Driving Anti-Patterns - Necro Edition
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The HOV lanes in the median on 95 and 395 south of DC change direction, too.
But set off by Jersey walls and separate interchanges.
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The center lane is different from a reversible lane. Center lanes are standard stuff.
I've only seen reversible lanes near arenas (to help traffic enter and leave easily before and after an event) and in weird places such as California.
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Apparently I'm TRWTF...
Center lane is easy, though. Get into it if you're turning left, stay out if you're not.
Also you can use it to turn left into a street with a center lane if the eastbound lanes are clear but the westbound lanes aren't. Turn into the center lane and then wait to merge.
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Looks like someone took xkcd’s “rotary supercollider” seriously...
heh, are we seeing a different one?
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Almost forgot about this one, just saw it again this morning.
Idiots that think that a U-turn on red is legal.
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Idiots that think that a U-turn is legal.
FTFY
(99.9% of the time it isn't legal no matter the state of the light)
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Well, there are certain circumstances, at least here in Arizona, under which a U-turn on red is permitted. Arizona law allows a U-turn on red if the following conditions are met:
- U-turns are permitted.
- The vehicle making the U-turn does not cross the stop bar. If no stop bar is painted at the intersection, the vehicle must not enter the crosswalk. If no stop bar or crosswalk is painted, the vehicle must not enter the main portion of the intersection.
- If there is a raised median, the vehicle must not cross over the median.
All of these conditions generally mean that the only vehicles capable of making a U-turn on red at most intersections are motorcycles.
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All of these conditions generally mean that the only vehicles capable of making a U-turn on red at most intersections are motorcycles.
How so? Do you mean that they just do it illegally?
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(99.9% of the time it isn't legal no matter the state of the light)
In Arizona, U-turns are permitted anywhere a left turn is permitted, unless posted other wise. And, unless it's changed in recent years, that is also the case in Washington and Utah (other states I've lived in long term).
Not sure where you get the idea that U-turns are so prohibited.
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Not sure where you get the idea that U-turns are so prohibited.
I think that she's referring only to U-turns with a red light.
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that is also the case in Washington and Utah (other states I've lived in long term).
U-turn on red? That's never been legal in WA.
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How so? Do you mean that they just do it illegally?
No, I just mean that at many intersections there isn't enough space for a car to legally make a U-turn on red. Only a motorcycle could meet the conditions I listed. Often, there isn't enough space between the raised median and the stop bar for a car, or a car just wouldn't have a tight enough turning radius. Only way to pull off a U-on-red in those cases is with a motorcycle.
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I think that she's referring only to U-turns with a red light.
Ahem:
(99.9% of the time it isn't legal no matter the state of the light)
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Not sure where you get the idea that U-turns are so prohibited.
correction.
In New England 99.9% of the time U-Turns are prohibited.
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U-turn on red? That's never been legal in WA.
Ahem:
(99.9% of the time it isn't legal no matter the state of the light)
Filed Under: The importance of context
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In New England 99.9% of the time U-Turns are prohibited.
Sinners in the hands of an angry traffic cop.
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correction.
In New England 99.9% of the time U-Turns are prohibited.
Oh. Yeah. Forgot about that.
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I have too much blood in my caffeine system.
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You should replace some of that with booze, to help even things out.
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Soon. It's noon-ish here.
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Time for a three-beer lunch?
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Oh whatever, I have no clue what anybody's talking about.
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Sorry, I should have started on that "crayons and construction paper" plug-in.
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All of these conditions generally mean that the only vehicles capable of making a U-turn on red at most intersections are motorcycles.
I've been known to do that. It takes some very creative navigation to get to certain areas if I end up traveling opposite of most traffic since my motorcycle won't set off traffic sensors and red lights won't change. This city also has a fetish for medians that block left turns, meaning I gotta drive 2 - 4 miles out of my way to get to the gas station I'm 200 feet away from, unless I do some kind of U-turn or just hop the median when nobody's looking.
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I've been known to do that. It takes some very creative navigation to get to certain areas if I end up traveling opposite of most traffic since my motorcycle won't set off traffic sensors and red lights won't change. This city also has a fetish for medians that block left turns, meaning I gotta drive 2 - 4 miles out of my way to get to the gas station I'm 200 feet away from, unless I do some kind of U-turn or just hop the median when nobody's looking.
It sounds like you are running into out-of-calibration inductive loops; tried calling Traffic Maintenance about them sometime? Especially if it's happening at the same spot repeatedly, as they are supposed to be set sensitive enough to pick up on motorcycles.
Filed under: anyone wish to buy the traffic department a motorcycle?
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I never ran into an inductive sensor that my motorcycle triggered. If I ever had to ride home late at night when no one else was on the road, I would expect to run a handful of red lights.
It really pissed me off when I was first at a red light and the guy behind me stopped thirty feet behind me so the sensor didn't pick either of us up. It sucks being stuck at a red light waiting to cross a major road during morning rush hour and the light never changes. I would eventually ask the driver behind me to pull up. A lot of people get really nervous when a guy on a motorcycle gets off and walks toward their car.
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I never ran into an inductive sensor that my motorcycle triggered. If I ever had to ride home late at night when no one else was on the road, I would expect to run a handful of red lights.
It really pissed me off when I was first at a red light and the guy behind me stopped thirty feet behind me so the sensor didn't pick either of us up. It sucks being stuck at a red light waiting to cross a major road during morning rush hour and the light never changes. I would eventually ask the driver behind me to pull up. A lot of people get really nervous when a guy on a motorcycle gets off and walks toward their car.
It turns out that there's also an issue of driver technique involved when actuating loops with two-wheeled vehicles; if you can see the loop's sawcuts, it's best to put yourself on the left or right edge of the loop rather than in the middle, according to a FHWA study.
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Then you'd love people like me. I give motorcycles a car's distance, but when it comes to light sensors, I'm fully willing to work with them.
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... actuating loops ...
And to bring in the book-lovers on history books thread:
( @codinghorror I'M DOING IT WRONG)
is the closest I could find to "blow a raspberry". Discover-ability - yea!
OTOH the spell check is helpful.
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The latest cool thing here seems to be roundabouts. Nice concept, but it doesn't work so well in a nation where no one understands what "Yield" means.
"Yield" is easy. It's a measure of how big a bang you get from a nuke.For maximum fun, consider the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Roundabout_(Swindon) . In particular, pay close attention to the road sign in the infobox, and imagine what might go through your mind when you see that beside the road in front of you and you're not expecting it.
(SPOILER: in effect, it's a large roundabout with all five entry/exit points made of mini-roundabouts, and with traffic circulating in both directions around the large roundabout.)
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I think in America that would be a permanent wreck.
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That belongs in the Evil Ideas Thread.
Give me a regular grid with 90° intersections, or give me death!
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That belongs in the Evil Ideas Thread.
Give me a regular grid with 90° intersections, or give me death!
We do have that Puzzling Peanut to call our own; I find that it works better than the six-way intersection it replaced, too.
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Turning into the outside lane. That's what it's called.
You are supposed to turn into the inside lane, but for people who need to be in the outside lane, they just turn into it.The habit is so strong that they think they are right when the opposite car turns into the inside lane at the same time, and they almost hit that other car. They get mad and honk furiously.
The habit is also so strong that they turn into the outside lane whether they need to be there or not, often moving back to the middle lane. Why? Because the turn is wider and more comfortable.
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I think in America that would be a permanent wreck.
The key point is that because it is so weird, and because of the relatively small size, traffic is only moving slowly as it traverses the ... thing ... and so collisions aren't very serious.
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That belongs in the Evil Ideas Thread.
Give me a regular grid with 90° intersections, or give me death!
At the end of the 1980s, I spent a year driving around with "Live Free Or Die" on my number plates, New Hampshire being what it is. I think it might have helped clear a little space around my car when I drove down to the Big Apple. (So I ran a red light in Manhattan. So what? Two taxis in the same lane behind me also ran it. Under those conditions, you don't even try to stop...)
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(SPOILER: in effect, it's 5 roundabouts in close proximity with roads connecting them)
FTFY
Give me a regular grid with 90° intersections, or give me death!
Yes, that's how it tends to work. The death is self generating.
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OTOH the spell check is helpful.
That's not Dicsourse. That's your browser.
Filed Under: Don't attribute to Discourse that which belongs to your browser
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This post is deleted!
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At last, recognition!
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That's not Dicsourse. That's your browser.
Filed Under: Don't attribute to Discourse that which belongs to your browser
..ah..well..then...OTOH Disco forced me to read the forums under Chrome, so then I had spell check, so that's helpful.
Better?
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Live Free Or Die is the second-best State motto. They should put a couple crossed AK-74's behind it.
The best is Missouri, the Show Me State. Not for the intended reason, though.
(BTW, my State, Washington, has the worst. It's Al-ki. We don't put it on our license plates because it's too shameful.)
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BTW, my State, Washington, has the worst. It's Al-ki.
I did not know this.I'm not sure that this new knowledge improves my opinion of my fellow Washingtonians.
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Were you here back in the mid-90s when there was that huge campaign to change our State Song from "Washington, Our Home" (or whatever boring bland crap it is now) to "Louie, Louie?"
Shame that never quite went through.
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I think it's more like "In the sweet bye and bye" — in the future, someday.
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No, that's "by and by". Notice the spelling.
"Bye and bye" is like 19th century slang nobody uses anymore. EDIT: and no I don't, offhand, know how it differs from just "bye".