Driving Anti-Patterns - Necro Edition
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Only the last one approaches the majestic insanity of the Gravelly Hill Interchange, which is almost never called anything but Spaghetti Junction.
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We have a lot of stacking:
Stacking? I present High Five:
Meet the Dallas Mixmaster, named after the chemical that creates Graboids:
When they saw that, Cowtown got jealous:
Bing Streetview doesn't have good pictures, but here's High Five headed southbound. Two highways intersecting roughly at right angles, and in between them are the frontage roads (a full set), plus two levels of flyover exit ramps.
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Dallas Mixmaster
Also known as Perpetual Lack of Motion.
When they saw that, Cowtown got jealous:
For ers who don't live in Texas, Cowtown == Fort Worth.
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Stacking? I present High Five:
I have spent entirely too much of my life in that junction, didn't expect to need a trigger warning for a driving topic!
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I can think of dozens of cities that are always pleasant to drive through. (Though all of them have a population < 1500)
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My hometown has a population of 130. 1500 used to be a megalopolis to me!
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We have the McArthur Maze
(Fuck you paste quickly gets to 100% and then just sits there. So I'll do it with a linky)
https://www.google.com/maps/@37.8232175,-122.2969814,1952m/data=!3m1!1e3
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Oh hey, a no-box! It's like a one-box, only it doesn't let you see the original link!
When you come visit DC, please enjoy a whirlwind ride in the Mixing Bowl.
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There's another parallel US Route out there, weirdly designated A1A.
That's actually a state route (note the outline of Florida):
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When you come visit DC
I've been spending too much time here. Read that as visiting
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Well darn, all this time I thought it was U. S.
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We have a lot of stacking:
Amateurs. I was confronted by this last week:
Brisbane, Queensland.
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Full flyovers are rare in The Netherlands; but I located this one:
https://www.google.nl/maps/@51.8725081,4.5709957,1893m/data=!3m1!1e3
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I present Salt Lake City's "Spaghetti Stack":
It's a bit difficult to remember which lane to be in for the exit you need going through that.
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Wow, those beat Atlanta's big one on the North Perimeter (also known as Spaghetti Junction, even if it is no match for the one above) and the Oakland Maze all hollow.
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"Spaghetti Stack"
Yeah, the Mixmaster? I only showed the worst part of it--the actual tangle goes on a bit in both directions. In addition--let me just issue trigger warnings first for @zachaq and @antiquarian--I will also mention like the lovely little BS-y shimmy at the end of US75. Because that's fun at 60+mph.
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Also also, this isn't too much of a tangle as such, but the pictures lie, and it's actually about 43 lanes wide, which makes it fun to get on or off.
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Actually, my personal hell is on the other side, the 35E - 635 junction. It's represented here by a theoretical ideal where the shoulders aren't closed, and there isn't traffic blocking you from merging in the 5 ft you get. I highlighted my favorite part, otherwise you can't really see it under all the flyovers.
Edit: Going through here again today reminded me: the 35E Southbound exit (highlighted is 635 -> 35E N) is under construction, and they changed things around. Nothing like a new traffic pattern to spice up a junction!
Filed Under: I'm still too cheap to take the tollways.
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We've seen a lot of spaghetti, I think it's time for a whirlwind!
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Apparently, there are three worse junctions. (Article is from 2009.) The list is:
- Gravelly Hill (Spaghetti Junction), Birmingham
- M8 junctions through central Glasgow
- Marble Arch, London
- Magic Roundabout, Swindon, Wiltshire
- Hanger Lane Gyratory, west London
- M5/M6 intersection, Birmingham
- Piccadilly Circus, London
- Five Ways junction, Birmingham
- Magic Roundabout, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire
- Kingston Bridge, Glasgow
OK, we've already mentioned the top one, and I know that the route through central Glasgow is awful. Much worse than it appears to be from the map.
<iframe src="https://www.google.com/maps/embed?pb=!1m14!1m12!1m3!1d27861.923193098813!2d-4.271435011778346!3d55.85113239670958!2m3!1f0!2f0!3f0!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!5e0!3m2!1sen!2suk!4v1458207893463" width="600" height="450" frameborder="0" style="border:0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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I know that the route through central Glasgow is awful. Much worse than it appears to be from the map.
Yeah, it's a pain. I was going to post that, as you said, it doesn't look that bad on the map.
Those aren't scary junctions though. Some of them are shit, sure, but not scary.
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The ones through Glasgow are pretty bad. The problem isn't each individual junction, the problem is that they are very close together, forcing traffic to merge very much more rapidly than is comfortable. There are a few stretches of the M60 which are a bit like that too (the bit near Stockport is not great) and the stretch of the M42 east of Birmingham is not nice either.
If we're just talking shit junctions, there's a totally separate list of shame…
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We've seen a lot of spaghetti, I think it's time for a whirlwind!
https://what.thedailywtf.com/t/driving-anti-patterns-necro-edition/3300/434
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Here's my favorite:
Interstate 90 has a pretty hard 90 degree turn in Cleveland, OH.
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But it's OHIO!
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…country road in moderate hill country...
Yeah, country driving is nice, but is it civilization? JK, but really it's people who make it not nice. And my therapist really wonders why I'm ever so slightly sociopathic… She must be self medicating.
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Yeah, country driving is nice, but is it civilization?
With a properly made road? For sure! True non-civilized places have mud tracks and stuff like that.
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This beauty in Orlando (below) is in the process of being reengineered...
But let's consider half of the vertical segment to the left, the north-south segment.
At the bottom of that half, you have traffic from west-bound I-4 zooming into the right hand lane. You have traffic from east-bound I-4 zooming into the left hand lane. The lanes are separated by a dotted line.
At the north end, the right hand lane takes you onto east-bound Florida 408. The left lane takes you to west-bound Florida 408.
If you're going east-to-east or west-to-west, you stay in the same lane you entered. If you are entering from east-bound I-4 and you want to go west on 408, you have 500 feet to switch from the right-hand lane to the left; even as the people who entered from west-bound I-4 have 500 feet to switch from the left-hand lane into the right.
That 500-foot section is 100% nightmare...even if you're only passing through.
The south-pointed segment was the same, except from 408 onto I-4; just as bad.
Locally infamous, which is why they're rebuilding it.
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@M_Adams said in Driving Anti-Patterns - Necro Edition:
REFERENCE: "How to Procrastinate and Still Get Things Done," John Perry, Chronicle of Higher Education, February 23, 1996.
TL;DR — Maybe later.
Yeah, still haven't read it......
Filed Under: Why did NodeBB send me to this post???
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This post is deleted!
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@M_Adams said in Driving Anti-Patterns - Necro Edition:
Filed Under: Why did NodeBB send me to this post???
For the topics which existed for the first migration from to NodeBB, the new posts were transferred in the final migration, but your last unread post bookmark for the topic wasn't updated.
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@anotherusername Yeah, that's what happened... but it was very amusing that it landed me on that procrastination posting... on which I'm still procrastinating... :)
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@FrostCat said in Driving Anti-Patterns - Necro Edition:
Google Maps
TIL Inedo is right in the same building as a psychic reading place that apparently sells poorly made military uniforms.
Edit: Apparently Inedo HQ is located directly above the aforementioned psychic clothing store.
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@ben_lubar said in Driving Anti-Patterns - Necro Edition:
Inedo HQ
Also located nearby: a tear in the space-time continuum.
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@fbmac low res trees
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@ben_lubar the marker for Inedo is inside a Brewery, probably misplaced
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@fbmac Inedo's in an office, not a storefront, so they're probably on the second floor unless the building's laid out really weirdly.
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@fbmac said in Driving Anti-Patterns - Necro Edition:
@ben_lubar the marker for Inedo is inside a Brewery, probably misplaced
Knowing @apapadimoulis , probably not misplaced.
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Spotted this on some news site after falling for its clickbait:
Permit holders are given the flexibility of being able to park anywhere within the marked areas, while using common sense to allow space for their neighbours and other drivers to get past.
Yeah, no.
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@ben_lubar said in Driving Anti-Patterns - Necro Edition:
@fbmac low res trees
That, and a utility pole that it noticed, but it didn't get the 3D depth on the power lines so they appeared to be strung at ground level.
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@Lorne-Kates said in Driving Anti-Patterns - Necro Edition:
Knowing @apapadimoulis , probably not misplaced.
I knew some people in Tampa whose development office was over a bar, so it's certainly within the realm of possibility.
Quite useful on a Friday night, too: no risking drunk driving (or even waiting for the men's room).
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Driving in Australia in a nutshell:
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@Deadfast Is that a real spider on the sign or just a reminder to everyone to beware when “getting comfortable”?
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@dkf It's an artistic license. In reality they rarely venture outside your toilet.