How well are your roads designed?

I bet this guy needed a new set of shorts after waking up to. . . . Well take a look.

Edit: No one was hurt in this accident.

http://forums.corner-carvers.com/showpost.php?p=861685&postcount=31

Edit: If the photos are not visible I will direct hot link them. I am not sure if non members can see them.

Have you ever looked at the construction of the road around you? I have and there are some really scary things out there.

Well, is that worse than the Firebird dude that launched hinself into the overpass on the guardrails that bend down? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKrAlZ76nYU

Maybe try to stay awake.........

I thought that was an attempted suicide?

The same exact thing happened to my stepdad.

Except, it wasn't a guardrail, it was the top pole of a chainlink fence. And it didn't miss him.

Fortunately, he got sent to a really good oral surgery clinic to have his face/jaw put back together.

Funny/sappy: My mom worked there. With his face all bolted together, he asked her out. He later told me that there's no way any reasonable girl would say no. Well, it worked, and they got married about eight years later.

PS - You do NOT mention to him the concepts of driving or being tired in the same sentence...

Now that I know no one was hurt in that ... I can say that I think that is just awesome. If he had the presence of mind to floor it he could have had the equivalent of a playdoh spaghetti machine noodling out guardrail for miles.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: Now that I know no one was hurt in that ....

Good point I should have noted that in the post. I will do that.

Given where the rail went through, one of the first things taken out would have been the MAF. Actually, I'd be surprised if it didn't shear the plug wires off, looks like it got awfully close to the engine.

Streetwise Guy wrote: Well, is that worse than the Firebird dude that launched himself into the overpass on the guardrails that bend down? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKrAlZ76nYU Maybe try to stay awake.........

BTW: If you look carefully at the video he launches him self off the earthen berm not the guardrail. Once the car was air born it just clips the the guardrail and it rotated the car just enough to save his life. The guardrail actually saved him it did not launch him. Quite spectacular in either case.

dean1484 wrote: Have you ever looked at the construction of the road around you? I have and there are some really scary things out there.

Mmmhmm. From the same sort of impaling guard rails, to green left turn arrows that don't mean go, complicated traffic circles with multi-lane crossovers, one traffic circle with a stop sign in it, negative banked turns that include raised railroad tracks, etc.

over the past few years they've been installing guard rails along I-95 near me. Presumably this a safety step to prevent people from making u-turns into the middle of on coming traffic.

However, this being south Florida, every time it rains, people forget how to drive. so where they used too just spin off the road and get stuck in the mud in the medians, now they bounce off said guard rails and back into traffic, generally taking out two or three other vehicles with them.

Im still trying to figure out where the safety part comes into play....

I thought it rained every afternoon in florida (certainly did when I was there)

I know here in NJ they are installing these bulky multilinked, sliding ends on the barricades that have soft plastic in the middle. The idea is that they will collapse rather than impale

924guy wrote: over the past few years they've been installing guard rails along I-95 near me. Presumably this a safety step to prevent people from making u-turns into the middle of on coming traffic. However, this being south Florida, every time it rains, people forget how to drive. so where they used too just spin off the road and get stuck in the mud in the medians, now they bounce off said guard rails and back into traffic, generally taking out two or three other vehicles with them. Im still trying to figure out where the safety part comes into play....

I'll guess that's to keep them from crossing into the oncoming traffic. It's probably better to collide with cars that are going the same direction, than with cars that are coming at you at 60mph...

How about the Cable barriers-maybe great for something with big flat sides, but I would sure hate to hit one on a bike or in my Miata.

MrJoshua wrote: How about the Cable barriers-maybe great for something with big flat sides, but I would sure hate to hit one on a bike or in my Miata.

We have these now for over 300kms on highway 2 in Alberta (runs North-South, second busiest highway in Canada). I personally think they are great. The cables essentially wrap the vehicle, bringing it to a halt in the middle of the road. There is virtually no WAY a head on collision can happen now. And from what I understand, cheap to fix

Yum! Suburbankabob!

If people actually perceive roads as dangerous, maybe they'll slow down.

Nah.

924guy wrote: over the past few years they've been installing guard rails along I-95 near me. Presumably this a safety step to prevent people from making u-turns into the middle of on coming traffic. However, this being south Florida, every time it rains, people forget how to drive. so where they used too just spin off the road and get stuck in the mud in the medians, now they bounce off said guard rails and back into traffic, generally taking out two or three other vehicles with them. Im still trying to figure out where the safety part comes into play....

Senior citizens don't have very good balance. Imagine the injuries that would occur if all those retirees had to try to walk across a muddy median....

There's all kinds of stuff out there on the side of the road that can kill you, both manmade and natural. For instance, a guy I know flipped his RX7 on the Dragon. While he was crawling out of the car, a snake bit him on the hand.

Anyway, I think there should be a reasonable amount of safety built into things like this. But the driver needs to hold up their end of the deal as well by paying attention and not driving drunk, tired etc.

HiTempguy wrote:

MrJoshua wrote: How about the Cable barriers-maybe great for something with big flat sides, but I would sure hate to hit one on a bike or in my Miata.

We have these now for over 300kms on highway 2 in Alberta (runs North-South, second busiest highway in Canada). I personally think they are great. The cables essentially wrap the vehicle, bringing it to a halt in the middle of the road. There is virtually no WAY a head on collision can happen now. And from what I understand, cheap to fix

It's funny.. we had cable barriers for a LONG time here in NJ. basically a post supporting a couple of cables. They got phased out for concrete dividers and the impaling metal ones

mad_machine wrote: I thought it rained every afternoon in florida (certainly did when I was there)

pretty much... and everyday, there are crashes from it on I-95. Ive seen people literally jam on the brakes and come to a full stop in the middle of the highway(that was just moving at 70-80 mph) when they hit a rain curtain, chaos generally ensues...

I went to a very similar accident a few years ago.

This guy hit a heavy wooden guardrail in a parking lot with a brand new Jetta. The top rail went through the radiator on an angle and past the side of engine, came through the dash, went between the front seats and came to stop in the open and half empty 30 pack of Bud Light in the back seat.

The car was a loaner from the local VW dealership.

wow, suburbans are pretty badass to take out all those posts, be impailed, and continue that far.

lucky kid

Nothing here says anything about road design being dangerous. Moral of this story is: don't fall asleep at the wheel!!!

David

that guardrail was constructed wrong. that bent end should be on the traffic direction end of the rail. the end that cars might hit are supposed to have a cap on them that curls the rail backwards rather than slicing through the vehicle.

DWNSHFT wrote: Nothing here says anything about road design being dangerous. Moral of this story is: don't fall asleep at the wheel!!! David

I said that the road is dangerous. It is. Take a close look at how things are designed when you are out driving. Around here alot of the interstates are from the 50's. Remember the old steel guardrails that use to be used to seperate state highways? Ever seen what happens to a motorcyclist that crashes and then slides on to one of those "at speed". It is messy at best. Think human cheese grater. The new design is to use cast in place concrete jersey barriers. This drastically reduces the injuries sustained by cyclist when the crash (yes, when not if). This is technology and highway design moving forward to lesson the risk and associated danger of highway travel.

Highway design has come along way in 60 years. The worst part is that in many rural towns they just replace in kind with there own work force. No engineering or inspection involved. This results in brand new 60 year old technology. Look at airbags in cars. By your logic why do we need them? Just don't get in an accident. The answer is we need them because they save lives. As do properly designed highways. Older highways are dangerous because of here design.

You can argue that just staying awake would solve the problem but it is a fact of life that people will fall asleep or reach for the cell phone or get distracted by a kid in the back seat. It is called an accident for a reason. Most people I know don't wake up in the morning and plan on a car crash. (I do have one guy I know but he is a tad strange)

I am just pointing out that had the guardrail been installed with a different end treatment it would eliminate the potential for a deadly accident. Suburban Kabobs are entertaining. People Kabobs cause lawsuits. Had the kid been hurt I can see cause for legal action against those that installed that guard rail.

I believe that the recent designs of guard rails that came up out of the soil at an angle have been discontinued. Some one told me that they were causing rollovers and / or could launch a car onto on coming traffic when they were used in brakes in the rail in the median (think traffic light in a divided highway)

The other side of the problem is who is going to pay to upgrade all this infrastructure. This stuff is designed with a 30-50 year service life. so stuff put in in the 70 and 80's is still in very good serviceable condition and with the economy the way it is you can be sure that these kinds of upgrades are very low on the list.