Category Archives: Urban Issues

Foolish to build FACTORIES underneath FREEWAYS? (It’s legal in California)

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Los Angeles THREW AWAY all their RED-LIGHT cameras?

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Stop lights can… RUIN a street for bicyclists?

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Can this “HAWK” STOP LIGHT make walking feel SAFE again?

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Why does this street BLOCK off Arby’s (but not McDonald’s)?

Raised medians reduce left turns which prevents crashes (and saves lives). But cities only block left turns for some businesses and not others. How can the engineers decide fairly? And what do we do with drivers who still need to turn left? ——————————- Additional reading: ——————————- Federal Highway Administration. https://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/saferjourney1/library/countermeasures/16.htm. Accessed Jun. 9, 2021.

Wait, the train runs INSIDE your house?

If we let more people live ¼-mile from the train, everyone saves money.

America is not affordable because building lots are not affordable. And there is not nearly enough people who ride our billion-dollar light/commuter rail trains. Here’s how these two problems solve one another.

Phoenix without freeways?

In the 1970s, Arizonans resoundingly voted “NO” to completing Interstate 10 through downtown Phoenix. But that’s because I-10 would have been a ten-story tall freeway bridge through the north of downtown. But the “NO” vote canceled all new freeways, including finishing Interstate 10 coast to coast.

Safety on Provo 500 West

I’m exploring a site along Provo’s 500 West, which a SafetyAnalyst project identifies as one of the most crash-prone stretches of road in the county. SafetyAnalyst allows a transportation researcher to combine data and other analytical tools to identify roadway segments and nodes which are statistically more dangerous than others, controlling for many other factors. […]

Amazing Signal Sync: Wilshire Blvd

Have you seen these signs along Wilshire Blvd? I don’t often drive Wilshire. But when I do, it always seems to be the peak of afternoon rush hour. (Maybe Wilshire always feels crowded?) So as I sit at another red light, I look at these signs and just shake my head in frustration. It turns […]

New: Galena Park Bridge

There’s a series projects which demonstrate some good long-term thinking in Draper, Utah. When UTA built its Frontrunner commuter rail line, it built this overpass even though there isn’t a road for yards around (I’d say miles, but there are many roads within a mile).  Good thing, too, since it’s a looooooong drive around (red).  In […]

Safety: House and Car

North of Brigham Young University’s campus boundary sits a house at a T-intersection. Well, I should say “sat” a house.  Because a young adult with a medical issue (I suspect suicidal depression, but we’ll never know) plowed an early-90s Suburban into it.  And from the looks of it, the Suburban won: The force from the crash was […]

Safety: Triple Right Turn?

I had to get on the phone with UDOT right away when I saw this. Crews added two new “right-turn only” arrows.  But why?  That sounds really unsafe.  The intersection does back up a lot during rush hour, but I think painting a protective “free right” stripe would’ve been a better option.  What’s UDOT (or […]