Recent comments in /f/baltimore

imperaman t1_jaxigwi wrote

Reply to I am literally begging Baltimore DOT to fix the light timings on MLK. by meeroth

Humans should not be timing stoplights. Machine learning should be used to study traffic patterns and then time the lights dynamically. For instance, if you're driving at night and there are no other cars around, then every light should be green for you. Or let's say there are five cars that are waiting to turn left at an intersection. The left turn signal should be green for exactly as long as it takes to let all five cars through, rather than letting four cars through and making the fifth car wait another cycle.

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moderndukes t1_jaxezyt wrote

Reply to comment by scoutsadie in I am literally begging Baltimore DOT to fix the light timings on MLK. by meeroth

Reducing the width of a road, either by reducing lane width or the number of lanes.

MLK’s current design psychologically signals to drivers that it’s okay to speed on it due to the lane width, number of lanes (3-5 in some stretches), limited uses loading onto it, and the large right-of-way and setback of uses on adjoining streets (there are some stretches where a zone about the width of the road separates MLK from buildings near it). Some of those things are good for an arterial road and its flow and safety (like loading of uses), but the execution here leaves something to be desired - especially since it was built gashing a hole and severing neighborhoods like 83 and 40 do. This is all doubled by the 395 exit simply becoming the lanes of MLK rather than meeting at an intersection, meaning traffic flows seamlessly from the interstate and if it doesn’t encounter a red-light at Washington Blvd might continue at highway speeds.

It is an easy candidate for protected bike lanes and/or a tram system, and in-fill development - all of which will reduce speeds and accidents. Studies on road dieting have shown a 19-43% reduction in accidents.

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Wayrin t1_jaxeotz wrote

Reply to I had an interesting idea: We all have skills and talents and crafts and such, wouldn't it be cool to do a skills exchange? by LunarHare82

I can teach people how to ID and forage mushrooms and flint knapping. I like doing these things myself and I like company so no exchange necessary. I'm trying to live the car free life so a lift to the woods and some company while foraging works for me. For the flint knapping I would just ask that you buy and bring your own knappable rock.

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godlords t1_jax8glj wrote

Reply to I am literally begging Baltimore DOT to fix the light timings on MLK. by meeroth

It is incredibly embarrassing and sad really how much of peoples lives are being wasted every day in traffic, how much frustration and accidents and pollution that causes, all because we can't manage to time some fucking lights properly. Literally they are all programmed so the way to hit them is by speeding.

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Cunninghams_right t1_jax80vx wrote

Reply to I am literally begging Baltimore DOT to fix the light timings on MLK. by meeroth

the lights should be timed to however it makes the various bus/light rail networks of the city run smoothly.

we shouldn't be giving priority to people sitting in a private, enclosed, perfect-temperature, lazy-boy on wheels, while they are listening to their favorite music.

you aren't experiencing the infrastructure problem while you're in your car, you ARE the infrastructure problem BECAUSE you're in a car.

if this city set aside 7% of the street/sidewalk space for bikes, it would have a bike network like Amsterdam or Copenhagen and people would find that being on a bike is WAY less stressful than being in a car, and those who still need to drive would find WAY less traffic.

for a given situation, a car is a big improvement to an individual's life and a small penality to those around them.

we can make up a point scale to illustrate the problem. a car is like a +1000 happiness to the car user, and a -1 happiness to those they drive past (pollution, noise, danger to kids, reduction in green space for parking, etc.). that seems like a great trade-off from the individual perspective... until you get a large number of people all selfishing looking at that trade-off. you get more than 1000 cars in a neighborhood, then everyone is getting +1000 then -1001... so a net -1. you make it 10,000 cars and now everyone is at +1000 -10,000 and everyone is at a -9000. if one individual gives up their car, they move from -9000 to -10,000, so individuals selfishly don't want to take a step backward. the solution is that we have to form a social contract with each other where we recognize that more cars and faster cars in front of each of our houses, parks, schools, businesses, etc. isn't for the best, and we need to give other things higher priority. bike lanes and buses may each not be a +1000 to the individual, but they are a much smaller negative to everyone else. you look at cities like Amsterdam and Copenhagen and they're quiet, pleasant, and poor people can own a viable mode of transportation for a couple of hundred bucks that will outlast a car if given 1/10th as much maintenance. same with transit. a tram going past every 5min is not as much of a negative as dozens of cars. if you're a bike/transit oriented city, then everyone gets a +500 happiness and a -0.00001 happiness for each person using those modes, so when you have 10,000 people using those modes, it's +499 to each person.

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CaptInsane t1_jawtnle wrote

Reply to I am literally begging Baltimore DOT to fix the light timings on MLK. by meeroth

Need to get them to no suck overall. They're responsible for parts of Dulaney Valley Rd in the county because the city owns Loch Raven Reservoir. The lights at Old Bosley and DV/Jarrettsville Pike are so horribly mis-timed it's awful. And people around here suck at driving . My wife got in a 4 car accident there a few months ago because these lights aren't timed right

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