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Maybe the 'NO TRUCKS' part should be bigger
By adamg on Thu, 11/06/2014 - 9:49am
Christopher was among the commuters who had plenty of time to ponder the issue on the ramp to Storrow Drive from I-93 this morning, when a truck driver suddenly realized that, hey, that sign wasn't fooling.
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Comments
Trucks
Its clear that, when driving a truck, very few people are thinking "I am driving a truck" so visual clues are insufficient. Why have they not installed chains, height sensors, or water curtains to stop this behavior? The time lost and structural damages caused has gone well beyond the point needed for intervention.
Water curtains: http://youtu.be/ILNQN7fniDE
Those are awesome!
But considering most people can't drive on Storrow as it is, introducing a sudden stop is pretty much guaranteeing an accident every time it's deployed.
What they should really do is install flashing lights in the tunnels WELL BEFORE getting on Storrow even becomes an option, as well as some giant signs that say TRUCKS THIS WAY to guide them. They could also do this at street level entrances. Yeah, a few more ugly signs, but well worth it.
Water Curtains work well in Sydney
But it very rarely freezes there. Can you imagine the pipe bursting alone last winter? Cleaning up after?
I guess I've never seen water
I guess I've never seen water on the ground in the winter before.
Wrong....
... font.
Failed sign design
Thanks to the Big Dig design standards and practices which specified the maximum permissible loading of the sign structures first. This then required the sign designers to revise the panel sizes so as not to exceed said maximum loading.
Such practice is totally contrary to the way large overhead signs are normally designed. Typically, the sign panels are designed first to meet applicable legend height, font, and format standards. Once the signs are designed, the support structures are then designed and constructed to accommodate the loading requirements of said signs, plus a safety factor added on.
Not to mention it looks like the "No Trucks" banner on this sign - as well as the one on the advance sign on the inbound Leverett Connector - were added as afterthoughts once the signs were fabricated.
Sheesh
The sign is legible and the message is clear.
Apart from the
"No Trucks" banner being too small and too narrow a font to be read at a reasonable distance BEFORE one passes under the sign. Which are likely due to the reasons I mentioned in my previous post.
And the height limit signs?
We could debate the idea of recreational roads, but the top of the signs do note the height, and my guess is that the writing is MUTCD compliant.
You have a valid point
And I'll spare you the discussion of whether or not having the clearance information at the very top of a directional sign is the proper and most effective format for that sign.
Here's an idea
Require basic facility with navigation as part of the special license that truck drivers have to get to drive their trucks. Include a simulator run with actual signs.
Ur kidding , right Swirls?
Ur kidding , right Swirls? They invented the GPS thing, remember, you have one I bet. Like to try and pass the HAZMAT endorsement test, or even try to figure out how to placard a load, you need a chemistry degree. Shit happens, that area is a bad scene, like most older cities. People get overwhelmed and confused. The train bridge in Roxbury Crossing , long gone , was hit more times than megabucks. Its been going on forever.Its the pace of the new world. Its called human error , be kind. Most people today can escape this by using the back space button, or delete and start over, but not everything.
Harbormaster for Boston roads
Very large ships often navigate ports with the assistance of a harbormaster who comes aboard. Perhaps you would like something along those lines?
Here's a real story. One day
Here's a real story. One day I was turning my papers into dispatch, and another guy was on the phone trying to find a Cambridge place with a Memorial Drive address. Well , you can't take a truck on the Drive, so you have to just know how to back door it. I tried to give him instructions based on my most expert experience of WTF this joint was, but he was trying to follow his talking GPS instructions, and kept asking me to make sense of that robotic idiot. He wouldn't listen to me and kept missing the street, driving by it and having to go over the Longfellow bridge into Boston 2 or 3 times and come back. Finally I told him to shut the flocking thing off and look for my landmark that I remembered. He finally found the back door. It was a hoot.
This is the first time I've
This is the first time I've heard this particular complaint about the Big Dig.
Have a cite?
Personal knowledge of the situation
based on past conservations with some of the Big Dig highway signing managers (at one point, they actually had a formal "Project Signing Committee" overseeing all signing on the project).
No, he doesn't. He just
No, he doesn't. He just thinks he knows better than everyone who does this for a living.
Hey DTP
Care to take a guess as to what I do for a living?
Paint doesn't weigh much
I thought the problem along many DCR owned roadways is them not following MUTCD signage regulations. Hazard yellow and black on a white retro-reflective background seems more appropriate for a NO TRUCKS warning than what DCR uses.
All roads and bridges with more than 1,000 VPD need to be taken away from DCR and given to MassDOT ASAP!
That is an excellent idea
I believe the area pictured (Leverett Connector) is already under MassDOT jurisdiction, though.
My only question
Was the vehicle below the 13' 3" height limit posted on the top of the sign, and on the sign a bit further back?
Aren't they all like this further back?
Most ramps I see look like this?
https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRXCGjLYWpB0F62h0HO...
We're having this discussion
We're having this discussion again? Sigh. Why people make excuses for trucker drivers is beyond me. You must be QUALIFIED to drive an over-sized vehicle. That includes READING signs, especially ones which warn drivers of trucks that they are BANNED from certain roadways. If a truck driver can't be bothered to read a sign then how do you expect them to be bothered to see a pedestrian, a cyclists or another vehicle? Wake up!
more specific
YOUR truck is prohibited