Re: Pet Peeves?
 

Old guys on big Harleys who ride around with their radios blasting

Re: Pet Peeves?
 

They just put in a new roundabout in Lafayette, CA, at a former four-way stop intersection I use every day at rush hour. I was very suspicious about whether it would work or not, given the fact we live near a very large retirement community (Rossmoor) - wasn't sure if the old folks would cause it to freeze.

Anyway, it's working like a charm. They managed to put in dedicated right turn lanes, which I think has helped. The city website has a ton of video simulations...
(if that doesn't work, last link on this page:
City of Lafayette, CA : Reliez Station Road/Olympic Corridor Improvements )

Re: Pet Peeves?
 

In an area where people aren't used to roundabouts, the best place to put them is where there is lots of traffic, then everyone has to do the right thing, in your example you won't, hopefully, :fingerscrossed: get elderly people trying to turn left on the roundabout and go the wrong way. ..... It can take a while for most people to get used to the entry to a roundabout being a yield, not a STOP; some people never seem to get it. :(

Re: Pet Peeves?
 

Young guys in diesel fed trucks with after market pipes that wake you up when they get home at 2am in the morning. Especially when they sit in their driveway with the engine running. They must have a problem turning the key off I guess:unsure:


Tossers:thumbdown:

Re: Pet Peeves?
 

This is one of our roundabouts and the first and likely the busiest, something like 24,000 cars a day use it.

It been in use since 2010 and people are slowly getting better at using it. As long as a semi isn't trying to use it, traffic keeps moving pretty good.





Evans Road Connector - City of Chilliwack

Re: Pet Peeves?
 

I had a neighbor like that once. He worked a swing shift, he'd come home around midnight in his GMC Denali and sit in the cab for half an hour engine running, radio loud talking on his cell.

I retaliated by letting our Shepherd out at 4.15 AM when I got up for work and the dog would go nuts, barking his head off at the raccoons in the trees next to his bedroom window at the side of the fence.

He had the nerve to come over and complain about he dog so I explained the issues I had. He apologized and the problems on both sides ended there

Re: Pet Peeves?
 

After last night I wish we still had our loud Harley. I would happily stay up until the early hours revving up the engine:nod:

Re: Pet Peeves?
 

Roundabouts are not uncommon at the end of motorways but I can't think of one that intersects a motorway although there are some weird and wonderful junctions where motorways intersect (there was a time I used to cover a fair few miles on UK roads, 250 mile days were not uncommon). I would be surprised if there are any more than 4 roundabouts intersecting mainline motorways throughout the whole of the UK. Grade separated roundabouts are extremely common ways of sending traffic on it's way at the on/off ramps but they do not occur on the 'mainline' of the motorway.

I have yet to encounter anything in the UK like the multi lane highways through (for example) Atlanta, Houston and even my local city, Tampa, no doubt larger US metro areas have 6+ lanes on their highways as well.

Re: Pet Peeves?
 

Some of our freeways are pretty dated. They were built postwar and the lanes are narrow and limited in number. The Long Beach freeway for example and the San Pedro freeway to the Port of Los Angeles are pretty hairy to drive on with the sheer number of big 18 wheelers competing for space. I had to use the L.B Freeway for a few years commuting back and forth to a job and hated every moment I had to drive on it
The Pasadena freeway opened in 1940, the first one. The on ramps are about fifty feet long with stop signs at the end which means you really need something like a Maserati to get you on to it from a standing start or otherwise run the risk of being rear ended.
Once clear of the LA area however, 30 miles out that is, then driving becomes pretty tolerable.

The last bad driving experience I had was coming home from Vegas on the Labour Day weekend. There are about six lanes leaving Vegas but by the time it reaches Jean on the Nev-Cal border it narrows down to two. It's about 245 miles Vegas to my house on the I-15 but was literally bumper to bumper the whole way back... 7 and a half hours behind the wheel without a stop :ohmy:

Re: Pet Peeves?
 

Motorways, by definition, don't have any at-grade junctions other than slip roads, and of course where they end, in most cases.

Re: Pet Peeves?
 

Several years ago, on a trip back to the UK, we needed to renew our visa stamps in London. The trip back from Grosvenor Sq to my parents home in Birmingham (about 115 miles) took over 6 hours via the M1.

There was about 40 miles of non-stop road works where they had reduced both carriageways to 2 lanes. Of course, nobody actually working though.

Re: Pet Peeves?
 

Good old roadworks.

I don't think there has been a day since I moved here nearly 12 years ago, where they haven't been working on some part of I-94 in Wisconsin :lol:

Re: Pet Peeves?
 

Maybe they were held up in traffic.

Re: Pet Peeves?
 

There are a couple of junctions between motorways where motorway conditions still exist all the way through an apparent roundabout (road signs all in white text in blue being the major clue). One is when you leave the A1M travelling north and join the M18.

Re: Pet Peeves?
 

I believe the M12 in NI has a roundabout where motorway conditions exist where it connects to the M1.