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Started by jakeroot, May 21, 2016, 01:56:31 PM

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Bickendan

Quote from: Bruce on August 15, 2017, 08:14:20 PM
Bothell's new "Multiway Boulevard" (Bothell Way, formerly SR 527) opens on August 24.

11 lanes, with double parking and tons of medians. Also sharrows. Truly a masterful torture device.


That looks like an intersection in Budapest!


compdude787

I live nearby, so I'd seen this being built, but I can definitely agree that it seems like a good way to allow for parking without having to stop thru traffic. Who knows how traffic will respond to it; hopefully it doesn't end up being a total nightmare safety-wise with all those conflict points. It's definitely a unique concept; we'll have to wait and see how it works...

sparker

After watching the video, I can see where the design team was trying to go with this -- but not being able to pull out of an "access lane" (as they term it) onto the main Bothell Way through traffic lanes seems to be a bit counterintuitive; that'll take some getting used to by a lot of drivers.  Slogging down 4-5 blocks of access lanes to rejoin the main street might be a bit gratuitous.  One would think that if there are parallel streets available, they'll get used quite a bit by drivers frustrated at attempting to negotiate this particular arrangement. 

This sort of layout looks as though it's geared toward the regular/repeat user who will over time become accustomed to its idiosyncracies; but it may be problematic for the driver who utilizes the facility only sporadically -- or even less.  I would expect to see quite a few "fender-benders" occurring -- particularly during the "break-in" period. 

Alps

Just y'all realize that this has been used on the regular in NYC for decades - Grand Concourse, Ocean Pkwy., Linden Blvd., I could go on. So it does work.

Bruce

But for three blocks, it's pointless overengineering.

It will be demolished in 5 years when the BRT lines are extended to Bothell, too, so there's no point.

compdude787

Quote from: Bruce on August 17, 2017, 01:43:06 AM
But for three blocks, it's pointless overengineering.

Nah...but traffic is gonna flow great thru there, though. :D

sparker

Quote from: compdude787 on August 17, 2017, 03:23:10 PM
Quote from: Bruce on August 17, 2017, 01:43:06 AM
But for three blocks, it's pointless overengineering.

Nah...but traffic is gonna flow great thru there, though. :D

Yeah -- until some moron decides he/she absolutely needs to hang a left from one of the access lanes to get where they're going!  Back in the late '90's, the city of El Monte down in SoCal reconstructed their main business drag, Ramona Blvd, to the same configuration as the Bothell boulevard -- and drivers repeatedly did exactly that; they ended up shunting the access lanes back to the main drag about 50 yards before each cross-street (and blocked off the lane prior to that cross-street), which sort of defeated the design purpose.  And, during rush hour (Ramona essentially functioned as a "relief route" for I-10, located about a mile to the south) getting in & out of the access lanes was all but impossible.  And -- to add to the fun & games  -- Metrolink tracks crossed Ramona at a 45-degree angle at one of the intersections in this stretch -- with their peak traffic hours naturally coinciding with that of the boulevard (and the El Monte train station a block southwest of the crossing)!  The whole thing was four relatively long blocks -- but perpetually a "hot mess".  But I will say they did a great job making the area look pretty!   

jakeroot

Does anyone know the story behind SR-18's name, "Auburn-Echo Lake Cutoff Road"? Echo Lake is nowhere near SR-18 (it's way up north east of Maltby). Was the name coined because the road was planned to eventually bypass the Echo Lake area?

Desert Man

Wikipedia article feature: Washington State Route 520 from Seattle to Redmond, HQs of Microsoft and Nintendo (of America)...and the suburb of Redmond is known as "Silicon Forest".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_State_Route_520
Get your kicks...on Route 99! Like to turn 66 upside down. The other historic Main street of America.

Alps

Quote from: jakeroot on November 17, 2017, 03:24:10 AM
Does anyone know the story behind SR-18's name, "Auburn-Echo Lake Cutoff Road"? Echo Lake is nowhere near SR-18 (it's way up north east of Maltby). Was the name coined because the road was planned to eventually bypass the Echo Lake area?
Apparently the Echo Lake Cutoff name began with the first sections of roadway near Snoqualmie, which were constructed before I-405. Thus, although it's actually longer in distance than US 99 through Seattle, what's now 18 certainly would have been a shorter time to drive (in combination with - already existing? - 202/203), hence a cutoff. That's my guess. If 202/203 did not already exist at that point, I don't know.

jakeroot

Quote from: Alps on November 17, 2017, 11:02:00 PM
Quote from: jakeroot on November 17, 2017, 03:24:10 AM
Does anyone know the story behind SR-18's name, "Auburn-Echo Lake Cutoff Road"? Echo Lake is nowhere near SR-18 (it's way up north east of Maltby). Was the name coined because the road was planned to eventually bypass the Echo Lake area?

Apparently the Echo Lake Cutoff name began with the first sections of roadway near Snoqualmie, which were constructed before I-405. Thus, although it's actually longer in distance than US 99 through Seattle, what's now 18 certainly would have been a shorter time to drive (in combination with - already existing? - 202/203), hence a cutoff. That's my guess. If 202/203 did not already exist at that point, I don't know.

I was thinking something along those lines. Either way, it would have involved a short duplex with then-US-10, because Snoqualmie Parkway did not yet exist (Hwy 18 ended at I-90 until maybe twenty years ago?). My main objection to this theory is that 202 and 203 already have names (Fall City-Snoqualmie Road, Fall City-Carnation Road, Fall City Duvall Road, and Monroe Duvall Road). It's odd that they'd drop the name from the relevant section of road, but keep it on the section that wasn't (i.e. the section that doesn't by pass Echo Lake).

compdude787

There's actually an Echo Lake under a mile east of the I-90/ WA 18 interchange. That's where the name "Echo Lake Cutoff" comes from.

jakeroot

Quote from: compdude787 on November 18, 2017, 01:54:35 AM
There's actually an Echo Lake under a mile east of the I-90/ WA 18 interchange. That's where the name "Echo Lake Cutoff" comes from.

So there is. Why the F are there two Echo Lakes? :-D

I think I see where the name comes from now. The 'cutoff' refers to the nature of the road (cutting off the Seattle metro area), and 'Auburn-Echo Lake' refers to the two geographic entities on either end of the highway.

Problem solved. My head kept reading 'Echo Lake Cutoff' as one entity rather than two.

MNHighwayMan

Quote from: jakeroot on November 18, 2017, 02:14:53 AM
So there is. Why the F are there two Echo Lakes? :-D

Don't even bother in looking into why Minnesota has tons of Mud, Round, or Long Lakes, then, or else your head might explode. :-D

jakeroot

Quote from: MNHighwayMan on November 18, 2017, 06:44:47 AM
Quote from: jakeroot on November 18, 2017, 02:14:53 AM
So there is. Why the F are there two Echo Lakes? :-D

Don't even bother in looking into why Minnesota has tons of Mud, Round, or Long Lakes, then, or else your head might explode. :-D

At least Minnesota has an excuse. Not sure I could come up with unique names for ten thousand lakes. Washington, on the other hand, has maybe 1/100 of that. No excuses.

MikeTheActuary

Quote from: jakeroot on November 18, 2017, 02:14:53 AMSo there is. Why the F are there two Echo Lakes? :-D

One's the original; the other's an echo.

Bruce

Quote from: Desert Man on November 17, 2017, 01:26:01 PM
Wikipedia article feature: Washington State Route 520 from Seattle to Redmond, HQs of Microsoft and Nintendo (of America)...and the suburb of Redmond is known as "Silicon Forest".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_State_Route_520

No one calls it that. Silicon Forest is the name of the Hillsboro-Beaverton corridor in Portland. We really don't want the region to be known as a "Silicion [Landform]".

sparker

Quote from: Bruce on November 19, 2017, 11:22:52 PM
Quote from: Desert Man on November 17, 2017, 01:26:01 PM
Wikipedia article feature: Washington State Route 520 from Seattle to Redmond, HQs of Microsoft and Nintendo (of America)...and the suburb of Redmond is known as "Silicon Forest".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_State_Route_520

No one calls it that. Silicon Forest is the name of the Hillsboro-Beaverton corridor in Portland. We really don't want the region to be known as a "Silicion [Landform]".

Since when has any particular location had any say regarding popular (and decidedly reductionist) monickers?  When I was living in Portland in the mid-'90's, quite a few folks (mostly connected with PSU) referred to Beaverton-Hillsboro (essentially the OR 8 corridor) as either the "Tektronix" or "Nike" corridor after the firms whose facilities tended to dominate the area.  This even continued after the inception of the LR extension in the area -- particularly among the more vehement PSU-based urbanists who viewed the LR as "enabling" development in the suburban area west of town; some even referred to that western area as the "San Fernando Valley" of PDX (however, there were little or no complaints from that quarter about the eastern part of the line extending to Gresham!). 

Bickendan

Beaverton-Hillsboro has been known as the Silicon Forest since the late 90s.

jakeroot

Interestingly, I usually hear the area with all the tech, on the east side of Lake Washington, referred to as simply "Redmond", a leading tech city on the Eastside (and the home of Microsoft, & Nintendo, among other companies).

Apple took a jab at Microsoft many years ago in a banner ad, simply referring to "Redmond":



I've never heard the term "Silicon Forest", even as it relates to the Beaverton-Hillsboro stretch. But judging by the comments above, it's nonetheless a moniker that has been around for a while.

kkt

I've heard the term "Silicon Forest" for the Portland suburbs occasionally, but not nearly as often as "Silicon Valley" or "Silicon Gulch".  I've never heard any "Silicon" nickname for the Redmond area tech companies.

JasonOfORoads

Quote from: kkt on November 22, 2017, 06:19:04 PM
I've heard the term "Silicon Forest" for the Portland suburbs occasionally, but not nearly as often as "Silicon Valley" or "Silicon Gulch".  I've never heard any "Silicon" nickname for the Redmond area tech companies.

I've never heard of "Silicon Gulch", but I've heard Beaverton-Hillsboro referred to as "Silicon Forest" plenty over the past couple decades.
Borderline addicted to roadgeeking since ~1989.

jakeroot

Quote from: JasonOfORoads on November 27, 2017, 07:41:05 PM
Quote from: kkt on November 22, 2017, 06:19:04 PM
I've heard the term "Silicon Forest" for the Portland suburbs occasionally, but not nearly as often as "Silicon Valley" or "Silicon Gulch".  I've never heard any "Silicon" nickname for the Redmond area tech companies.

I've never heard of "Silicon Gulch", but I've heard Beaverton-Hillsboro referred to as "Silicon Forest" plenty over the past couple decades.

Does anyone know who exactly uses the term "Silicon Forest"? I've never heard the term mentioned up here in Washington, and in general, monikers are not used by locals (although maybe that's the case here).

Bruce

Quote from: jakeroot on November 27, 2017, 07:50:08 PM
Quote from: JasonOfORoads on November 27, 2017, 07:41:05 PM
Quote from: kkt on November 22, 2017, 06:19:04 PM
I've heard the term "Silicon Forest" for the Portland suburbs occasionally, but not nearly as often as "Silicon Valley" or "Silicon Gulch".  I've never heard any "Silicon" nickname for the Redmond area tech companies.

I've never heard of "Silicon Gulch", but I've heard Beaverton-Hillsboro referred to as "Silicon Forest" plenty over the past couple decades.

Does anyone know who exactly uses the term "Silicon Forest"? I've never heard the term mentioned up here in Washington, and in general, monikers are not used by locals (although maybe that's the case here).

It's been adopted by The Oregonian, the state encyclopedia, and national outlets for decades (1985 example from Washington Post). I think it's a pretty valid nickname. Much like "Emerald City" and "Jet City", it's been boosted locally but harder for non-residents to identify.

sparker

Quote from: Bruce on November 27, 2017, 10:04:49 PM
Quote from: jakeroot on November 27, 2017, 07:50:08 PM
Quote from: JasonOfORoads on November 27, 2017, 07:41:05 PM
Quote from: kkt on November 22, 2017, 06:19:04 PM
I've heard the term "Silicon Forest" for the Portland suburbs occasionally, but not nearly as often as "Silicon Valley" or "Silicon Gulch".  I've never heard any "Silicon" nickname for the Redmond area tech companies.

I've never heard of "Silicon Gulch", but I've heard Beaverton-Hillsboro referred to as "Silicon Forest" plenty over the past couple decades.

Does anyone know who exactly uses the term "Silicon Forest"? I've never heard the term mentioned up here in Washington, and in general, monikers are not used by locals (although maybe that's the case here).

It's been adopted by The Oregonian, the state encyclopedia, and national outlets for decades (1985 example from Washington Post). I think it's a pretty valid nickname. Much like "Emerald City" and "Jet City", it's been boosted locally but harder for non-residents to identify.

It's interesting that any reference to the "Silicon Forest" would be primarily applied to Beaverton-Hillsboro; when I was residing up there (disclosure: 20+ years ago) most of the "tech" companies were situated farther south in the industrial parks in Tualatin; even the "godfather" of the Portland tech scene, Tectronix, had relocated their HQ and main production facility from Beaverton to Wilsonville, right at the north end of the I-5 Willamette River bridge.  From what I remember, Phil Knight's Nike facility was the major commercial "campus" in Beaverton, while the industrial area along OR 8 seemed at the time to host a variegated group of enterprises without any particular emphasis.  It'd be interesting to obtain a list of prominent tech companies with facilities in the area -- whether "homegrown" or branches of firms headquartered elsewhere.



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