Mike on Traffic

Gorilla Tape for Tube Counts

We have tried every imaginable way to keep our tube counter hoses from bouncing on the road.  We had settled on wrapping nylon webbing around the tubes and nailing the webbing into the road.  This has worked very well for us over the last few years.  For a while we used duct tape (Ace Hardware brand worked best) to tape the tubes onto the road.  Unfortunately, the duct tape wore out fast and usually came unstuck in a day or two.  It works ok in residential areas with low speeds and low volumes.  We aren't fans of mastic and other things the industry uses.

Ron in our office picked up a roll of Gorilla Tape at Home Depot a few weeks ago and used it to tape down a few tubes as a test.  This stuff is amazing and we highly recommend it.  We are on the sixth day of a seven day count at 9 locations and the tape looks like it is brand new (I hope I didn't just jinx us).  Ditto for a bunch of 48 hour counts we did two weeks ago on high speed/high volume highways.  We don't think it will work well on cold roads during the winter, but for the summer months we are sold on Gorilla Tape!

Signal Timing Manual - Free!!!

FHWA (Federal Highway Administration) has responded to poor signal timing in the U.S. by putting together a comprehensive Signal Timing Manual.  This is the most thorough document I have seen on traffic signal timing.  It covers every aspect of traffic signals - policy/funding, signal design, timing plan design, implementation, and maintenance.  The hardest part is getting the funding to cut the technicians and engineers loose.

Saga of a New Access on a County Road

Here is the story of a common sense approach to gaining approvals for an access that doesn't meet the letter of the law (the county's access spacing guidelines).

I have been working on a project for about a year that just received its final government approvals.  It is a 150 acre development that will have up to 1.9 million square feet of office space, 100,000 square feet of commercial/retail space, and 1,100 apartment/condo units.  The site straddles a north/south county road and is adjacent to the south side of a freeway.  This is a developing area of a second ring suburb that does not have heavy traffic yet, even though the freeway/county road system has been built for significant traffic growth.

The developer believes an access point on the county road approximately 550 feet south of the freeway interchange is integral to getting the development started.  This does not meet the county's access spacing guidelines and I raised this flag at the beginning of the project.  We met with county engineering staff (facilitated by the city's engineering staff) and the county staff said they would consider the access if we could prove it would work with simulations in the year 2030 with full build-out.  We went through an extensive forecasting and SimTraffic simulation effort and to everyone's surprise we came up with a road design where this sub-standard, major access could function without traffic backing up between the closely spaced intersections.  After months of effort, county staff then raised objections because the models don't account for the safety impacts of weaving traffic between closely spaced intersections.

After several more months of discussions between the developer, city, and county (both at a political and staff level), we came to an agreement to allow an interim full movement access.  The developer can build the first phase of the development (about 500,000 square feet of office space and the 100,000 square foot commercial/retail center) with a full median opening.  With each subsequent phase the developer needs to do a follow-up analysis based on the traffic conditions at that time to determine if the full access can remain open.  If level of service or safety problems arise or are forecast for a next phase, the access will be converted to a 3/4 access (lefts and through from the side street will be blocked but lefts off of the main street will remain open) at the developer's expense.  Then if conditions degrade after that, the intersection will be converted to a right-in/right-out which is allowed under the County's access spacing guidelines.  At no time will a traffic signal be installed.

An ultimate roadway and traffic control plan was developed for the area assuming the access will one day be a right-in/right-out.  The appropriate right-of-way is being preserved for this design and the interim roadways are being designed to dovetail into the ultimate design.  I believe the intersection will operate well in the near future because the county road has light traffic volumes for a four lane divided roadway.  As traffic grows, the intersection will be converted to provide the appropriate level of access.  This is a great compromise solution that will allow the developer to gain momentum with the development while at the same time protecting the city and county's transportation system.

Roundabout Experience in Minnesota

Micah commented on one of my blogs asking how Minnesotan's are reacting to roundabouts.  At the time I said it wasn't much of a news story.  I stand corrected.  Here is a link from an article in today's Star and Tribune.  Highlights:

• Safety benefits of roundabouts are tracking national trends - mostly fender benders, not injury crashes.
• Motorists are somewhat confused about driving in roundabouts, especially two lane roundabouts.

This is great publicity, but we need more.  I wish the Department of Public Safety would undertake an education campaign on how to drive a roundabout. 

Tangent - I haven't been able to track down if roundabout driving is being taught in driver's ed classes.  Does anyone know if it is?