Free Webinar: Confessions of a Traffic Engineer

[@alpd7638]

The problem individual engineers and even entire engineering companies have is that we have to do what the municipality requests, and it has been my experience that doing anything outside of the local traffic authority standard is a complete non-starter. A few years back they widened and repaved a local collector road to include a painted bike lane and wider vehicle lanes. I drew up a sketch that would have, in the same width ROW, included a separated protected bike path and car parking, but would have restricted vehicle speeds and forced vehicles to only turn right (essentially two one way streets running parallel in opposing directions). I was politely told to go f*ck myself.

[@IntrusiveThot420]

As someone who's just going into college myself as an engineer, i'm realizing a lot of the problems i want to solve don't require engineers, it's largely political. I don't know what I should study or do to get those laws and standards changed though.

[@brushstroke3733]

KZbin algorithms love this video! Strong Towns is trending! #strongtowns

[@michaeljfoley1]

This is great! More people need to see this. I have followed the New Urbanists like Andres Duany since about 2008, as well as James Howard Kunstler, and I can't believe I am just discovering Strong Towns right now. But hey, better late than never 😁👍😉

[@martinmcsweeney732]

“If we wanted to design a traffic system that generated as much congestion as possible, this is what it would look like!”

[@cogent211814]

Here along the Front Range of Colorado our massive Stroad projects are obsolete before the first shovel is picked up. We need public transportation in Colorado so we can get some of the cars off the roads. I agree that we need to use our land smarter. There is an experiment south of Longmont Colorado called Prospect colorado and it was build like the pre world war two towns. Everything that community needs is in that tiny town. The businesses are on the bottom and the apartments are above them. It is by design a walking/biking friendly community, but there are streets so cars can get around but only secondary in nature to other modes of getting around.

[@brushstroke3733]

Fantastic! Spread the word!

[@dr.brausefrosch]

'Increase the tax to $ 0,77 - we can not imagine a world, where this would happen' . Watchin this from Germany, where the taxing per gallon currently is $ 4,29 ...

[@joshwhitfield533]

That's incredibly expensive, probably much closer to capturing the true cost of using private automobiles. You have to keep in mind that the reality is that in North America the majority of the population is totally reliant on their cars to feed themselves and make money, so simply increasing the cost to the user to equate the cost of the service will not work. North Americans are too accustom to massively subsidized auto infrastructure, we literally do not have other ways to get around in many cases, and people are brainwashed into thinking that there aren't actually other ways to get around, besides the car.

[@tmnvanderberg]

Keep in mind that Americans drive double the distance so a price that high would have serious effects. PS laughing at your German gas price from the Netherlands ')

[@woutervanr]

@@joshwhitfield533 And then flying is way too cheap all over the world. Not only flying, but also the fuel is subsidised wayyy too much. Funny to now see some companies complain that because you have to mandotorily take a covid test on your own expense people might not have the money to fly anymore even though loads of people ALREADY wouldn't nearly have the money to fly if it actually cost what it should :D And then to see cycling and rail projects get cancelled left and right because they're expensive...ughh. Sure, you can't build everything and some project will ofcourse be too expensive, but making flying cost as much as it should and taking a good hard look at the taxes of the Amazons and Googles of the world would be a GREAT start in financing loads of projects that make the world better for everybody, not just the CEOs and their buddies.

[@StarchedPie]

@@joshwhitfield533 Here in Australia fuel excise is equivalent to 1.5usd/gal, and we are close to as car dependant and low density as the US is. It's only an issue because people in the US are used to low prices and have no reason to look for alternatives because of it. Maybe more people would care about reducing car use if they actually had to pay what it costs - they would have a reason to want public transport. Increasing the fuel tax over the course of a decade or two would give people and public transport time to catch up.

[@partyzapp1031]

A lot of parking spaces even need to be eliminated, it would be useful if those that do drive could be routed to open parking spaces. Less cars on the road overall is the hope.

[@williamkern7931]

The stunning waste presented in these videos is heartbreaking

[@definitelynotacrab7651]

Some fantastic points

[@jandejong2430]

I think America may want to have a look at some countries and cities of Europe to see what is possible w.r.t. the attractive separation of modes of traffic.

[@Bertuzz84]

Awesome series ! Lol at that slow down sign on that ultra wide road that invites speeding. Haven't Americans learned about common traffic calming measures ? They started implementing them decades ago here in the Netherlands.

[@qrzupsjohnson707]

This is a great video

[@ytd589]

Awesome video!

[@josephakendrick529]

Senor Mahron, I don't see "aesthetics", "beauty" as a choice for street design (53:00). Why? I also would love to see what you would do with the Stroad that you feature at 35:30. Perhaps what I'm saying it, what would this street look like retrofitted to become a street? Thanks for your work.

[@trent6319]

I realize this probably won't happen but a 90c gas tax is completely reasonable. Roads are extremely expensive and burning gasoline is very bad for the environment. 90c a gallon wouldn't make driving impossible but it might decrease frifolus driving and increase bussing, biking and walking.

[@pebblepod30]

That would increase electric vehicle uptake, but bike & bus & other infrastructure is the main thing preventing alternatives to car transport.

[@trent6319]

@@pebblepod30 for trains yes. Buses and bikes kinda. But if more people don't want to drive bc it's more expensive then there will be more demand for this infestructure

[@acommentator69]

Commie

[@arposkraft3616]

@12:30 o simple you just have dirt roads, which are perfectly safe at a mere 8mph crawl ;)

[@arposkraft3616]

@7:45 ... well aside from US being rich as fuck compared to the rest and the fact trains are more cost effective and the tech being there.... we have a 80 cent per liter fuel tax (reg petrol) ... so thats aprox.. lets say 3.00 euros per gallon (at current prices)... 18 cnts its ridiculous low even if you want to be on the low end of normality

[@martinmcsweeney732]

Question in sincerity... instead of a river analogy, what about the human circulatory system, or interconnected air pathways in the lungs?

[@JacobBax]

So your daughter learns to drive because she have to drive, not because she want to drive. That is sad, and maybe scary?

[@joshlikescola]

Hey, this is really good! The only thing that maybe I'd be skeptical with is that any limited acess roadway/corridor within an urban area can impact the fabric and walkability of those high intensity streets. Are there ways that planners should aim to overcome this and help to navigate local traffic across these limited acess areas without too much disruption to their journeys? How should planners go about deciding where limited acess roads should go? If anyone has any suggestions, I'd be really interested to see!

[@Account.for.Comment]

Not an urban planner besides in video games, but there is a concept that some called nudge. Without planning, society can get chaotic random problems that can' t be fixed easily. Traffic in my Southeast Asian country is absolute shit because the corrupted official threw away the legendary urban planner and sell lands. With plan, it can suffered greatly from massive oversight. The USA had giant disgusting urban sprawl, zonal code that is more akin to a prettified cancer. Nudge is simply a jargon on having a bit of both, but with bottom-up involvement while the top can watch and polish. Put a road in, to solve one problem, but nudge it a little bit at a time toward an optimal street without bringing another. Basically, don' t expect planning to fix everything and don' t expect unplanned randomness to maybe bring you solutions. All of it is finding the right tradeoff.

[@TheSpeedracer1982]

Is there a list of towns (US) that does this well?

[@falsemcnuggethope]

Sure, here

[@seanreynolds8661]

About 12:50 just to correct you, Ernest Rutherford wasn’t British: He was a New Zealander! He came from God’s country

[@mushkyzajac2514]

In Brooklyn there are two parkways that I thought of when you were talking about stroads. I grew up in Brooklyn, near Eastern Parkway, and Eastern Parkway is a wonderful street for both a pedestrian and a car driver. Today, people also bike on it, but I don't bike, so I can't comment on that. Ocean Parkway is similar, though I think Eastern Parkway is prettier. I don't think we should completely dismiss stroads.

[@mushkyzajac2514]

Now thinking about it, they may both be complete streets. Not sure.

[@wernerrietveld]

What is smart about the profile of Eastern Parkway, is that it is not so much a stroad, but it is a road in the middle, with 2 parallel streets on either side. The middle road has no parking and does not give access to any property, the parallel streets have all the street-stuff like pavements, parking spots and front doors. The central roadway could be improved a bit imo by having fewer crossings where left turns are allowed. Having said that, I where to walk or cycle regularly east-west through Crown Hights, I would choose a parallel street altogether to avoid the fumes and noise of a big road.

[@Nairda00]

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[@timmccaul]

Look at your state budgets...my State sends huge amounts in the form of hand outs to certain political groups...so much waste...