Originally published at: The 11foot8+8 bridge claims another victim | Boing Boing
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Paging @wazroth with the bingo cards!
One of these days Penske is going to realise it might be a good idea to warn people about the can opener bridge.
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well done! sure, the truck sustained damage but the driver didn’t plow through like most others.
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I drive an RV. I know the exact height, it’s not that hard to avoid doing this unless something is not marked and anything, even if it is marked, that looks suspicious has my hazards on, my wife outside, and approach with caution.
Or, you know, find another route.
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I distinctly hear someone yell, “Fuck!”
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I like that the truck was colour-matched with the stop lights, the massive steel bar and ALL THE WARNING SIGNS!
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Two of the squares look almost the same. “If you hit this sign, you will hit that bridge”
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I’ve observed this, though the intent of the squares is quite different. (2,1) is actually more closely related to (5,5) than anything else – people suggest that the message of the overheight sign isn’t clear enough, then follow up with the suggestion that it should just be… addressed to the driver in 2nd person.
On the other hand, “if you hit this sign, you will hit that bridge” (3,2) is really about the variety of witness-signal methods that are often suggested, along with clearance bars and the like.
But you’re right, the similarity of the language is problematic. I’m not really sure how to make them more distinct from each other, especially because both suggestions come up using basically the exact language listed, but in their respective (and quite different) circumstances. Suggestions welcome! But I will also contemplate this. Could be that dropping the “If you hit this sign…” part would be adequate, since that suggestion clearly falls into the witness-signal category, but then there’d be an even greater risk of conflating the two ideas.
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They probably already do. Given the effort people put into ignoring all the warning signs and still trying to drive under our friend, I imagine that people would still do this even if the front page of the truck rental contract said:
" Do not try to drive under the Gregson bridge. If you do try to drive under it and damage the truck, we will point at this page, laugh at you, then charge you for repairs."
People are idiots.
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To be sure, the left-turn scenario makes it much harder to really lay down the throttle. (On the other hand, the warning info is much more subtle coming from the cross-street – just a DOT height sign and a truck detour pointer if I remember right. I’m surprised there aren’t more collisions from Peabody, but most of the truck traffic on that street is local.)
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I apologize if I or others posted this solution in previous episodes of the continuing adventures of the 11’8" bridge. Cat’s whiskers are famously the same width as their body, giving them precise feedback so they can decide if they can fit through a gap or not. So, just glue long whiskers the diameter’s of their vehicles to the faces of drivers. Though it’s harder to sort that decision when travelling 30mph
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The bridge may be 11’ 8” but the signs say 12’ 4”. It may have squeaked by if the latter.
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It’s 12’ 4" they raised it a while ago.
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He was just celebrating his promotion.
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I have an RV too (though I don’t drive it much with nearly $7/gal fuel around here). Do you mind describing how you know the exact height of your rig? I’d like to know the the exact height of mine by following your example.
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“+8” right
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I just measured from the top of the main RV to the ground and then from the top of the roof up to the top of the highuest point on the roof. In my case it’s a storage pod that sits higher than the air conditioner.
Some people put a straight edge like a 2x4 across the highest point on the roof with a level to make sure it’s straight and then measure from that down to the ground.
I used two measurements because it was a one person operation.
Oh and start on a level ground.
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That’s way easier than driving under successively shorter bridges.
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Great idea - Penske should fix vertical flexy-whip-antenna-like things (vertical whiskers) to the front corners of their trucks so the drivers can see them bend before anything damagable makes contact.
In fact, the entire auto industry should be required to do this to ALL vehicles just in case any of them ever go near this bridge! /s
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