Myths/misconceptions/untrue things about road-related things

[hbelkins]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasco_Road

Vasco road should have been signed as CA-84.

Do not link to mobile sites, the phone will do the work --sso

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasco_Road https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasco_Road

Vasco road should have been signed as CA-84.

Don't link to mobile Wikipedia.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summerlin_Parkway

Freeways must have a route number designation.

But interestingly Summerlin Parkway in Las Vegas is one of a few freeways without a route number assigned by the state due to Summerlin Development.

Why not? In my browser, it brings up a cleaner page than regular Wiki.

[sparker]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summerlin_Parkway
But interestingly Summerlin Parkway in Las Vegas is one of a few freeways without a route number assigned by the state due to Summerlin Development.

Well then -- a damn good place to (eventually) put the mistaken "I-111" shield seen in another thread.  As I iterated there, just a FedEx shipment, finalization of an I-11 through route through LV, and some finagling by NDOT's legal team away!

[formulanone]

Do not link to mobile sites, the phone will do the work --sso

Why not? In my browser, it brings up a cleaner page than regular Wiki.

There is no problem, I think people just want an excuse to complain.

If the interface and usability bothers someone that much, they can also just as easily delete the "m." out of the URL.

[jasonh300]

Let's get one thing straight: you can land aircraft on an interstate, but there's a high probability that the airplane can't be used again, and a 100% percent chance of traffic disruption.

Cars and those damned overpasses tend to get in the way.

[yand]

Let's get one thing straight: you can land aircraft on an interstate, but there's a high probability that the airplane can't be used again, and a 100% percent chance of traffic disruption.

Small planes are required to stall (roughly translates to touchdown speed) at 70mph or less. If you know what you're doing, dealing with a small plane making an emergency landing shouldn't be too different from dealing with a car barreling down an on ramp at 70mph. As long as traffic is flowing at high speed a safe landing shouldn't be impossible.
Whether the plane gets caught on overpasses or powerlines depends on the clearance available, small planes should be able to duck under.
If the area allows the plane to safely pull off the road, traffic disruption (other than rubbernecking) should be minimal.
For example in this video the pilots made an emergency landing on a canadian freeway, and kept moving to position themselves past the bridge/guard rail section where they could pull off the freeway into the grass.

Building more lanes automatically means traffic relief forever.

That using parking or thru lanes for transit and bicycling is a net loss in transportation capacity.

Suburban life is not necessarily the end-all be-all, especially for younger Americans.

Building enough lanes does relieve traffic - especially if you're paving over traffic-generating buildings to do it. Induced demand stops at the point when everyone is travelling by car, and as much as they could possibly want to. With the advent of self driving cars, suburban lifestyles will be more accessible to people who can't drive.

[hotdogPi]

Building enough lanes does relieve traffic - especially if you're paving over traffic-generating buildings to do it. Induced demand stops at the point when everyone is travelling by car, and as much as they could possibly want to. With the advent of self driving cars, suburban lifestyles will be more accessible to people who can't drive.

Let's say that a bridge is 3 lanes going northbound. If there are 4 lanes before the bridge, increasing that number won't help, even if it's to 10 lanes. This is the definition of a bottleneck.

[paulthemapguy]

That interstate routes, and particularly US routes, are "federal routes."  Only a viatologist would believe such nonsense.

I was gonna say, it's a myth that the federal government maintains US and Interstate highways.  It's all state DOT's, sometimes with supplemental funding from the feds for big enough projects.

[bzakharin]

Let's say that a bridge is 3 lanes going northbound. If there are 4 lanes before the bridge, increasing that number won't help, even if it's to 10 lanes. This is the definition of a bottleneck.

It makes the backup approaching the bottleneck shorter allowing those whose destination is before the bottleneck to not get caught up in the backup.
Let's say that a bridge is 3 lanes going northbound. If there are 4 lanes before the bridge, increasing that number won't help, even if it's to 10 lanes. This is the definition of a bottleneck.

[yand]

Building enough lanes does relieve traffic - especially if you're paving over traffic-generating buildings to do it. Induced demand stops at the point when everyone is travelling by car, and as much as they could possibly want to. With the advent of self driving cars, suburban lifestyles will be more accessible to people who can't drive.

Let's say that a bridge is 3 lanes going northbound. If there are 4 lanes before the bridge, increasing that number won't help, even if it's to 10 lanes. This is the definition of a bottleneck.

Obviously, building the lanes in the right places to relieve bottlenecks will have maximum effect, but like bzakharin said, even increasing lanes before the bottleneck can help delay the backup from affecting traffic prior to the bottleneck.

[SP Cook]

- US 66 was an especially significant US highway of out-sized national importance, rather than being a fairly insignificant route, memoralized simply by having a number that rhymed in a song.

- Highway construction constitutes a "subsidy" to buses, trucks, or cars, in that same way and meaning as direct appropriations for transit, airports, or docks.

- The interstate numbering system was supposed to be a perfect grid, with no variations which "violate" the numbering scheme to account for societal needs or physical geography, and thus any such variations are "bad".

- The shortest distance between any two points is to precede directly to the closest interstate and then remain within the interstate system for as long as possible, never using US, state or other routes.

- The crowded urban life led by many persons dependent on transit before interstates made suburbs possible was desireable, healthy, and/or safe.

- I-99 (and I-73/74) , because it bears an I number is, by virtue of that fact alone, more of a boondoggle than any of 100 similar projects of interstate or near interstate standard which are carried within the US, state or other numbering systems.

- Persons who have property acquired for ROW receive something less than fair compensation, if no over-compensation.

- Speed limits impact road safety.

- Police time used for speed enforcement does not take away from other work, and thus increase serious crime.

- Travel, especially in rural areas outside one's cultural homeland, will bring the traveler into contact with dangerous, dishonest, or sketchy characters and clean and safe travel facilities do not exist throughout the country, especially near interstates and other major highways.

- Most highway workers are something other than honest hardworking people who try to get things done and keep the best road system possible for the public, often with inadequate money.

- (Local to WV).  I-77 and 79 were added to the system as specific reward for the (mythical) role of WV in the 1960 elections.

- (Local to WV).  Huntington and Charleston local politicians in the 1960s were given the power to decide the routing of I-64, with Huntington (bypassed like most cities its size nationally) choosing poorly and thus declining and Charleston (with a congested center of town route) the opposite, rather than those decisions being made at the state level.

[bzakharin]

@SP Cook

Something is wrong with your post. Some of your items are obviously true (US 66, Speed Limits), most are obviously false, and yet others I'm not sure (Interstate numbering system, property acquired for ROW). Unless you believe them all to be false, which is kind of strange.

US 66's importance can be gauged by the Interstate numbers replacing it. Most end in 5 and 0 with I-40 taking a big chunk. While rhyming influenced the creation of the song, the only other option considered was US 40 as most of the author's road trip was on US 40 and US 66.

Speed limits definitely affect safety, though perhaps not in the way some people think (sometimes higher speed limits are safer)

[webny99]

snip

Something is wrong with your post. Some of your items are obviously true (US 66, Speed Limits), most are obviously false, and yet others I'm not sure (Interstate numbering system, property acquired for ROW). Unless you believe them all to be false, which is kind of strange.

Read the thread title. This has come up before. People are wording false statements as if they were true, knowing they are "myths/misconceptions". I'm sure some people think the statements are true, just not the author of the post.

[bzakharin]

snip

Something is wrong with your post. Some of your items are obviously true (US 66, Speed Limits), most are obviously false, and yet others I'm not sure (Interstate numbering system, property acquired for ROW). Unless you believe them all to be false, which is kind of strange.

Read the thread title. This has come up before. People are wording false statements as if they were true, knowing they are "myths/misconceptions". I'm sure some people think the statements are true, just not the author of the post.

I understand the title. I am confused because this particular list includes things that are really true and things that are false

[Hurricane Rex]

Surprised no one has said "speed kills" yet. If you haven't watched speed kills your pocketbook yet, that should shut most of them up.

Also some Portland examples:

One of any of the following apparently means you're a lobbyist the auto industry (people use generally only one of these), from least extreme to most extreme:
1. You are a roadgeek.
2. You support widescale freeway expansions.
3. You support freeways.
4. You drive (yes I've heard that a few times).

Reducing the amount of lanes and making bike lanes will make bikers get massive gains in ridership numbers (only true in Corvallis and Dowtown Portland in Oregon).

Adding exit-exit lanes increases accident chance.

"The only safe speed limit is 0." (WSDOT)

1 Light rail line running once every 30 minutes will run as much people as a 6 lane freeway. (True in Europe and NYC).

The interstate bridge is earthquake safe.

Public transit, specifically light rail is the only way to reduce congestion.

Freeways solve all problems on surface streets.

This is an inference based on Portland law: Pedestrians aren't the cause of any accident.

More people are driving now than in 1980 due to lower gas prices (I have a screenshot, can post if requested).

Tolling the entire roadway adds capacity.

Speeders are dangerous anywhere. (On mountain roads in in neighborhoods this is true, but on an interstate with a 55 mph limit and traffic is at 70, no).

(Location, 4 lane expressway, speed limit 45): roundabouts are safer than traffic signals and provide less congestion.

Building freeways/more lanes to relieve a congested area causes more pollution.

LG-TP260

[webny99]

snip

Something is wrong with your post. Some of your items are obviously true (US 66, Speed Limits), most are obviously false, and yet others I'm not sure (Interstate numbering system, property acquired for ROW). Unless you believe them all to be false, which is kind of strange.

Read the thread title. This has come up before. People are wording false statements as if they were true, knowing they are "myths/misconceptions". I'm sure some people think the statements are true, just not the author of the post.

I understand the title. I am confused because this particular list includes things that are really true and things that are false

Well, in that case, if he actually believes everything he posted is false, he may have some explaining to do. 

[CtrlAltDel]

snip

Something is wrong with your post. Some of your items are obviously true (US 66, Speed Limits), most are obviously false, and yet others I'm not sure (Interstate numbering system, property acquired for ROW). Unless you believe them all to be false, which is kind of strange.

Read the thread title. This has come up before. People are wording false statements as if they were true, knowing they are "myths/misconceptions". I'm sure some people think the statements are true, just not the author of the post.

I understand the title. I am confused because this particular list includes things that are really true and things that are false

I've never really understood SP's antipathy toward Route 66, especially since it always comes with the claim that the only reason it's relatively well-known in popular culture is Troup's song, which is, of course, patently false. Even before the route was decommissioned, there was Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath and the movie based on it, the television show Route 66, as well as Kerouac's On the Road, to say nothing of small things like the origin and logo of Phillips 66.

[formulanone]

I think his point about Route 66 is that while it has cross-regional importance, it has limited meaning and personal influence to anyone east of Chicago. It's a historical curiosity to some outside the states and regions it covers, but also "just another route" to those distant from it...for most people, if it's not part of their commute or vacation spots, a road has no meaning. If you're from the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Appalachia, The South, Pacific Northwest, it has no more importance than US 1, US 80, US 11, or US 2.

And yet, Route 66 has an American Mythology that few other routes can match in the public's perception. Meaning and purpose were assigned and attributed to it, of which typically only frustration and utilitarian purpose are attached to roads.

[jon daly]

US-6 is better  .

[SP Cook]

I've never really understood SP's antipathy toward Route 66...

Antipathy is not the right word.  Probably the best is disregard. 

The best evidence is to look at the traffic volumes.  While the figures from the day are lost to history, the interstates that replaced it have their figures.  Mostly I-55, 44, 40 and 15.  And remember that a much LARGER %age of the populace, thanks to air conditioning, lives in the SW now than then. 

And the numbers are?  Mediocre.  Not in the top 40.  Grossly insignificant to the vast majority of Americans.  A route number combining as one a regional road connecting Chicago and St. Louis, and another connecting St. Louis and, by connection to other routes, the middle part of the east, to LA, (although you do not have to be that far north or south of STL for an entirely different US route to be the way west) across a vast and mostly empty part of the country.  Hardly the "mother road" or the "main street of America".  Legitimate candidates for the actual "main street" of America in that era would include US 1, 2, 11, 40, 50, or 51 & 61. 

[thenetwork]

One thing I thought was true when I was a kid that proved incorrect was that any raised, thermoplastic arrows, and stop lines were NOT pressure pads that would activate or "trip" the traffic lights at an intersection, although there were some intersections in the 50s and 60s which had actual rubber trip strip pads that would be used to indicate vehicles at an intersection.

Nor were the conduction loop boxes or circles in the road were pressure/weight activated.  When I was a kid I had an intersection at the end of my street where I thought if you could jump on the "box", you could get the light to change.

[jeffandnicole]

People that believe the if they flashed their lights, it would cause the light to change.  It was simply the in-ground sensors that detected the vehicle, but because the driver was flashing their lights at the same time, they believed they had the power in their hands!

[Big John]

People that believe the if they flashed their lights, it would cause the light to change.  It was simply the in-ground sensors that detected the vehicle, but because the driver was flashing their lights at the same time, they believed they had the power in their hands!

Some believe flashing the lights will set off the preemption device found on some intersections meant for emergency vehicles.

[briantroutman]

^ Aren't those preemption devices triggered by detecting a strobe of some kind? I seem to recall seeing companies selling small strobe devices, designed to be used inside a vehicle, that would supposedly trip the preemption device and give the user an "instant green" . I believe these were at best gray market items (at least when used by non-authorized individuals) at first that were later explicitly prohibited by federal law.

But if a strobe triggers the preemption device, I have to wonder how it differentiates between an emergency vehicle strobe and those on construction vehicles, tow trucks, school busses, etc. My guess would be something to do with the frequency and intensity of the light pulses.

[bzakharin]

Whoever puts together the NJ Basic automobile driver manual thinks 65 MPH speed limits in the state are limited to Interstates. What's puzzling is that this was never the case. The 1998 NJ Speed Limit increase did not have any such limitation. Even the 1987 provision in the NMSL, which did only allow a speed limit of 65 to apply to Interstates, was never applied to New Jersey.

[roadman]

^ Aren’t those preemption devices triggered by detecting a strobe of some kind? I seem to recall seeing companies selling small strobe devices, designed to be used inside a vehicle, that would supposedly trip the preemption device and give the user an “instant green”. I believe these were at best gray market items (at least when used by non-authorized individuals) at first that were later explicitly prohibited by federal law.

But if a strobe triggers the preemption device, I have to wonder how it differentiates between an emergency vehicle strobe and those on construction vehicles, tow trucks, school busses, etc. My guess would be something to do with the frequency and intensity of the light pulses.

Signal pre-emption for vehicles works off an infrared emitter on the vehicle, and not a strobe light.  In theory, the emitters on different classes of emergency vehicles work on slightly different frequencies, so the controller can prioritize the pre-emption calls if say an ambulance and a fire truck are approaching the intersection from different directions at the same time.