https://xkcd.com/2929

Alt text:

While it seemed like a fun prank at the time, I realize my prank fire extinguishers full of leaded gasoline were a mistake.

    • Lux@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      23·
      2 个月前

      Diverging diamond interchanges are a type of road intersection that appears very chaotic from the outside, but are actually pretty simple and safe to navigate

      • Jojo, Lady of the West@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        8·
        2 个月前

        Significantly safer to navigate in practice than traditional intersections, and very straightforward to navigate, if not quite as easy as a normal intersection you’ve seen all your life.

        • waz@feddit.ukEnglish
          4·
          2 个月前

          Never heard of or seen that, but it makes me think of the ‘magic roundabout’ concept

      • eksb@programming.devEnglish
        91·
        2 个月前

        Diverging diamonds are great if your only consideration is car throughput.

        If you are considering people walking or riding bicycles, they are shit.

        • Lux@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
          1·
          2 个月前

          I hadn’t considered that. I was still pretty car-brained when i watched the cgp grey video on them, but now that you mention it, i definitely agree

          • eksb@programming.devEnglish
            5·
            2 个月前

            This is expensive to address because you have to separate cyclists out to the right before the right car lane splits for right turns before the crossover. And then you have to build a bridge or tunnel for cyclists and pedestrians. On each side.

            Really, any road busy enough to justify a diverging diamond probably already needed separated bike lanes. But in America (motto: “If you aren’t in a car, you don’t matter”), there almost certainly was not any cycling infrastructure there before.

            There is one of these near me. Their solution for pedestrians is to make them cross the high speed outer lanes four times (where drivers are encouraged to not slow down). Their solution for cyclists is take the lane and pray or get off and do what the pedestrians have to do.

            Edited for clarity: pedestrians cross four times, not drivers are encouraged to not slow down four times.

              • eksb@programming.devEnglish
                2·
                2 个月前

                To be clear, it is four times that pedestrians have to cross, not four times that drivers are encouraged to not slow down. Drivers are not explicitly encouraged to not slow down, but the point of the diverging diamond is to make drivers not have to slow down.

        • Oinks@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
          1·
          2 个月前

          It doesn’t help that US diverging diamonds seem to insist on having pedestrians walk through the median.

          But honestly all interchanges are varying degrees of horrible and if you want your city to be bearable to navigate as a pedestrian/cyclist you just really don’t want to do urban highways, or roads above a certain size in general.

        • Badabinski@kbin.social
          5·
          2 个月前

          There are many of these where I live. The lights are usually timed so that you just go straight through without having to stop. They’re much better than the traditional intersections that came before.

          I will absolutely concede that they’re shitty for pedestrians or cyclists, however.

          • BearOfaTime@lemm.eeEnglish
            1·
            2 个月前

            The ones I’ve used time the pedestrian lights with the traffic, so it’s safer for them. Still tricky for peds going across turn lanes.