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| How would you use electronics to solve the 11' 8" bridge problem |
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| drussell:
--- Quote from: ez24 on January 07, 2018, 08:45:11 pm ---There has been 126 crashes into this bridge: --- End quote --- 126 captured so far by the 11foot8 guy's cameras. :) There have been hundreds, if not thousands more, over the years before he started filming. --- Quote ---It has a height sensor with a warning light which I assume helped a little. What other ideas are there? No lifting the rail tracks nor lowering road (because they have not done so). The only thing I can think of is spike strips that automatically come up out of the road. Maybe a horn? I think a taser is out of the question (the windows might be closed). Engine killer? Paint balls? Everything I can think of would not stop the truck in time. Electro magnet (assuming $$$ does not matter)? --- End quote --- There are warning lights well before that intersection with appropriate signage... Then there is the second set of sensors which turn the lights red at the intersection if an overheight truck still approaches, so the driver must ignore the first warning signs and lights, then instead of turning at the intersection onto the marked truck route, must run a red light in order to smash into the bridge. Drivers really have to try pretty hard to run into that thing... :) Yet it still happens... :palm: Raising the bridge would cost the railroad a fortune since they would have to modify the grade of the track for a very long distance to compensate. Not cost effective, they're not going to do it. Lowering the road is difficult because there are sewer mains and such under it which would have to be re-routed through some other passageway, which the roads people aren't going to do just to stop a couple idiots per year from smashing into the bridge's protection bar. Not cost effective, they're not going to do it. Plus, fixing it would remove a great source of humour from the interwebs! :) |
| Gyro:
The first things that comes to mind... - the actual bridge (the thing you are trying to avoid) is incredibly inconspicuous. Yes there are some badly scraped yellow stripes on the protection bar, but the side of the bridge itself is black - why not make the whole side of the thing reflective Bright and conspicuous. - The signage is confusing. The driver is probably still trying to understand the grammar of "OVERHEIGHT MUST TURN" when he hits the bridge. - The actual height limit sign is small in comparison to the above one, the driver probably doesn't even notice it while trying to decode the other one. If you asked him, he probably wouldn't have even registered the figures. - It's adjacent to a lights controlled junction - lots of other lights, it just looks like some overhead hung lights (US style), the dark bridge fades into the background. The bar hung on chains is common here - entrances to car parks etc. The solution doesn't have to be active. |
| Cyberdragon:
--- Quote from: NiHaoMike on January 07, 2018, 09:15:32 pm ---Low tech solution: a steel beam hung (by chains from poles so it's still free to move) an inch or two lower than the bridge a few tens of feet before the bridge. Colliding with it will make a loud noise, but with far less damage than colliding with the bridge itself. --- End quote --- Allot of parking garages have these. They have a pipe hanging in front of the entrance with the height limit marked on it. |
| RoGeorge:
--- Quote from: Homer J Simpson on January 07, 2018, 09:24:03 pm --- --- End quote --- Obviously, some drivers are direct descendants of Big Foot. Switch to metric! :-DD |
| IanB:
OK, the driver blatantly drove through a red light into the intersection fully 5 seconds after the light turned red. If someone is going run a red light at full speed without even attempting to slow down, no kind of warning about a low bridge is going to have any effect. They have protected the bridge with an iron bar, so the bridge is safe. After that, drivers have to look after themselves. Probably the best cure is already in place: expensive costs for drivers who ignore the warnings and run red lights. |
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