Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Transit


I know I keep saying it, but yet another thing that throws me off is that a bus here is not considered transit, it's public transport. They only really use the word transit to describe those little white windowless vans.
On the right here is a photo of part of the intersection of Burgess Road and Glen Eyre Road. Anyone who comes to visit will pass through this intersection at least ten times. It is indeed a signalized intersection, they just put the signals on short little poles, generally on the near side of the intersection. You can see one that is on the far side in the picture, and it is for the right turn lane, which has to yield to oncoming traffic, and then gets a designated green arrow at the end of the cycle if cars are still waiting, so there are people in the middle of the intersection, which is why they get a far side signal. You don't see any pavement markings on the closest leg (Glen Eyre Rd) because they are set back a little. There happens to be a bike ('cycle') lane along the road there, and the bikes get to pile up in front of the first cars to wait for the green. You can also see an unsignalized pedestrian crossing, with a small refuge in the middle of the road. On the other side there is a fully signalized pedestrian crossing, which I take every day to get over to campus, and you know, civilization.
No, I'm not that obsessed with an intersection. We just happen to be redesigning this intersection for my engineering class at the moment, so it's always on the mind. Plus, those little signal heads freak me out. I'm pretty sure I just wouldn't notice them if I was driving along. Oh, and those little squiggly lines you see on the road mean no parking or waiting.

1 comment:

Lisa Katzke said...

So? How was your 'Thanksgiving'?