Keystone Parkway, Indiana

I recently spent a weekend in Indianapolis with Choice One. It was a great trip with great people and great events; I really couldn’t have asked for a better weekend away if I had planned it myself (believe it or not, superheroes plan company trips in their free time). Of all of the things we did in Indianapolis, none was better than the trip up to Carmel to play laser tag.

Let’s get the setting: We have 34 people to transport from downtown, north about 20 miles to Carmel. We have two 15 passenger vans and a suburban, all with 3/4 of a tank of gas. It was dark, and we were wearing sun glasses (okay well maybe not that part, but you Blues Brothers fans know what I am talking about).

Anyway, yours truly was behind the wheel of one van and leading the second up to Carmel to play laser tag, or so the other passengers thought. What we were really doing was going up to Keystone Parkway to check out the grade separated intersections and the Teardrop Roundabouts that were installed at all cross roads within the city. I had heard and read about this project, but now I was finally getting to see it first-hand. I was in traffic and transportation engineering heaven, but could this truly be? Most traffic engineers work for many years without experiencing such a radical and innovative design. And here I am giddily (and safely of course) maneuvering a 15 passenger van around these teardrops after only a few years of experience. The beauty, the majesty, the capacity, the safety, the efficiency, it just all caught up with me at once and I couldn’t help but shed a teardrop myself.

As much as I may have wanted to keep driving around and around, I could tell my expert navigator (a.k.a. Tony) had other plans, and the passengers in the back were getting restless, so I continued on. To this day, the following events have been disputed, but the fact is that I was putting full trust in my navigator and driving only where I was being told. I can’t be to blame if that direction led us right into three more teardrops. Yeah, I may have enjoyed it much more than the driver of the van following me, but still it wasn’t my choice.

We did finally make it out, and just in time too, as we shortly thereafter had to make an emergency stop because someone in my vehicle couldn’t stand sitting in the back any longer. And though I wasn’t sure we could have any more fun than driving around roundabouts all day, laser tag proved to be much more entertaining for us all.

So if you ever get over to Carmel, Indian, and you have a navigator who is better than any GPS unit, I recommend taking a trip down Keystone Avenue and getting off at a few of the cross roads to check out the teardrops. Until then, check out some of the cool things they did with this project: http://carmellink.org/index.php.

IMO! CFI! (Part 2)

After introducing you to the concept of a Continuous Flow Intersection (CFI) during Part 1, I wanted to continue the discussion on this new concept in traffic engineering.
For what it’s worth, here is my own opinion of this particular intersection.

An intersection designed to reduce delays and congestion, regardless of the design, can only be truly effective if the signal timings are working appropriately, which I see as being a potential challenge with the varying traffic volumes during different times of day and the current and expected commercial development growth in the area. If the signal timing is not set up properly, extra and unnecessary stops, delays, congestion, fuel consumption, driver irritation etc., are forced on the intersection. So I say, good luck to the agency in charge, you are going to need it.

In my opinion, driving through the intersection was interesting, to say the least. For someone that knew what to look for it drove okay, a little confusing, but manageable. The problem is, only a small percentage of the people traveling through that intersection have any knowledge of a CFI and how to navigate through one. As an engineer (and as a traffic superhero, of course), I believe we have a responsibility to the public to eliminate as much confusion on the roadway as possible (and therefore increase safety). If this CFI was the only way to effectively reduce the congestion, delays, emissions, etc., then fine, but it sure seems like the same thing could have been achieved through more traditional methods that would not surprise drivers as they approached the intersection.

That being said, in time regular travelers through the intersection will get used to this concept and there will be less overall confusion. Until then, drivers will continue to miss the left turn lanes located in advance of the main intersection, arrive at the main intersection, and be faced with “no left turn” signs. At which point, they hopefully will recover from the surprise quickly and continue up the road, turn around and come back to make the much less confusing right turn. Unfortunately I witnessed several drivers that made the illegal left turn at the main intersection, not to mention the three other maneuvers I witnessed left turners make only to be faced with on-coming traffic forcing them to back up. I think larger signs identifying the early left turn bays would have been advantageous in reducing confusion. I realize that the signs are hung on mast arms, and those mast arms can only support so much, but spending the extra money for larger poles would have seen exponential returns in the eyes of the driver.

The right turn lanes that direct right turning traffic off of S.R. 741 onto Austin Boulevard past the left turn crossover point is a great addition, if not a necessary component to the intersection. The traffic signals at the merge point of the right turn lane back onto Austin Boulevard, however, are not. This merge point could have been easily designed and constructed so to look and feel like you are driving on an interstate onramp, minus the high speeds, and therefore could have been controlled with a yield sign instead of a signal. After all, the point of the CFI is to reduce delays, and what better way to do that than not stop vehicles? Like I said, I am sure everything was done for a reason, so let’s assume it is necessary to stop traffic at these locations. Due to the acute angle of the intersection, Intelight traffic signals should have been used. The Intelight signals operate much like the 3M optically programmable signal heads do, but the difference is that Intelights are currently being manufactured and the 3M lights are not.

The acute angle of the merge allows for drivers traveling in the through lanes of Austin Boulevard to see very clearly the traffic light. When the light is green, this doesn’t cause a problem; however, when the light is yellow and red, a driver’s first reaction is to brake (which unfortunately I witnessed a driver come to a complete stop, not just touch the brakes) until they realize the light isn’t directed towards them. Unnecessary braking in through lanes is nothing but bad news. Again, the extra cost of the Intelight signal heads would have been worth it.

This is not the only issue regarding the signals at these right turn lanes: the phasing of the signals seems to not quite be right. The traffic that would be merging onto Austin Boulevard is being stopped when there is no legal possible way that there could be conflicting traffic on that portion of Austin Boulevard, but that’s an easy fix.

The left turn lanes on Austin Boulevard have two signalized intersections they must go through before reaching S.R. 741. The design is apparently set up so that once the first light turns green, the second will be green by the time the que reaches it. However, the timing appears to be off by a couple of seconds which therefore causes the front of the que to slow or come to a complete stop before proceeding onto S.R. 741, which greatly decreases the efficiency of the intersection. Again, an easy fix.

If I remember correctly, the entire intersection is being operated from one controller. That is pretty cool considering how many different intersecting locations and signals there are. However, less is not always more. For example, the intersection appeared to be operating off of one signal timing scheme no matter what time of day. Speaking from very limited experience during a morning off peak time, the left turning traffic does not need to be stopped for 90 plus seconds to wait for through traffic on Austin Boulevard that isn’t there. Implementing supplementary timing schemes for off peak periods or days would be very beneficial in improving the overall efficiency of the intersection as well.

And for the sake of time, I won’t get into the incorrect markings and signs being used, or the non ADA compliant pedestrian facilities. I just hope that a person with a visual impairment or in a wheel chair doesn’t try to use this intersection, because the current set up could end in a disaster.

Many of these issues can be fixed with the equipment that is already installed at the intersection. Those that can’t hopefully will not cause the problems I fear they may. The fact is though, that the intersection has been fully operational for several months now and if experience tells us anything, unfortunately the intersection will most likely remain the way it is now for years to come. In any case, I am anxiously awaiting the opportunity to view the intersection during a peak period, but until then I am glad that we have such an innovative design in our area and hope that it works as well as planned and drivers quickly adapt to the new concept. If you have any experience, opinions, thoughts, etc. about the CIF, I would love to hear them.

'Twas the Night Before Christmas...

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."

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).

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.

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.

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?