A new kind of interchange eliminates left turns. • Hacker News Board

Re: A new kind of interchange eliminates left turns.

#21

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Aug 02, 2011, 2:21 AM UTC

oh_sigh wrote: post #15

asmithmd1 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Massachusetts has the worst drivers in the the country - that is a fact - MA has the highest accident rate in the US. I blame the roads. Every intersection in MA is unique - there are no idioms. Take a look at these two intersections with 4 lane roads that were recently "fixed" Just keep moving or you will be stuck for hours: http://maps.google.com/?ll=42.361501,-71.070455&spn=0.00... Something for everyone: overpass…

Do you realize the stupidity of what you just said? First you said "MA has the worst drivers in the country". And then literally 14 words later you say "I blame the roads". What is it? Bad driver, or bad driving conditions?

[deleted]

Re: A new kind of interchange eliminates left turns.

#22

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Aug 02, 2011, 2:22 AM UTC

ColinWright wrote: post #2

"New" ?? This was discussed 410 days ago:: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1437430 Also just recently re-submitted: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2833446 In particular, here's the WikiPedia article about the design: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diverging_diamond_interchange

[deleted]

Re: A new kind of interchange eliminates left turns.

#23

Post by Bo102010 » Tue, Aug 02, 2011, 2:54 AM UTC

There is one of these 300 meters from my apartment.

It's not very confusing exiting the highway and turning left - just follow the lights.

It is kind of confusing exiting the highway and turning right. Right-on-red is allowed, and to make such a maneuver you have to look in strange places for traffic that might hit you. I've almost messed it up a few times. The other option is to let people honk at you while you wait for a green.

I'm curious as to what will happen when the power to the lights fails.

Re: A new kind of interchange eliminates left turns.

#24

Post by cafard » Tue, Aug 02, 2011, 2:22 PM UTC

treeface wrote: post #14

asmithmd1 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Massachusetts has the worst drivers in the the country - that is a fact - MA has the highest accident rate in the US. I blame the roads. Every intersection in MA is unique - there are no idioms. Take a look at these two intersections with 4 lane roads that were recently "fixed" Just keep moving or you will be stuck for hours: http://maps.google.com/?ll=42.361501,-71.070455&spn=0.00... Something for everyone: overpass…

Massachusetts has the worst drivers in the the country - that is a fact - MA has the highest accident rate in the US. A high accident rate is not proof that Massachusetts "has the worst drivers in the country". I've lived in Massachusetts (and New Jersey, California, and a bunch of other places that like to call themselves the "worst drivers"), but everywhere I go, it seems apparent to me that road conditions and lay…

I have often thought that the state seal of Pennsylvania should include a stop sign at the end of an on-ramp. It also has a way letting bridge abutments jut about halfway out into a lane so that the merge and exit lanes are divided.

Re: A new kind of interchange eliminates left turns.

#25

Post by chadgeidel » Tue, Aug 02, 2011, 3:29 PM UTC

treeface wrote: post #7

chadgeidel wrote: post #4

I live in a town of spectacularly bad drivers so I may be jaded, but I just can't believe folks will "figure this out". People where I live have a hard enough time figuring out what lane they should be in on a straight two lane road let alone merging, signalling, stopping at intersections, one-lane roundabouts, etc.

You might think so, but everyone says this everywhere in the world. For example, this is the top argument that people use against the implementation of the generally-safer, higher-throughput modern roundabouts. Without fail, every time a modern roundabout is installed, the exact same thing happens: congestion is eased, the incidence of fatal accidents falls some 90%, and a multitude of people say things like "well, I…

(sorry for replying so late - I just remembered this comment)

I wholeheartedly agree that we should increase driving standards, and better traffic engineering is the first step. I was just commenting on the fact that most people I talk to don't want to learn how to make their morning commute safer and more efficient.

Re: A new kind of interchange eliminates left turns.

#26

Post by treeface » Wed, Aug 03, 2011, 8:10 PM UTC

chadgeidel wrote: post #25

treeface wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might think so, but everyone says this everywhere in the world. For example, this is the top argument that people use against the implementation of the generally-safer, higher-throughput modern roundabouts. Without fail, every time a modern roundabout is installed, the exact same thing happens: congestion is eased, the incidence of fatal accidents falls some 90%, and a multitude of people say things like "well, I…

(sorry for replying so late - I just remembered this comment) I wholeheartedly agree that we should increase driving standards, and better traffic engineering is the first step. I was just commenting on the fact that most people I talk to don't want to learn how to make their morning commute safer and more efficient.

Well that's exactly the point...most people don't want to learn, regardless of geographical location. The trick in traffic engineering is to devise solutions that are inherently simple and require little or no training. To use the modern roundabout example again: people are initially confused because it looks complicated from the outside, but when you drive it, it's fairly difficult to mess it up.