"Where I come from, a little patience at the crosswalk usually rewards me with a stoplight-induced pause in traffic, but here things are different. One had to simply cross, stride forward into the asphalt gauntlet with no fear, just faith that two intersecting streams of traffic, both vehicular and pedestrian, would reconcile themselves. And they always did." Photographer
Rob Whitworth stitches together 10,000 images to bring you a very kinetic time-lapse video of
"Traffic in Frenetic HCMC, Vietnam." [
via]
posted by bayani
on Jan 6, 2012 -
15 comments
The BBC has
put up a page presenting statistics dealing with deaths on British roads between 1999 and 2010. A slightly older page presenting mostly the same statistics (up to 2008) can be visited
here; this earlier version was published in conjunction with several other articles, including
one looking in-depth at a single crash and its aftermath in Stevenage in 2007.
posted by Dim Siawns
on Dec 28, 2011 -
13 comments
The Stop Sign Wasn’t Always Red. Yellow signs were used before there was a way produce a reflective material in red that would last.
We have the Mississippi Valley Association of State Highway Departments to thank for the stop sign’s iconic shape. In 1923, the association developed an influential set of recommendations about street-sign shapes whose impact is still felt today. The recommendations were based on a simple, albeit not exactly intuitive, idea: the more sides a sign has, the higher the danger level it invokes.
[more inside]
posted by Obscure Reference
on Dec 13, 2011 -
109 comments
Air traffic in much of
northern Europe halted – due to ash from a volcanic eruption under the
Eyjafjallajokull glacier in Iceland. The volcano under the glacier erupted for the first time in 200 years last month and whilst Iceland is renowned for its volcanic and geologic activity the sheer ferocity of the latest eruption (thought to be 20 times more powerful than the initial eruption on the 20th March) and prevailing wind conditions have culminated in the current
traffic chaos.
Flightradar24.com shows the current impact on the skies. Whilst the particles will disperse at high altitude and pose no threat to those on the ground, the
volcanic ash is very
dangerous to aircraft . Not only is there the problem of it clouding pilot vision but the ash can cause engine malfunction and damage the delicate airframe skin. One silver lining in all this is the anticipated glorious red sunset that should follow.
posted by numberstation
on Apr 15, 2010 -
149 comments
Kolelinia is a city fly attempt. We are born to move, this makes us alive. The transport is not only a transport, it has to be an experience! (
via)
posted by mrgrimm
on Jan 13, 2010 -
41 comments
Lightlane builds lasers that shoot out from your bike onto the road, displaying a bike lane wherever you ride. Written about
here and
here.
posted by erikvan
on Jun 24, 2009 -
92 comments
The
Danish Road Safety Council is a private association of authorities and national organisations in Denmark. The number of member organisations is currently 42. The Council has existed since 1935. The Council works to increase public road safety through information and traffic education. We aim for the public to gain knowledge and understanding of the aspects of road safety. The Council works to sustain road safe conduct by means of campaigns, consulting and the production of instruction blah blah blah
blah blah blah blah.
This movie was made by the Danish Road Safety Council and aims to draw attention to speed signs and speed limits in Denmark. (embedded movie, nsfw) (
direct movie link)
posted by Wet Spot
on Nov 7, 2006 -
11 comments
Slow 'em down. "Traffic calming is the combination of mainly physical measures that reduce the negative effects of motor vehicle use, alter driver behavior and improve conditions for non-motorized street users." If you are a frequent pedestrian user of a residential street with high traffic volumes, or speeds, you may be interested in
strategies and
data from various community projects to alter traffic flow.
posted by paulsc
on Jun 17, 2005 -
40 comments
never get stuck on the 405 again? serving
los angeles, san diego, san bernadino and riverside counties along with san francisco and miscellaneous cities throughout california,
sigalert.com will give you up to the minute traffic information on almost any freeway in california, including average speeds, closed roads, detailed info re: traffic accidents, etc.
(if you're living in LA county, the only con is that it doesn't have information on the canyons...)
posted by mgkaelen
on Mar 12, 2005 -
24 comments
These
images
caused a great debate
among my antipodean circle in London whether they are real or have been
photoshopped. As far as we can gather it
does
exist. But it is surreal - and only in the UK surely would something like
this be real.
posted by Samuel Farrow
on Sep 8, 2004 -
85 comments
The Fast and the Frustrated. The city of Pleasanton, CA is about to install specially calibrated traffic lights which sense whether or not you are speeding. When speeding is detected, these traffic lights will change from green to yellow to red immediately, and will stay red for 10 to 30 seconds, all in an effort to stymie speeders.
posted by mosspink
on Apr 7, 2004 -
36 comments
Janklow Gets 100 Days for Manslaughter
A career of willful and flagrant disregard for traffic laws and other people's safety that ended in the death of a motorcyclist.
Must be nice to be pals with the president. Although I'm sure that had nothing to do with his slap-on-the-wrist sentence. I was just saying that it must be nice to be pals with the president.
posted by fenriq
on Jan 22, 2004 -
41 comments
