but for the other drivers as well. I would go for low bars as supplemental safety measures.
• EGreg 13y ago
  Why not just have those things which actually hang down and hit the top of your truck showing you that you're too tall? As for that water sign ... why don't they put it further back and have a way for offending vehicles to exit in front of it? Am I missing something?
  • dragonwriter 13y ago
    > As for that water sign ... why don't they put it further back and have a way for offending vehicles to exit in front of it? Am I missing something? The projected-onto-water sign relies, for visibility, on the fact that is in front of a tunnel that is dark (hence why the lights near the entrance shut down when it activates), so it wouldn't work farther back; it also makes the road wet and incrementally more dangerous for all drivers, which is why it makes sense for the more normal insistent flashing signs, etc., to be placed farther back and the water sign to be a last resort even before considering visibility issues.
    • EGreg 13y ago
      Okay, well why don't the progressively more dire warnings include stuff that dangles from the sign and causes the truck driver to hear a big rattling sound on his roof? Not this far though: http://www.theatlanticcities.com/neighborhoods/2012/10/durhams-bridge-death-will-decapitate-any-tall-truck/3707/ http://www.theatlanticcities.com/neighborhoods/2012/10/durha...
• jonchang 13y ago
  Strange that they didn't just install a huge metal bar in front of the tunnel, like in this video (11 foot 8, the "toughest bridge in the world"): http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=3c0_1351184890 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=3c0_1351184890
• marze 13y ago
  This is the same problem as getting pilots to not land on aircraft carriers with their landing gear up. I've heard they station a guy with a flare gun as a final notification, but sometimes the pilot lands anyhow. This idea could be used on an aircraft carrier, if the water was sprayed up from below. I think it would be interesting to try a projection of a scary face, or even a non-scary face, or a video of a crowd of people.
• zowch 13y ago
  My question is: Once the truck is stopped in front of the sign, presumably with traffic backed up behind it...how do they get it out?
• mikeleung 13y ago
  why not just have a toll gate come down ?
• dhughes 13y ago
  I recall seeing a sign on a low tunnel in NY (?) that had something like "15 feet We mean it!" edit: I'm not from NY I Googled and see it is the Holland tunnel which has the sign 12'6" (but it's actually 13') and We mean it.
• LiroXIV 13y ago
  It turns out that this system was, fittingly, developed by a special effects company. http://www.laservision.com.au/page.asp?lid=1&sec=Projects&subsec=Permanent+Attractions&subsubsec=Softstop http://www.laservision.com.au/page.asp?lid=1&sec=Project...
• NamTaf 13y ago
  A lot of people seem to be struggling to understand why this solution is needed in place of {big metal bar, hanging chains, flashing signs above road, etc.} and why drivers seem to act counter to logic and common sense by ignoring warnings and so ending up in situations where they're stuck and cause damage to their truck or load. It's as simple as this: signs around the edge of your field of vision are far less noticeable than signs directly in the centre of your field of vision. Signs around the edge are also far more common than signs directly in the middle of the road. Common events (such as these signs whizzing past) breed complacency and it's a fundamental tenant of workplace health and safety that some of the biggest risk events are not those that are inherently risky or difficult, but those that are performed so frequently that the practitioners become lazy with complacency (example: smacking yourself in the face and knocking your teeth out when undoing a tight bolt because you're pulling the spanner towards you). Driving is such a repetitive task that said complacency is incredibly high as a result, which explains all kinds of road phenomenon that you'll witness on a daily basis and wonder 'what the HELL was that idiot thinking?!?'. In the rail industry, level crossing incidents are way too common. I recall one several years ago that killed the two train drivers when a B-double ran a crossing and ripped the oncoming train right off the tracks when the train ran in to the trailer of the B-double. The report ([1] specifically sections 2.3.7 and 2.3.8 starting PDF page 72. Fascinating reading about human factors of accidents if you're in to that) made it very clear that the truck driver failed to see the flashing lights and associated signage alerting that a train was coming. As a result, he failed to stop. Importantly, it notes that it is entirely possible to miss major changes to your environment (big flashing signs, in the tunnel case) if your attention is elsewhere. Couple that with the fact that driving long distances for extended periods can be almost hypnotic, especially at night and when fatigued. Driving becomes almost automatic. Ever driven a long distance and realised you don't actually remember specifics of the journey? Yeh. These guys are going to be driving at night (due to being in the middle of a major city) where lights from billboards, etc. are surrounding their field of view. It's like driving through a star trek warp speed tunnel with lights flashing past your field of view constantly. That's hypnotic and you zone out as a result. As such, the driver's attention levels are pretty much nil and no low-hanging beam is going to snap him back to reality. By throwing something completely different directly in the field of vision, the driver is immediately snapped back to reality in a big way. Your attention is (usually) mostly focused on the road in front of you when you're driving, even when you're distracted. Furthering the extremity of the reality check is that it's a gigantic 'STOP' sign - not just the word stop, but the word stop in the big red hexagonal sign. The sign is designed to provoke a response by its shape and colour (we're conditioned to hold that meaning to said shape and colour) and throwing it immediately in front of the driver will grab their attention in a way that bars and chains and all that simply will not. In summary, by using a sign directly in front of the driver rather than through some secondary communications medium (e.g.: banging on the roof of the vehicle), the likelihood of detection and subsequent reaction is far higher. It will succeed where other mechanisms of alerting will fail. Water is used because it's convenient, doesn't cause lasting damage/debris and can be deployed very quickly. For the benefit such a design brings (avoiding blocking just about the biggest express road thoroughfare in Australia's largest city), the upfront cost is negligible and is easily justified over cheaper but less effective alternatives. [1]: http://www.tmr.qld.gov.au/~/media/Safety/railsafety/safetyreports/Pdf_rail_safety_investigation_qt2459_complete.pdf http://www.tmr.qld.gov.au/~/media/Safety/railsafety/safetyre...