Talking Traffic

Fail Blog is a compilation of user-submitted images and videos with the colloquial title of “Fail”. If you don’t know what that means, I suggest perusing the latest postings and it will become obvious.

Signage is often a topic. This one just came up and I find it horribly amusing. Unfortunately, this sort of thing is all too common.

Warning: A great deal of the subject matter on Fail Blog is not safe for work. This particular link is fine, however

It’s been a while since my last tidbits post. Let’s try to make this a good one!

Laser walls!: Laser walls for visual cueing of the car/pedestrian interface and trying to make it safer for pedestrians in urban areas. It’s interesting.

Canadian Airspace for American Airliners: When flights heading to NY Laguardia or Newark or Kennedy amble into harsh weather, there’s not a lot of room to stack them up, or to avoid the strong winds and thunderstorms. A plan may be in place to allow these airliners to cross Canadian airspace to find favorable conditions. This is also apparently running into Homeland Security roadblocks from a quid pro quo perspective.

Passenger & Freight Rail UP while Air Transport DOWN?: Some discussion about the future of transportation and how it’s affecting the rail and air industries.

Sao Paulo has Bad Traffic: Check out this TIME article about Sau Paulo and its commuters

Wired Photo Contest: Wired magazine is having a transportation themed photo contest.

Topics: Grab Bag: Speed Measuring Units, Foreign Coins, Interstate Myths, Random Statistics, Traffic Calming

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I’ve been advocating for years that we cut rumble strips into our roadways that play songs! It would be simple to space out the grooves in order to generate simple melodies.

The Japanese have beat me to it.

I still dream of hearing the Muppet Show Theme as I drive down the interstate. Someday…

Occasionally, something truly hilarious pops across my radar. This description of the operation of an intersection in Beijing, China, is one of the funniest things I’ve read on the web in a long time.

Previously posted on The Evil Eyebrow.

Speaking of Roundabouts (see episode 4!): Chandler, AZ made the news for discussions related to installing more roundabouts and traffic circles, primarily for traffic calming.

Red Cow: The only reason I’m linking to this news item is because of the name of the interchange. The N7 Red Cow interchange. Great name. It reminds me of Where’s my Cow? by Terry Pratchett.

Sustainable Campus Transportation: The Association for Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE, not be confused with ASHE, of which I’m a member, or ASHE, which I’m not) has a blurb about a University of Kentucky discussion to green their campus transportation. The upshot: they want to, but aren’t sure how.

Bicycle vs. Automobile: News about the ongoing conflict between bicycles and larger motorized vehicles, out of San Diego.

Increase Safety be Reducing Comfort: A German town has followed the lead of several Netherlands projects by removing traffic signals and stop signs and other positive control devices. The theory is that with less direction, drivers/pedestrians/cyclists will be forced to pay more attention and act accordingly.

Teen Driving in Kansas: Kansas is pursuing more restrictive teen-driving regulations in order to gradually ease teens into the driving milieu. Statistics show that teen drivers are more likely to get into collisions not because of drinking or cellphone use, but because of inexperience.

Transporting Chickens: Don’t drive with chickens in your trunk (or cocaine in your cigarettes).

I-35 Bridge Wagons are Circling: There is blood in the water, and the scent of lawsuits in the air. Not to put to fine a point on it, but this is exactly what this case does not need. As I discussed in Episode 2, there are lessons to be learned from this tragedy, but no one will learn anything if all the time is spent trying to sue someone with deep pockets.