Subject: Re: FLORENCE traffic team

From: [email-masked] (John Hascall)
Date: 5 Aug 1995 15:58:23 GMT

Colin R. Leech <[email-masked]> wrote:
}In a previous message, [email-masked] (Italo Profeti) wrote:
}>My name is Italo Profeti, I live in Florence where I am involved as a
}>volunteer with the traffic team of the city Mayor. My duty - and pleasure
}>- is to collect as many informations on traffic, bike circulation and
}>urban design as I can.

}- If it is just cars that are a concern (not bikes or trucks), you can
}  put holes in the ground, separated by a width that allows buses to go
}  through, but which will trap cars.

    I have seen reference to the opposite of this, blocks of
    raised concrete positioned and sized to not allow cars to pass:

     ________        _____________________       ______
             |      |                     |      |
     ________|______|_____________________|______|___________roadbed
                ^    <------ width ------>    ^
                |             and             |
      tire goes here         height        tire goes here
                        sized to allow
                       a bus to pass, but
                      too large for a car

    How does the hole method work?

John
-- 
John Hascall                ``An ill-chosen word is the fool's messenger.''
Moderator, comp.unix.wizards
Systems Software Engineer, ISU Comp Center + Ames, IA  50011 + 515/294-9551
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---

From: [email-masked] (Colin R. Leech)
Date: Sat, 5 Aug 1995 09:28:59 GMT

In a previous message, [email-masked] (Italo Profeti) wrote:
>My name is Italo Profeti, I live in Florence where I am involved as a
>volunteer with the traffic team of the city Mayor. My duty - and pleasure
>- is to collect as many informations on traffic, bike circulation and
>urban design as I can.
 
I suggest the following:
 
traffic:      the transp-l mailing list
bikes:        newsgroup rec.bicycles.soc
urban design: newsgroup alt.planning.urban
transit:      newsgroup misc.transport.urban-transit
 
I have mailed Italo a copy of my list of transportation resources on Internet
separately. If anybody else want a copy, send me e-mail.
 
>Ours is a strange situation: citizens are more and more sensitive about
>pollution but italian culture of driving-a-car-even-to-buy-matches is too
>strong to allow an easy and fast solution.
 
This is not strange. North America and other places suffer from this
problem as well.
 
>More, Florence is a city full (stuffed) of art works and art usually
>doesn't matches any good with traffic, pollution, vibrations, etc. AND not
>even with red & white striped barriers to keep mopeds from bus lanes or
>cars from bike/ped zones. We need *artistic* AND viable solutions,i.e.
>stone signs, wrought iron barriers, no *tube* projects (as soon as we dig
>a pound of ground we come across some etruscan or roman find and we are
>stopped by the Ministry for Arts and Culture) etc. We most of all need
>IDEAS 'couse the matter is new to ourselves.
>
>Even something you could not note any longer for how much it is obvious to
>you could be innovative for us. We need short-term solutions that don't
>clatter up the way to long-term ones. Any help, advise and reference will
>be appreciated, REALLY!
>
>We have a major need right now: to keep cars, motorcycles, mopeds and even
>BIKES from usig some *strategical* streets where only bus circulation is
>to be allowed instead. As stated before we need something different from
>the usual type of barrier not compatible with the city look.
>
>We thought of a barrier consisting in two lines of small columns, offset
>to one another like the skittles.
>
>This little columns could be of strong crash-resistant material and
>covered with any more appealing surfade like marble or wrought iron or
>what else we could need in the specific location according to the artistic
>presences in the roundabouts.
>
>They should be mobile, i.e. they would SINK into the ground,  totally
>disappearing, via a remote control operated by bus drivers; soon after the
>passage of the bus they would ARISE back from the ground. All
>hydrodynamically.
 
I would avoid something like this. The maintenance would be a problem.
However, the idea of remote-controlled gates is a good one. I would use
a more conventional gate or barricade, not one that goes into the ground.
(Dirt etc. will collect in the mechanism on the ground.)
 
The mechanism for opening the gate can come in many forms:
 
- An inductive loop detector, like those used for counting traffic, or
  detecting traffic at a traffic signal. There are models available which
  can differentiate between a car and a bus.
- If your transit system has some sort of automatic vehicle detection/location
  system already, this can be used to detect the bus as it approaches the
  desired location.
- A standard automatic garage door opener would work! (One per bus)
- If it is just cars that are a concern (not bikes or trucks), you can
  put holes in the ground, separated by a width that allows buses to go
  through, but which will trap cars.
 
>If you have any suggestion, tip or more - you know any project of
>something like this or even know someone who produces such an equipment -
>please CONTACT me.
 
I'm cross-posting this response to misc.transport.urban-transit as well,
in case other people have ideas.
 
>I thank you all in advance. Italo
>[email-masked] (Italo Profeti)
 
--
 Colin R. Leech             |->  Civil engineer by training, transportation
 [email-masked]  |->  planner by choice, trombonist by hobby.
 Nepean, Ontario, Canada    |->  "I'd like a penny." - Tom Downs, Amtrak.
 My opinions are my own, not my employer's. You may consider them shareware.