What Engineering Genius Designed This?
Over the last few years there has been more and more road construction on our highways. Given the work being done, it's apparent that they are expanding the highway system to accommodate the ever increasing number of vehicles on the road. If you are on the highways on a daily basis and stuck in traffic jams, you're keenly aware of the necessity to expand the roadways.
In the process of revamping the highway system, I truly hope that they make improvements over designs from the past. I have always been baffled as to how engineers came up with the plans for our earlier highways. Did they sit in a room and say to one another; "I think that vehicles entering the highway should do so right in front of a vehicle trying to exit."? Every time I'm desperately trying to enter the highway travel lane without cutting off a vehicle exiting, my first thought is, what engineering genius designed this? If they thought about it at all they would have realized it was not a safe situation.
Then there are areas where you will have vehicles entering from both sides of the highway. The vehicle entering on the right has a decent shot at merging in safely. The poor guy on the left puts his life at the mercy of the drivers in the left passing lane as he enters. Either way you are entering at your own risk, or as I say, on a wing and a prayer.
One of my least favorites is when a short span of highway ends and the traffic has about 2 car lengths to merge into the traffic in the traveling lane of a secondary road. The vehicles coming off the highway are traveling at 60 miles per hour or more and their idea of merging is to cut off the cars currently traveling on the secondary highway. Seems there should be a better set up for this situation.
On some of the newer sections of highway they are working on, they have made the entrance ramps much longer for the vehicles to enter the main flow of traffic. Certainly an improvement from the older highway design, and shows they have given much more thought to ways of keeping traffic moving safely. This is promising. Until cars drive themselves we need all the help we can get.
In the process of revamping the highway system, I truly hope that they make improvements over designs from the past. I have always been baffled as to how engineers came up with the plans for our earlier highways. Did they sit in a room and say to one another; "I think that vehicles entering the highway should do so right in front of a vehicle trying to exit."? Every time I'm desperately trying to enter the highway travel lane without cutting off a vehicle exiting, my first thought is, what engineering genius designed this? If they thought about it at all they would have realized it was not a safe situation.
Then there are areas where you will have vehicles entering from both sides of the highway. The vehicle entering on the right has a decent shot at merging in safely. The poor guy on the left puts his life at the mercy of the drivers in the left passing lane as he enters. Either way you are entering at your own risk, or as I say, on a wing and a prayer.
One of my least favorites is when a short span of highway ends and the traffic has about 2 car lengths to merge into the traffic in the traveling lane of a secondary road. The vehicles coming off the highway are traveling at 60 miles per hour or more and their idea of merging is to cut off the cars currently traveling on the secondary highway. Seems there should be a better set up for this situation.
On some of the newer sections of highway they are working on, they have made the entrance ramps much longer for the vehicles to enter the main flow of traffic. Certainly an improvement from the older highway design, and shows they have given much more thought to ways of keeping traffic moving safely. This is promising. Until cars drive themselves we need all the help we can get.
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