I live in the Twin Cities area in MN. They do love their stop lights here! :mad:
There is a stretch of road that take on the way to/from work. The traffic gets heavy because it is only one lane. ONE LANE! The road should have at least three. It gets me across the river and the other routes are further away and just as bad.
Well, since traffic is heavy, people trying to enter from the side streets have problems because there is no room/space to enter. I let my share in but, hey, they could go back to the beginning of the line instead of barging in. The beginning of the line isn’t that far away and it is easy to get on the end.
Well…how do we solve this problem? Heavy traffic having a hard time moving…people on side streets having problems getting on…add lanes?? Nope. Block off the side streets so people cannot get stuck during rush hour or put up signs?? Nope.
I GOT IT!!! Lets put up stop lights and stop the already heavy, slow moving traffic!!! Yeah, that’s it!!!
I’d like to meet the person/people that proposed this and ‘talk’ with them about this. I’d like to strap them onto my front bumber and smash them into the car in front of me everytime I need to stop on this highway all the while asking "Do you still think this was a good idea?..(SMASH)…“Do you still think this was a good idea…(SMASH)…”
What is wrong with the logic of getting traffic to flow to solve congestion??? Why do people actually think by putting up obsticles that it would help. Is that so difficult to understand?
What does that mean - “go back to the beginning of the line”?
I have a feeling I’m not grasping your meaning, because the way you explained this, it sounds like you want the street YOU use to be unobstructed at the expense of the cross streets that OTHER people use. So presumably, nobody would be allowed to enter “your” street except you?
I wasn’t clear, blowero. The highway currently does not have stop lights but they are going to put them in. The reason? Because traffic is heavy.
The audio books and learning Turkish is a good idea! I used to use them when I had to travel across country. I forgot about them. However, I do not like ‘abridged’ audio books but want the full blown thing. Where do I find unabridged?
For those who are bitchin about my bitchin… Up Yours!!! With a rubber hose to!
I’m kinda with blowero here, though I can certainly empathize with the OP. We’re famed here for our gridlock (not counting gridlock in Congress); maybe it’s pretty bad in the Twin Cities, but it’s no good here, either. And there are plenty of two-lane highways that might be better served with more lanes.
One problem with these roads, though, is that people push their way in to make a left from a business onto the main road, thereby holding up traffic on the one side until it’s clear on the other. They’d get the job done a lot quicker and not hold up anyone so needlessly if they made a right and then turned at the traffic light.
I think he means that, where these streets intersect the main road, there is usually a steady presence of traffic. But further up the street, a light or some other variation in the flow of cars makes pulling out onto the main road a lot easier for both parties.
Oops, forgot to explain the ‘end of the line’. JRootabega has it right. The traffic narls up going across the river. The side streets could enter further down the road where the traffic is much lighter. That spot is probably less than 2 miles away. Traffic does flow, but slowly. They choose to try to enter where the traffic has no space probably in hopes of jumping the line.
I guess what I’ll do is try to enter at the furtherest stop light when it is installed. I don’t like it but have to play ‘the system’
You’re still using a car to get around? Man, those things are as dumb as sacred cows in India.
I’ve been to the Twin Cities, and have to agree that driving around there is ludicrous. Big hills, narrow streets, and all that damn snow. If it weren’t so damn cold, I’d tell you to ride a bike. Hey wait, I’ve done that through a Montreal winter…
So I guess I’ll have to suggest you move so you’re within a 15 minute walk from your office. Your time is valuable, right?
O.K., I think I kinda see what you are saying. But if people are going down side streets and then entering the highway further down, I would think that stoplights might SOLVE your problem, rather than making it worse. Here’s why: they will undoubtedly make the green light last much, much longer for the highway users. So those who try to go down the side streets will probably get stuck at a long red light when they try to re-enter the highway, which should tend to discourage such behavior.
Logic would seem to make this true. However, if they do it like many stoplights around here currently up it will not have a lengthy green time and the side streets green to long. That is another stoplight rant of mine I will save…along with the red left turn arrows.
I’ve seen a lot of both abridged and unabridged audio books in the big US bookstores, like Borders and Barnes & Noble. Check out used book stores as well, many of those (in my area at least) also carry audio books.
Fuck all of these smart-ass comments.
I hear your pain, my friend.
Stupid people that design stupid traffic flows should be forced to drive that flow every day, twice a day.
And for the record, yes, it’s my fucking street, get outta my way dammit! :mad:
[sub]Aenea, who gets MIGHTY irritated by stupid traffic and rubberneckers who slow it further[/sub]
MNDOT spent millions of dollars building a bridge and a four-lane, divided highway (MN 15) north of St. Cloud. Beautiful road. Thousands of cars a day travel it from the Little Falls area south to St. Cloud.
A year later? They put up stoplights. Fucking nitwits. Who the hell would build a road to efficently carry traffic in and out of town and then put fucking stoplights on it?! If they were timed lights it wouldn’t bother me so much, but no - every time someone approaches from the side roads they trip the fucking signal.
The problem is that there are too many cars, and too many people using them to go in too many directions for any system to be able to cope well enough to please everyone. And everyone considers any changes that detriment them (even if they advantage others) to be stoopid.
If you actually read anything about traffic engineering you will learn that there are subtleties way beyond what your selfish bitching will allow you to acknowledge. Such as that cutting in and weaving lanes and playing the system in the way that you propose slows everything down. And that building faster roads encourages more people to use them, till they are saturated and no longer fast.
