In general the data seems to suggest that yes, total crashes at the intersection will decrease (CMF = 0.8). CMF stands for Crash Modification Factor. Right-angle crashes will decrease (CMF = 0.67) and are generally more severe than rear-end crashes. Rear-end crashes may increase though (CMF = 1.45). Both groups generally tend to loudly argue their own point and both may be correct without listening to the whole safety argument.
See http://www.cmfclearinghouse.org/about.cfm and then search for "red light" and you'll see what I mean.
All of this doesn't sort out the monetary costs and privacy aspects of the programs, but the safety data is reasonably easy to figure out so they can stop arguing over it.
From Merriam-Webster:
Parody - a literary or musical work in which the style of an author or work is closely imitated for comic effect or in ridicule.
Seems like the example videos with the altered subtitles fits that description to me.
Actually, the equivalent single axle load (ESAL) is 0.000019425 for the Fit and 0.0007716 for the F-150 (assuming equal distribution on axles). So really that F-150 does over 39 times the damage the Fit does. To be fair though, that's nothing compared to semis for which the legal single axle load is 18,000lbs for an ESAL of 1.0. Either way though, it doesn't take away from the fact they are doing the same amount of damage by traveling the same number of miles they were previously, and paying less to do so which is the entire point of the VMT tax.
ESALs explained. http://pavementinteractive.org/index.php?title=ESAL
Since it doesn't look like anybody actually READ the report Oregon put out on milage taxes I'll provide a link to the report. The reports themselves are in the top right of the page.
http://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/HWY/RUFPP/mileage.shtml
They realize there is a privacy issue. Transportation Research Board (TRB) who conducts millions of dollars of research each year realizes there is a privacy issue. They are working on it. Please stop yelling "The sky is falling" so loudly and let's have a well informed, civil discussion about this. The gas tax hasn't been increased in ~20 years, so we'll have to pay for new roads somehow. If you hadn't received a raise in 20 years you'd be looking for new sources of income too. On top of that, vehicles are getting more miles to the gallon (a good thing), but are still damaging the road the same amount and paying less to do so (a bad thing).
Either way, I think I'm late to this discussion, but they are worthwhile reports to read and should be attached to every discussion on this topic.
I'd guess this paper should be read too, but I haven't read it myself.
http://financecommission.dot.gov/Documents/NSTIF_Commission_Final_Report_Mar09FNL.pdf
You're right in that we want strong and durable concrete. As another poster pointed out we are constantly changing the concrete mix proportions and admixtures. Admixes themselves are relatively new (~50 years) in the grand scheme of making concrete. It gets introduced slowly...and the universities then test it beyond belief for different properties. Maybe you'd like to be a grad student in civil engineering and make hundreds, or perhaps thousands of ever so slightly different mixes to determine the properties of your variable.
I'm all for making concrete more "green" and I figure the universities and companies will test it before they use it in important projects.
I'm not sure that's the best analogy, although I'm sure mine is not much better.
With yours generally somebody ELSE is accusing them of murder. GP's claim is one that is filed by the person, in their example rape. Perhaps a better version is "A person is accused of murder. They have previously been GUILTY of murder in the past, but in this case the person actually did NOT commit a murder this time." Is the jury likely to know this? I'm guessing it gets brought up in court. Just like I think prior accusations of rape should be.
Note: I've seen how destructive accusations of rape can be to somebody, even if acquitted in the end. Yes, the accuser had a history of accusations.
Somewhere behind the "city" is hopefully a professional engineer (P.E.) who had to sign off on all of this. That's who's going to care if you find his/her timings are set incorrectly either on purpose or accidentally. And once it has been brought to their attention they had better be going to change it. So no, the politicians may or may not care about the signal timing, but their P.E. should.
Maybe it's just me, but I'm of the opinion if you know something is wrong and have the means to fight it, do so. That would be one less signal timed incorrectly, but there are a lot of citizens, and only a few people in government. It all adds up. The government "works for us." Make them. I'm sure I don't know about other parts of government, but I'm hoping those who do will speak up and change it if it's wrong.
When it becomes well known the lights aren't timed correctly they are all going to fight them, which means all of those cases are going to get tied up in the judicial system. Yes it takes our time, but it also takes the city's time to lose each of them.
"Engineers shall hold paramount the safety, health and welfare of the public and shall strive to comply with the principles of sustainable development in the performance of their professional duties" from the ASCE code of ethics. If the P.E. gets called out for intentionally shorting the yellow interval they are in a world of trouble in staying licensed.
Your third paragraph is on a tangent, I'll leave it be. And don't worry about ranting as long as you have coherent thoughts to discuss.
In which case you go Here and then show up in court with the light's timings. Should be fairly easy to get it dismissed, and then figure out who shortened it to get them to change it.
Yes, that's a known problem. Which is why taxation per mile or by toll roads is an option. And as somebody above pointed out - the current gas tax can't pay for much anymore. It's drastically too low. On the flip side, it's political suicide to suggest raising the gas tax to a reasonable amount.
Assuming you were traveling at the posted speed limit and that the clearance interval timing was within the legal limits you shouldn't have to break as hard as you say you must. The downtown loop may have been re-timed within the last 3 years as well.
The whole Kansas City area is in the midst of re-timing many of the traffic lights on arterial streets. See Operation Green Light for more information.
I always thought Bill Brown and his work on the Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon series was excellent. It seems he's also worked on Quake, C&C Generals, and RTCW.
http://billbrownmusic.com/
I second the minimum requirements part. Just because you can run the game for the first 20 or 30 minutes doesn't mean you can run the entire game. Maybe the late game gets flashier and takes more power to run, or if you're playing for over an hour and there is a small memory leak in the game and you have to restart every 45 min.
I generally look at the recommended specs as the "minimum requirements" anymore because of the above problems. I'd also agree that running the game on low settings, while it may work for short periods of time, often isn't worth it.
Mod GP up. He's so correct with "Otherwise, we'd be moving everything we could via railroad, not road." You realize how many long-haul truckers there are in the States? More than is needed. Most of these could be moved to rail which is much more energy efficient. I agree that you would still need trucks for local and short deliveries, but so much of the industry is long haul or multi-state trucking. They have rail cars that you can just pick up the trailer off the rail car and hook it right up to the truck for the first few miles to the rail yard and the last few miles from the rail yard. At least that's my understanding of it.
While I agree with your Yellow interval explanation, I disagree with your All-Red one. The Yellow time should give enough time to clear the intersection alone without the All-Red added to it. This may depend on your area laws though if you have to be clear of the intersection by the start of red or if you can be in the intersection at the start of the red. I think most areas assume you are clear of the intersection at the start of the All-Red though.
An All-Red of 6 seconds would greatly lower your Level of Service (LOS) of that intersection I would think. Most All-Reds that I am familiar with are 1 or 2 seconds long. Obviously there are a few with higher speeds or different geometries that are longer though.
I'm not sure you're reading that right. Your response is purely genetic. This limb issue is technology that is being added to make him better than his competition.
My initial thought was that you can't make it fair. Two separate competitions would have to be held, one with technology, and one without. Unless somebody else came up with a way to make it fair, which is what I was trying to get people to suggest if they could.
How would the Olympics make it fair for him to compete? Either he's too fast with the new artificial leg and he can't compete or they could tell him to use a leg that isn't as good and then he may not be fast enough.
I was thinking along the lines of "something companies don't make drivers for."
In my defense, the last two or three summers I have given Linux (Ubuntu) a go. I still hit hardware (ATI, Creative's X-Fi) and software (iTunes + iPod) that can't be easily replicated or adjusted to a novice Linux user.
It's gotten better though.
I forgot to mention I use Radeon's 9800 video card, not NVidia. How do you send PMs on/.? I can't find it for the life of me. I'd contact you or you can contact me since you seem to know how. I usually just lurk and moderate.
Slashdot Mirror
Nobody's made a Command & Conquer NOD laser fence reference yet?
In general the data seems to suggest that yes, total crashes at the intersection will decrease (CMF = 0.8). CMF stands for Crash Modification Factor. Right-angle crashes will decrease (CMF = 0.67) and are generally more severe than rear-end crashes. Rear-end crashes may increase though (CMF = 1.45). Both groups generally tend to loudly argue their own point and both may be correct without listening to the whole safety argument. See http://www.cmfclearinghouse.org/about.cfm and then search for "red light" and you'll see what I mean. All of this doesn't sort out the monetary costs and privacy aspects of the programs, but the safety data is reasonably easy to figure out so they can stop arguing over it.
Why don't you call up your local jurisdiction and tell them of your findings? The yellow interval has to be at least 3 seconds long.
From Merriam-Webster: Parody - a literary or musical work in which the style of an author or work is closely imitated for comic effect or in ridicule. Seems like the example videos with the altered subtitles fits that description to me.
Actually, the equivalent single axle load (ESAL) is 0.000019425 for the Fit and 0.0007716 for the F-150 (assuming equal distribution on axles). So really that F-150 does over 39 times the damage the Fit does. To be fair though, that's nothing compared to semis for which the legal single axle load is 18,000lbs for an ESAL of 1.0. Either way though, it doesn't take away from the fact they are doing the same amount of damage by traveling the same number of miles they were previously, and paying less to do so which is the entire point of the VMT tax. ESALs explained. http://pavementinteractive.org/index.php?title=ESAL
Since it doesn't look like anybody actually READ the report Oregon put out on milage taxes I'll provide a link to the report. The reports themselves are in the top right of the page. http://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/HWY/RUFPP/mileage.shtml They realize there is a privacy issue. Transportation Research Board (TRB) who conducts millions of dollars of research each year realizes there is a privacy issue. They are working on it. Please stop yelling "The sky is falling" so loudly and let's have a well informed, civil discussion about this. The gas tax hasn't been increased in ~20 years, so we'll have to pay for new roads somehow. If you hadn't received a raise in 20 years you'd be looking for new sources of income too. On top of that, vehicles are getting more miles to the gallon (a good thing), but are still damaging the road the same amount and paying less to do so (a bad thing). Either way, I think I'm late to this discussion, but they are worthwhile reports to read and should be attached to every discussion on this topic. I'd guess this paper should be read too, but I haven't read it myself. http://financecommission.dot.gov/Documents/NSTIF_Commission_Final_Report_Mar09FNL.pdf
You're right in that we want strong and durable concrete. As another poster pointed out we are constantly changing the concrete mix proportions and admixtures. Admixes themselves are relatively new (~50 years) in the grand scheme of making concrete. It gets introduced slowly...and the universities then test it beyond belief for different properties. Maybe you'd like to be a grad student in civil engineering and make hundreds, or perhaps thousands of ever so slightly different mixes to determine the properties of your variable. I'm all for making concrete more "green" and I figure the universities and companies will test it before they use it in important projects.
I'm not sure that's the best analogy, although I'm sure mine is not much better. With yours generally somebody ELSE is accusing them of murder. GP's claim is one that is filed by the person, in their example rape. Perhaps a better version is "A person is accused of murder. They have previously been GUILTY of murder in the past, but in this case the person actually did NOT commit a murder this time." Is the jury likely to know this? I'm guessing it gets brought up in court. Just like I think prior accusations of rape should be. Note: I've seen how destructive accusations of rape can be to somebody, even if acquitted in the end. Yes, the accuser had a history of accusations.
Somewhere behind the "city" is hopefully a professional engineer (P.E.) who had to sign off on all of this. That's who's going to care if you find his/her timings are set incorrectly either on purpose or accidentally. And once it has been brought to their attention they had better be going to change it. So no, the politicians may or may not care about the signal timing, but their P.E. should. Maybe it's just me, but I'm of the opinion if you know something is wrong and have the means to fight it, do so. That would be one less signal timed incorrectly, but there are a lot of citizens, and only a few people in government. It all adds up. The government "works for us." Make them. I'm sure I don't know about other parts of government, but I'm hoping those who do will speak up and change it if it's wrong. When it becomes well known the lights aren't timed correctly they are all going to fight them, which means all of those cases are going to get tied up in the judicial system. Yes it takes our time, but it also takes the city's time to lose each of them. "Engineers shall hold paramount the safety, health and welfare of the public and shall strive to comply with the principles of sustainable development in the performance of their professional duties" from the ASCE code of ethics. If the P.E. gets called out for intentionally shorting the yellow interval they are in a world of trouble in staying licensed. Your third paragraph is on a tangent, I'll leave it be. And don't worry about ranting as long as you have coherent thoughts to discuss.
In which case you go Here and then show up in court with the light's timings. Should be fairly easy to get it dismissed, and then figure out who shortened it to get them to change it.
Yes, that's a known problem. Which is why taxation per mile or by toll roads is an option. And as somebody above pointed out - the current gas tax can't pay for much anymore. It's drastically too low. On the flip side, it's political suicide to suggest raising the gas tax to a reasonable amount.
Assuming you were traveling at the posted speed limit and that the clearance interval timing was within the legal limits you shouldn't have to break as hard as you say you must. The downtown loop may have been re-timed within the last 3 years as well. The whole Kansas City area is in the midst of re-timing many of the traffic lights on arterial streets. See Operation Green Light for more information.
I always thought Bill Brown and his work on the Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon series was excellent. It seems he's also worked on Quake, C&C Generals, and RTCW. http://billbrownmusic.com/
I second the minimum requirements part. Just because you can run the game for the first 20 or 30 minutes doesn't mean you can run the entire game. Maybe the late game gets flashier and takes more power to run, or if you're playing for over an hour and there is a small memory leak in the game and you have to restart every 45 min. I generally look at the recommended specs as the "minimum requirements" anymore because of the above problems. I'd also agree that running the game on low settings, while it may work for short periods of time, often isn't worth it.
Mod GP up. He's so correct with "Otherwise, we'd be moving everything we could via railroad, not road." You realize how many long-haul truckers there are in the States? More than is needed. Most of these could be moved to rail which is much more energy efficient. I agree that you would still need trucks for local and short deliveries, but so much of the industry is long haul or multi-state trucking. They have rail cars that you can just pick up the trailer off the rail car and hook it right up to the truck for the first few miles to the rail yard and the last few miles from the rail yard. At least that's my understanding of it.
Interesting, thanks for the reply. Yea for learning more fine points while I'm still in school.
While I agree with your Yellow interval explanation, I disagree with your All-Red one. The Yellow time should give enough time to clear the intersection alone without the All-Red added to it. This may depend on your area laws though if you have to be clear of the intersection by the start of red or if you can be in the intersection at the start of the red. I think most areas assume you are clear of the intersection at the start of the All-Red though. An All-Red of 6 seconds would greatly lower your Level of Service (LOS) of that intersection I would think. Most All-Reds that I am familiar with are 1 or 2 seconds long. Obviously there are a few with higher speeds or different geometries that are longer though.
I hope there is at least a second of all red at the lights in your location for others' sake.
The transmission lines and interstate network are also part of the national infrastructure. Hard to scan IDs when you walk by those.
The article itself exists, I got to it before it was Slashdotted. Is the article a hoax? I am unsure.
I'm not sure you're reading that right. Your response is purely genetic. This limb issue is technology that is being added to make him better than his competition. My initial thought was that you can't make it fair. Two separate competitions would have to be held, one with technology, and one without. Unless somebody else came up with a way to make it fair, which is what I was trying to get people to suggest if they could.
How would the Olympics make it fair for him to compete? Either he's too fast with the new artificial leg and he can't compete or they could tell him to use a leg that isn't as good and then he may not be fast enough.
My Big XII University just added Open Office to all the lab computers within the past year, although I've yet to see anybody use Open Office.
I was thinking along the lines of "something companies don't make drivers for." In my defense, the last two or three summers I have given Linux (Ubuntu) a go. I still hit hardware (ATI, Creative's X-Fi) and software (iTunes + iPod) that can't be easily replicated or adjusted to a novice Linux user. It's gotten better though.
I forgot to mention I use Radeon's 9800 video card, not NVidia. How do you send PMs on /.? I can't find it for the life of me. I'd contact you or you can contact me since you seem to know how. I usually just lurk and moderate.