Sign in with your Patreon account!To view this content, you must be a member of Road Guy Rob Patreon at $1 or more Unlock with PatreonAlready a qualifying Patreon member? Refresh to access this content.
Category Archives: Urban Issues
Patreon Locked, Safety, Signal/Signage, Urban Issues
Los Angeles THREW AWAY all their RED-LIGHT cameras?
27
Aug
Aug
At one point, Los Angeles had over 100 cameras to catch red-light runners. Then the city tore ’em all out. Here’s why. Research: “Police look to cameras to catch traffic violators”The Los Angeles Times, 13 Jun 2000, p.B4A “Voices: A Green Light on Red-Light Cameras”The Los Angeles Times, 8 Sep 2001, p.B21 “Red-Light Cameras Focus […]
16
Apr
Apr
San Diego installed “Edge Lanes” (also called “Advisory Bike Lanes”) along a short neighborhood block in Mira Mesa, California. And the people living nearby lost their collective minds. Here’s why these lanes aren’t quite as bad as local TV coverage claims.
28
Feb
Feb
Crossing the street on your bike should be easy and safe. Stop lights to help you, also invite cars onto your bike route. Engineers in Tucson, Arizona solve this dilemma with two special signals just for bicycles (Toucans and BikeHAWKs).
Patreon Locked, Safety, Signal/Signage, Urban Issues
Can this “HAWK” STOP LIGHT make walking feel SAFE again?
17
Jan
Jan
Middle-of-the-block crosswalks are terrible. Most do not qualify for a stop light. I meet the inventor of the Pedestrian Hybrid (HAWK) beacon, a traffic device that fixes America’s forgotten crosswalks.
02
Dec
Dec
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.
09
Dec
Dec
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. […]
25
Jun
Jun
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 […]
17
May
May
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 […]
16
May
May
Campus Drive was a ring road that allowed vehicular access to the internal parking lots of Brigham Young University’s campus in Provo: It’s now closed, as you can see from the barrier in the middle of the street: I liked the old way, but to be fair we humans tend to have a status-quo bias. […]
29
Mar
Mar
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 […]
02
Mar
Mar
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 […]