How much if any are cities responsible for major traffic jams? (highway, projects)
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I had to work over the weekend and I drove the expressway coming home, (mind you this around 730pm on a saturday night), southbound I75 in northern KY was bumper to bumper for 8 miles straight!
They had signs up for 'shoulder work', and had 2 lanes shut down, but the funny thing was, there was no equipment, no construction work being done (for the whole 8 miles) Normally when they do this, you can see equipment, materials, trucks sitting around...not in this case, it was just like someone had come along and put up orange barrels closing 2 lanes.
Something happened that night that I had never seen before too...a guy a few cars in front of me was towing a large boat, he was blowing his horn and getting aggravated, he gets out and moves some of the orange barrels, and drives off on the closed portion, a few semi trucks followed his lead, and before I knew it, cars were doing the same thing, suddenly everyone was trying to get over, so they could get into the newly opened lanes!
I did not do this, as I was worried they may have equipment further down the road or piles of gravel, etc sitting around...so I sat thru the entire 8 miles of traffic...turns out, there were no piles of material, or equipment sitting around.
I got me thinking how responsible cities are to prevent these kinds of traffic jams. I understand construction work needs to be done here and there, but in this case, there was NO work going on, they just closed down half the expressway, before they even started the work!
It always seems that local and state road work begins just before local and state elections. But when it comes to traffic jams I believe the driver’s share part of the blame. Accidents that cause such jams are the fault of drivers, not government. As for orange cones or barrels set up with no road work, that could be set up just before road work is to begin. It takes time to set those up during low traffic hours. Once set up they’re to remain until work can begin. Unfortunately that sometimes means it won’t start the day of nor next day after lame was blocked off. Those who moved the cones and drove on the closed lanes were doing a very dangerous thing. They could not have known what was going on ahead. Perhaps the road had been torn up at some point ahead, perhaps there was a crew working ahead, or perhaps there was police waiting ahead to issue out very expensive tickets.
First off cities are not responsible for construction projects on interstate roads, the state is because they get federal funding for construction on interstate roads. And as long as the construction is done as stated in the contract it’s up to the construction company when they work or don’t work. Cities are responsible for city streets, county's are responsible for county roads , and states responsible for interstate or US highways. So you’re answer is no the cities are not responsible for traffic jams. And as far as passing up a slower driver like those semi trucks did it would of been my choice because semi drivers know the roads better than we do because they drive them constantly and are in contact with other semi truck drivers through their CB radio about road conditions. Sometimes you just have to say what the hell and just do it and pass that vehicle hauling that boat. And no construction company would leave equipment or piles of dirt on a open lane equipment and materials are stored off site or well to the side of the project. I can tell by the question you are a younger driver and haven’t driven in many road construction sites.
It always seems that local and state road work begins just before local and state elections. But when it comes to traffic jams I believe the driver’s share part of the blame. Accidents that cause such jams are the fault of drivers, not government. As for orange cones or barrels set up with no road work, that could be set up just before road work is to begin. It takes time to set those up during low traffic hours. Once set up they’re to remain until work can begin. Unfortunately that sometimes means it won’t start the day of nor next day after lame was blocked off. Those who moved the cones and drove on the closed lanes were doing a very dangerous thing. They could not have known what was going on ahead. Perhaps the road had been torn up at some point ahead, perhaps there was a crew working ahead, or perhaps there was police waiting ahead to issue out very expensive tickets.
My city is starting to get residents complaining, there is a neighborhood, that is a pretty convenient short cut if the main roads are backed up, but they have seen alot of semi trucks trying to come thru and the streets are very narrow, so truck drivers have been tearing up yards, even asking drivers to come out and move their cars, so they can get the truck thru.
From what Ive seen of traffic jams on the main roads here (non-expressway), its the traffic lights and how they are timed, that causes majority of the back ups...
There is one stretch in particular, I was stopped at the red light (first in line), when it turned green, I took off and the next light down the road, was timed PRECISELY, so cars, coming from that light, would be stuck at this red light too, its like the engineers timed how long it would take for a car to take off, get up to speed and reach the next light, and set the light so drivers would get consecutive red lights in a row....
If they can set lights so drivers get all reds consecutively, in theory, they COULD set them so drivers get all green lights too, so Im not sure what purpose there would be in making sure drivers get consecutive red lights...this suggests that they are intentionally causing traffic imo.
Look, you missing one very simple thing.
THOUSANDS of people are on the road, daily. Large crowds. What is the easiest way to create a hyped angry crowd? Well, outside the soccer fans crowd, of course..
Is to do just that. **** people off with continuous endless traffic. What was that about it happening right before major political events.....
I wonder if it might be more efficient to do no upgrading at all on existing rods, spend all the money in creating new ones, and eliminate snarls caused by lane closures.
I wonder if it might be more efficient to do no upgrading at all on existing rods, spend all the money in creating new ones, and eliminate snarls caused by lane closures.
Are you ready to pay higher taxes and fees to pay for construction of new lanes. Just look at this and let this sink in. So you better rethink what you said about just adding new roads.
Construct a new 6-lane Interstate highway — about $7 million per mile in rural areas, $11 million or more per mile in urban areas. Mill and resurface a 4-lane road — about $1.25 million per mile. Expand an Interstate Highway from four lanes to six lanes — about $4 million per mile.Mar 30, 2017
You would not be a candidate for off roading like we do. It took us over an hour to drive 2 miles in central Nevada. It began as a gravel road then deteriorated into a single track, rutted, rocky path. Bonus was the wild mama and baby burros who looked at us non-chalantly as they browsed among the sage brush. They probably hadn’t seen any people for wuite some time as there were no tires tracks. In fact the road began to disappear just before we arrived at a paved road.
And, then there’s the one we followed that was the California Emigrant Trail that took us 3.5+ hours to drive 11 miles. At one point, we had a rock cliff on one side and a straight drop to the Humboldt River on the other. No turning back. Fun!
Are you ready to pay higher taxes and fees to pay for construction of new lanes. Just look at this and let this sink in. So you better rethink what you said about just adding new roads.
Construct a new 6-lane Interstate highway — about $7 million per mile in rural areas, $11 million or more per mile in urban areas. Mill and resurface a 4-lane road — about $1.25 million per mile. Expand an Interstate Highway from four lanes to six lanes — about $4 million per mile.Mar 30, 2017
First, that new road will eventually be needed anyway. At any given moment, every city has fewer lanes than it needs, not even counting the closed ones..
Second, a city that has a lane closure has effectively four lanes when it paid for six.
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