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11 Foot 8 – The Can-opener Bridge

11foot8.com

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Re: 11 Foot 8 – The Can-opener Bridge

#21

Post by teraflop »

chrisseaton wrote: post #10

What is so special about this bridge? Why do people drive under it without checking their height? You wouldn't normally think you can just drive under any bridge, would you? It doesn't even look like a very low bridge. Why do people approach it without a care in the world at full speed? My vehicle is only 2m tall and I still do take a quick look at height signs as I approach them.

A substantial number of these crashes (maybe the majority?) are rental trucks, being driven by people who aren't accustomed to operating a large vehicle.

A typical driver of a car, minivan or SUV in the United States will virtually never encounter a bridge or other obstacle whose height above the road is low enough to matter to them, so most people simply never have a reason to pay attention to those height signs.

Re: 11 Foot 8 – The Can-opener Bridge

#22

Post by sixothree »

dwighttk wrote: post #16
sixothree wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or maybe red warning lights instead of yellow warning lights. Maybe they have changed it. But yellow lights to me doesn't suggest "you absolutely need to stop". edit: okay. Now they have a sign. With white lettering. In a location where we know from years of experience drivers aren't looking. This makes no sense to me. Everything about this is bad design.

There are lights that come on and the stoplight changes to red when an overheight vehicle approaches.

White is usually used to indicate information. And in the video in the link the signal turned red after the cab of the truck passed the signal.

I mean I get it. It's funny. But if it were designed well, there wouldn't have been 100+ accidents.

Re: 11 Foot 8 – The Can-opener Bridge

#24

Post by dwighttk »

chrisseaton wrote: post #10

What is so special about this bridge? Why do people drive under it without checking their height? You wouldn't normally think you can just drive under any bridge, would you? It doesn't even look like a very low bridge. Why do people approach it without a care in the world at full speed? My vehicle is only 2m tall and I still do take a quick look at height signs as I approach them.

I speculate that the most special thing is that the guy has a camera on the bridge. We see everyone who hits this bridge. That combined with a pretty low bridge (it was raised a few years back but it is still low enough to catch a lot of vehicles) and a culture of using phones to give us driving directions gives us this situation.

Re: 11 Foot 8 – The Can-opener Bridge

#25

Post by aidenn0 »

SenHeng wrote: post #8

They ought to make it lower , so it’s most obvious that a truck won’t fit. Make it no more than 2metres, whatever that is in American, so that only cars can go through.

This is America. People have pickup trucks that have been raised to a height above 2m (about 6'6" in American)

Re: 11 Foot 8 – The Can-opener Bridge

#26

Post by jacobush »

dwighttk wrote: post #13
hattar wrote: post #7

Why not place an arch before the bridge that will impact but not damage vehicles going through? This exists in the entrance to most parking garages. Edit: like this https://www.jpsiteexperts.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/cle...

There is an arch... or a metal thing you hit instead of the bridge.

It should be WAY out, almost at the intersection.

Re: 11 Foot 8 – The Can-opener Bridge

#27

Post by dwighttk »

chrisseaton wrote: post #20
smitty1e wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're a new driver, following Google Maps, and the fact that you hadn't cared about the height of your vehicle WRT your route just got expensive.

But that could happen anywhere in the country. What's so special about this bridge that means it gets so much coverage. It doesn't even seem extremely low.

There are two cameras pointed at the bridge 24/7 and a guy posts every collision.

Re: 11 Foot 8 – The Can-opener Bridge

#28

Post by mumblemumble »

chrisseaton wrote: post #10

What is so special about this bridge? Why do people drive under it without checking their height? You wouldn't normally think you can just drive under any bridge, would you? It doesn't even look like a very low bridge. Why do people approach it without a care in the world at full speed? My vehicle is only 2m tall and I still do take a quick look at height signs as I approach them.

11'8" is a 28 inches shorter than the current minimum permitted (for new structures) by federal law. So, it a surprisingly low clearance.

That, and it's really pretty common for people to not pay much attention to road signs. For example, in my neighborhood, there are quite a few intersections with "no turn on red" signs posted. And it's a regular occurrence for people behind me to lay on the horn in a rather distressed manner when I'm first in line, and choosing to obey traffic laws. I live on a street with no outlet, and my kids just love watch lawn care companies that have gotten themselves stranded from the living room windows. It would appear to be a tad bit difficult to back your way straight down a full city block when there's a 15 foot trailer hitched to your extended cab pickup truck.

For what it's worth, I used to work about a block away from a completely different underpass that was also old and had a very low clearance. And I suspect that the only real reason why that one isn't similarly famous is that none of us ever thought to set up a webcam.

Re: 11 Foot 8 – The Can-opener Bridge

#30

Post by [deleted] »

NobodyNada wrote: post #19
chrisseaton wrote: post #10

What is so special about this bridge? Why do people drive under it without checking their height? You wouldn't normally think you can just drive under any bridge, would you? It doesn't even look like a very low bridge. Why do people approach it without a care in the world at full speed? My vehicle is only 2m tall and I still do take a quick look at height signs as I approach them.

According to the Wikipedia article [0], the bridge is very old and does not meet current clearance standards: > It was designed in the 1920s, and opened in 1940, with a clearance for vehicles of 11 feet 8 inches (3.56 m). This was a standard height at the time it opened. The standard clearance, since 1973, has a minimum height of 14 feet (4.3 m), which is 2 feet 4 inches (0.71 m) higher than the bridge as built. I im…

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