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Homer Watson and Ottawa Three Lane Roundabouts
(10-25-2017, 08:21 PM)Pheidippides Wrote: Still off-topic, but I could not resist...

The company what3words has tried to solve the addressing problem by dividing the word in to 57 trillion 3mx3m squares and assigned each one a unique 3 word address.

So essentially you can find any location on the globe and share it with less ambiguity than any other system (at least in the X and Y, it doesn't work on the Z axis (e.g. a tall residential tower)), including places where addresses are non-existent in other more traditional systems.

For example the firefighters' monument is at: gadget.trucked.consumed.

I guess it is just a really fine UTM grid using words instead of numbers.
[/url]
[url=http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2016/06/27/what3words_divided_the_world_into_57_trillion_squares.html]Slate article
.

Similarly, Open Location Code is really cool. Codes can be short if you want to refer to a larger area, or if you want to refer to an area nearby; e.g., I can give the location of City Hall as "FG24+MX, Kitchener, Ontario" or as the fully specified "86MXFG24+MX". (And they work in Google Maps, but can also be mapped to GPS with a simple algorithm and no network connectivity.)
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(10-25-2017, 09:49 AM)ijmorlan Wrote:
(10-25-2017, 08:21 AM)jeffster Wrote: The sign says Ottawa Street. Unsure if it says Ottawa St "W" as technically there is no Ottawas Street West, it's Ottawa Street South. I am pretty sure though that it has direction (Ottawa St S -- as well as 7/8)....

Not sure if this is irrelevant, but I’ve noticed that highway off ramps tend to be labelled [street] [direction], where the [direction] is which way you will be going. Normally this is fine, but if the street name itself has an important direction component, I’m not sure what happens. I can’t recall seeing a sign that said something like “King St. South North”, or even worse,<b> “Ottawa St. South West”, </b>where the first direction is the official direction in the street name and the second is the more informal direction of travel at that point.

Funny you say that, when they were building those roundabouts, the signs said "Ottawa Street West (to go North to Ottawa Street South)" and "Ottawa Street East (to go South to Ottawa Street North)"...I'm sure someone from out of town, doing the signs, took out a compass and said "what the $%&&!" and ended up printing up signs that were most accurate.

I had to do a double look, "Ottawa Street West" -- yet it seemed so correct.
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It seems like off ramps are only labelled with a direction if there is one direction of travel.

As an example, heading northbound on 85 at University Avenue, one exit says "University Avenue EAST" and the other says "University Avenue WEST". Both exits go to University Avenue East. But it is true that the WEST exit will eventually get you to University Avenue West. The southbound sign just says University Avenue.

On the other hand, King Street has only one exit which can go north or south. So the sign on the highway says only "King Street".

I believe the exit on 85 northbound at Northfield now only says "Northfield Drive EAST", although you can go west if you make a U-turn at Colby. And I think the southbound sign says "Northfield Drive WEST", but you can go east by making a U-turn at Parkside.

On the other hand, Lancaster is blowing my mind. Southbound 85 at Lancaster says "Lancaster Street WEST". And it is true that the exit goes to Lancaster Street West, but your direction of travel will be almost due south, so it probably could have been labelled "SOUTH". And it heads towards Lancaster Street East, so one could make a case for labelling it "EAST". I never realized that while most of the "east" and "west" streets in Kitchener do actually run roughly east to west near Queen Street, Lancaster does not, and runs pretty much as close to north/south as you can get in Kitchener. In fact, the part of Lancaster Street that is "east" is actually slightly west of the part that is "west".
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CTV article on the number of crashes reports at the Ottawa and Homer Watson roundabout since opening.

http://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/mobile/ottaw...-1.3671232
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(11-09-2017, 11:25 PM)rangersfan Wrote: CTV article on the number of crashes reports at the Ottawa and Homer Watson roundabout since opening.

http://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/mobile/ottaw...-1.3671232

No surprises there.  One hopes that the numbers will decline over time.
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(11-09-2017, 11:25 PM)rangersfan Wrote: CTV article on the number of crashes reports at the Ottawa and Homer Watson roundabout since opening.

http://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/mobile/ottaw...-1.3671232

Meh....people not driving properly. I use it every day and I love it..best thing to happen in that area since the LCBO opened.
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I have been surprised how well people have adapted to this monster and its adjacent sibling. I haven't had any problems.

And despite the high number of crashes, it does seem to be reducing injuries.

4 out of 34 involved injuries (11%) vs. the five year average of 24% (43/178).

The Region of Waterloo 2016 Annual Collision Countermeasures Report
Everyone move to the back of the bus and we all get home faster.
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(11-10-2017, 03:43 AM)jeffster Wrote:  I use it every day and I love it..best thing to happen in that area since the LCBO opened.

I go through it by bus daily and I definitely concur. I regularly drive on Ottawa between Westmount and Strausburg and the traffic flows better there as well.
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I know there was rampant discussion here about the overhead signage, and the wind flaps (NOT lights) on the signs.

I just came back from London, and there are two signs (mounted only on one side) approaching Veterans Memorial Parkway. The smaller of the two signs is right at the ramp, and has these same wind shields. The sign before the intersection is much larger, and is mounted across 3 lanes of traffic (but mounted just on one side), but has none of those wings. Any idea why?

Coke
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