Rural car wreck

[MossRoad]

And this is EXACTLY why I get ticked off when people say "southerners" don't know how to drive in snow giving "northerners" a feeling of superiority driving in snow / bad weather.

The reality is there are as many idiots up north as there are down soth that can't understand that when the temperature drops below 32 degree F, when going over a bridge, you have to be particularly careful if there is water on the road. I've seen more cars hit their breaks on a bridge in winter up north than I ever had seen in the south.

No different than understanding a roundabout and the concept of yielding and not having to come to a complete stop (unless traffic is so backed up of course).

Just keep in the right lane and get outa my way.... :laughing:

 

[robbyr]

The powers that be, TxDot, ( I've heard big wigs from Austin ) really screwed our small town recently. The main intersection here is an intersection of two highways a couple blocks from the town square. One was two lane on one side of the light and included a turning lane on the other side. The other highway was four lanes both ways. The morons decided those four lanes should be two lanes with a really wide turn lane and a shoulder. They don't know our driving patterns very well. The schools are south of intersection. Now instead of traffic moving ok like it used to, there's few in the turn lane and a long line in the other. Wife had to go through 6 or 7 light cycles before getting to turn right. Also, many locals will just blow by on the shoulder if they wanna turn right. If I hadn't looked in mirror before turning one would've hit me recently. Ok rant over. :shocked:

 

[turnkey4099]

Oh no. I ain't that old.

I am and I survived 2 trips coast to coast under the 55. You haven't lived until you get up in the morning, drive 55 and can see near to your stopping point all day out in the flyover area. I don't ever want to see that again!!

 

[turnkey4099]

I agree. No 55 for me. And I don't speed.

I follow the safety burus advice. Drive whatever speed the flow of traffic is doing...That is usually about 5 over whatever is posted.

 

[turnkey4099]

They started installing roundabout around here about 10-15 years ago... everywhere in the country roundabouts reduce accident rates.... except here! :laughing: They went up here.

At one intersection, there were 7 accidents in the 4 years before they installed a roundabout.... in the next 7 years there were 43! Other parts of the state, accident rates went down, but not here. Possibly the worst drivers in the entire state live here. No doubt about it.

https://wsbt.com/archive/roundabouts-bring-a-sharp-learning-curve

We've got a couple roundabout near here that my wife and I walk near. We lost count of how many times we've been walking, heard screeching tires, then BOOM! accident. Turn around and cloud of dust. Cars go airborne over them like the Dukes of Hazard! The cars took out the landscaping in the centers in the first few weeks they were open. There used to be a sign just past one round about that said Welcome To South Bend, a 21st Century City.... a car went airborne over the roundabout, landed on the other side, and went right through that sign. The never replaced it.

The newspaper put a drone over one of the roundabouts and it showed only 4 out of 15 cars navigates the roundabouts correctly!

Good grief. :laughing:

I spent 6 years in Germany (Air Force) and learned to drive them. I love them but...They installed one in Lewiston, Id that I navigated successfully but one day managed to get going the wrong way on one of the exits. I still dunno how I managed that. There is a definite learning curve when one is installed.

 

[bunyip]

Is it legal to eat a hog dog and drive?
#1
I love this quote - "The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) says that when taking your eyes off the road for just five seconds at 55 mph, you will travel the length of a football field. Think about that as you reach over to dip your French fry in some ketchup while driving".

#2
My key question is who takes their eyes off the road for 5 FULL seconds?

1. Who dips fries in anything, yuck!!!! Ban ketchup, problem solved.

2. Of course you can and safely, I see it in movies all the time, the driver having a protracted conversation with a passenger, even in the back and maintaining a straight line and even going around curves.

 

[lman]

Just keep in the right lane and get outa my way.... :laughing:

Unfortunately your previous mayor, who thinks he should be president, ruined the traffic flow in South Bend by eliminating one lane each direction of the major streets in South Bend, so there is no longer a right lane. I love it when I get stuck at a stoplight behind a line of traffic two blocks long. Before the mayor spent millions to ruin the traffic flow you could get to downtown South Bend with 3 lanes and synchronized stoplights and never have to stop. Those days are gone. I avoid South Bend as much as possible, thanks to mayor Butt.

 

[ovrszd]

I follow the safety burus advice. Drive whatever speed the flow of traffic is doing...That is usually about 5 over whatever is posted.

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

 

[goeduck]

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.

 

[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:

 

[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]

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.