This diverging diamond interchange Caltrans plans to build
“Together we’re advancing initiatives focused on creating safer, more efficient travel options for all modes of transportation, from vehicles to bicycles to pedestrians,” Dave Ambuehl, the chief deputy district director of Caltrans, said in a news release.
https://www.sfgate.com/travel/article/new-intersection-project-first-kind-bay-area-19901199.php
North American has this concept in roadway design where traffic engineers feel the need to make every roadway large. Think of interstate interchanges.
There is also this need to try and design roadways as both roads and streets, while maintaining the flow of high speed traffic at the same. This leaves us with neither good roads or enjoyable streets.
Roads get you from point A to point B without regard for what's in between or along the route. They are meant to move large amounts of traffic with minimal to no lights/stops/driveways.
Streets on the other hand are "destinations" and are meant for the people that live along them. Streets are traffic calmed, streets give the right of way to pedestrians. Streets have driveways, and multiple interaction zones between people on foot, on bikes, and on cars.
A street cannot act as a road nor can a road act as a street.
This image trys to turn the underpass into a street (which it can be), but it's main function is still designed as a high-speed roadway. So this leaves us with a combination of the two (a strode) which neight is a good road or a enjoyable street for the local community.
Some examples of simplified highway off ramps that connect directly into traffic calmed streets.
City planing also plays a role here, and its usually has to do how our we build city centres right next to highway off ramps. This leaves no room for proper roadway design where you "stepdown" your roadway classification.
Good planing would have a interstate (130-100kph) connect to a highway (100-80kph), which then empties into a high-speed road (80-60kph), which steps down to a road 50-40kph, and then transitions into a street (30-10kph).
Instead we have interstate highways empty right into a city street.
I always wondered if instead of a two lane road every block you could have a city where it's a four lane road every two blocks, with a single lane pedestrian/bicycle street alternating every other block there isn't a road.
I’m not saying it’s good (those bike lanes look horrible), but they put in a diamond interchange in my city and it’s ironically the best car infrastructure we have.
To be fair this looks slightly worse than ours, ours has more separation for pedestrians, but I feel much less stressed out that I only have to look one way when crossing, and no cars should be able to go when I am.
They still do. they’ll run a green arrow light, probably because they’re used to “right turn on red”. I have been tapped by a car I was playing chicken with at that light.
But other than the presence of morons, I’d pick the FREEWAY INTERCHANGE over a normal city light any day. That’s crazy to say but it just goes to show how even slightly better designed infrastructure makes a difference.
Those bicycle lanes are ass though.
Fuck cars
But if there are cars, you want these
Yeah diamond interchanges kick ass. They made me nervous the first time I used one, since it was the kind where you end up driving on the opposite side of the road. But just follow signs and you’ll get where you need to go and there’s almost no risk compared to the garbage interchanges you usually see around interstates.
I wouldnt bike on that painted bike lane across a right turn slip lane designed to make cars slow down as little as possible coming off the freeway
There should be a protected bike lane in the median with a dedicated signal where the diamonds cross
Those aren’t bike lanes. They are merging guides for the cars. So yeah it’s still lacking but better than a cloverleaf.
Edit: sorry, there are bike lanes. I hadn’t noticed that there were two colors on my mobile
Since there are traffic lights, I personally would no be worried about taking my bike through
Painted bike lanes are just Dodge Ram kill zones.
This is a meat grinder for cyclists.
Those aren't bicycle lanes, they're clear zones to protect drivers so they won't hit a tree or a pole and ding their $100k truck.
All that could happen is that they kill a bicyclist and drag them for a few hundred feet, but that washes off.
Yeah wouldn't it make more sense to have the bike paths go on the outside of the diamond?
Why tho? Every possible collision point is regulated by traffic lights
Not this one:
Edit: who the heck wants to walk on the shoulder of a gigantic road like that too… wtf
No, there are 2 spots where cars turning right cross a cycle lane going straight, without a traffic light.
One of them is on the lakes coming from the left, the other on the lanes in the background coming towards the viewer.
This is actually one of the most efficient compact interchange designs though. It integrates way more elegantly with accessory roads without creating huge dead zones.
Barriers where?
There is possibility that some biker will select wrong way.
I see ambiguous markings right before bridge.
...but why
Criss cross crash! What about a big ass 200stories tall ramp with an elevator and a loop to loop at the bottom?
As mentioned in the video, these are pretty hostile to pedestrians. Without knowing too much about the subject, I wouldn't be surprised if roundabouts beat them handily - why else would countries with better road safety opt for roundabouts over diverging diamonds?
Theyre extremely car-centric, space-inefficient, wildly expensive, and don't do anything to solve traffic.
https://youtu.be/xzYt3h36Llo
None of which are problems they're actually trying to tackle.
They improve traffic a bit (not solve), and are substantially safer. They're only meant to do those 2 things, and they're good at it. Nobody thinks a single intersection idea will fix transportation as we know it.
These are legitimately some of the only interchange designs which integrate nicely with pedestrian paths and bike lanes.
I have no clue how you are getting down voted in a fuckcars community for pointing out this infrastructure is still car centric and does nothing to solve traffic, only induce demand.
If this area was designed for people only it would not look like this.
This is still city planners creating a dangerous strode and intersecting it with a interstate highway and calling it good enough.