Highway Workers

[Midnight]

I think you guys are missing the point.

A lot of construction is going on, and all the sudden there is a cross street with a single stop sign and no other warning devices.

If you are used to traveling on a street where you normally do not stop, a single red stop sign might not be noticed until it is too late.

There really should be a flashing warning light 1/4 mile from the stop, if not permanantly, at least as a temporary setup to forwarn the drivers.

[AKSWulfe]

Come to think of it, Midnight, isn't there a law for new stop signs/stop lights to have signs 500feet before they are?

Maybe it's just a local law, but every new stop light/stop sign has had a sign put up on the side of the road warning of the new traffic regulator a couple hundred feet from it...

I dunno, maybe it's just one of those things the state does only by request.... sure would make sense though to make it a law.
-SW

[Gunthr]

Another minor point hidden in there is they don't rush things down south.

In Michigan when there is major highway construction, I remember them hitting it hard, setting up lights and going 24 hours a day, seven days a week until it was done.

Florida, apparently like Alabama, is a whole different ball game.

[hblair]

It's a federal guideline, they have the warning on a 4 ft tall pylon, but there are prolly 50-80 of those pylons with sight of the intersection. They need something that stands out. There was a young woman killed last week a few miles down the road at another intersection. 2 deaths in less than a full week since its been open.

[midnight Target]

In addition, there is a growing body of experience with fast-track highway rehabilitationand repair projects necessitated by disasters, special events, or destructive accidents. These projects have demonstrated that state highway agencies and highway construction firms can team successfully to reduce highway project construction times when required to do so by emergency conditions or unexpected circumstances. However, there has as yet been nosystematic examination of the lessons learned from such projects or of how these lessons can beapplied more broadly to reduce highway construction project times

This is from an NTSB study.......in other words:

Its been done
It works
amd We still haven't learned from it.........sheesh:rolleyes:

[Udie]

Originally posted by MrBill
I'm sure that when those people who were killed/injured in car wrecks when Explorer's started flipping over due to shoddy tires was due to darwinism.............

I'm sure you are correct!  
I drive what has been called the most dangerous vehicle in america (the infamous 15 passenger Ford E150 van.).  I have had 2 complete tire failures and a couple of radical steering maneuvers to avoid obstacles.  I have never lost it. (one was real close though) I "DO" know my vehicles capabilities, and if you think I am driving to slow or leaving to large a space between me and the person in front of me, sorry, I know how long it takes this monster to stop, and I know how far I can turn the wheel and keep it upright, I know it handles differently when the gas and water tanks are full than when they are empty, or when I have 10 people on board.  
Most people have no idea what the limits of their vehicle are.  You see them on the road every day, tailgating etc.  Ask skuzzy if he would take a car out try to push it to spec on a crowded freeway without even knowing what the vehicular limits were!  
Sorry but I call BS again!  I doubt that one driver in a hundred know any more about driving than turn the key to start it, pull this thing to get it to go forward or backward, push this peddle to go faster, stomp this one over here to stop, and use this thing to aim it where you want to go.

Just my opinion I could be wrong ... but I doubt it.



  I work for a civil engineering firm and so I know a little about what HB is talking about in his original post.  It sounds to me like they (the engineering firm or the city) left something out of their traffic control plan (the warning signs!!!!) When designing traffic control for road projects there are all kinds of problems to be solved for each diferent phase of the project.  When we do one one of the most major things we worry about is just what HB described.  Change a road that people are used to with no warning and you are inviting a wreck.  That's basic human nature.  HB if I were you I'd call that news crew and then call the city planning department and tell them who you just called.  Tell them you are tired of seeing people die because they haven't done their jobs correctly.  Fear and guilt are great motivaters.


 Tahgut  Man LA freeway workers rocked!  Back in the late 80's in Houston they ripped up 15 or so miles of I-59 and rebuilt it while never closing it.  They did this in under the 3 years they said it would take.  They worked 24-7 and did it!  Here in Austin they suck!!!!! Over 10 years to do less work than what was done on 59 in Houston and still 3-5 years to go.  The way they did that is the way to go.  Finish before said date you get x ammount of bonus (which I believe that guy shared w/ his workers as insentive) but finish late and you pay a fine

[MrBill]

I am sorry and I apologize to anyone whom I may have offended.  To anyone whom took exception to my darwinism remarks, and to anyone else who feels that I need to make an apology to them.
 Please feel free to drive however you wish.  If you come to a construction zone and broadside someone because you missed a stop sign while rubbernecking you have my full blessing.  If you are driving a unstable vehicle to fast for "your" reaction time or the conditions and something goes wrong and a crash results, feel free. I apologize for calling you stupid.

If you, or a loved one, is the victim of one of these morons I DO sympathize with you.  

I will agree that there are innocent accident victims ... but running a stop sign in a construction zone is caused by driving while not paying attention, and prolly driving to fast to boot.

hblair,
It is not the elderly gentleman easing out into traffic that I was talking about, (for him I am deeply sorry) it is the moron that ran the stop sign cause he wasn't paying attention to his driving that I was pointing at.

[Hangtime]

When I was a kid, they were building a whole buncha new freeways in LA... I can still remember 1 mile a day, 4 lanes EACH way being completed on the 210 freeway.

I also remember that highway contractor after the Northridge quake.. tryly.. that we saw was an excellent example of what can be done.. whats possible. Read somewhere that bonuses and all that job cost the governemnt less than it would have if it had been handled in the 'typical' way.

The current situation nationwide? Graft, my friends... corruption, wholesale. The watering of the mighty federal megabuck road dollar. The systems obviously broken.

A whole new meaning for the term 'highway robbery'

[Udie]

Originally posted by Hangtime
A whole new meaning for the term 'highway robbery'

 Man you don't know how true that statement is.  I've watch TxDot extort money from developers, legaly Using city governments to get more money from the developers.  They know the game and play it well..