I mean, the blue shirt guy admitted that some vehicles might have to turn over the median into oncoming traffic to avoid the thing on the road. That isn’t great, in defense of people not liking this change. That’s dangerous, and bad design.
The large vehicles he’s referring to are industrial large vehicles. Which require special licensing. Even the big ass pickup truck they showed could make the turn with no issues at all going at a reasonable speed.
Not every truck a municipality’s public works department uses is this size. You don’t need special licensing to drive a dual wheel F350 long bed, and I’d wager that might be a problem to turn that corner depending on what it has in it. If they need to replace signs, or even just do road work, they need to be able to turn that corner. I have a lot of questions about this.
What happens when it’s an ambulance (a lot of those are built on f450 chassis and don’t require an CDL).
Even the truck they showed in the video that went into the other lane didn’t need to. It’s just shit drivers in vehicles that are too large. So many large ass truck grocery getters.
Yes , pretty common for large vehicles to have to to this sooner or later.
Driver shouldn’t be operating such large vehicles if their training and licensing, and knowledge of turning circle isn’t enough for them to know how to do this safely.
We should be discouraging unnecessarily large vehicles anyway, ideally through urban design like this. Another element I like is sequential speed bumps with uneven gaps, smaller vehicles already going reasonable speeds can just weave through the gaps, larger vehicles going fast are required to slow.
The traffic engineer interviewed knows the wheelbase of common vehicles. Most people don’t need to drive into traffic, they’re just not turning the wheel enough, early enough.
But the people driving cars with the wheelbase of a semi can still take the turn, you just look for oncoming traffic before you use part of the lane.
Or too early. Part of the flood of bad driving since pandemic is everyone seems to cut corners now. Whether crossing lanes or the into opposing traffic on a curve, having trouble with a simple turn, or changing lanes while turning
Crashing into an oil tanker would probably be worse for the oncoming vehicle than crashing into a normal vehicle though. Forcing any vehicle into incoming traffic is dangerous design.
In my area MOST small residential roads will already require semis to turn into oncoming in order to make tight turns - this is not uncommon, and a reason there’s additional licensing for those vehicles. They have a wide turning radius and should know where and how to make that maneuver safely.
There’s nothing wrong with this setup - speaking as a civil engineer in road design.
Our city buses do it as a routine part of many routes, as do school buses. Large trucks and construction vehicles, too. Me, when I’m towing my boat sometimes. Intersections inherently force vehicles into crossing paths. That’s what an intersection is. So, if it’s dangerous, then we shouldn’t have intersections.
Call out the real problem here: shitty, entitled drivers.
But sure, inconvenient and very rare vehicles surely would probably have to cross over a little into oncoming. But regular large vehicles shouldn’t have to, ideally.
They can either claim land of the residents to make the road wider, they could leave it dangerous for pedestrians/bicyclists, they could shut the road down completely, or just do what they have done in the video.
Plenty of research has shown that people will drive at a speed that feels comfortable. Narrower lanes are known to cause people to slow down without additional discomfort or fining speeders.
Making the lanes narrow also works. That’s why they did it. Also people vandalise speed cameras so that’s not worth it, and speed bumps don’t work because people just floor it between the bumps.
Probably, they are concerned about the people in the small lane. Bicyclists and pedestrians. Speed bumps doesn’t stop those large american vehicles from taking out a person in their blind spot during a right turn.
Yeah exactly, that’s what I do too. First outside mirrors for far away riders, then blind spot for immediate vicinity just before turning, while keeping in mind what I saw in the mirror.
I mean, the blue shirt guy admitted that some vehicles might have to turn over the median into oncoming traffic to avoid the thing on the road. That isn’t great, in defense of people not liking this change. That’s dangerous, and bad design.
The large vehicles he’s referring to are industrial large vehicles. Which require special licensing. Even the big ass pickup truck they showed could make the turn with no issues at all going at a reasonable speed.
Not every truck a municipality’s public works department uses is this size. You don’t need special licensing to drive a dual wheel F350 long bed, and I’d wager that might be a problem to turn that corner depending on what it has in it. If they need to replace signs, or even just do road work, they need to be able to turn that corner. I have a lot of questions about this.
What happens when it’s an ambulance (a lot of those are built on f450 chassis and don’t require an CDL).
Even the truck they showed in the video that went into the other lane didn’t need to. It’s just shit drivers in vehicles that are too large. So many large ass truck grocery getters.
Fair point. Just might not be great adding those things near turns. Or what are they even for?
Also from context I think that’s a residential neighbourhood so how many large trucks are going to be driving through?
Any municipal vehicle. They don’t get sewage backups or anything? They never need an ambulance?
Probably a lot of garbage trucks?
Just go slowly and stop if there is a car coming.
Yes , pretty common for large vehicles to have to to this sooner or later. Driver shouldn’t be operating such large vehicles if their training and licensing, and knowledge of turning circle isn’t enough for them to know how to do this safely.
We should be discouraging unnecessarily large vehicles anyway, ideally through urban design like this. Another element I like is sequential speed bumps with uneven gaps, smaller vehicles already going reasonable speeds can just weave through the gaps, larger vehicles going fast are required to slow.
Going slow doesn’t make the wheelbase shorter. Forcing people to drive onto the lane of oncoming traffic is bad infrastructure design.
Maybe, but if you insist on an oversized vehicle and don’t have the skill to keep it in lane, then maybe a little inconvenience is ok
The traffic engineer interviewed knows the wheelbase of common vehicles. Most people don’t need to drive into traffic, they’re just not turning the wheel enough, early enough.
But the people driving cars with the wheelbase of a semi can still take the turn, you just look for oncoming traffic before you use part of the lane.
Or too early. Part of the flood of bad driving since pandemic is everyone seems to cut corners now. Whether crossing lanes or the into opposing traffic on a curve, having trouble with a simple turn, or changing lanes while turning
The example they used had the turning circle of an oil tanker and would have trouble with a lot of corners. Any normal vehicle would be fine.
Crashing into an oil tanker would probably be worse for the oncoming vehicle than crashing into a normal vehicle though. Forcing any vehicle into incoming traffic is dangerous design.
Are you a civil engineer or technician?
In my area MOST small residential roads will already require semis to turn into oncoming in order to make tight turns - this is not uncommon, and a reason there’s additional licensing for those vehicles. They have a wide turning radius and should know where and how to make that maneuver safely.
There’s nothing wrong with this setup - speaking as a civil engineer in road design.
Why do you give me only those two options lol?
Our city buses do it as a routine part of many routes, as do school buses. Large trucks and construction vehicles, too. Me, when I’m towing my boat sometimes. Intersections inherently force vehicles into crossing paths. That’s what an intersection is. So, if it’s dangerous, then we shouldn’t have intersections.
Call out the real problem here: shitty, entitled drivers.
Not if you make a right turn…
But sure, inconvenient and very rare vehicles surely would probably have to cross over a little into oncoming. But regular large vehicles shouldn’t have to, ideally.
They can either claim land of the residents to make the road wider, they could leave it dangerous for pedestrians/bicyclists, they could shut the road down completely, or just do what they have done in the video.
If they are comcerned about speeding, they could install speed bumps or speed cameras. Those actually work.
Plenty of research has shown that people will drive at a speed that feels comfortable. Narrower lanes are known to cause people to slow down without additional discomfort or fining speeders.
Making the lanes narrow also works. That’s why they did it. Also people vandalise speed cameras so that’s not worth it, and speed bumps don’t work because people just floor it between the bumps.
Probably, they are concerned about the people in the small lane. Bicyclists and pedestrians. Speed bumps doesn’t stop those large american vehicles from taking out a person in their blind spot during a right turn.
Don’t they have outside mirrors? I use those to check for bikes before making turns… 🙄 Like I was taught in driving school.
I was taught to do that AND check your blind spot, because the mirror doesn’t catch everything.
Yeah exactly, that’s what I do too. First outside mirrors for far away riders, then blind spot for immediate vicinity just before turning, while keeping in mind what I saw in the mirror.