General Road and Highway Discussion

[danbrotherston]

And yes, what I mean is that, instead of having any slip ramp, we could have a tighter turn radii---I believe this would be better for peds, but drivers would have to slow down more.  The slip ramps (of any kind) exist in order to allow turning traffic a few benefits, first being much wider corners without requiring to the signal poles to be moved too far back from the intersection, and second being a yield instead of a stop for drivers.

Slip ramps could be built with any turn radius, and could turn back to parallel so they end at a right angle with the road, so I’m not really seeing how your point applies to hypothetical slip ramps that are designed differently from the ones we currently have in the city. And as I’ve said I believe that slip ramps of appropriate design are a benefit to pedestrians, not just motor vehicles. I have no idea who the traffic engineers believe benefit from slip lanes. Anybody who is opposed to all slip ramps on the basis that they’re bad for pedestrians is not speaking for all pedestrians. Of course, I may be a minority of 1 for all I know.

I can tell you the engineers use ramps to benefit drivers, that's the reason they do almost everything they do in the region, but also, they've told me outright. They aren't going to build a slip ramp that doesn't increase the turn radius on a corner, even if it is geometrically possible.

As for peds, there are objective measures of safety that trump our opinions.  If you can show data which shows islands make safer intersections than narrowing turn radii and shrinking intersections, I'll happily support them, but all the data I've seen contradicts that.