“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
I explicitly said I’m anti-car (read: I’m aware they’re car-centric). The rest of this is either outright false, or isn’t solved more effectively by any car-centric alternative.
Diverging diamonds are among the best interchanges in existence. That doesn’t mean they’re great, but they solve far more problems than they introduce.
Please direct your weapons where they actually matter–asphalt itself.
It just seems strange to portray highway interchanges in a positive light. Like, they might be the safest interchange for stroads intersecting an interstate, but that’s kinda like putting a $25M bandaid on a bullet wound.
I want you–a random individual–to go on stage, and tell the country that just elected Donald Trump to make cities walkable.
Have a ball.
DDIs are the best we have right now. At the very least, the conservative nutjobs in my city don’t detest them to hell… much. They can be scaled down, and single lane versions would be perfectly acceptable in a walkable city.
they solve far more problems than they introduce.
It is worse for pedestrians, who now have twice as many traffic signals to wait for. It is worse for cyclists, with “gauntlet” bike lanes running between through- and right-turning lane. It is only better for cars…so hardly the “best” interchange in existence.
I’m analysing my local interchanges, and the DDI still appears the safest large intersection in my entire city for pedestrians and cyclers. Add barriers that stupid Americans seem all too eager to detest, and you’ve still got something far safer than anything else available. Make the interchange single-lane at that, and it integrates nicely with a hypothetical walkable city.
I just don’t see how it’s more dangerous than standard intersections for others. Bicycles still ride the same path that the cars do, and pedestrians needn’t worry about right turns on red.
This is a trivial matter compared to the entire rest of the city.
Highway interchanges aren’t good places for pedestrians or cyclists at the best of times. Just take a look at the current intersection.
