traffic engineers,please help me understaned something.
 

For the past 30 years, a section of three lane street flows well during our rush hour traffic, for a couple of miles anyway. One day, they shut down one lane and turn it into a two lane street. Some areas were two lanes for the past 30 years is now one lane with with some kind of spacing or flowers in the middle. Sections of Fwy that used to have 5 lanes is now four with a huge shoulder enough to park a two or maybe three fire trucks side by side. I am thinking we want to keep the flow of traffic open not choke it to death. Traffic is now jammed llike hell, so WTF is the deal? Anyone know why? We are working backwards here.

You're not the only one suffering. Here they've started taking 6 lane roads that were normally not too bad, and turning them into 4 lane roads with 2 dedicated bus lanes. Now the traffic lanes are gridlocked while the bus lanes remain mostly unused.

Downtown it's worse... removing busy car lanes and replacing them with bicycle lanes. This is a town where the roads are snow-covered 4 months of the year! Bike lanes... sheesh!

"They" want you on a bus/train. Just go along with the plan and no-one gets hurt.

Another one is where you have 3 lanes, they choke it down to 2 lanes for no apparent reason, then open it back up to 3 lanes.

On on 80 between Sac & Roseville, there's an overpass where they built a sort of "moat" around the columns in the media supporting the overpass. They could have an an extra lane on either side if it weren't for that. The moat makes no sense - there are several feet of nothing on each side between the column and the barrier.

"Roadway beautification", "alternative transportation facilitation" and "traffic calming" are some of the buzz phrases I've heard recently.

They all mean "less pavement available for cars" and "slower flow".

They all cost money too.

Boat lane? :D

traffic engineers are no longer in control... Politicians know best. (or so they believe)

My sister got hurt, and was fortunate not to have been killed right there

Before I moved here, Houston put in Bike lanes all over the place. They are almost unused because it is too friggen hot here most of the year.

Oh, and don't bother using them, because they are full of broken glass and junk. One of my buddies was yelled at by the police for not using the designated bike lane. IF he had stopped, we would have explained the broken glass, etc, in the bike lane. Nope, he pulled behind us and without any warning started yelling at us over the loud speaker.

Taking lanes away is hella stupid. We just turned I-10 from 3 lanes per side with a oneway HOV into 5 lanes per side plus 2 HOV lanes each direction. This has made a huge impact on commuting.

i suspect all these closed lanes are slated for toll lanes in the future.

Pretty sad, eh? The previous generations built infrastructure for the masses. Turns out that they built it for the politicians who would usurp control.

Part of the reason for this narrowing of traffic lanes is the perception of law enforcement, politicians and insurance companies (think lobbyists) that "excessive" speed is the root cause of all traffic accidents. The belief is that speed will be reduced by squeezing down the roadways. And you know what...it works! Everywhere I've seen this done, traffic slows to a crawl during peak usage and frustration ensues. I'm also starting to see nice sweeping transitions between perpendicular roadways re-aligned to become sharp, almost 90-degree bends. The reasoning is the same...gotta slow them maniacs down!
Here in town, a nice 4-lane major street thru a business district was reduced to 2 lanes with the parking spaces widened to the point where a locomotive could be parked at the curb. Many complained and it finally came out that this was done to appease the businesses along that street who were complaining that traffic was flowing by "too fast" and not noticing their establishments. Now it's possible to walk faster than the flow of traffic thru there during the commute and certain weekend time slots.

Maybe this was a "shovel-ready job"?

That is not even the worst traffic faux pas around here.

The downtown area is set up with one way streets that used to make it easy to get to and from the downtown area, with freeway exits and entrances on the main streets going to and fro. The people who bought houses in those areas got tired of all the traffic, something that made their homes significantly less expensive, and started complaining about it. They built "traffic calming" measures, which included blocking off the main roads in and out of the downtown area and large, poorly marked, cement traffic islands. It used to be very convenient to go down there and spend money. Now, not so much, with the expected devastating effect on businesses there.

We're getting choked by bike lanes and traffic lights. The city is putting out stop signs at a colossal rate. Hard inside residential neighborhoods are countless 4 way stops. If anyone added up the extra gas and pollution, it might serve to show how idiotic this is.

as a employee of a public agency it pisses me off that they continue to do this in town here to add bicycle lanes. restrict resident parking, massive suicide lanes for the sake of new bike lanes. the funding is often garnered by the local agency from the feds to promote bike usage.

worst part is the bikers often go two or three abreast and still crowd out into the remaining lane. not to mention the damage to the pavement by the grinding off of the old stripe and roadway markers, the expense of relocation the traffic signal loops that detect car to alert signals. i paved a street 2 years ago that they with in a year did a lane reduction scaring the new paving and having to cut surface loops in where as we place them and over lay in the original configuration.

i also have to notify the management if i am going to attend a public meeting as a citizen, not an employee.

+1, the acceleration of stop and go traffic is a big waste. Just sitting there is a big waste. Car's tend to be most efficient at 35-60MPH depending an aero and gearing.

Same for "rush hour", there are a ton of stuff that is using extra brakes("environment") and gas. I have flexibility working a manufacturing job that only works one shift, I'm free to come in early and leave late, so I may get in three hours before we "open" just to miss traffic, take a 3 1/2 hour long lunch, and leave when its dark on days I don't have any other things to do.

As for high speed rail, they should aim for regular speed rail, there's no energy savings in 180MPH trains over 80MPH trains.

Why are lights so piss poor timed outside of downtowns? Guranteed to get stopped at 50% of the lights on a trip. The frontage road near where I live, 100% guranteed to get stopped at every light. 20 years later of the same timings, I know what speed I have to do to miss the red lights.