Pedersen
11-21-2007, 04:16 AM
To the genius responsible for managing the project at the junction of I78 and I287: My hat is off to you, sir.
I have always felt that traffic moved too freely through this intersection. Before your work began, it would be possible for somebody traveling on Interstate 78 (West bound) to move through this two mile intersection in a mere half hour at the busy times of the day. Now, thanks to your brilliant project management, it takes that long during the slow times!
This is truly a major accomplishment, and you are to be applauded for your efforts. As I know you will want to showcase this letter to your colleagues, allow me to describe the way things were to them, so as to avoid taking away their important solitaire time.
78W has three lanes at the beginning of this junction. One of them diverts and becomes a part of 287N, leaving two west bound lanes. At the far end of the junction, one lane comes from 287S to merge with one of these two lanes. In addition, two lanes come from 287N, merging to one lane, which then becomes part of 78W for at least the next 12 miles.
This leaves a total of three westbound lanes. That's right, this junction merges 5 lanes of traffic down to three. Already impressive in its ability to slow traffic, this junction needed still more work to achieve its full potential.
Tonight, I saw true genius at work: First, one lane from 78W was closed, but only after people on the west bound side would find out too late to divert to 287N. At the far end, a stop sign was in place for the traffic coming from 287S, thus ensuring that as they merged, they would be going as slow as possible, slowing traffic down still further.
It was amazing to behold how slow the traffic was at 9:45PM. I can only imagine the consequences to the speed at 5:30PM.
However, I am concerned, as I have seen no signs of constricting the rest of the traffic. In fact, it would be possible for 287N to get onto 78W without much fuss at all. To that end, I would like to make the following suggestions:
Restrict the 287N side to one lane. Surely there must be a pothole somewhere on that side that can justify closing the lane down for at least a mile.
After doing that, make sure to close down the extra lane that this traffic gets. They have their own lane for 12 miles if they want it. Right at the merge point, give them their own stop sign, and make sure to close down the lane for at least 3 miles. In case people need justification, plant some overly large construction vehicle right in the middle of the closure, and leave it there for the next 6 months (untouched, of course. There's no point in getting anybody's hopes up, right?).
Of course, even with all this, the chances are good that at least 200 cars per hour can still make that two mile trip. To try and improve that number, might I suggest littering the single lane area with rusted screws, nails, broken glass, and the like? Even a few oil slicks would really help out.
The way I see it, you could get really lucky, and cause some major accidents in the area. This way, you get rid of a bunch of drivers and grind traffic to an absolute halt for several hours while emergency and cleanup crews do their thing.
With a little bit of luck and creativity, you should be able to drop the traffic throughput all the way to zero during rush hour.
I applaud your efforts so far, and sincerely hope you can complete your mission.
Good luck!
I have always felt that traffic moved too freely through this intersection. Before your work began, it would be possible for somebody traveling on Interstate 78 (West bound) to move through this two mile intersection in a mere half hour at the busy times of the day. Now, thanks to your brilliant project management, it takes that long during the slow times!
This is truly a major accomplishment, and you are to be applauded for your efforts. As I know you will want to showcase this letter to your colleagues, allow me to describe the way things were to them, so as to avoid taking away their important solitaire time.
78W has three lanes at the beginning of this junction. One of them diverts and becomes a part of 287N, leaving two west bound lanes. At the far end of the junction, one lane comes from 287S to merge with one of these two lanes. In addition, two lanes come from 287N, merging to one lane, which then becomes part of 78W for at least the next 12 miles.
This leaves a total of three westbound lanes. That's right, this junction merges 5 lanes of traffic down to three. Already impressive in its ability to slow traffic, this junction needed still more work to achieve its full potential.
Tonight, I saw true genius at work: First, one lane from 78W was closed, but only after people on the west bound side would find out too late to divert to 287N. At the far end, a stop sign was in place for the traffic coming from 287S, thus ensuring that as they merged, they would be going as slow as possible, slowing traffic down still further.
It was amazing to behold how slow the traffic was at 9:45PM. I can only imagine the consequences to the speed at 5:30PM.
However, I am concerned, as I have seen no signs of constricting the rest of the traffic. In fact, it would be possible for 287N to get onto 78W without much fuss at all. To that end, I would like to make the following suggestions:
Restrict the 287N side to one lane. Surely there must be a pothole somewhere on that side that can justify closing the lane down for at least a mile.
After doing that, make sure to close down the extra lane that this traffic gets. They have their own lane for 12 miles if they want it. Right at the merge point, give them their own stop sign, and make sure to close down the lane for at least 3 miles. In case people need justification, plant some overly large construction vehicle right in the middle of the closure, and leave it there for the next 6 months (untouched, of course. There's no point in getting anybody's hopes up, right?).
Of course, even with all this, the chances are good that at least 200 cars per hour can still make that two mile trip. To try and improve that number, might I suggest littering the single lane area with rusted screws, nails, broken glass, and the like? Even a few oil slicks would really help out.
The way I see it, you could get really lucky, and cause some major accidents in the area. This way, you get rid of a bunch of drivers and grind traffic to an absolute halt for several hours while emergency and cleanup crews do their thing.
With a little bit of luck and creativity, you should be able to drop the traffic throughput all the way to zero during rush hour.
I applaud your efforts so far, and sincerely hope you can complete your mission.
Good luck!