Rural car wreck

[ovrszd]

In the stretch of I-5 between Seattle and Portland the truck traffic has gotten horrendous, I dislike driving it. All while there are train tracks paralleling the freeway, crazy that more freight is not transported on train cars. In this day of delivery tomorrow, that is not likely going to happen.

The railroad system won't ensure delivery this week, let alone tomorrow.

 

[turnkey4099]

If needed I will too. I normally drive just under. I often bump up to avoid stacking traffic behind me.

And that is the exact reason the gurus say to drive the 'flow' no matter what it is. Any thing else causes turbulence in the traffic.

 

[turnkey4099]

In the stretch of I-5 between Seattle and Portland the truck traffic has gotten horrendous, I dislike driving it. All while there are train tracks paralleling the freeway, crazy that more freight is not transported on train cars. In this day of delivery tomorrow, that is not likely going to happen.

Yes. Every so often as I am driving I think about the opposing traffic, both lanes moving around 65. People say "stay alert". That is not going to help if someone crosses into your lane. By the time you relalize it is happening the crash is all over.

 

[ovrszd]

Though I am rural, I have an Interstate Hiway 3 miles from me. Main thoroughfare between Des Moines Iowa and KC Missouri. I travel that hiway a couple times a week for 10 miles of less. Very common to see tracks in the median where traffic has veered left, into the median, and back onto their slab. Very common for those tracks to be semi truck tracks. Actually rare for a vehicle to make it across the median and into the oncoming lane. I'm gonna guess the median is 50ft wide. No cables, guardrails, etc.

 

[Threepoint]

[snip]Those days are gone. I avoid South Bend as much as possible, thanks to mayor Butt.

Hmm. Sounds like the traffic calming is working. :laughing:

 

[Threepoint]

Kind of hit home only because this guy seemed a lot like me when I was younger always coming down 81 after visiting my parents.

Police identify 3 people killed in I-81 multi-vehicle crash

The guy was from Hagerstown MD and living in Winston Salem. Most likely coming back to Winston after visiting his folks.

I never think about all the truck traffic on I-81, but in a blink of an eye, 3 people killed, all in different vechicles.

Awful accident. Yes, reminds us again how everything can change in an instant.

Although I-81 is a major truck route (and possibly because of it), I've usually found the big-rig drivers to be professional and courteous. I prefer to drive I-81 over I-95 any day, if I have a choice. There's something about the craziness of the mix on I-95 that makes it particularly unpleasant for me.

 

[lman]

Hmm. Sounds like the traffic calming is working. :laughing:

What's ironic is that the mayor sold his plan by saying that the merchants would get more business because traffic would be forced to move slower. I believe they get less business because there is less out of town traffic going into town because it takes longer to move through town and traffic is more congested. The important thing(lol) is they made a bicycle lane. I've never seen a bicycle using the lane. Even though South Bend is closer, people in my area would rather go to Ft. Wayne. Hey it's just another politician wasting milions of taxpayers' money.

 

[Sigarms]

Awful accident. Yes, reminds us again how everything can change in an instant.

Although I-81 is a major truck route (and possibly because of it), I've usually found the big-rig drivers to be professional and courteous. I prefer to drive I-81 over I-95 any day, if I have a choice. There's something about the craziness of the mix on I-95 that makes is particularly unpleasant for me.

To be honest with you, the last couple of drives I took to Pennsylvania (about an 8 hour trip pushing 480 miles or so) I've found truckers to be more of the problem than car drivers.

I consider a truck driver a "professional" driver. That said, perhaps it's the schooling and training in todays times. They (truck drivers) seem to be more kids used to being on the cell phone then knowing how to drive. Going up I-77 north to I-81 with my wife to my dads house our last trip, I had a truck driver cut me off and almost cause an accident on my end (up the "hill" on I-77 to Galax)

I remember that it used tobe a truck driver would never cut a car off changing lanes. Seems to be the norm for whatever reason lately. Going up and down I-81 last couple of years, just seems to be a lot of 18 wheeler drivers willing to cross lanes to pass one car out going up a hill.

Thing that scares me is per the post on the deaths on I-81, the truck driver went onto the opposing traffic. Generally speaking, there is a division (meridian) between north and south on I-81 in Virginia.

 

[MossRoad]

Kind of hit home only because this guy seemed a lot like me when I was younger always coming down 81 after visiting my parents.

Police identify 3 people killed in I-81 multi-vehicle crash

The guy was from Hagerstown MD and living in Winston Salem. Most likely coming back to Winston after visiting his folks.

I never think about all the truck traffic on I-81, but in a blink of an eye, 3 people killed, all in different vechicles.

Geez that's awful.

 

[MossRoad]

The theory of smart streets is:

When cities made one-way streets 3-4 lanes wide and timed the lights it was to move traffic in and out of the city as fast as possible so that people could get to and from the suburbs as fast as possible..... and downtowns started dying, because no one shopped downtown. They came to downtown to work in offices, or do business at government offices, then at 5:00 they went home. Restaurants and stores all left downtowns and moved to malls and suburban shopping centers.

So they're trying to reverse that by narrowing the traffic to one lane in each direction on two-way streets. That allows for easier on street parking, wider sidewalks, pedestrian friendly crossings, etc... it makes the downtown more attractive.

Having lived in South Bend my entire 58 years, and working 1 block from the center of town for 30 years, I can honestly say that downtown has never been nicer today VS the last 30+ years. It now reminds me of when I was a kid in the 60's and 70's and we could park and walk all over downtown. There's things to do, restaurants, bars, etc... lots of apartments and condos opening. Downtown and night is safer as well.

So, I do like the smart streets in downtown. What I wish they would have done, though, is not extend them so far out of downtown. It's aggravating to drive 3 miles out to the airport before it opens up to 4 lanes. Same thing going south down to Ireland road. Going north out of town opens to 4 lane right at the hospital. And I travel that route daily. It's very easy.

In all honesty, it takes 11 minutes to get from the airport to downtown. It used to take 8. I can live with 3 minutes.

However, trying to get out of downtown going south absolutely sucks on Michigan St. We've sat through 9 lights at only 7 intersections because you can't get through in 1 cycle. Easy solution is to just cut west over 1 or 2 blocks to Main or Lafayette and off you go. The commute from downtown to the south side on those alternate routes is only 3 minutes longer than it used to be as well.

So you're kinda blowing it out of proportion, at least from what I observe on my twice daily drives into and out of downtown since 1987.