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Road signs on your commute

Old 02-05-19, 03:04 PM
  #51  
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In
loops around on itself, creating a four-way intersection with Yuma Street, Yuma Street, Yuma Street, and Yuma Court. Worse, the next street over is Yuma Place.

Boston has the intersection of Harvard Ave, Harvard St and Harvard Ct near Coolidge Corner in Brookline. For good measure, Harvard Pl is the next street over:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Ha...!4d-71.1212181

There are apparently several roads that intersect themselves.
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Old 02-05-19, 06:55 PM
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Aren't there, like, 10 streets in Atlanta named Peachtree Something?
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Old 02-05-19, 08:26 PM
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I suppose this is tagging, otherwise it’s the worst FORTRAN homework ever

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Old 02-05-19, 11:26 PM
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Road signs on your commute

I previously posted to this thread, “Do you have BMUFL signs where you live/work/ride?”
Originally Posted by Jim from Boston
Not only do we have those black and white signs here in Metro Boston, I pass this whimsical one on my commute, with two additional directives, in the People's Republic of Brookline. It's at a fork in the road (at the intersection of Cottage St and Goddard Ave) and faces the oncoming traffic entering the fork (see map below).

It's a somewhat scary fork because as I ride west on Cottage St, upcoming traffic behind me may drive past me as I try to cross over Cottage to Goddard Ave. The slight turn to my left shifts my rearward-mirror view away from the traffic behind me, and often I stop to look and cross. So those signs are welcome.

Both streets are two lane without shoulders and carry a lot of commuter traffic. However there is an asphalt off-road path as seen in the photo. To my advantage also, I ride in the reverse commuter direction, with fewer cars on my side of the road.



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Old 02-07-19, 09:33 AM
  #55  
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Speaking of streets intersecting themselves, I lived on a street shaped like a 6, and it was impossible to give people directions. I'd like to ask what these designers were thinking, but the trouble is, they weren't.
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Old 02-07-19, 09:41 AM
  #56  
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I run into these motorway/highway issues all the time over here.

1. The M25 is an orbital and everyone seems to know every junction by location and usually say, just get on in Woking and get off at South Mimms and don't use the Dartford. Doesn't really matter as it's always jammed. Car's already done the front brakes and a water pump at a little more than 50k due to the stop-n-go.



2. Germany (and most of Europe) never have a North/S/E/W direction, so you better know where all the cities are, so you know if you're going in the right direction.

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Old 02-10-19, 05:20 PM
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Originally Posted by madpogue

Not exactly on my commute, and not my pic (lazy; bing maps screen-shot), but just off the southwest commuter path, there's:


Bicycle-friendly community, eh. I lived there, remember the wrong-way path on University Ave., with traffic lights that stopped bikes every block or two, and with clueless drivers who couldn't fathom that the bikers had the right-of-way and he shouldn't left-hook the bikers. I guess it's better than not having an eastbound route on University Ave.

Park St & Univ Ave, showing the wrong-way bike path. Lots of left hook car-bike crashes here.


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Old 02-10-19, 06:35 PM
  #58  
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I have to admit, first week I lived here, I cut off an eastbound cyclist in the counterflow lane (it's one-way eastbound, so not a "wrong" way). That was 27 years ago; the markings have improved a lot since then, as has the awareness. But as a college town, there's significant population turnover, so always a new crowd to educate. And indeed, it's better than the alternative, which would be close to a mile through campus with no decent eastbound option. There's also a path in the old rail corridor from Monona Bay to Camp Randall that wasn't there 20 years ago, which has taken a lot of the traffic off the counterflow.
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Old 02-10-19, 07:15 PM
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I thought I posted this before....Zamboni crossing on the bike trail. I really have to try to get a better picture, this was on my way to work, was still dark.z
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Old 02-11-19, 11:55 AM
  #60  
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^^^^ Yeah, very slow shutter, makes for a nice French Impressionist effect. I see a lot of up-down camera movement; you MIGHT get away with it if you hold real steady.
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Old 02-11-19, 12:50 PM
  #61  
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Stabilize by resting your elbow on something stationary, or maybe your bike seat or something.
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Old 02-11-19, 01:20 PM
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Originally Posted by noglider
Speaking of streets intersecting themselves, I lived on a street shaped like a 6, and it was impossible to give people directions. I'd like to ask what these designers were thinking, but the trouble is, they weren't.
I used to work in an older town that had a number of roads that changed names and directions. Giving people directions there was a challenge.
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Old 02-11-19, 02:01 PM
  #63  
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We have a few streets where they seemingly arbitrarily change the name somewhere along its course. You could start out at the "cluster-blank" intersection (bad for cars, terrible for bikes, worse for pedestrians) east of downtown, head east on Williamson St, and without "turning" (the road curves as it wraps around the lake), be on five differently named streets. To top off the confusion for visitors, most locals call Williamson "Willy Street".

Adding to the challenge giving directions to visitors are the diagonal streets, the spoke/star pattern of streets around the Square, and the preponderance of one-way streets. Much of downtown is easier to navigate on foot or bike than in a car.

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Old 02-11-19, 03:52 PM
  #64  
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Originally Posted by madpogue
most locals call Williamson "Willy Street".
One should be able to figure that one out.

When I was up in Portland, listening to the morning road reports on the radio, they would read off a list of names of bridges, but I don't think any of the bridge names were marked on either the streets or bridges on any map. I had no idea what they were talking about.

I didn't do a lot of freeway commuting, so I just ignored it.

Here, we have "Beltline Hwy"... it officially has a number designation, but nobody uses the numbers. Actually, it has been called "beltline" since construction, and the numbers are relatively recent. A few years ago, the state officially renamed it to "Randy Papé Beltline", but I've never heard it referred to as "Randy Papé"

Hmmm... More interesting history of that road. It was built in the 1960's and 70's... and officially designated as Route 69 decades later in 2002. But, the state never actually posted any signs with "69"

ORoads: Oregon Route 69



Eventually the road was renumbered with the far less interesting number, 569.

If you wish to take HWY 69, you may have to head down to Mississippi.




Back here in Eugene/Springfield, we have a Freeway called State HWY 126 in Springfield, and Interstate HWY 105 in Eugene. So, depending on where people are, they'll have two names for the same freeway.



126, of course, is a road/route designation from Florence on the coast to Redmond in centeral Oregon, over 200 miles long. And, technically the segment of Interstate 105 is part of 126.
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Old 02-11-19, 05:10 PM
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Today while cutting through an apartment complex, saw a golf cart with a sign that said in pictograms, "My other golf cart is on a golf course."

We have some fun road names around here... Fair Oaks Blvd generally follows the north side of the American River in an east-west direction from Sacramento to Fair Oaks, but it veers madly onto the suburban street grid to visit Carmichael. The street name makes 90 degree turns in several places, zig zags through downtown and historic Fair Oaks, then extends straight north for a few miles until it terminates in Citrus Heights.

Another road goes from Sacramento to Folsom along the south of the river, then across the river and north to Auburn. In various places it is called Folsom Road, Folsom Auburn Road, and Auburn Folsom Road
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Old 02-12-19, 10:25 AM
  #66  
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Originally Posted by CliffordK
I-69 already runs through Michigan and Indiana. There've been plans in the works for years (maybe decades?) to extend it into Kentucky and points south; looks like it's finally a go. I guess I never thought of it as anything but a number until... well... now...

We have scads of highways with multiple numbers. Between here and Portage, all three of Wisconsin's Interstate highways (39, 90, 94) are the same road. Everyone just calls it "the Interstate". There's a segment of our Beltline that serves as FOUR US Federal highways.

I was hoping to post a "that's a welcome sign" sign pic, but... Across the street from my building, they're redeveloping two blocks (god-arful ugly parking ramp gets the wrecking ball soon). They had to take over the rightmost lane of the street, normally a parking/bike lane, for construction ROW. Originally, they put a BUMFL sign on the Jersey barrier that separates the open lane from the temporary pedestrian walk. But look at the wonderful job they've done now:

So that's where the lane closure begins, but what happened to the BUMFL? Oh, okay....

It had been mounted next to (or maybe above?) the yellow/black diagonal stripe sign, right where it MEANS something to car traffic. Who knows why, but they moved it to the curb. Pretty-much behind the signs indicating the closure. Look at the wider shot; do you think rush-hour motorists are really going to notice, let alone heed, that sign?

Fortunately, I have alternate routes.
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Old 02-13-19, 03:56 PM
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Originally Posted by madpogue


Fortunately, I have alternate routes.
How many pedestrians in that walkway to the right of the Jersey Barriers?

I think I'd just slip between the Jersey Barriers and the fence. Could they make the walkway 1 foot wider and accommodate both bikes and pedestrians?

What I dislike is when signs are deliberately placed in the middle of bike lanes and road shoulders... causing cyclists to do dangerous merges simply to get around the signs. Especially when the signs cause more interruption to cyclists than the actual construction.

Or, they've left the signs up after all the construction workers have gone home.
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Old 02-13-19, 04:43 PM
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Originally Posted by CliffordK
How many pedestrians in that walkway to the right of the Jersey Barriers?

I think I'd just slip between the Jersey Barriers and the fence. Could they make the walkway 1 foot wider and accommodate both bikes and pedestrians?
Quite a few, actually. Until the wrecking ball comes, that eyesore of a parking ramp (background in the photos) is THE major facility for car commuters between the Capitol and Lake Monona, and that block is how a lot of office drones get to/from the ramp. That photo was taken rather late, after most of the office crowd had left.

There just wouldn't be space to make it a shared bike/ped "lane". And given the speed of traffic at "rush" hour there, on a bike you're better off in the right lane. It's just that they could have "codified" it better with a sign more visible to the car commuters. Fah, it's a one- or two-year project, minor issue in the grand scheme (the redev is supposed to include a swank "bikestation"), just another "gee whiz" observation.

What I dislike is when signs are deliberately placed in the middle of bike lanes and road shoulders... causing cyclists to do dangerous merges simply to get around the signs.
A few years ago, they had to close a short stretch of one of the MUPs for utility work or some such. They thought they were doing us a favor by putting up a "notice" sign a week or so in advance, with the dates, etc. But they placed it so it was blocking ALL of one direction, and HALF of the other. I posted an Onion-esque "headline" about a Beltline lane closure announcement, done with a sign that blocked all but one lane, to the local listserv. Then mentioned what it was really about. They moved the sign the next day.

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Old 07-19-19, 01:20 PM
  #69  
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Finally stopped for a photo of this one.

keep the thread going!
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Old 07-20-19, 05:14 AM
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Old 08-21-19, 08:27 AM
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Some nice harmless sidewalk chalk graffiti on the pedestrian overpass
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Old 08-21-19, 10:17 PM
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Originally Posted by noglider
Also, this intersection is on a route I used to commute on. There are many photos of these signs on the interwebz.

I always smirk like an adolescent when passing this intersection. The city planners must have realized...
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Old 08-22-19, 01:44 AM
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Originally Posted by Stadjer
Hitler Retirement Home?
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Old 08-22-19, 05:20 AM
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Originally Posted by Stadjer

Originally Posted by CliffordK
Hitler Retirement Home?
This Way to Rockefeller Center (Radio City Music Hall) ?
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Old 08-22-19, 07:52 AM
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@CliffordK @Jim from Boston,

It's from the Monty Python sketch "The ministry of silly walks". It's iconic here.
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