oroen

This is some spectacular scenery, and on previous pages as well (I haven't really been reading CJ's much lately, so I haven't really had a chance to follow your work here). I've dl'ed your rural development kit but haven't had time to play around with it, but now you're making me want to. I also like the rail lines going right into the farms, integrating quite nicely with the surroundings.

Honchos and pumbas and letters home. It's all quite delicious really. And bonus points for a Colbert quote in your sig.

Greetings, stranger! It's been a while for me, so I had to play a bit of catch up here. Last weekend I took I-95 down to the Triangle, so I see the similarity of rural I-73 to I-95 in Virginia, especially with the farm frontage roads which you see so prominently south of Petersburg. So I see that SR-29 is Sully Rd here, not SR-28. I liked the historical redoing of the traffic lights in Middleton from the previous update; I noticed when I was in NoVA last weekend that in addition to Alexandria, Fairfax was doing this as well; some of their newer ones haven't yet been activated yet, so there are still two sets up lights up. And I guess in a fantasy world, Ames can still be doing good business. Speaking of trees on both sides, signs in Clearview, and SR-639, this picture that I took last weekend is the only instance of Clearview on I-95 South in Virginia, as far as I was able to spot (and I was pretty much spotting everything). As a special present to you, to make up for my recent absense from here:

Hey Mr. Beer, just checking in to say that everything looks great as usual. It's really quite Midwestern in all its glory! (My current avatar from Iowa seems appropriate for this CJ, although it's from the other end of the state). The I-80/US-75/I-480 interchange looks nice (you were not entirely incorrect in not realizing I-480 because US-75 has a duplex with I-480); I looked up the real version, which looks like a regular stack interchange that has been stretched out, so it would have been practically impossible to build here. The non-freeway arterial roads look great too. And wow (!) that region view is just exquisite, absolutely exquisite--there's no other word for it!

A slightly older thread that deserves to be bumped. There's nothing like some good ol' fashioned science to stick it to those SmarthGrowthies. Roads, on the other hand, have no impact on the extent to which development is scattered, despite commonly held beliefs to the contrary. "We looked at a lot of measures of road density -- miles of road per area, average distance to a road, distance to an interstate exit -- and we could find no relation between those measures and the scatteredness of development," Turner says.quote>It's particularly nice to see that result.

You want toll plazas? I'll give you toll plazas! And I won't even steal the pictures from other websites; as always, all pictures that I post are my own. This is the Trenton-Morrisville Bridge on US-1 across the Delaware River between New Jersey and Pennsylvania. This bridge, along with several others across the Delaware, is operated by the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission. Yes, I am headed straight for the EZPass lanes. You may be able to notice how dilapidated the pavement is; this bridge is due for major reconstruction next year. Toll is 75 cents, or 60 cents with EZPass: Approaching the Pennsylvania Turnpike on I-283 southbound (the Harrisburg East Interchange of the Turnpike). The PA Turnpike is a ticket toll road. You take a ticket and pay a toll based on how far you drive. Of course, with EZPass, you don't have to worry about any of that; you just pass straight through: Here we're approaching another entrance to the PA Turnpike, this time the Denver Interchange (yes, that's Denver in Pennsylvania, not in Colorado). In both this picture and the one above, notice the yellow light above the EZPass Only lanes (it's actually a flashing yellow), instead of a green light: This is the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge along I-84 (or officially named the Hamilton Fish Newburgh-Beacon Bridge, after a former governor of New York State). Run by the New York State Bridge Authority, it is one of several toll crossings over the Hudson River. Looks like there was some construction going on at the time of this picture (about two years ago); I haven't been there since, so I don't know what it looks like now. Toll is $1; no EZPass discount: Approaching the Fort McHenry Tunnel in Baltimore, Maryland, on I-95. It's a bit distant, but you can see that the toll plaza spans the width of the picture. This tunnel is actually four tubes of two lanes each, so it's 2 x2 lanes in each direction. Completed in the 1980's, it's the newest of the Baltimore Harbor crossings and was a major reliever to the old Baltimore Harbor Tunnel (which is still in operation via the Harbor Tunnel Thruway). Toll is $2; no EZPass discount: Finally, you can't really see the toll plaza here (if you squint, you can see way off in the background), but I wanted to show an Express EZPass set up. This is the Garden State Parkway southbound in New Jersey at the Pascack Valley Toll Plaza. The Garden State Parkway is gradually implementing one-way tolling and open road tolling at all its toll plazas to help ease traffic concerns. Toll is 35 cents here, one of only three two-way toll plazas left on the GSP; at the other eight toll plazas, you pay 70 cents in one direction and nothing the other way: Hmmm... I thought I had a few more than that, but it's all I can find for now.

One question for the americans among us, how on earth does a rotary work if you give way to the traffic coming onto it?? doesn`t that just all jam up?!quote>This is precisely why so many older-designed traffic circles are being removed, especially in New Jersey, which seemed to really enjoy building those things in the first half of the century. New Jersey circles are the worst. It's not that you necessarily yield to entering traffic; instead, there is typically a set through-traffic which has priority, and other traffic yields to it. One of the worst is this infamous one in Flemington: US-202 always has right of way, regardless of whether it's entering or exiting. It probably made sense back when it was constructed, when traffic volumes were light (think of yielding onto a freeway or something), but today this does indeed cause massive backups. There are other older-style circular intersections in the US as well, but typically in the northeast. The large traffic circles in cities like Washington, DC (Dupont Circle, Thomas Circle, e.g.), and New York (Columbus Circle, e.g.) are generally signalized (so no yield laws, you just follow the traffic lights), multi-lane intersections of numerous roads, similar to many large European traffic circles (Etoile and Nation in Paris, e.g.). New England, especially Massachusetts, uses the term "rotary," and these are similar in style and usage to many European roundabout, especially British ones; traffic yields to the circle. The term "roundabout" as used in the US and Canada is officially called a "modern roundabout." While other nations typically use the word to describe all circular intersections, there is a very set definition of what a roundabout is in the US. Of course entering traffic always yields, but also speeds are much slower (usually 15 mph for single-lane), entering traffic is deflected into the circle via a splitter island to further reduce speeds. Single-lane roundabouts are good for about 20,000 vehicles per day, and two- and three-lane roundabouts can accomodate slightly higher speeds and traffic volumes. As for the large vehicles comment from earlier, roundabouts have a raised apron in the middle that generally allows even 18-wheelers to navigate them by rising up onto it. Here are some pictures from a recent roadtrip to Maryland, which has been one of the leaders in roundabout construction in the US. Here's some approach signage: Here's one near the planned community of Maple Lawn, which you can see in the background on the right. Note that you're driving pretty much straight into the central island and are then deflected near the crosswalk, which is typically one car-length from the yield point. This lowers speeds so people don't just fly through without regard for other traffic: A closeup of roundabout geometrics. We have to be told in no uncertain terms to yield to the circle, since we're not really used to these newfangled things. They've really only become popular among state DOT's in the past five years or so, and there are still many states that have yet to install their first one. Also, note the apron around the center island for larger vehicles; you can actually see the tire tracks from vehicles going over it: This one is on Maryland's Eastern Shore. If you squint, you can see a blue European-like arrow mounted on top of the black-and-yellow chevron on the central island. No idea what that business is about: Holy crap, I have taken a lot of road pictures....

Wow, looking at those regional views, I didn't realize that you had built so much already! And as usual, you are an expert at expansive industrial areas, as evidenced by the previous two updates.

I like that by using a combination of sunken, ground level, and elevated, and by skewing things slightly, you could sort of replicate a three-level stack. SR-644, excellent, and it's even Larson Mill Road, like Old Keene Mill Road. Have you tried using mayor mode trees rather thank PEG's lots? I've vacillated numerous times between which I like better, especially because the Maxis default trees are quite ugly. But I've found Cycledogg's mayor-mode trees to be an excellent fit for interchanges. PEG and jeroni have both made some good mayor mode trees too, but I'm partial to Cycledogg's, especially the lodgepole pines, which look great inside of loop ramps. I'm finding that they give me some better flexibility for how thick or thin I want my foliage to be. I noticed my first sighting of Clearview in VIrginia as well. It was on US-29, somewhere between I-66 and Warrenton.... or was it between Warrenton and Culpeper. Anyway, it was on a non-freeway section and was a small sign for an at-grade crossing, and it came so fast I couldn't get my camera out in time.