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11 Foot 8 – The Can-opener Bridge

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Re: 11 Foot 8 – The Can-opener Bridge

#181

Post by LeifCarrotson »

stratul wrote: post #167
rkagerer wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They tried an electronic warning sign that lights up when a truck is too tall, but drivers still can't resist the lure of the hungry bridge: https://youtu.be/YQssl0sM9As?t=6 , https://youtu.be/cZrOcCXNq5c?t=5 , https://youtu.be/iQfSvIgIs_M?t=32 Might have been better off erecting a giant, no-tech billboard picturing a previous crash. But your projected water screen is awesome - they could buy one and play footage fro…

Why don't they make the red light stay red until the truck goes away if they already have the sensors for it ?

Because if the truck is behind a car it can't go away until the car goes under the bridge.

Re: 11 Foot 8 – The Can-opener Bridge

#182

Post by globular-toast »

sosborn wrote: post #158
SenHeng wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The goal is to protect the bridge behind the barrier.

Is it? Shouldn’t the goal be to protect the driver?

If the goal was to protect the driver then the bridge would be removed. The bridge carries a railway so many more lives are at stake if it's damaged.

Re: 11 Foot 8 – The Can-opener Bridge

#183

Post by genocidicbunny »

stratul wrote: post #167
rkagerer wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They tried an electronic warning sign that lights up when a truck is too tall, but drivers still can't resist the lure of the hungry bridge: https://youtu.be/YQssl0sM9As?t=6 , https://youtu.be/cZrOcCXNq5c?t=5 , https://youtu.be/iQfSvIgIs_M?t=32 Might have been better off erecting a giant, no-tech billboard picturing a previous crash. But your projected water screen is awesome - they could buy one and play footage fro…

Why don't they make the red light stay red until the truck goes away if they already have the sensors for it ?

Presumably the truck is already at the intersection, so it's unlikely it can actually move out of the way before the light turns green. In the first video, the truck was 3 cars back. That means that it more than likely had no room to turn away until the cars in front of it went.

Seems to me that's the idea behind the setup. You put on a long red light -- long enough that hopefully the truck driver would notice the lit up sign and realize that he need to do whatever he can to make a turn when possible. Trouble is that for some people the light would have to be 10+ minutes long before they would notice that it's still red.

Re: 11 Foot 8 – The Can-opener Bridge

#186

Post by dwighttk »

Svip wrote: post #153

The maximum standard height for a vehicle is 4 metres in Europe. All E-routes in Europe require that bridges and tunnels can clear at least 4 metres, otherwise they cannot get designated with the E-route. Is there a similar concept of safe routes for lorries and buses in the US?

I was helping a friend move from North Carolina to Rhode Island a few years back and he rented a truck that was way too big. From NC to New Jersey we kept seeing "Truck Route" signs and they all referred to trucks that were still taller than our truck (I don't remember the height). So we started to pay less attention to the signs.

Then Google Maps sent us into New York. We saw something about all trucks take some other road, but stuck with the route Google recommended. Then we saw a big "All trucks over X height take next right" sign and the height was like 2 feet lower than our truck.

That started a whole separate adventure, but while there may be some kind of safe route thing in the US, there are plenty of routes that vary from state to state, and at least back then google maps didn't have a way to enter the height of your vehicle.

Re: 11 Foot 8 – The Can-opener Bridge

#187

Post by dwighttk »

dhosek wrote: post #130

I live a block away from a can-opener bridge. We haven't had anything since quarantine, but there's usually two or three trucks a year that get stuck in it. We had one week where there were two trucks and a bus. https://www.dropbox.com/s/9hbbbr1xl53e8u3/77EFF5A4-D593-4FB8...

my favorite was the RV that went through... slowed way down, decided he was good... just fit, but then the A/C on the end got caught and popped off.

Re: 11 Foot 8 – The Can-opener Bridge

#188

Post by chiph »

Svip wrote: post #153

The maximum standard height for a vehicle is 4 metres in Europe. All E-routes in Europe require that bridges and tunnels can clear at least 4 metres, otherwise they cannot get designated with the E-route. Is there a similar concept of safe routes for lorries and buses in the US?

The federal interstates are supposed to have 16' (4.9m) clearance under bridges. However in older parts of the country (mostly the Northeast) there are many bridges that don't have that clearance and have been grandfathered in.

And of course, Texas has bigger clearances, because Texas.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_Highway_standards

edit Looks like Texas may have consulted with the Army's Transportation Engineering Agency for design input, as it's mentioned in their design standard manual

http://onlinemanuals.txdot.gov/txdotmanuals/rdw/freeways.htm...

Re: 11 Foot 8 – The Can-opener Bridge

#189

Post by dwighttk »

sebastien_bois wrote: post #129
function_seven wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The placement would have to be on a street where tall trucks are currently allowed. So now they can’t traverse the other nearby streets, even if they had no intention of using the underpass.

Ultimately I think the proper solution would be either far more clearance, or a dedicated lane for trucks/large vehicles (probably ALL trucks) forcing them to turn. The casualty of that solution might be buses (as others pointed out this road is also being used for), but the city can make exceptions for those (as is usual in most places due to stops being commonly in the right turn lane). It's clear from the massive…

It is a one-way street, two lanes, so you'd have one lane dedicated to all trucks going left and one lane dedicated to all trucks going right. And all cars could go straight under the bridge from either lane.

That is already what is set up. All trucks must turn before going under the bridge.

Except people ignore that and go straight anyway.

Re: 11 Foot 8 – The Can-opener Bridge

#190

Post by Kwantuum »

Animats wrote: post #53

The Sidney Harbor Tunnel had a similar problem. They came up with an elaborate but successful solution.[1] There are detectors and huge flashing warning signs that light up. Then, there's the last-chance sign. At the entrance to the tunnel, pumps force a curtain of water straight down across the entire roadway. Then a powerful laser system projects a giant octagonal red STOP sign onto the water curtain, filling the e…

From the video, it looked like the truck braked faster than I would expect a human driver. I wonder if that water-curtain stop sign tripped up the truck's anti-collision braking system, that sounds like it would be a good target for such systems!
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