Last week in my article on self-driving cars, I noted the phenomenon that affordable (say $200,000 or less) new houses simply aren’t being built anymore and speculated that might lead to people choosing longer commutes. As a second part, I thought I’d look at some possible reasons affordable houses aren’t being built any more. For the […]
Conventional wisdom seems to be that self-driving cars will do a lot to alleviate congestion. They will be able to interact with each other and the environment so that they can space themselves closer together, detect and reroute around congestion, and not cause crashes (which accounts for about a quarter of the existing congestion). However, […]
Time to continue my series on traffic signals with the red-hot topic, the right turn on red, and some ideas for improving things. The Right Turn on Red We all know right turn on red (RTOR) is extremely dangerous, leading to motorists mowing down workers carrying plate-glass and old ladies pushing baby buggies. Or is it? Well, it […]
As the next part in my ongoing series of traffic signals and controllers, here is a look at what the rest of the nation, Canada, and the rest of the world do differently than Minnesota. Minnesota vs the Rest of the Country 1) As I’ve mentioned before, protected only turns (where left turning traffic has […]
As part of an ongoing series on traffic signals, here I’m taking a shot at answering some common questions that may come up. 1) What can pedestrian sensors do? Although pedestrian sensors are uncommon for all the usual reasons (cost, engineers don’t see need, old equipment, etc), there are some neat things they can do. […]
This is Part Three in a series on traffic signal controllers. Part One covered an overview of a hardware, and Part Two continued with general issues of why they don’t always have features we’d like. As of note about terminology, I’ve generally used the term “vehicle” and “vehicle operations” to match engineering terminology, despite that fact that […]
Monte Castleman challenges the belief that building more roads can solve congestion. Data from the Texas A&M Transportation Institute shows a complex relationship between freeway lane miles and congestion, influenced by factors like vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and economic conditions.
This is Part Two in a series about Traffic Signal Controllers. Part One showed various types of controllers and cabinets, here we continue with a closer look at a 1980s-2000s vintage controller: the Eagle EPAC 300, a 16 phase NEMA (National Electrical Manufacturers Association) TS-1 controller. There’s not much to it on the outside: a membrane keypad […]
As a continuation of my series on traffic signals, it’s time now to take a look at controllers. Traffic signal controllers can either be electro-mechanical (E/M), electronic, or a combination of both. Electro-mechanical Controllers. Electro-mechanical controllers date from the beginning of traffic signals up to new installations in New York City into the 2000s. I’ve […]
With the coming of LED technology, now is a good time to take a look at Mn/DOT’s lighting of the freeways and highways of the metro. Types of Conventional Luminaires Traditionally standard luminaires on the freeways have been a “semi-cutoff” design. Fixture selection is the balancing act, semi-cutoff fixtures throw light to the sides and […]