A Nameless Road Planner Deserves an Award

Hi Chris – Thanks for posting the link to the UK’s most colorful (and perplexing) roundabout. This video <https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14328799/5million-crossing-accident-waiting-happen-junction-playground.html> makes it really obvious how strange this one is. Hard to believe it cost Uk taxpayers around $6M (US). Separately-but-related, over the years there have been a few studies done by UK universities and traffic engineers about how road signage influences the number of accidents and injuries at any particular road location. In one study the authors placed traffic counting devices at a complex intersection having a couple of merging roads combined with another intersection maybe fifty or a hundred feet farther on. After counting the numbers of passing vehicles for a year or two, and also tabulating the number of accidents and injuries at this location, they then removed all road signage for another year or two and tabulated the accidents and injuries during that period. Half as many accident and injury events occurred absent all signage, even though the total traffic counts were essentially the same for both periods. I’ve noticed the same thing locally. A few years ago a large multi-story office building was being constructed adjacent to a busy signal-controlled intersection here. To facilitate the project the traffic lights were replaced with stop signs for maybe 14 months. I transited this intersection almost daily for many years. Without the signal lights, traffic flowed noticeably faster and and better in all directions. Drivers and riders took turns as a natural human behavior. Separately and several years earlier at an intersection known locally as ‘seven corners’ (a six-road intersection controlled with stop signs), well-meaning traffic engineers spent many millions rebuilding it with dedicated turn lanes and stoplights. Transiting this one took longer after it was redesigned and upgraded. I’d bet before-and-after accident rates were unchanged, or maybe even increased after the upgrades had been completed. Most traffic management upgrades are desirable, but some are not. It’s not always easy to know the difference, especially before proposed improvements are made.

Looks like an attempt at “traffic calming” – trying to get drivers to slow down by making the driving more…challenging. They cheaped out though, trying to do it with striping alone. The proper way, as done by my city in a parkway several year ago, is to neck down the pavement at intervals an add a gentle speed “hump.” You can drive through faster, but it increases the probability that you will misjudge a bottleneck and mess up your car. Most people just drive more slowly. Still – advantage motorcycle.

You should see what we have to put up with: https://images.app.goo.gl/NgKHUQTGrhpJMCmp7
That’s what they did to a local junction in the name of road safety

The neighbors complained about speeding in their neighborhood. City planners tried something to correct it. The neighbors whined about the attempted solution. Typical.

When I taught MN’s Motorcycle Safety classes, I warned my students to assume that everyone in a cage is an idiot. “They need 4 wheels to balance a vehicle, how smart can they be?” It is rarely that cagers are out to kill us. Usually, they barely know where the road is, let alone that anyone else is on it.

Excluding work zones, school zones and one second of US-1 in Philly, we don’t have traffic camera ticketing in PA and local/municipal police forces are forbidden by state law from using radar. So, these traffic calming techniques are all we have to control traffic speeds.

it’s a matter of doing the best you can within the available budget.