Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.
Verily, ’tis the season for turtles on the move. This one clunked over the curb on Raymond Avenue at Vassar Lake, couldn’t find an escape route, and got smashed:
Smashed turtle – Raymond Ave at Vassar Lake – 2014-07-06
Turtle armor works pretty well against their usual predators, but can’t handle automobile tire impacts.
That’s a tight crop from the helmet camera, with terrible compression artifacts smearing the spalled concrete sidewalk.
For whatever reason, NYSDOT can’t do concrete sidewalks; the entire length of Raymond Avenue has lousy concrete. The fact that Vassar College B&G uses the sidewalks as their private golf-cart highway may have something to do with it, but that’s not the primary problem, because the concrete on DOT’s showcase Rt 55 between Burnett Blvd and Titusville Rd looks the same way.
For the purposes of this discussion, let’s assume you wanted to report a defective traffic signal near Poughkeepsie, NY. You know, from previous experience, that it’s on a New York State Road, so you should contact the New York State Department of Transportation; you also know that you’re in DOT Region 8 and that you’re in the Poughkeepsie Residency, so you can find the right DOT branch.
In this day and age, you might think the NYSDOT website would have a conspicuous link to a form that would let you report a problem. But, no.
Failing that, you might think the website would have a link to the number you should call. But, no.
Failing that, you might think that the search box would turn up useful results when fed the obvious keywords. But, no.
Failing that, you might think calling various likely numbers in the Region 8 offices would produce the proper number. I won’t list the half-dozen numbers I’ve uncovered using that method, as none of them actually go to the right place.
It is common for such numbers within NYSDOT to ring forever, regardless of the time of day or day of week. I am told that one number isn’t actually within DOT any more, so some poor schlub gets all their repair calls; it’s probably worse than having Rachael call you every day or two.
My favorite dead end: an answering machine message telling you it’s not monitored and calls will not be returned, then giving an incomprehensible number-to-call and the usual “Leave your name and number after the beep” message, then beeping.
To make a very long story very short, the Galactic Number that you call to report traffic signal problems on NYS DOT roads is:
914-742-6100
It’s not toll-free (not a big deal in this day and age, but, still) and, of course, you’ll get a contractor, so be polite & patient. Your call should generate a work order that will, in due time, dispatch a crew to repair the offending signal.
It will be exceedingly helpful if you can report the number on the side of the signal control box, for which Google Streetview may reveal what you can’t see from any legal or safe position:
Signal Control Box ID by Google Streetview
If you want to report a pothole, on the other hand, they’ve got a hotline for that:
Recumbent Riders – North Grand Avenue Crossing – 2014-04-05
A highracer gingerly navigates the low-speed gauntlet to the Walkway Over the Hudson:
Recumbent Riders – Walkway Over the Hudson Entrance – 2014-04-05
The pix come from the Sony HDR-AS30V helmet camera video, set to 1920×1080 / 120° @ 60 frame/s. They’ve had a bit of refocusing and color adjustment, but nothing can dramatically improve them. The video looks better only because eyes aren’t as fussy with moving images. I’m not red-hot pleased with the resolution & compression, but the camera is what it is.
The lens carried a smear on the upper-right quadrant that shows the sensitivity of the optical path.
Memo to Self: Clean the lens and keep fingers off!
That’s harder than it may seem. The Start button is on the back of the body, recessed far enough into the skeleton frame to require an index finger rather than a thumb, and it’s remarkably easy to touch the bulging fisheye lens with your (well, my) thumb; a touch is all it takes to create a nice smear.
I started and ended at home, rather than at the Hopewell Junction end, but you get the general idea:
The HRECOS folks installed a display on the Walkway Over the Hudson that shows current environmental conditions at the river sampling station just north of the bridge:
HRECOS Display with internal condensation
Those two blurry white rectangles are paper charts taped to the inside of the case below the scrolling LED display, so I think they’re discovering what happens when you trap ambient air inside a sealed enclosure without dehumidification. Even if they weren’t opening the case every now and again to change the charts, diurnal pumping would pull outside air past any affordable non-hermetic seal.
That fancy electronics won’t last long under those conditions; I foresee several pounds of silica gel in their future…
A day or so after kvetching about that informal DCRT vehicle entrance to the head planner developing the Dutchess County Master Plan for bicycle & pedestrian facilities, this appeared:
DCRT Overocker Crossing – block on informal entrance
Notice the blue electrical junction box on the right? That can’t possibly be a Good Thing… but, so far, it doesn’t seem to bother anybody enough to repair it.
Those missing ADA strips at Grand have been swept out, converting them into rough-bottomed trenches across the trail. At least they’re not quite so slip-prone, even if they’re still a tripping hazard.
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 