CMStPnP Flintlock76 To say nothing of stultifying 3d world style bureaucracy that seems to be growing like a fungus in this country. Good point and getting back to the topic. The biggest single item that has slowed every single HSR project in the country including Brightline is the Environmental Impact Statement Requirement (publication, review and approval process). You can see it in every project timeline. Streamline that process and you have sped up future implementations.
Flintlock76 To say nothing of stultifying 3d world style bureaucracy that seems to be growing like a fungus in this country.
Good point and getting back to the topic.
The biggest single item that has slowed every single HSR project in the country including Brightline is the Environmental Impact Statement Requirement (publication, review and approval process). You can see it in every project timeline. Streamline that process and you have sped up future implementations.
For, or against, or indifferent to high speed rail, I agree our government and its bureaucracy are beyond out of control.
We don't know half as much about "environmental impact" as we think we do......
My view, we are not powerful enough to perminately harm the invironment, it has always changed on its own. Should the mothership beam us all up tomorrow, mother earth would clean up any small mess we have made in a blink of her eternal eye.
Sure, we should try to be reasonable stewards, just like I save old houses, but to be so arrogant as to assume we can "fix" things we might not even be the main cause of, is well, arrogant......
I'm sure this view will not set well with some....
Climate change is real, but so was the ice age, the mini ice age, and lots of other climate shifts before we started burning oil and coal..........
Sheldon
My one thought on CA wanting to have no speed limits on their highways for cars. They better raise the speed limits for the OTR guys then. Can you imagine the carnage of a Vette doing say 120 underridding a 57 foot trailer and yes those are legal in CA with the tandems set for 40 feet which is required. The driver of the Vette's head is right about floor level on a Swift trailer which has the largest fleet.
Shadow the Cats ownerThe driver of the Vette's head is right about floor level on a Swift trailer which has the largest fleet.
There is also the open question if adaptive cruise control can work safely at the higher speeds as well. Lots of assumptions made with the lets just abandon the speed limit crowd.
ATLANTIC CENTRALAnd I'm not retired, so you won't hear much from me tomorrow...... Sheldon
I'm not retired either but am able to work almost entirely from home.
I wonder how much of a bribe he took from the auto makers?
Caldreamer
CMStPnP ATLANTIC CENTRAL And I'm not retired, so you won't hear much from me tomorrow...... Sheldon I'm not retired either but am able to work almost entirely from home.
ATLANTIC CENTRAL And I'm not retired, so you won't hear much from me tomorrow...... Sheldon
I work both as a residential designer/historic restoration consultant and a restoration carpenter. So my work is sometimes at home on the drawing board, sometimes in the field working with my hands, both very rewarding.
CMStPnP Shadow the Cats owner The driver of the Vette's head is right about floor level on a Swift trailer which has the largest fleet. There is also the open question if adaptive cruise control can work safely at the higher speeds as well. Lots of assumptions made with the lets just abandon the speed limit crowd.
Shadow the Cats owner The driver of the Vette's head is right about floor level on a Swift trailer which has the largest fleet.
I don't know that we should abandon speed limits, but they could easily be higher.
The adaptive cruise control on my FLEX has been reliable and predictable in the 80 mph range.
Shadow the Cats owner My one thought on CA wanting to have no speed limits on their highways for cars. They better raise the speed limits for the OTR guys then. Can you imagine the carnage of a Vette doing say 120 underridding a 57 foot trailer and yes those are legal in CA with the tandems set for 40 feet which is required. The driver of the Vette's head is right about floor level on a Swift trailer which has the largest fleet.
As I have noted earlier in this thread, speed differential is the real safety hazard......
Back to work now, building a kitchen today.
Speed limits are meaningless when you're stuck in traffic gridlock..may as well eliminate the speed limit as in most parts of CA you'd be hard pressed to average 40 mph on most days.
Shadow the Cats ownerMy one thought on CA wanting to have no speed limits on their highways for cars. They better raise the speed limits for the OTR guys then. Can you imagine the carnage of a Vette doing say 120 underridding a 57 foot trailer and yes those are legal in CA with the tandems set for 40 feet which is required. The driver of the Vette's head is right about floor level on a Swift trailer which has the largest fleet.
Or having a truck going 100 smashing into a line of stopped or slow-moving cars?
Incident like that last October here caused 3 deaths and 7 injuries.
It's been fun. But it isn't much fun anymore. Signing off for now.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.t fun any
Back in the 1960's there was a campaign to get rid of "killer trees" from alongside the highways. To some extent, that was done on the Interstates, although the small trees planted at that time to cushion impacts for vehicles going off the road are getting pretty big now...
An editorial in a local paper pointed out that even after all the safety measures (get rid of trees, mandatory following distances, consistent speeds, etc) some fool would roll his car and die anyhow...
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
There is no defense against terminal incompetence coupled with situational stupidity!
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
tree68Back in the 1960's there was a campaign to get rid of "killer trees" from alongside the highways. To some extent, that was done on the Interstates, although the small trees planted at that time to cushion impacts for vehicles going off the road are getting pretty big now...
That must have been a national movement. I was living in Baton Rouge around that time, and I remember seeing in the news that people were protesting against the tree removal, and they made them stop. This involved a stretch of highway west of Baton Rouge that was lined with beautiful oak trees. (I hope they were not relatives of yours.)
On a semi-related note, I remember reading around that time that tests had been conducted to find the safest type of barrier to use in places like the medians on interstates, and they concluded that a solid row of rose bushes performed the best.
_____________
"A stranger's just a friend you ain't met yet." --- Dave Gardner
Paul of CovingtonOn a semi-related note, I remember reading around that time that tests had been conducted to find the safest type of barrier to use in places like the medians on interstates, and they concluded that a solid row of rose bushes performed the best.
I'm not sure if GM came up with the idea, or simply embraced it, but the concept of burying the ends of guard rails was used all over GM's Michigan Proving Grounds.
The idea was that instead of running smack into an immovable object (there were many instances of guard rails impaling vehicles), a vehicle would simply slide up on to it. Extending the posts slightly above the top of of the rail would serve to slow the vehicle.
Then someone sued, saying that their son would not have been killed if he hadn't been launched by the sloped section.
Nowadays you're seeing energy-absorbing assemblies, or the guard rails are tailed off so the likelihood of someone launching off them is near zero.
Depending on the layout of the junction, I've seen either sand barrels or telescoping rail ends at off ramps or other junctions. It seems that I've seen the sand barrels smashed at some points on a regular basis.
(the problem with sand barrel attenuators and other types of energy dissapating devices is how long they take to replace after the first knucklehead gets into them and destroys them. Several of his/her friends seem to find the same place to screw-up before they are finally replaced, usually by an inferior product.) As for the guardrails - the cheapest, not best, solution seems to be a problem with guardrails "spearing" cars these days.
zugmann Shadow the Cats owner My one thought on CA wanting to have no speed limits on their highways for cars. They better raise the speed limits for the OTR guys then. Can you imagine the carnage of a Vette doing say 120 underridding a 57 foot trailer and yes those are legal in CA with the tandems set for 40 feet which is required. The driver of the Vette's head is right about floor level on a Swift trailer which has the largest fleet. Or having a truck going 100 smashing into a line of stopped or slow-moving cars? Incident like that last October here caused 3 deaths and 7 injuries.
I bet that vette can maneuver a whole lot better than that trucker pulling a couple of 40’ sails down the interstate.
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
And then there was the horrible 2003 fatal crash at the Marengo toll plaza in Illinois. The truck driver was going 60 in a 45 mph construction zone approaching the toll booth. Traffic was backed up. He rear-ended a stopped 25-passenger tour bus, killing eight women. 20 others were injured, but not the truck driver. He was sentenced to four years in prison, nearly the maximum. Authorities hoped the sentence will send a message to the entire trucking industry.
And if our collective governments were really concerned about safety, fuel consumption, productivity, or quality of of life, they would teardown all those toll plazas.
They are just traffic jam safety hazzard cash cows.......
BaltACD There is no defense against terminal incompetence coupled with situational stupidity!
I say my version of that statement at least once a day as I drive typically 60 to 100 miles a day in central Maryland.....
"There you have it, the driving skills of the terminally stupid"
charlie hebdoAnd then there was the horrible 2003 fatal crash at the Marengo toll plaza in Illinois. The truck driver was going 60 in a 45 mph construction zone approaching the toll booth. Traffic was backed up. He rear-ended a stopped 25-passenger tour bus, killing eight women. 20 others were injured, but not the truck driver. He was sentenced to four years in prison, nearly the maximum. Authorities hoped the sentence will send a message to the entire trucking industry.
Why was there even a toll plaza? Dallas yanked ours about 10-12 years ago, you can no longer pay on the freeway. Your car goes through a scanner and they send the bill to your home address. We don't employ a legion of toll collectors or for that matter ticket collectors like they do in Northern Illinois. That issue was solved by technology, two decades ago. Ticket issuance for trains is automated by machine and toll collection is automated by scanner and computer.
CMStPnP charlie hebdo And then there was the horrible 2003 fatal crash at the Marengo toll plaza in Illinois. The truck driver was going 60 in a 45 mph construction zone approaching the toll booth. Traffic was backed up. He rear-ended a stopped 25-passenger tour bus, killing eight women. 20 others were injured, but not the truck driver. He was sentenced to four years in prison, nearly the maximum. Authorities hoped the sentence will send a message to the entire trucking industry. Why was there even a toll plaza? Dallas yanked ours about 10-12 years ago, you can no longer pay on the freeway. Your car goes through a scanner and they send the bill to your home address. We don't employ a legion of toll collectors or for that matter ticket collectors like they do in Northern Illinois. That issue was solved by technology, two decades ago. Ticket issuance for trains is automated by machine and toll collection is automated by scanner and computer.
charlie hebdo And then there was the horrible 2003 fatal crash at the Marengo toll plaza in Illinois. The truck driver was going 60 in a 45 mph construction zone approaching the toll booth. Traffic was backed up. He rear-ended a stopped 25-passenger tour bus, killing eight women. 20 others were injured, but not the truck driver. He was sentenced to four years in prison, nearly the maximum. Authorities hoped the sentence will send a message to the entire trucking industry.
Florida uses all technologies on the Florida Turnpike. They have toll booths to get tickets and pay a variable amounts at toll booths depending on where you exit. They have toll booths where there is a fixed charge - where the toll booths exist there are also Sun Pass lanes for those that have the Sun Pass RFID transponder units. Additionally there are locations where the toll is either Sun Pass or toll by tag that ends up being sent in the mail to your address of record.
I am guessing the state wants to have full employment with the human toll takers.
What I find curious among all the states that have RFID Transponder system - Why in the name of Sam Hell aren't they all compatible? I have EZ-Pass that Maryland and a number of other East Coast states use, but it is not compatible with Sun Pass in Florida or K-Tag in Kansas.
Oh that's easy... not the same insider favoured relatives and other connections owning those companies that provide the service.
Massachussetts pulled the booths off the MassPike as well - everybody has to have a transponder. Fortunately, it's compatible with NY's EZPass.
On the Illinois Tollway system, transponders (I-Pass) have been available for quite a few years now but are not mandatory. As a way of encouraging regular users to get transponders, cash tolls are double the amount of electronic tolls. Toll booths requiring a stop are separated and are off to the side of the main roadway. Toll booths on ramps have separate lanes for transponders or cash.
I-Pass also has an interchange agreement with toll roads that use EZ-Pass. As an example, I can use my I-Pass on the Indiana Toll Road.
Many bridges seem to be getting in on the transponder game as well. The Thousand Island Bridge will be implementing EZPass this year.
It will be convenient as many folks using the bridge already have a transponder.
tree68Many bridges seem to be getting in on the transponder game as well. The Thousand Island Bridge will be implementing EZPass this year. It will be convenient as many folks using the bridge already have a transponder.
In Maryland, EZ-Pass is basically 'free' for the asking. You set up your account with a minimum 'deposit' of $25 that will be used to pay the tolls that accumulate and a agreement to charge your credit car when the available balance drops below a specified minimum. There is no separate charge for the transponder unit. The Sun Pass system requires a separate purchase of the transponder in addition to the account.
My normal traffic routes don't require EZ-Pass, however, for 'free' there is no reason to NOT to set up an account for the occasions that may happen when I may need it.
tree68 Massachussetts pulled the booths off the MassPike as well - everybody has to have a transponder. Fortunately, it's compatible with NY's EZPass.
Johnny
BaltACD tree68 Many bridges seem to be getting in on the transponder game as well. The Thousand Island Bridge will be implementing EZPass this year. It will be convenient as many folks using the bridge already have a transponder. In Maryland, EZ-Pass is basically 'free' for the asking. You set up your account with a minimum 'deposit' of $25 that will be used to pay the tolls that accumulate and a agreement to charge your credit car when the available balance drops below a specified minimum. There is no separate charge for the transponder unit. The Sun Pass system requires a separate purchase of the transponder in addition to the account. My normal traffic routes don't require EZ-Pass, however, for 'free' there is no reason to NOT to set up an account for the occasions that may happen when I may need it.
tree68 Many bridges seem to be getting in on the transponder game as well. The Thousand Island Bridge will be implementing EZPass this year. It will be convenient as many folks using the bridge already have a transponder.
Most of the northeast is on the EZ Pass system, but Maryland is slow to make it required and do away with the toll plazas. They did however build express lanes on I95 north of the Baltimore tunnels which only use transponder/photo toll collection.
There's also the matter of driver training. In Germany as we all know, the autobahns have sections with no speed limits and driver training is much more intense than it is here. As I understand it, it is very difficult to get a driver's license in Germany. When I took my driver's test in 1973, the hardest part was parallel parking. There was no highway training at all. Also, on the autobahn with no speed limit, there is no minimum speed either (so I've heard) so if you're bombing down the road at 150kph, you need to watch out for those driving at 90kph.
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