The problem is trucks use that street frequently, but turn right just before the bridge. You would end up annoying a lot of drivers for no reason, and maybe doing slight but cumulative damage to their vehicles as well.
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Forget all the “why don’t they just do this” solutions for the city- why do the trucking companies still allow their routes to go under this bridge??
One major way that the country decides to embrace its English roots comes back to bite us in the end…
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Strictly speaking, on the highways (and railways) at least, the UK doesn’t, either. Speeds are MPH, distances in miles and yards, and weight limits are in long tons (2240 lb). I don’t recall if bridge clearances are an exception or not, though.
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In the UK, bridge clearances tend to be shown in both systems.
The law is that they have to be shown in imperial, and can be shown in metric as well.
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I don’t see how the odds of startled drivers and rear-end collisions are avoided by letting the truck slam into a bridge. If the truck is braking, its taillights will signal, which won’t happen with a bridge collision.
Lots of the videos show collateral effects with other cars and startled pedestrians. Eventually someone will die, either a truck driver or someone nearby, and the victim’s family will be told it was only the driver’s fault, because the intersection is “as good as it can get”.
People are right, though. Lots of things could be different, from the paint scheme for the whole bridge, to the actual wording on the warning, to a chain bar, to a hard detour, to a traffic circle intersection, to a raised pavement pattern.
I will say, if Coca-Cola discovered that the way it was trying to get your attention wasn’t working anymore, they’d find a way that did.
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The type of high-vis gate @petzl posted above would be a better solution than hanging chains from the traffic signal. Better yet would be putting the warning gate well back before the light and just banning any tall trucks from approaching the intersection and entering the block before the bridge (including those making right turns). It’s a one-way street, and there’s no apparent reason a truck has to make a right turn before the bridge except for convenience.
You’re right, someone is eventually going to get killed because of one of those accidents and then it won’t be so amusing.
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Local delivery trucks have to turn right from Gregson onto Peabody to deliver to a number of businesses on Main. Trucks can’t turn left from Main onto Peabody - it’s a tight angle and Peabody is too narrow to make the turn.
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Thanks. What a mess!
ETA: This Google Maps 5-star review by user Chuck Pell, just posted, is great:
Come and tremble in the terrible presence of The Can Opener, The BullSplitter, Undefeated StormBridge of the House Durham, First of Its Name, the Unbent, King of the Vandals and the Worst Drivers, Kersmashy of the Great Asphalt Sea, Breaker of Trucks, and Mother of Crash Art. At last count, the score is Can Opener: 145; Trucks: zero. The latest hapless contender was 50 feet of semi-truck, which responded to the height-triggered yellow light as many would, by trying to make the light. It got almost all the way through, at the cost of its entire roof and snapping the trailer in half. There seems to be no end of drivers who dare the dash of crash, so keep an eye to the ground for ornate and grotesque truck crumbs. If you are in Durham, it is worth a visit, but please: no trucks. (Note: most insurance does NOT cover overhead crashes.)
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Indeed. A friend of mine got stuck on the rails on one of those intersections a few blocks NW of The Can Opener while swerving to avoid an accident. Took 6 hours to get it towed off of the tracks.
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Based on topography and “swerving to avoid an accident”, I’m gonna guess… the one at Swift/Broad and Main?
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I think it was Anderson, actually. But it could have been Swift. It was a long time ago.
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There is a new one accompanying every Boing Boing posting from this channel…there is already one in this thread, and there will be a new one in the next thread.
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The one on Anderson is pretty nasty too (though the traffic profile is less chaotic). I’d believe it, though based on how people drive in the area.
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Though it’s tempting to say that’s just yellow paint from Penske trucks, those are yellow signboards that were added to improve visibility. Two hours after they were installed, a box truck crashed into it.
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Well, I didn’t know that- I thought they were metric- but I suppose that is the correct way round.
Our driving licence categories have been harmonised with the rest of Europe so people holding a category B (passenger car) licence can drive vehicles weighing up to 3.5 metric tonnes, or 7716 lb. Such people can be certain that any vehicle they are legally driving can cross a bridge with a weight limit of 3.5t, or 7756 lb.
The same goes for foreign truck drivers who may only know the weight of their vehicle in metric tonnes.
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