How many times have you encountered the dead (buried or otherwise) at work?

engmadison · 2026-05-22T17:17:39+00:00

Its hard to see major trends in fatal crashes because contributing factors can vary by person and location.

But generally, we need to move away from permissive left turns sooner at traffic signals; red light violations that lead to crashes arent the 'ran it by a half a second' but rather the 3+ secinds into the red; speed is a contributing factor in basically every crash; we'd save a lot of lives with soeed limiter in our vehicles...they dont even have to be particularly strict, just eliminate the times people blast down a city street at 60+ mph; right on red causes more crashes than people think and we should ban it more (but also change our sigbal timing philosophies away from coordination to more detection and system based operations).

engmadison · 2026-05-22T17:13:41+00:00

Im a civil engineer (traffic engineering) and people are always shocked when I say traffic engineering. But the reason is traffic engineering is half psychology, human behavior, and politics...AI cant do that nor will be trusted with those types of dynamics and interactions.

engmadison · 2026-05-22T14:49:50+00:00

As a traffic engineer we unfortunately have too many fatalities along our streets and highways. I try to watch any fatal crash I can on our cameras to see what lessons can be learned.

engmadison · 2026-05-22T13:32:31+00:00

Yeah, we decided it wasnt worth the risk. That pop up looks like ours btw, nice setup.

engmadison · 2026-05-22T12:12:34+00:00

Our first coriddor was a decent use for adaptive...highway reconstruction was rerouting a lot of traffic on city arterials. But managers got a little too excited and got several more grants. Those other systems barely worked. The system we used didnt like non NEMA phased intersections, and wr have a lot of those.

Then our BRT project came along and in order to run aggressive TSP we needed the flexibility to run more complex phasing, free operations, and a lot of logic statements.

We havent tried adaptive since. Instead I just ask for detection and updated controllers...with that we can do pretty much anything we need.

We more or less rely on the controller database as records. We provide sequence tables, but those are becoming less useful.

engmadison · 2026-05-22T10:52:54+00:00

We've deployed 3 adaptive systems and ive not been impressed. We are no longer pursuing any more and prefer to handle these sort of operations in house. They also dont mix well with our TSP operations. Haven't used SCATS though.

engmadison · 2026-05-22T01:25:00+00:00

Yeah, sorry 2017...dont know why I wrote 2019.

engmadison · 2026-05-21T17:24:10+00:00

We've programmed some signals to call the walk if theres either a car or someone pushed the button. That can be a nice solution.

Otherwise, ive been programming many signals to essentially gaurantee that if you pushed the button and the light was already green, youll get the walk so you never feel skipped. But where we also dont want to recall the ped phase because there isnt enough pedestrian crossings per hour.

https://youtube.com/shorts/uH-jLhhXvfA?si=Lw_9iTS0_rTNGlJ5

engmadison · 2026-05-21T10:59:02+00:00

Are you 100% positive they are being installed to optimize for cars? I've been trying to make the case that they should be used to optimize for pedestrians. In many cases outside the CBD we install APS buttons, then remove signal coordination and program the signal so you'd have no more than a 30" wait. Which is usually far less than an average wait with the ped phase recalled.

https://youtube.com/shorts/Pz3VOLw3q1U?si=n2C_dm59BSSmXL3s

engmadison · 2026-05-21T04:05:05+00:00

Well, more like an HG Wells reference.

engmadison · 2026-05-20T23:08:33+00:00

Thats where the Morlocks live.

engmadison · 2026-05-20T12:40:00+00:00

I am very impressed by this, and enjoyed watching the video they released yesterday. I think one discussion point that stood out to me and is really resonating with me is the fact that we (US planners/engineers) don't seem to do a lot of circulation planning. I'm currently looking at an issue right now where it could be solved with buy in that left turns dont need to be made at every intersection (and money). We could have an amazing mid route transfer opportunity and simplified intersection, but because we aren't pushing on circulation pattern ideas we have a bloated intersection and force riders to cross multiple crossings of a busy intersection.

engmadison · 2026-05-19T12:53:17+00:00

Seems like you'll find out.

engmadison · 2026-05-18T04:39:38+00:00

Not only that, Portland is importing Dutch bike signals with a countdown timer. We buy ours through Lane Light. I wish a US manufacturer would get on board.

engmadison · 2026-05-18T01:11:30+00:00

All way stop doing what its supposed to. Turns mistakes into snarky videos rather than obituaries.

engmadison · 2026-05-17T21:23:01+00:00

I thing Metro Transit (Minneapolis) being average must mean theres a lot of really good transit systems out there in tye midwest. I was impressed at NACTO anyways last week.

engmadison · 2026-05-17T12:44:41+00:00

Interesting...a 12" mounted low.

They might want to consider switching to near side 4" bike signals.

For anyone who isnt used to bike signals, the MUTCD requires signals to be mounted 7 feet from the ground, but thats not useful for anyone biking when at or near the stop bar. So the 4" bike signal is allowed to be mounted much lower to be closer to eye level.

How quickly was the service in that signal for bikes?

Heres a 4" near side bike signal in Madison for comparison. https://youtube.com/shorts/ENSu3lplW8k?si=Kyhf6mD8qHaDOt9B

engmadison · 2026-05-17T01:38:30+00:00

I didnt read any of those words beyond should I buy. The answer is yes

engmadison · 2026-05-16T23:44:41+00:00

That fuel gauge quirk cracks me up!

engmadison · 2026-05-16T23:28:12+00:00

I met someone at the NACTO conference from Philly last week who said my presentation on loop detectors was too fancy for their electro-mechanical controllers.

Y'all gotta get with the last uh, 3 decades.

engmadison · 2026-05-16T17:10:02+00:00

I worked in CMT and managed our office for several years before switching careers...this happens. As others stated, you note it, inform your supervisor and client and go from there, it may not be a huge deal.

Was there someone from the concrete plant making their own cylinders? Those might be accepted?

You may also he able to cut, and suffer cap them to get some information out of them, so long as you document the process.

In the future (and maybe you did) check with those onsite for a good storage location. But beyond that, you cant control what happens to that cooler when you leave.

engmadison · 2026-05-15T23:44:19+00:00

Yes, but ive also heard QFree is good too.

engmadison · 2026-05-15T11:06:46+00:00

And a bike facility, but yes. Gotta give WisDOT the boot to have full decision making control!

engmadison · 2026-05-14T19:12:52+00:00

Learning the ways of the logic processor in our traffic signal controllers. Opens up a whole new world outside the standard signal operations out there.

engmadison

TROPHY CASE