Diverging Diamond Intersection at FM 60 & 2818

32,374 Views | 204 Replies | Last: 4 yr ago by halibut sinclair
1939
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True, but the amount of traffic on 281 in San Antonio is 10x worse than here. This is not needed.
monkeyaround
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91_Aggie, don't waste your time with redd38. He's incapable of understanding anything but his self-perceived brilliance. I'd give even odds that he whined when his trash collection day changed, too.

The DDI will take some getting used to, but we'll be glad it happened, especially in a decade or two.
redd38
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monkeyaround said:

91_Aggie, don't waste your time with redd38. He's incapable of understanding anything but his self-perceived brilliance. I'd give even odds that he whined when his trash collection day changed, too.

The DDI will take some getting used to, but we'll be glad it happened, especially in a decade or two.


Haha, more personal insults and still no one is able to prove I'm wrong.

(I have no idea when my trash pickup day is, or if it changed)
histag10
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Trash day may not have changed, but everyone's recycling day did.

If you haven't noticed, you must hate the environment.
95_Aggie
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Quote:

no one is able to prove I'm wrong
Maybe no one really cares
agnerd
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Diverging diamond works some places, but NOT this one.

This is a location with a very high percentage of new, inexperienced drivers with less than 6 years of driving experience. It's been 15 years and students STILL can't figure out how to turn right on Texas from University. How long will it take them to learn the diverging diamond?

This location will have a very high percentage of young drivers on their phones.

It is also a location that is a mile down the road from one of the densest concentrations of alcohol sales establishments in the state. The drunks will now be asked to cross over oncoming traffic twice instead of just continuing on in their lane.

It is also a primary gateway to campus with a lot of visitors that will be unfamiliar with the configuration. They will hit their brakes approaching the intersection and unnecessarily back up traffic while reducing the efficiency the computer model predicts.

Civil transportation professors emphasized heavily that doing something unexpected in roadway design really screws with drivers and causes accidents. Also taught us how Orlando, Vegas, and other tourist areas have to take extra precautions to keep tourists from cutting across roads, swerving out of lanes, and causing accidents. A computer might say diverging diamond is the best option, but the models are limited in the detail of their driver-familiarity variables.

A location with a high percentage of inexperienced, young, phone-obsessed, possibly drunk, and out-of-town drivers is about as terrible of a location for a non-traditional intersection as you can get. Wellborn at University and 6th Street at I-45 are the only two worse intersections in the state I can think of.

Only positive I see about this configuration is that A&M owns all four corners, so you aren't severely harming commercial properties at that intersection by cutting off their access. /rant
95_Aggie
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Quote:

Diverging diamond works some places, but NOT this one.
So the intersection hasn't even opened yet and you are saying it's not working?

B/CS must lead the nation in per capita negative nancies.
Oogway
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Personally, as long as the signage and striping are clear and maintained at a high level, I think it's going to be great.

As a matter of fact, it's going to be so great that TXDoT and the City will announce a second DDI to begin construction in August of 2019 at Rock Prairie and Highway 6.....
duffelpud
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Quote:

It is also a location that is a mile down the road from one of the densest concentrations of alcohol sales establishments in the state. The drunks will now be asked to cross over oncoming traffic twice instead of just continuing on in their lane...

A location with a high percentage of inexperienced, young, phone-obsessed, possibly drunk, and out-of-town drivers is about as terrible of a location for a non-traditional intersection as you can get. Wellborn at University and 6th Street at I-35 are the only two worse intersections in the state I can think of.
eot
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chigger
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Some of you people obviously have no idea how this thing works. Just wait. Actually use it, and then you can see for yourself. It's not that big a deal. It's no harder than following any other road and less dangerous than other 4 way intersections.
Tim Weaver
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fwiw, I don't disagree that the DDI might handle a larger flow of traffic more efficiently than blah, blah, blah, traffic studies, blah blah, whatever....



My point was that it is not needed, and we especially shouldn't be spending the money on it. There are far worse intersections in town. Rellis and the Medical center don't change any of this.


My guess is that the "traffic" predictions are based on game day traffic more than anything else. So we need to spend millions on this construction for the 6 days a year it will be beneficial?


chigger
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How do you know "it's not needed"? Where are you getting that from?
Txanon
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redd38 said:

Wait till y'all see what they're gonna do at Holleman



Not sure how I feel about that one yet.


Makes sense if the city extends Jones Butler with an overpass over 2818 and onto Downling and have a roundabout for that intersection.
Txanon
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chigger said:

Some of you people obviously have no idea how this thing works. Just wait. Actually use it, and then you can see for yourself. It's not that big a deal. It's no harder than following any other road and less dangerous than other 4 way intersections.


It'd be better if the cris-cross intersections were done away with underpasses or overpasses and use the danish median things to prevent confusion.


Tim Weaver
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chigger said:

How do you know "it's not needed"? Where are you getting that from?
How do you know it IS needed? Where are you getting that from?
chigger
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Tim Weaver said:

chigger said:

How do you know "it's not needed"? Where are you getting that from?
How do you know it IS needed? Where are you getting that from?


I've no doubt that you won't agree with me, but the fact that a government agency with a highly prioritized list of issues whose job it is to plan and award highway construction projects, and an appropriation of millions of dollars for the project leads me to think that they might know a bit more about it than some guys on Texags. Maybe I'm wrong but I think I'll go with TXDot on this one.

Then again my main point was just that the diverging diamond isn't a big deal to navigate and is actually a more cost efficient solution than many others.
Tim Weaver
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Having sat through many of TXdot's yearly meetings, I can tell you that that it's less about how much they "know" and much, MUCH more about "how much can we spend so we get our budget next year".

I used to work at Rudder Theater as a sound engineer and believe me, this is definitely the case. They talked openly about it.
Topher17
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redd38 said:

Wait till y'all see what they're gonna do at Holleman



Not sure how I feel about that one yet.
If I remember correctly there was one of these in East Austin for a short time and it didn't work. It only took a few years before they scrapped it and put in an overpass.

That intersection is a disaster right now. They should have extended the overpass at Wellborne when it was originally built.
CS78
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What would have been wrong with a traditional clover leaf?
CS78
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redd38 said:

Wait till y'all see what they're gonna do at Holleman



Not sure how I feel about that one yet.


I like the design in theory. Until you realize they'll have to drop the speed limit to 30 to accommodate the fact that the mergers will be coming in too slow.
(Removed:11023A)
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I drive it daily and I think it's a great idea!! If you. Any figure out how to follow the white little lines in the road.....you shouldn't be driving!

The left turn under the bypass was an accident waiting to happen during rush hour, it was down right scary at times
CharlieBrown17
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It amazes me some of y'all think students are the only ones here who can't drive worth a lick
Scruffy
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CharlieBrown17 said:

It amazes me some of y'all think students are the only ones here who can't drive worth a lick

Shhhhhh.
They don't like to be called out. Everything is students faults.
Scoopen Skwert
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Scruffy said:

CharlieBrown17 said:

It amazes me some of y'all think students are the only ones here who can't drive worth a lick

Shhhhhh.
They don't like to be called out. Everything is students faults.


And those that are not townies.
LOYAL AG
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CharlieBrown17 said:

It amazes me some of y'all think students are the only ones here who can't drive worth a lick


Of course it's not just students. Have you seen how many Asian women there are here?
pants
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I drove through the interchange tonight. I hope they plan to finish it soon because with all the temporary barrels and traffic signals, it's a bit confusing...

We won't get a true picture of how the intersection functions until all of the signs, markings, and traffic signals are permanent. I think there might have been only one through lane on part of an approach on 60, but I forget now.
BrandoC
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Not saying they are not going to do this but there is not even a quarter of enough room to do this at Holleman and Harvey Mitchell what is in the video. Video shows all of that room but in reality the space they would be working with is only half of side to the median.
redd38
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BrandoC said:

Not saying that are not going to do this but there is not even a quarter of enough room to do this at Holleman and Harvey Mitchell what is in the video. Video shows all of that room but in reality the space they would be working with is only half of side to the median.


They said on Twitter today that they're actually going to do that at the George Bush and Luther intersections as well.
duffelpud
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I drove through this intersection four times yesterday - the first at 8:00am and they still hadn't opened it up. On the second trip through I was traveling east. All lanes were merged into a single left-hand lane and slowed to 45mph before veering sharply to the right and opening up into two lanes - one was a right hand turn onto the southbound ramp and the other veered sharply back to the left to the diamond where a barely visible temporary signal was erected to control traffic. I turned south onto 2818 and so avoided the dreaded 'diamond'. On the third trip through I was heading west on 60. The traffic pattern was the same as the east bound configuration and I veered sharply right and then back to left, continuing west through the light this time and winding up on the south side of the overpass heading west with east bound traffic passing me on the right (someone should put up "Wee Britain" signage through this stretch of roadway). I had a green light at the first cross-over but caught the red light at the second and had the unnerving opportunity to watch traffic come straight towards me before veering to their right and then to their left before crossing in front of me and heading east across the overpass (to my right).

There are still traffic control barrels everywhere and uneven pavement in quite a few spots. It will be interesting to see how it develops going forward.

"What's this button do?"
Oogway
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Bet if you went up there and videotaped for a few days and set it to the Benny Hill soundtrack, you'd make bank on Youtube.
techno-ag
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Only the fourth one in Texas according to KBTX.

http://www.kbtx.com/content/news/Diverging-diamond-interchange-now-open-at-FM-60-and-FM-2818-490099851.html
halibut sinclair
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jammer262
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Went through one 5 or 6 times this weekend in Round Rock. No big deal, worked well.
duffelpud
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"What's this button do?"
Scruffy
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