Highway barriers

I don't remember the name of them but those wire death cables they've been stretching all up and down the highway for several years now.

When they started puting them on our little stretch of I-75 when I lived in Ohio it was because of the high number of trucks crossing the median and going head on.

Well yesterday on my way to Nashville a semi came right through the wire crossed the median and traveled east bound in the west bound fast lane for I'd say a good three hundred feet or so before getting it shut down and pulled back into the median. Luckily no one was hit.

There was another stretch ripped down about twenty miles up the road and the tire tracks in the median lead straight into the west bound lane as well.

Everything I've been told or heard or read said that these thing would stop a semi from going head on I've always had my doubts and now I have proof.

Anyway stay safe and watch out for sleeping truckers.

Yeah, I don't see how those cables are going to stop a semi truck. I guess that's evidence that they can't.

Agreed they don't do squat. I saw a 5th wheel camper which for lack of a better term 'fell over' a set of them and landed in the opposite lane. That's in a part of I-26 where the trees were removed because they were 'too deadly'. Yeah, I can't figure that one out either. The dumbest part of that: there are sections where all the old growth big pines were removed, and damn if the SCDHPT didn't plant cedars, hardwoods etc in their place. What the hell, it's only taxpayers' money, right?

The Feds have a liking for the things: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/research/deployment/cable.cfm They note that they are cheaper for initial installation but require much more maintenance and repair than concrete barriers.

Those cables terrify me when I ride my motorcycle.

I would much rather see concrete or solid metal barriers.

Just yeterday I saw a honda accord that had for some unknown reason spun and went into those cables backwards. About 75 yards of ripped up cable and flattened posts and a shredded car. The car stayed on the right side of the highway, but if an accord can do that much damage, I can easily see something not much bigger going straight through the cables.

I saw a Fiero rip under one. Bad JuJu.

Those cable fences need to be outlawed. They're almost useless and are very deadly, especially to motorcycles. Saw the result of a minor accident, where the rider didn't make it and the bike was hardly damaged. Not good. I think a few feet of pea gravel (or something similar) would be much safer. Maybe even some type of nylon webbing, similar to a window net. Big steel cables are just dumb. Most of the time, tractor trailers go right over or through those things like they aren't even there..

They are installed along Alligator Alley (I-75) because there are deep canals along the road. The cables are connected to sensors that will trip strobe lights if hit, so hopefully drivers can be rescued when they go in the canal. Have no idea how successful they are.

We've had those here for at least 40 yeears that I know of. They prevented me from plunging a few hundred feet into a ravine with my mom's new Zephyr back in 78.

ncjay wrote: Not good. I think a few feet of pea gravel (or something similar) would be much safer.

Wouldn't do anything with a couple feet of snow on the ground.

One time, I saw a Stratus somehow make a right angle turn on a stretch of I-90, fly down the median, fly up the other side, fly OVER the oncoming lane (threading neatly through traffic), and come to a stop against the cyclone fence on the other side, all the while slowly piroutetting. The foot of snow didn't seem to slow him down one bit.

It happened quickly enough that, by the time I went past, I saw the guy getting out of the car. It only started about a quarter mile up the road from me.

I work with a traffic planner, and he works predominantly with traffic engineers.

It is really scary how much that transportation industry is loaded with folks who just follow protocol and policy, regurgitate old information, and just continue what they've been doing (badly) for 60 years. Part of it is the limitations that the Fed and State governments put on design, and unfortunately you have many local roads that follow the format of the big brothers.

It isn't until you get into really big urban areas with really complex traffic systems that you start to see some progressive designs. Better control over drive speed, better light timing, better accommodation for alternative transportation (bikes, peds, buses).

What I'm always amazed about is the lack of changes to deer control and median planting strips.

You'd think that there would be some way of planting NATIVE species in a median that would grow large enough to slow a vehicle down, but no larger. Some sort of tree that only gets 3" in diameter.

Second, its amazing how much money is lost in damages due to deer strikes. When I was in New Brunswick, the major highways all had fencing with one-way gates. A deer couldn't get into the roadway, but if whatever reason it was, it could get out. Why can't we do that here?

PHeller wrote: Second, its amazing how much money is lost in damages due to deer strikes. When I was in New Brunswick, the major highways all had fencing with one-way gates. A deer couldn't get into the roadway, but if whatever reason it was, it could get out. Why can't we do that here?

The deer here get around the fencing, but get stuck when they can't figure out how to get back. Then they try crossing four lanes of Interstate and then can't get over the median divider to get over the other four.

I'm in Ohio. There are probably as many deer as squirrels. Just because you're in a city doesn't mean you won't hit deer.

Curmudgeon wrote: The dumbest part of that: there are sections where all the old growth big pines were removed, and damn if the SCDHPT didn't plant cedars, hardwoods etc in their place. What the hell, it's only taxpayers' money, right?

I wish I had a dollar for every nursery tree the govt planted in place of native, natural trees that were ripped out to make room for them. Yay, govt waste and stupidity.

A fence has to be really tall to stop a deer.

They can jump pretty high. A regular fence means nothing.

PHeller wrote: When I was in New Brunswick, the major highways all had fencing with one-way gates. A deer couldn't get into the roadway, but if whatever reason it was, it could get out. Why can't we do that here?

I thought those fences were for moose?

They primarily piss me off because what was once a big median safe for breakdown work is now a deathtrap if you need to fix a flat tire.

PHeller wrote: You'd think that there would be some way of planting NATIVE species in a median that would grow large enough to slow a vehicle down, but no larger. Some sort of tree that only gets 3" in diameter.

I live in B.C. and we're getting the cable barries here now. I doubt they will do anything.

I -would- be willing to bet that a 20' wide mass of nice, dense blackbery brambles planted all the way along the median would slow a car down quite well.

They grow like weeds out here and can be managed with a flail mower, just like the grass in the ditches.

Shawn

As a motorcyclist, they scare the piss out of me.

I've had a friend slide into those wires in her Focus. Spun the car around and destroyed every body panel on it. a traditional rail would've dented a fender.

Michigan has also installed them incorrectly. We have them less than 6' from the white shoulder line. per installation instructions, should be in the center of median. MDOT said we have too much water in the medians and we'll do it our way. (So I've been told)

I've seen a rider get jammed up under armco barriers as well. I can imagine anything except for a nice big empty field would be very bad for a biker to go down on.

It's too bad the highway designers way back when didn't think of runoff area and Armco type barriers. If you look at many highways, the median is just not wide enough for the average idiot to be able to use to come to a safe stop. So now we are stuck with those damn cables as a stopgap type thing.

Cables aren't new, they're old. No system is perfect, but overall it works a lot better than the W rails do. Both are probably equally nasty to a motorcycle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp-AkaQt5iY&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5axpBcwkXD0&feature=related

Somewhere on youtube is a really cool old video article on cable guard rails involving a TR3.

One nice thing related to highway safety hardware that came from one of "our" guys is the ~Fitch Barrier~

I'm sure most of you have seen them (but here's a photo below)

~Fitch's Bio~

In reply to foxtrapper:

Not new but only recently being installed in the places I've lived.

Well proven at race tracks.

In Vermont we have natural ledge in the medians of most of our Interstates (All both of them). The feds wanted to blast the ledge away as being to dangerous but our congressional team came out in favor of NOT WASTING our money to remove them.

They installed cable barriers along I-95 near me in PA. Nope. They don't seem to stop E36 M3... And they are repairing them every other month or so.