Posts Tagged Tax Dollars Asleep
Burnett Blvd at Rt 55: More Speed On Red
Posted by Ed in Photography & Images, Recumbent Bicycling, Science on 2018-08-17
We’re waiting at the end of Burnett Blvd, with the signal red and the clock at T = -0.17 seconds (photo numbers in 1/60 second frames):
RedRunner-0194
You can’t hear the car (barely visible) approaching on the far left, but we can.
T = 0.00 – We get a green light and the (more visible) car is accelerating hard:
RedRunner-0204
T = 1.00 – The car reaches the crosswalk:
RedRunner-0264
Note that the driver of the car to our right isn’t moving, either.
T = 2.03 – Car passes through intersection:
RedRunner-0326
The view from above, showing the distance between those two positions is 100 feet:
Burnett at Rt 55 – Distance along Rt 55
Do the math: 100 ft / 1.03 s = 97 ft/s = 66 mph.
There’s a reason we don’t start moving instantly when a traffic signal turns green.
T = 3.17 – We start moving, as does the car to our right, with our signal still green:
RedRunner-0394
T = 4.88 – Whoops, our signal turns yellow:
RedRunner-0497
T = 9.28 – Our signal turns red:
RedRunner-0761
The signal timing hasn’t changed over the years:
- Green = 4.88 s
- Yellow = 4.40 s
Elapsed time from green to red: 9.28 seconds. No problem if you’re a car, death if you’re a bike.
T = 10.42 – We’re pedaling hard in the intersection:
RedRunner-0829
The white car to our far right started moving into the intersection about the time we did. If you’re going to say we shouldn’t run the light, you gotta deal with cars first, OK?
Note the car approaching from the right on the far side of Rt 55. That’s a 40 mph zone, the driver sees a green light, and we’re still in the intersection.
T = 12.50 – We’ve been moving for 9.33 s, which puts Mary directly in the path of the oncoming car:
RedRunner-0954
T = 14.83 – The oncoming driver having spotted us and slowed down, we’re asymptotically approaching the right-hand lane of Rt 55, passing beyond the steel manhole cover:
RedRunner-1067
If you plunk “burnett signal” into the search box at the upper right, you’ll find plenty of previous incidents along these lines.
Despite bringing this hazard to their attention many times (“We appreciate and share your interest in making our highway systems safe and functional for all users.“), NYS DOT obviously doesn’t care.
If any of their employees commuted to their office building (which overlooks this very intersection), perhaps they would care, but they don’t: we have yet to see a bicycle in the DOT’s token bike rack.
DOT says they’re in favor of Complete Streets, but, seven years on, it’s just another day on the only route between Arlington and the Overocker Trailhead of the Dutchess County Rail Trail.
Rt 376 at Red Oaks Mill: Re-repaving
Posted by Ed in Recumbent Bicycling on 2018-07-16
For unknown reasons, NYS DOT milled away some of the newly laid asphalt north of Red Oaks Mill:
Rt 376 Red Oaks Mill – New Pavement Milling
Then laid it down again:
Rt 376 Red Oaks Mill – New Pavement – 2018-06-14
As far as we can tell, there’s absolutely no difference, other than the opportunity for a huge longitudinal crack between the shoulder and the travel lane.
My guess: the contractor shorted them an inch of asphalt, got caught, and had to do it over again.
It’s only NYS Bike Route 9, so you can’t expect much in the way of bicycle-friendly design or build quality.
Rt 376 Overgrowth: Red Oaks Mill to Maloney Rd
Posted by Ed in Photography & Images, Recumbent Bicycling on 2018-06-05
The weeds are once again taking over the shoulder along Rt 376 south of Red Oaks Mill:
New shoots from the Japanese Knotweed stand just north of Maloney Rd have begun punching through the asphalt along the edge of the shoulder.
This section is in the purview of NYS DOT’s Dutchess South Residency, extending south of Red Oaks Mill to the end of Rt 376 near Hopewell. In contrast, DOT’s Dutchess North Residency continues to keep Rt 376 well-trimmed northward from Red Oaks Mill to Poughkeepsie. I’ve never gotten any explanation why the two Residencies have such strikingly different weed-control standards.
Primo Comet vs. Green Glass Chip: Kevlar FTW!
Posted by Ed in Machine Shop, Recumbent Bicycling on 2018-05-31
The gashes don’t look like much:
Primo Comet gash – tread view
Not even from the side:
Primo Comet gash – side view
When they happened, I knew where to look, because the Kevlar-belted Primo Comet had two conspicuous bulges surrounding debris jammed between the tread and the carcass along the sidewall: the gashes were wide open!
Much to my astonishment, the tire hadn’t gone instantly flat.
Some screwdriver probing in the leftmost gash produced this nasty glass chip:
Primo Comet gash – chip side view
AFAICT, the smooth side slid over the internal Kevlar belt as the edge sliced between the rubber tread and the carcass. I think the top entered first, with the somewhat crushed end hitting the pavement on each revolution:
Primo Comet gash – chip edge view
The other gash emitted a somewhat smaller chip.
I rode over something crunchy, most likely the remains of a beer bottle, in a shaded section along Rt 376, and we stopped a few driveways later to diagnose a once-per-revolution thump from the front tire. The tube still wasn’t losing pressure, even after extracting the glass, so I continued the mission; it was a fine day for a ride!
I later filled those gashes (plus a few others) with silicone rubber to keep grit out. It’s surely a feel-good gesture, but maybe it’ll help the tire reach the end of its tread life.
You can judge our “riding environment” by the tire’s condition …
Corroded Concrete
Nothing lasts forever, not even concrete:
Downspout Splash Block – Corroded Concrete
The downspouts are obviously more recent than the splash blocks, but the whole shopping center wasn’t more than a few decades old. Rain isn’t nearly as acid as it used to be, but it still eats away at concrete.
After about two decades, though, even high-quality concrete goes bad:
Rt 376 bridge deterioration – marker 1102 – 2018-05-07
That’s the upper surface of the Rt 376 bridge at Red Oaks Mill, with a fragment of the corroded lower edge still dangling over the Wappinger Creek:
Red Oaks Mill bridge – dangling concrete
Mostly, we manage to bike around the decayed infrastructure.
Rt 376 Pavement Deterioration
Posted by Ed in Recumbent Bicycling on 2018-03-03
The pavement along Rt 376 between markers 1111 and 1108 has deteriorated into deep chasms, potholes, and fissures.
The linear disintegration south of marker 1111 seems to follow an underlying concrete joint. The shoulder has deep, tire-trapping fissures, forcing cyclists far out into the travel lane along a narrow and curved part of Rt 376:
Rt 376 SB deterioration – S of marker 1111 – 2018-02-20
The hole at address 2181 (across from Paula’s House / GastroPub) was previously patched, but recent weather has excavated it nearly a foot deep. The shoulder has also deteriorated, again forcing cyclists into the travel lane:
Rt 376 SB deterioration – at 2181 driveway – 2018-02-20
The previous patches along the inside of the curve just north of Heathbrook Drive (south of marker 1108) have disintegrated. There’s no shoulder at all along that section and the fissures in the travel lane force cyclists into the lane along a blind curve:
Rt 376 NB deterioration – S of marker 1108 – 2018-02-20
This section of NYS Bicycle Route 9 poses an immediate danger to both cyclists and motorists, so I reported all these to NYS DOT and, a day later, a crew traveled along Rt 376 shoveling cold patch into many of the holes and flattening the lumps more-or-less parallel to the road surface: it’s now driveable, if still a hazard for bicycle traffic.
Hope springs eternal; after all, they did repave Rt 376 around Red Oaks Mill.
Red Oaks Mill: Rt 376 Infrastructure Decay
NYS DOT’s recent Rt 376 repaving projects improved the road surface, but the infractructure seems to be crumbling apace, as we spotted on a recent walk across the bridge over Wappinger Creek:
Red Oaks Mill bridge – dangling concrete
The ragged edge of the deck shows other slivers have fallen into the creek.
My arms aren’t long enough to get a closer view:
Red Oaks Mill bridge – dangling concrete – detail
The concrete roadway is developing potholes in the right hand southbound lane, so the upper surface has begun crumbling, too.
I think the bridge dates to the mid-1990s, based on the aerial photo history from Dutchess GIS, so it’s a bit over twenty years old. Nothing lasts.
Repairing stuff is hard …
Blowback