Episode 32.5 – Metacast

Posted on July 24, 2010 by Bill Ruhsam

Topics: Metacast – What’s going on in Talking Traffic land.

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This is not your Childhood Roadkill

Posted on May 10, 2010 by Bill Ruhsam

The Boston Globe’s Big Picture has photo essays that are well worth your time.

Today’s is about animals. One of the pictures takes you to a (sad) shot of some very large roadkill.

I used to commute on I-88 in upstate NY. I saw roadkill turkeys, geese and deer all the time. Around here I see opossum, cats, dogs, squirrels, raccoons and the occasional armadillo. I’ve never seen anything like that link.

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Guerrilla Traffic Calming

Posted on May 10, 2010 by Bill Ruhsam

Poorly Placed Pedestrian Pushbutton
A protest over “‘motorway levels’ of cars and lorries on a road with no pavement for pedestrians” is taking the form of a series of people standing at a pedestrian pushbutton, continuously activating it and making a call for the pedestrian phase.

According to the Environmental Transport Agency in England, the activation of the pedestrian signal is “causing tailbacks up to four miles long in the process.”

I’m wondering what laws are being broken during this protest, if any? In Georgia, I can’t think of any specific laws that would prohibit me from continuously calling for a pedestrian signal. I’m sure there’s something in the GA Code (annotated) that would allow me to be cited, but I don’t know what it is off the top of my head. Public Nuisance?

An innovative protest using system resources against itself.

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Speed Humps

Posted on April 16, 2010 by Bill Ruhsam

Christian Yarnell of the Columbia School of Journalism had a conversation with me last month about speed humps. Here is his final article. It’s well worth the read. He manages to summarize pretty much the entire situation around these traffic calming devices.

Speed Humps face a Roadblod

Posted in news, traffic calming | 2 Comments

Episode 32 – Diverging Diamond Interchanges

Posted on March 22, 2010 by Bill Ruhsam

Topics: Diverging Diamond Interchanges

Continue reading →

Posted in interchange, podcast | 5 Comments

Episode 32 Coming Tonight!

Posted on March 21, 2010 by Bill Ruhsam

Look what I did on Friday:

Diverging Diamond Interchanges

So, for your edification, I gave my presentation again, to my microphone at home. I was going to record the actual presentation, but there were technical difficulties.

Look for it at Midnight!

Posted in blog admin, interchange | 2 Comments

Episode 31 – Toyota Recall and Safety

Posted on February 1, 2010 by Bill Ruhsam

Topics: Toyota Recall, Safety, Politics

Continue reading →

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Episode 30 – LEDs, Newspapers, Funding

Posted on January 1, 2010 by Bill Ruhsam

Topics: LEDs, Newspapers, Funding

Continue reading →

Posted in Funding, government, podcast, signals | 1 Comment

Talking Traffic Wordle

Posted on December 13, 2009 by Bill Ruhsam

Lest you think I’m doing nothing with Talking Traffic here is a wordle comprising every word from every episode.

Wordle: 29 Episodes of Talking Traffic

I compiled all the episodes into one document recently and just now thought, “I wonder what the wordle looks like?”

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Oddball Traffic Signal

Posted on December 5, 2009 by Bill Ruhsam

Through a set of odd circumstances, I became aware of Smackover, Arkansas, the location of the self-proclaimed “…only center of the road traffic light in the state of Arkansas….”

If you go to the google maps link above and click on streetview, you can see not only a “center of the road” traffic signal, but also a pump jack sitting in the median of one of the side streets!

I’m curious to know how this signal is controlled. Looking at streetview, I can’t see any controller box and it doesn’t look like enough equipment is sitting on the pole itself to do the job. I suppose the grey smudge I see on the image could be doing it, but I’ll have to ask a signal expert to find out.

(I’m also curious about how many times this signal gets struck by errant vehicles)

Smackover, AR official website

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