This time of year is one of my favorites, so I thought I would share with you all one of my favorite Christmas Stories, which may sound familiar to some of you.
'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the city
Not a driver was cursing, not even an old lady;
The signals were hung by the mast arm with care,
A sign that M. John had certainly been there;
The children were nestled all snug in their car seats,
While visions of green lights replaced their treats;
And mamma in the passenger seat, and I behind the wheel,
Had just settled down for a long winter's trip in our automobile,
When out on the highway there arose such a clatter,
I scanned the horizon to see what was the matter.
Through the intersection I made it thanks to a gap,
He tore open his coat and threw on his cap.
The moon on the breast of his new-fallen cape
Gave the lustre of calm to everyone needing escape,
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a new controller, and eight tiny loops,
With a brief installation, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it would all just click.
More rapid than it began, the gridlock disappeared,
We whistled, and shouted, and all gave a big cheer;
"Now, Charger! now, Mustang! now, Prius and Pilot!
On, Caddy! on Lexus! on, Cruz and Camry!
To the top of the hill! Past the mall!
Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!"
And then, with an extension, He let us all through
Our Christmas party arrivals were all over due.
As we smiled and waved and could stop turning around,
Down the support pole he came with a bound.
He was dressed in his green, from his head to his jeans,
His clothes were all tarnished with wasted gas and needless exhaust;
A bundle of tools he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.
His eyes -- how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow;
A push button he held tight in his hand,
With a pedestal and a ped head to band,
He had little time to work,
And so many controller settings to quirk.
He was calm and collected, and confident in himself,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And pulled all the wire; then turned with a jerk,
And laying his finger aside of his controller,
And giving a nod, up the cabinet his hand twitches;
He sprang to his feet, and flipped all the switches,
And away we all drove like red ants marching into the night.
But I heard him exclaim, as we drove out of sight,
"Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good-night."
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
OMG! CFI! (Part 1)
FYI, I recently had the privilege of driving through the relatively new Austin Boulevard (formerly Austin Pike) and S.R. 741 intersection just north of Springboro, Ohio. I drove through it turned around, drove through it again, did a completely legal U-turn, drove through it again, and continued this pattern until I was convinced that I had made every legal( and probably some inadvertent illegal) maneuvers in the intersection. Finally, I found what I was looking for: a place I could pull off of the side of the road and watch the intersection operate.
For those of you who haven’t heard about this intersection, or don’t know why I was/am so interested in it, AFAIK, this particular intersection is the first in Ohio and one of only a few in the United States that is a continuous flow intersection, or CFI.
The most noteworthy of the concepts behind a CFI is that conflicts associated with left-turning movements are removed from the main intersection by directing the left turning traffic across the opposing lanes at an intersection several hundred feet before the main intersection. Make sense? Imagine how you would feel if I tried explaining the entire concept to you. It’s a complicated concept that to truly understand, I recommend you go the Montgomery County Engineer’s website (http://www.mcohio.org/government/engineer/index.html) and watch the video describing the intersection.
It’s hard to get a grasp on the concept because
1. Not many of us, if any have ever seen, much less been through one, and
2. We aren’t used to the concept of oncoming traffic driving on our right.
Nevertheless, I recommend that everyone go check out the intersection at least once.
It is TBD if the intersection has met its design goal of reducing delays and congestion or not. And, as with any new and innovative design, there will be a learning curve for both the drivers and the agency in charge of maintaining the signals, and public opinion has been mixed.
So what does a Traffic Superhero think of all of this? Stay tuned—I’ll let you know in my next post.
(If you are not a texter or don’t have a teenager to ask, the texting acronym definitions can be found at http://www.sharpened.net/glossary/acronyms.php).
For those of you who haven’t heard about this intersection, or don’t know why I was/am so interested in it, AFAIK, this particular intersection is the first in Ohio and one of only a few in the United States that is a continuous flow intersection, or CFI.
The most noteworthy of the concepts behind a CFI is that conflicts associated with left-turning movements are removed from the main intersection by directing the left turning traffic across the opposing lanes at an intersection several hundred feet before the main intersection. Make sense? Imagine how you would feel if I tried explaining the entire concept to you. It’s a complicated concept that to truly understand, I recommend you go the Montgomery County Engineer’s website (http://www.mcohio.org/government/engineer/index.html) and watch the video describing the intersection.
It’s hard to get a grasp on the concept because
1. Not many of us, if any have ever seen, much less been through one, and
2. We aren’t used to the concept of oncoming traffic driving on our right.
Nevertheless, I recommend that everyone go check out the intersection at least once.
It is TBD if the intersection has met its design goal of reducing delays and congestion or not. And, as with any new and innovative design, there will be a learning curve for both the drivers and the agency in charge of maintaining the signals, and public opinion has been mixed.
So what does a Traffic Superhero think of all of this? Stay tuned—I’ll let you know in my next post.
(If you are not a texter or don’t have a teenager to ask, the texting acronym definitions can be found at http://www.sharpened.net/glossary/acronyms.php).
Friday, August 27, 2010
Well I'll be Jammed!
I apologize for the delay in this post, as I have just recently returned from Beijing where my services were required. It is not often that a call gets put in to my signal from overseas, so this was a trip that I just had to take. I was sitting at home working my gridlock puzzles when I noticed my signal change from green to red (after going through the appropriate clearance interval of course). I quickly checked which detector unit the call was coming from, and realized that this situation was serious. I knew things on the home front were good since I placed a 10 second delay on the international detectors and have the domestic phase set to green rest, yet the call still came through. I have never been to China, but since 1/6 of the world lives there, I figured it must be a good place so I decided to scramble Traffic Calmer One and make the trip. And man was I glad I did. They have a serious case of congestion over there, and the best sinus medicine in the world isn’t going to fix this problem, the best traffic engineer… maybe.
The situation: What started because of construction and was further fueled by broken down vehicles quickly grew into a 60 mile traffic jam. Stop; reread the last sentence just to make sure you got it. Yes, 60 miles--hard to believe I know--but I encourage you to search for the story on your favorite world news website. I was asked to do several interviews while I was over there, so my name and/or quotes should be thrown in the story as well.
Construction on the Beijing-Tibet highway initiated a traffic jam that began on August 14th and caused officials to estimate it may take vehicles in back of the traffic jam 9 days to get out. Again, pause, reread the last sentence and think about the last time you spent 9 days in a traffic jam. If all of that isn’t bad enough, construction is scheduled to continue through September 17th. The situation still isn’t all that bad you are saying? Well consider this: local food vendors are jacking their prices way up to sell to those motorist stuck on the road.
The biggest complaint trapped motorist have is that locals are riding their bikes up and down the highway selling bottled water for $1.50. Can you believe that, they are charging a whole dollar and a half? The nerve. If I were a driver stuck there that would be my biggest complaint too. To be fair though, that is ten times the normal cost of a bottle of water in Beijing. That’s the bad news.
The good news, while it may or may not be related to my services, is that the longest any one single car has taken to travel those 60 miles is five days, four less than what was expected. That is cruising at a dangerously high speed of 0.5 mph. Anyway, I surveyed the situation (surveyed as in examined… I don’t want to be confused with a P.S.) and did what I could before coming back to solving the traffic problems of west-central Ohio.
So the next time you are sitting in a traffic jam (possibly at Malfunction Junction), I want you to think about two things:
1) At least I won’t be here for 5 days.
2) M. John could fix this problem.
The situation: What started because of construction and was further fueled by broken down vehicles quickly grew into a 60 mile traffic jam. Stop; reread the last sentence just to make sure you got it. Yes, 60 miles--hard to believe I know--but I encourage you to search for the story on your favorite world news website. I was asked to do several interviews while I was over there, so my name and/or quotes should be thrown in the story as well.
Construction on the Beijing-Tibet highway initiated a traffic jam that began on August 14th and caused officials to estimate it may take vehicles in back of the traffic jam 9 days to get out. Again, pause, reread the last sentence and think about the last time you spent 9 days in a traffic jam. If all of that isn’t bad enough, construction is scheduled to continue through September 17th. The situation still isn’t all that bad you are saying? Well consider this: local food vendors are jacking their prices way up to sell to those motorist stuck on the road.
The biggest complaint trapped motorist have is that locals are riding their bikes up and down the highway selling bottled water for $1.50. Can you believe that, they are charging a whole dollar and a half? The nerve. If I were a driver stuck there that would be my biggest complaint too. To be fair though, that is ten times the normal cost of a bottle of water in Beijing. That’s the bad news.
The good news, while it may or may not be related to my services, is that the longest any one single car has taken to travel those 60 miles is five days, four less than what was expected. That is cruising at a dangerously high speed of 0.5 mph. Anyway, I surveyed the situation (surveyed as in examined… I don’t want to be confused with a P.S.) and did what I could before coming back to solving the traffic problems of west-central Ohio.
So the next time you are sitting in a traffic jam (possibly at Malfunction Junction), I want you to think about two things:
1) At least I won’t be here for 5 days.
2) M. John could fix this problem.
Monday, July 12, 2010
Cyclists are People, Too
With summer in full swing now, it’s hard not to notice the increased number of motorcyclist and bicyclist sharing the roadways. Or is it? Statistics compiled by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration would suggest that maybe we, as drivers, aren’t noticing the cyclists often as we should be.
The NHTSA recently published a report that the fatalities related to traffic crashes per 100 million vehicle miles traveled decreased from 1.36 in 2007 to 1.25 in 2008. While the total number of fatal crashes on American roadways decreased from 2007 to 2008, the opposite trend is true for cyclist. Fatalities of both bicyclist (716) and motorcyclist (5,290) increased over 2% in that time period. Going along with those statistics are the additional 52,000 bicyclists and 96,000 motorcyclists that were injured in traffic crashes. Bicyclists fatalities make up 2% of all traffic crash fatalities, while motorcyclists fatalities make up nearly 16% of the total fatalities. This is just plain too many, especially when you consider that only 3% of all registered vehicles are motorcycles. These numbers are truly unfortunate, because what better way is there to get out and enjoy the beauty this country has to offer than to ride across town, or the country, on your bike? Just ask Tony.
There is some encouraging news though. Agencies from the federal government to small private organizations are pushing harder and harder for cyclist awareness both on the roadway and in the design stage. The first part of that can be done by all of us, so please, look twice for bike riders. The second part is up to the civil engineers. We need to start (or continue) to design bicycle and motorcycle friendly roadways. Whether it is including a bicycle only lane in our roadway cross section, considering the extra time it takes a bicyclist to get through an intersection when designing the yellow and all red clearance interval, or including at our intersections more effective detection, it shouldn’t be an option, it should be a no-question absolutely have to do thing. The engineers need to understand how, what, why, and when cyclists use our roadways and intersections and incorporate that into our designs.
For example, motorcyclists tend to not ride in the center of the drive lane, so we typically don’t need to concentrate our motorcycle detection efforts there. Whatever your solution, the important thing is to consider these smaller, lighter vehicles in the design. Like everything else, there is no one right answer, but there is a wrong one: Continuing to ignore the fact that cyclists use the same roadway as the rest of us do is a fatal error.
So as we celebrate the 234th birthday of this great country, let us all make an extra effort to help make this a better country for everyone no matter what your mode of transportation is.
The NHTSA recently published a report that the fatalities related to traffic crashes per 100 million vehicle miles traveled decreased from 1.36 in 2007 to 1.25 in 2008. While the total number of fatal crashes on American roadways decreased from 2007 to 2008, the opposite trend is true for cyclist. Fatalities of both bicyclist (716) and motorcyclist (5,290) increased over 2% in that time period. Going along with those statistics are the additional 52,000 bicyclists and 96,000 motorcyclists that were injured in traffic crashes. Bicyclists fatalities make up 2% of all traffic crash fatalities, while motorcyclists fatalities make up nearly 16% of the total fatalities. This is just plain too many, especially when you consider that only 3% of all registered vehicles are motorcycles. These numbers are truly unfortunate, because what better way is there to get out and enjoy the beauty this country has to offer than to ride across town, or the country, on your bike? Just ask Tony.
There is some encouraging news though. Agencies from the federal government to small private organizations are pushing harder and harder for cyclist awareness both on the roadway and in the design stage. The first part of that can be done by all of us, so please, look twice for bike riders. The second part is up to the civil engineers. We need to start (or continue) to design bicycle and motorcycle friendly roadways. Whether it is including a bicycle only lane in our roadway cross section, considering the extra time it takes a bicyclist to get through an intersection when designing the yellow and all red clearance interval, or including at our intersections more effective detection, it shouldn’t be an option, it should be a no-question absolutely have to do thing. The engineers need to understand how, what, why, and when cyclists use our roadways and intersections and incorporate that into our designs.
For example, motorcyclists tend to not ride in the center of the drive lane, so we typically don’t need to concentrate our motorcycle detection efforts there. Whatever your solution, the important thing is to consider these smaller, lighter vehicles in the design. Like everything else, there is no one right answer, but there is a wrong one: Continuing to ignore the fact that cyclists use the same roadway as the rest of us do is a fatal error.
So as we celebrate the 234th birthday of this great country, let us all make an extra effort to help make this a better country for everyone no matter what your mode of transportation is.
Monday, May 3, 2010
Chips, Peanuts, and Pretzels
It seems that almost weekly, I am reminded how America, which is lagging the rest of the world in this particular area, is falling more and more in love with the “modern round-about” as the solution to traffic congestion problems at intersections. In fact I pulled a potato chip out of its bag the other day that I could have swore looked like a round-about. And if this isn’t bad enough, I remember an article in the ITE Journal a few months ago that I just had to read. The City of San Antonio, Texas is taking the concept of a round-about one step further at one particular problem intersection for them.
A little background: They have a location where three roadways and a heavily used driveway to a shopping center all intersect in one location, which results in count them, 1, 2, 3… yes 6 legs to the elongated intersection. As you can imagine to get 6 approaches in one relatively small area, they intersect at some pretty severe angles, and to make the matter worse, two of the roads are heavily traveled arterial streets through the city. The geometry was a problem yes, but the growing traffic volumes only increased congestion and travel time, which in turn leads to more green house gas emissions, more money lost, greater delays, and inevitably, frustration.
The Solution. Reroute one or two or three of the roadways? No. Eliminate the drive into the shopping center? Absolutely not. Revamp the signal operation? Wrong-o. A peanut-about, that is the answer, or at least that is what the City decided is going to be the answer.
Definition. Peanut-about – an elongated intersection that accommodates multiple approaches and directs traffic through the intersection in much the same manner as a round-about.
The Advantage. In this particular case, the peanut-about could be constructed within the existing right-of-way and would utilize the tried and true principles of the round-about to move traffic effectively and smoothly through this area, reducing congestion, delay, exhaust, and all of that stuff we are trying to eliminate in our green conscience world.
The Look. A peanut shell, of course. Actually, this particular one looks like Mr. Planters, with two arms, two legs, and two ears (unfortunately no cane or monocle), but I am sure some creative landscaping or architectural work could achieve this effect.
The Oversight. Nowhere in the article does it mention the entertainment value this peanut-about will give to the traveling public and the residents living along this area. I know that if I ever find myself in this area of San Antonio, I will be setting up my lawn chair in the median, popping my umbrella, getting out my cooler and just enjoy the site. I may even bring a bag of peanuts along with me. Only seems fitting.
Who knows? Maybe someday there will be a creative engineer with a willing City government that wants to try their hand at a pretzel-about. A traffic engineer can dream, right?
A little background: They have a location where three roadways and a heavily used driveway to a shopping center all intersect in one location, which results in count them, 1, 2, 3… yes 6 legs to the elongated intersection. As you can imagine to get 6 approaches in one relatively small area, they intersect at some pretty severe angles, and to make the matter worse, two of the roads are heavily traveled arterial streets through the city. The geometry was a problem yes, but the growing traffic volumes only increased congestion and travel time, which in turn leads to more green house gas emissions, more money lost, greater delays, and inevitably, frustration.
The Solution. Reroute one or two or three of the roadways? No. Eliminate the drive into the shopping center? Absolutely not. Revamp the signal operation? Wrong-o. A peanut-about, that is the answer, or at least that is what the City decided is going to be the answer.
Definition. Peanut-about – an elongated intersection that accommodates multiple approaches and directs traffic through the intersection in much the same manner as a round-about.
The Advantage. In this particular case, the peanut-about could be constructed within the existing right-of-way and would utilize the tried and true principles of the round-about to move traffic effectively and smoothly through this area, reducing congestion, delay, exhaust, and all of that stuff we are trying to eliminate in our green conscience world.
The Look. A peanut shell, of course. Actually, this particular one looks like Mr. Planters, with two arms, two legs, and two ears (unfortunately no cane or monocle), but I am sure some creative landscaping or architectural work could achieve this effect.
The Oversight. Nowhere in the article does it mention the entertainment value this peanut-about will give to the traveling public and the residents living along this area. I know that if I ever find myself in this area of San Antonio, I will be setting up my lawn chair in the median, popping my umbrella, getting out my cooler and just enjoy the site. I may even bring a bag of peanuts along with me. Only seems fitting.
Who knows? Maybe someday there will be a creative engineer with a willing City government that wants to try their hand at a pretzel-about. A traffic engineer can dream, right?
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