Highways in comics

[Alps]

Comics about roads or highway engineers appear quite rarely, so it would be nice to have one place to list them all.  I'm inspired by today's XKCD: http://xkcd.com/781/

[algorerhythms]

This one is a better highway engineer joke: http://xkcd.com/253/

[agentsteel53]

oh god, the upside down text on a sidewalk.

I once nearly got into an accident because I thought the sidewalk text said "BUS TO YIELD".  Well, it didn't.

[codyg1985]

I have always wondered about the arrow and ONLY in a turn lane. Does it make sense to read it as "left turn only" or "only left turn"? Evidence for the former appears in the regulatory sign where it has the arrow on top of the world ONLY.

[Duke87]

But in that case it doesn't matter because "left turn only" and "only left turn" mean the same thing. On the other hand, "yield to bus" and "bus to yield" mean exactly the opposite of each other.

The idea, of course, is that you see the line of text closer to you first and read it first. But in practice, people are trained to read from top to bottom and so that's what they tend to do. You just kinda gotta be aware that with pavement markings it's backwards. On the other hand, if you suddenly started doing it the "right" way you'd create problems because people who've learned that road writing is backwards would get confused.

[agentsteel53]

is "YIELD TO BUS" even allowed by the MUTCD?  it appears at San Jose Airport.  Well, maybe not anymore - I last noticed it in 2006 and since then they've done some renovation.

the situation is made worse by the fact that the merge point in question has an ambiguous gore-point yield sign, which is facing sufficiently diagonally that it is impossible to discern which lane it is serving, and the fact that in general the bus lane is coming in from the right.

if an average driver (who is used to freeway design) sees this, he'll note an on-ramp from the right (usually indicative of traffic that gives way to the primary - left - lane of travel), a yield sign that very well is to be obeyed by traffic coming from the on-ramp, and the words "BUS TO YIELD" on the pavement, and he'll damn near plow the bus that, by golly, is yielding to no one!  

The pavement wording was supposed to negate the implied setup of an on-ramp, but instead served to reinforce it.

I really hope the airport renovations of 2006-07 took this one away.

[agentsteel53]

returning to topic... there is a Robot-Man and Monty comic from what must be 15 years ago now that has a hilarious take on driving in other countries.  The pair rent a car in some foreign country and Robot-Man's concerns about unfamiliar driving patterns, signage, etc are initially alleviated by Monty's claim that "oh, all traffic control is standardized internationally, it'll be easy to figure out!"  Hilarity ensues.

[Scott5114]

I think the only way to make the reversed-text on pavement work is if you leave enough space in between that the driver can only read one line at a time when they're going the appropriate speed. Of course working out the "correct" spacing is difficult.

Better yet just put up a regulatory sign that says "YIELD TO BUS"!

[mapman]

Speaking of Monty, I've got this one taped to my refrigerator:

http://comics.com/monty/?DateAfter=2005-01-30&DateBefore=2005-01-30&Order=&PerPage=1&x=35&y=7&Search=

[wandering drive]

Speaking of Monty, I've got this one taped to my refrigerator:

http://comics.com/monty/?DateAfter=2005-01-30&DateBefore=2005-01-30&Order=&PerPage=1&x=35&y=7&Search=

Ha!  Nice one.

Along those lines: http://www.homestarrunner.com/underconstruction.html

[agentsteel53]

that's a '57 spec interstate shield.  they're doing better than the actual state of Vermont.  (though it was only the "TO" and arrow trailblazer pair that was supposed to be white in the 1957 AASHO manual, not the directional banner!)

[PAHighways]

Randy Bish, editorial cartoonist for the Tribune-Review, often uses PennDOT and the Turnpike Commission for material.

[jeffandnicole]

Since it's relevant enough, I reopened this.

http://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2014/07/21

(Personally, it's my favorite comic strip.  The off-color, offbeat humor is priceless)

[Big John]

Close enough? (Bridges are part of roads):

[1995hoo]

In that case, cops are an issue on the roads:

[kurumi]

(http://www.babyblues.com/archive/index.php?GoToDay=1998-07-11)

This doesn't sound like anywhere, but would be glad to be proven wrong...

[hbelkins]

Since it's relevant enough, I reopened this.

http://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2014/07/21

(Personally, it's my favorite comic strip.  The off-color, offbeat humor is priceless)

Ha. I was going to post that and direct it at the "8664" crowd in Louisville. I did post it to my FB page and I tweeted it too.

[spooky]

Not highway related, but traffic engineer related: http://xkcd.com/277/

[Dr Frankenstein]

Not highway related, but traffic engineer related: http://xkcd.com/277/

Therefore highway related.

[US71]

Not highway related, but traffic engineer related: http://xkcd.com/277/

Automan never had that problem