Comments on: Danger Train I http://houblog.com/wp/index.php/2006/395 Random rants from a civil servant in Houston, TX Fri, 18 May 2012 03:39:32 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.5 By: Houblog » Blog Archive » Feed the Baby (Train) http://houblog.com/wp/index.php/2006/395#comment-12503 Houblog » Blog Archive » Feed the Baby (Train) Mon, 24 Sep 2007 18:59:59 +0000 http://houblog.com/wp/?p=395#comment-12503 [...] Then again, how confusing do you want to make things? [...] [...] Then again, how confusing do you want to make things? [...]

]]> By: Ubu Roi http://houblog.com/wp/index.php/2006/395#comment-1541 Ubu Roi Tue, 18 Jul 2006 03:56:10 +0000 http://houblog.com/wp/?p=395#comment-1541 What gets me is the simplest cue of all would have been for the far right set of reflectors (seen close-up in the second picture) to be yellow on this side (i.e. the north side of each individual reflector--viewpoint is facing southbound). We are trained in the U.S. to put the YELLOW line on our left and the WHITE line on our right. That one visual clue would give the driver a quick reference, and everything else would fall into place. Instead, they're white all the way around. It wouldn't hurt to put a set of white/red reflectors across both the train lanes and the northbound lane, so that any driver where that SUV is sitting would see a red line across the lanes directly in front. Both of these ideas are relatively simple retrofits that could still be done to make this intersection safer. EDIT -- note to out-of-town visitors: These pictures were taken early on a Saturday afternoon, in a downtown that just refuses to "revitalize" despite around $US 1B poured into it over the last 15 years. During the week, there's actually a lot of traffic. What gets me is the simplest cue of all would have been for the far right set of reflectors (seen close-up in the second picture) to be yellow on this side (i.e. the north side of each individual reflector–viewpoint is facing southbound). We are trained in the U.S. to put the YELLOW line on our left and the WHITE line on our right. That one visual clue would give the driver a quick reference, and everything else would fall into place. Instead, they’re white all the way around.

It wouldn’t hurt to put a set of white/red reflectors across both the train lanes and the northbound lane, so that any driver where that SUV is sitting would see a red line across the lanes directly in front. Both of these ideas are relatively simple retrofits that could still be done to make this intersection safer.

EDIT — note to out-of-town visitors: These pictures were taken early on a Saturday afternoon, in a downtown that just refuses to “revitalize” despite around $US 1B poured into it over the last 15 years. During the week, there’s actually a lot of traffic.

]]> By: Steven Den Beste http://houblog.com/wp/index.php/2006/395#comment-1531 Steven Den Beste Tue, 18 Jul 2006 00:50:53 +0000 http://houblog.com/wp/?p=395#comment-1531 There <i>really</i> should be some great big white arrows on the street there to give people a better clue as to what they're supposed to do. What a botched intersection design! There really should be some great big white arrows on the street there to give people a better clue as to what they’re supposed to do. What a botched intersection design!

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