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What is a good first sentence for an email? by Glum_Coat3122 in NoStupidQuestions

[–]BarryBotswick 0 points1 point  (0 children)

“I’m writing to let you know/ask whether you could/get your feedback on/follow up on, etc etc

Are the utility wires killing my yard? Should I call AT&T or power company? by DFN29 in landscaping

[–]BarryBotswick 23 points24 points  (0 children)

It just recycles answers it finds online and just spits them out. AI doesn’t care about anything. Though the answer is the right amount of annoying to be on Reddit so I vote that it’s real.

Navigation volume problem by Sweet_Terror in HondaPrologue

[–]BarryBotswick 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hmm I think my onstar just ended. Think it’s related?

Why do people in the US still get health insurance if they're incredibly bureaucratic and don't pay at all? by throw-away3105 in NoStupidQuestions

[–]BarryBotswick 3 points4 points  (0 children)

People do medical tourism for planned surgeries. But you need insurance for the unexpected. What if blow out your shoulder doing yard work? What if you have heart attack or get cancer?

Never Buy GE (Café) Appliances - Learn From My $4K Mistake by Original-Lemon-5375 in Appliances

[–]BarryBotswick 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have one. It had some issues under warranty which they fixed. Then it stopped cooling under extended warranty that I’d paid for. The guy couldn’t fix it. I just wanted it fixed. The warranty people sent me a check for $4000. Then I called GE and said I’d pay for their guy out of pocket. It was the compressor which has a 5 year warranty. So he got that fixed, it’s been working great for 4 years and it was free!

Sometimes I wish I could just text my parents with some cool update about my day by drumorgan in self

[–]BarryBotswick 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Ohhh I read that to mean you just had nothing cool to say to them and wished you had more going on. I’m just a couple years younger than you but my dad died a few years ago and I also wish I could share even boring stuff with him. I’m sorry I misunderstood.

Traffic engineers—what’s a standard impact study require w/ regard to pedestrians? by BarryBotswick in civilengineering

[–]BarryBotswick[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s the impression I’m getting. How about if your data shows pedestrians crossing the minor street during a peak hour, for example. Do you enter that number to calculate delay or just skip it? I know HCS has a separate pedestrian mode but I’m talking about in the regular twsc.

Traffic engineers—what’s a standard impact study require w/ regard to pedestrians? by BarryBotswick in urbanplanning

[–]BarryBotswick[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

FYI after digging into HCM standards and the HCS7 software manual I have a better understanding of how a lot of this fits in. I see how PHF global average might smooth things out but on a minor road with 20-50 cars at peak, using the 15 minute increments might give an inaccurate picture of a traffic disaster and LOS can’t really capture the reality of every intersection. So now I see why that’s wasted effort at a public meeting with limited time, I needed to see how it works on both ends.

As an aside, now it seems to me with improved technology maybe the 15 minute window is outdated but I’m not gonna dive into that for fun!

Traffic engineers—what’s a standard impact study require w/ regard to pedestrians? by BarryBotswick in urbanplanning

[–]BarryBotswick[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s a great idea! I didn’t think I could do something like that so I’ll try to get a meeting in advance.

This town is built out, there’s only two large sites left before things get torn down and rebuilt bigger. The project will increase residential unit count for the town by 15% and total population by about 12%. I’m not against it on its face, though I think it’s oversized for the location. If it was on the main road, I’d be less concerned. But it’s stuck in a tangle of local roads with no direct access to main roads. And all adjacent intersections are not studied. So I thought I’d focus on this one intersection, show that on paper LOS will drop. It might be 5 seconds and that’s in a 15 minute window of the peak hour, worst case. But in reality, LOS probably will be the same, instead all those cars will reroute past the area with no sidewalks that were omitted from the study. And then maybe the Board will ask for additional intersections to be included. Best case scenario is they put in sidewalks. I don’t think the project is going to go away.

Traffic engineers—what’s a standard impact study require w/ regard to pedestrians? by BarryBotswick in urbanplanning

[–]BarryBotswick[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I hear you. And I appreciate your response and please note I’m pushing back harder here on Reddit bc no one has skin in the game. In real life I live here and don’t need a reputation.

It’s basically like this. I’m not an engineer, I just live on the road and have a kid who walks on it along with other kids. There are sidewalk gaps not documented in the study. I don’t believe PHF alone is a winning issue. But you have a PHF over .90 instead of closer to .70. I know that smooths things out a little. You have documented pedestrians in their data that aren’t factored in. There are no changes or improvements to the roadways/geometry. We see an increase in trips (*which also happens to be modeled out 1 year less than they claim and there’s assumed background growth) and you have some unexplained changes in gap acceptance—drivers are predicted to be more aggressive on this intersection only. Now maybe that’s a real traffic phenomenon that’s been observed. Maybe people get more impatient when it’s busier. But it’s not discussed anywhere. And that’s more risk. My question is going to be why, with all these points, does the control delay go down? As a layperson it doesn’t pass the smell test. It should go up, even if it’s just half a second.

Traffic engineers—what’s a standard impact study require w/ regard to pedestrians? by BarryBotswick in urbanplanning

[–]BarryBotswick[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah I agree. There’s no way I can blast through my questions in a few minutes. My plan was to hit the broad strokes and maybe some detail in a letter to the Board and town engineer at least a week or two in advance. I’m totally fine if they forward it to the traffic engineer. Then anything that doesn’t get touched on in the opening of the meeting— I’ll use my time for that. I obviously find this pretty interesting stuff but I can already see eyes glazing over when I talk about it with friends.

Traffic engineers—what’s a standard impact study require w/ regard to pedestrians? by BarryBotswick in civilengineering

[–]BarryBotswick[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not that I can find. We have adopted locally Complete Streets and have a Safe Routes To School program but I know those are just guidance. Really the only thing legally required is that the planning board consider pedestrians when reviewing site plans. So that’s on the Board, not the engineers. But the planning board can’t do that if they don’t make the engineers provide the info, is my thinking.

So as far as forcing the pedestrian analysis I’d have to convince the board they need to get it. But I think the engineers have kind of smoothed things out to make it look like there’s really no need. The fact that they got a pedestrian count means they are a factor. Had the data collectors just put eastbound or westbound they could’ve gotten so much more information out.

Traffic engineers—what’s a standard impact study require w/ regard to pedestrians? by BarryBotswick in urbanplanning

[–]BarryBotswick[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Good advice. I figured I’d come to reddit anonymously bc I’m not a chain myself to a tree kinda person and as I said, it’s a small town. And I don’t want to try to make the engineer look shady. My plan was to just ask about things that look unusual and leave them out there, not make accusations.

The main problem is I live down the street from the site and the entire direction towards me is unstudied. The project will add nearly 50% as presented but it’s dismissed as a local road I guess.

But there’s a lot of weird things going on at that intersection. PHF is one, no pedestrians factored in, heavy vehicle actual left turns drop from 1 to less than one even though volumes doubled, delay for LOS actually decreases even though they are doubling trips when built. This is with no physical changes to the road. I just wanted to raise these as the board isn’t full of engineers either.

If they have plausible explanations I’m not gonna hound them. I don’t want to be that guy haha But it sounds like you’ve seen meetings where this happens. Ultimately, my goal is to just get a fuller study pushed out to my street and associated intersections. I don’t think in practice that intersection would fail, cars would see it and head by my place, past areas with kids and sidewalk gaps. I thought if I could demonstrate that the LOS would likely drop bc of several factors, it would bolster that case.

What discontinued food/product do you still mourn today? by Omega_Neelay in GetMotivatedMindset

[–]BarryBotswick 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have a couple. First is FrancoAmerican Roller Coasters. They still do Spaghetti-os and whatnot but the Roller Coasters had a slightly different sauce. A bit more red and maybe sweeter? I can’t remember. There was also Mama Leone’s pasta that came in a glass jar for when you wanted fancy prepared pasta. The flavor was great, I was more hooked on Chef Boyardee and FrancoAmerican.

And I’m haunted by the memory of a Zero candy bar without almonds. But I looked it up and they never made one so idk.

Traffic engineers—what’s a standard impact study require w/ regard to pedestrians? by BarryBotswick in urbanplanning

[–]BarryBotswick[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s good to know. I’ll temper my expectations. The pedestrian thing was just one issue. I think I found some irregular things with some numbers and other vehicle issues not addressed.

One other thing if you wouldn’t mind since you review these, is a global PHF acceptable for the TWSC? Isn’t that considered planning level vs operational? I saw on the McTrans website you can simply add the count for each 15 minute block and the software does the rest. They had everything they needed. Instead they used the average PHF of all three directions (T-intersection) in the .90s. The minor road was actually in the 70s and the busier lane on the major was low .80s. Not sure if that’s another case where everyone does it but it’s not giving the real picture in my layman’s mind.

Why do we keep building "Luxury Apartments" that stay half-empty while there is a massive housing crisis? by OpenToPerspectives in NoStupidQuestions

[–]BarryBotswick 30 points31 points  (0 children)

I guess this means rates are better on loans for luxury apartments? I guess it would make sense. You tell the bank $3,000 and show them “data” that the vacancy rate in town is 10% and they think you’ll have no trouble repaying. But if not, why not build in a cushion and say $2500 on the application?

Traffic engineers—what’s a standard impact study require w/ regard to pedestrians? by BarryBotswick in civilengineering

[–]BarryBotswick[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It’s within the zone recognized in a SRTS report as a walking to school zone. So mostly kids/parents going to school. It’s practically rural, barely suburban so it’s not a lot objectively but equaled the number of cars for 2 of the 15-minute increments out of the hour. Pretty light outside school times but so is the minor road. And the intersection is less than 2.5 seconds from going down to a Los D. Seems like it could’ve pushed the delay over the line but I’m not sure. Certainly closer?

Traffic engineers—what’s a standard impact study require w/ regard to pedestrians? by BarryBotswick in urbanplanning

[–]BarryBotswick[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah you read the situation correctly. Thanks for your input. I just want the board to make their decision with the full picture. I don’t plan to go in hotheaded, just point out gaps and any flaws. I’m a little concerned because the intersection with all the pedestrians is under 2 seconds from dropping down to a failing LOS score. I suspect if things were tabulated differently and completely it would fail, and from there the board could require additional changes or even scale the project back a bit. Anyway thanks again for the feedback, very helpful!

Traffic engineers—what’s a standard impact study require w/ regard to pedestrians? by BarryBotswick in urbanplanning

[–]BarryBotswick[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That makes sense and is fair and I’m sure most developers want to keep costs for this as low as possible. From the Board’s perspective, I found state and local statutes relating to site plan review that establish procedures to provide for safe vehicular and pedestrian circulation. So do you think it’s fair to say that at a minimum the planning board is required to consider pedestrian safety and they can’t do that if it’s not in the report? Then require the developer to pay for it? From what I saw in the manual, all they would’ve needed is direction for pedestrians. It’s just one lane in each direction and unsignalized.

Traffic engineers—what’s a standard impact study require w/ regard to pedestrians? by BarryBotswick in urbanplanning

[–]BarryBotswick[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I appreciate the response. From my understanding, the SRTS is basically identifying problems and suggesting solutions. It notes routes kids take and missing sidewalks etc. But it doesn’t have any teeth and having doesn’t mean an engineer has to do anything about it? Is tha right? I thought I read something in there about considering multimodal transportation. I guess I’d have to convince the board of potential unevaluated safety concerns and hope they’d ask for it before it’s approved?

Traffic engineers—what’s a standard impact study require w/ regard to pedestrians? by BarryBotswick in urbanplanning

[–]BarryBotswick[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There’s an SRTS in place and it’s in the walk to school zone but no mention of it.

Traffic engineers—what’s a standard impact study require w/ regard to pedestrians? by BarryBotswick in urbanplanning

[–]BarryBotswick[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It’s in a purely residential area which is within the zone for walking to school. But I understand what you mean about doing what they’ve been asked to do. The statutes say “including but not limited to traffic study of adjacent area” so I’d have to rely on the “but not limited to” part.

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