Uplifting News

Absolutely insane

There's some rural highway intersections near where I live that have been getting the stop signs replaced with roundabouts and similarly people keep complaining because they have to slow down but these are intersections that happen to have frequent fatal collisions because people aren't slowing down. One of them has already had multiple single vehicle collisions where a driver just blasted into the center of the roundabout so the roundabout is clearly working at forcing traffic to calm down a little

Edit to add: there's another rural highway intersection that was a 2 way stop for quite some time. The county is getting ready to install a roundabout so they started by turning it into a 4 way stop. The new stop signs have a gantry arm over the road, flashing lights, signs 500 feet back saying "stop ahead" with flashing lights and signs 500 feet earlier than that saying "new traffic pattern" also with flashing lights. People have continued to blast through that new stop sign ignoring all of the new signage and flashing lights where previously there wasn't a single sign or light. Now I see regularly the sheriff parked just out of sight watching that intersection because drivers can't be trusted to follow basic traffic safety laws and not blast through a stop sign at 65+mph (in a 55 zone of course)

She was a moron, but that wasn’t an oversized car (which makes it worse). Imagine the damage she’d do in an SUV.

Fatalities caused by vehicles aren't even treated as homicides in the US. What do you expect from this 3rd world country?

There is a little more to it than that.

A barrier has to start somewhere. The blunt end is considered a hazard for cars if it is too close to the lane, called the clear zone. That blunt end is considered very dangerous and either needs to be located out of the clear zone or have expensive and large crash cushions protecting the blunt end.

It is going to be very difficult finding a civil engineer who will approve installing a blunt end right next to an active travel lane. That makes it useless if you're trying to protect a bike lane next to traffic.

(To the woman): Your issue is that a small swerve can lead to impacting with a solid object that could damage your car. That issue remains regardless. The question is whether you ALSO hurt a person in the process.

So like, ACAB and all but i want to kiss the officer who took away my MIL's license when she hit one of those barriers and then wandered off into the rain. All the signs of dementia, right? No. She has the munchausens. We had been trying to hide her keys for years and she kept finding them, but she refuses to drive without her license. Dude seriously saved lives that night.

All our problems in the world stems from our unevolved ape brain. And unfortunately, most people don't realise it.

I sometimes experience that with reckless drivers but I have never been one to have road rage.

Trees give a nice shade canopy and help reduce the noise level of a an otherwise loud city street, plus they can reduce the heat island effect that's a near constant in our concrete cities

I had a recent trip take me both into Manhattan and the Chicago Loop and it was night and day how loud the one with more mature trees to break up the echoey canyon of concrete and glass was than the other, despite the other having more vehicle traffic at that moment

Hedges can be low enough that pedestrians are visible. Trees typically have their branches well above car height. So nothing is obscured. Either way, it also reduces noise a bit.

That said, along highways (especially near urban areas), they're usually much taller, with the roadside having a barrier. A cross section:

homes - mainwalk - bike path - hedge - barrier - road (and then possibly repeat but inversely).

You can connect the mainwalks and bike pathes with well-lit bridges underneath the road.

Re: @dan1101@lemmy.world , I'd also like to mention that some hedges can be pretty low-maintenance. Here are some that are especially for roads.

Top illustration is what I'm thinking of.

Trees and hedges are mostly safer than concrete and (as someone else pointed out already) can be implemented in a way that does not interfere with visual perception of traffic. Also trees provide shade during summer which is also nice.

And they need maintenance