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I feel a bit weird about this, because my father actually worked for the local highway department and I ended up learning about the stuff that goes into road de

I feel a bit weird about this, because my father actually worked for the local highway department and I ended up learning about the stuff that goes into road design and engineering... and most of the payoff of that is that I complain when I see stuff done wrong. And it's not just light timing; my single biggest gripe is when I can tell from driving on a road that its speed limit has been set significantly differently from its design speed (in either direction -- there are some local streets obviously set too low, but also some highway stretches that are obviously set too high).

pkulak 11y ago
I'd say there are a lot of local streets with speed limits to high, designed for speeds MUCH to high. http://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2010/11/22/confessions-of-a-recovering-engineer.html http://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2010/11/22/confessions-of...
- ubernostrum 11y ago
  Ehhh... that guy seems a bit off. It is true that often residents demand something be done to force the average speed of traffic way below the design speed of the street, but generally it's not because some engineer slapped a major arterial into a cozy residential neighborhood. Rather, the common pattern is the residents moved in because they liked being conveniently on some minor artery that would get them to/from work quickly, but then decided after moving in that it had to change into a quiet residential street so their kids could go out and play in it. The result, if the neighborhood can pull off enough local political clout, is usually that a street designed for good amounts of traffic doing 40+ mph starts getting its limit lowered to 35, then 30, then 25, then roundabouts and speed humps start showing up to enforce it, and you just get a mess.
  - cafard 11y ago
    Yes and no. The neighborhood where I live was laid out eighty or ninety years ago. Most families probably had a car by 1940, but I doubt many had two. Most had garages, some had driveways but no garage. Now I suspect that we are unusual in being a two-adult household with one car. A neighbor across the way has four vehicles--three cars and a pickup truck, all of which they must park on the street. The increase in cars per household means that for a good ways in every direction, any side street will have cars parked on both sides. Two ordinary sized American cars can pass each other in what is left, but drivers usually find it safer to look for an unparked space where one can pull over a little. Twenty-five miles per hour does not feel slow on these streets (particularly from the right front seat). You are completely correct about the residents wishing to slow things down. Thirty years ago one could get onto 13th St. NW in downtown Washington, and with a bit of luck hit no red lights all the way to Maryland. Now there are stop signs sprinkled between the lights. In Chevy Chase, there is I think one path left that takes one through the neighborhoods from Jones Bridge Road to Beach Drive where once there were many, the rest now blocked by barriers.
brc 11y ago
Ha, i feel the same way when, for some reason, for work experience I got stuck in the local government road planning department. I was bored out of my brain but I did learn about corner radius for speeds, acceptable road crests, minimum sighting distance for signs at various speeds, acceptable on-ramp lengths and on and on. And all it ever did was highlight to me how often somene did a crap job. And usually there was always fresh evidence of crashes in the vicinity. The people who crashed were probably told they were bad drivers,m without realising half the problem was that some desk ok key was phoning it in she the road was planned, or the government was too lazy/broke to fix obvious problems.

pkulak 11y ago

I'd say there are a lot of local streets with speed limits to high, designed for speeds MUCH to high. http://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2010/11/22/confessions-of-a-recovering-engineer.html http://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2010/11/22/confessions-of...

ubernostrum 11y ago
Ehhh... that guy seems a bit off. It is true that often residents demand something be done to force the average speed of traffic way below the design speed of the street, but generally it's not because some engineer slapped a major arterial into a cozy residential neighborhood. Rather, the common pattern is the residents moved in because they liked being conveniently on some minor artery that would get them to/from work quickly, but then decided after moving in that it had to change into a quiet residential street so their kids could go out and play in it. The result, if the neighborhood can pull off enough local political clout, is usually that a street designed for good amounts of traffic doing 40+ mph starts getting its limit lowered to 35, then 30, then 25, then roundabouts and speed humps start showing up to enforce it, and you just get a mess.
- cafard 11y ago
  Yes and no. The neighborhood where I live was laid out eighty or ninety years ago. Most families probably had a car by 1940, but I doubt many had two. Most had garages, some had driveways but no garage. Now I suspect that we are unusual in being a two-adult household with one car. A neighbor across the way has four vehicles--three cars and a pickup truck, all of which they must park on the street. The increase in cars per household means that for a good ways in every direction, any side street will have cars parked on both sides. Two ordinary sized American cars can pass each other in what is left, but drivers usually find it safer to look for an unparked space where one can pull over a little. Twenty-five miles per hour does not feel slow on these streets (particularly from the right front seat). You are completely correct about the residents wishing to slow things down. Thirty years ago one could get onto 13th St. NW in downtown Washington, and with a bit of luck hit no red lights all the way to Maryland. Now there are stop signs sprinkled between the lights. In Chevy Chase, there is I think one path left that takes one through the neighborhoods from Jones Bridge Road to Beach Drive where once there were many, the rest now blocked by barriers.

brc 11y ago

Ha, i feel the same way when, for some reason, for work experience I got stuck in the local government road planning department. I was bored out of my brain but I did learn about corner radius for speeds, acceptable road crests, minimum sighting distance for signs at various speeds, acceptable on-ramp lengths and on and on. And all it ever did was highlight to me how often somene did a crap job. And usually there was always fresh evidence of crashes in the vicinity. The people who crashed were probably told they were bad drivers,m without realising half the problem was that some desk ok key was phoning it in she the road was planned, or the government was too lazy/broke to fix obvious problems.