An engineering eye on European transportation
Mon, 12/07/2009 - 11:36am | by amrosell
Streetcars in Prague, Czech Republic. Image by William Richardson via Flickr.
Fascinating observations, by a Minnesota professional traffic engineer, of transportation system and city characteristics of several countries in Central Europe (including Germany, France, and the Czech Republic). Includes discussion of roadway lane widths, rail network, and urban form.
Excerpted from the newsletter of the North Central Section of the US Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE).
| Attachment | Size |
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| ErpeldingExcerpt-Fall2009-ITE_inciter.pdf | 429.38 KB |
Comments
lane widths in Eur.
Here's a quote from the end of the piece:
With the exception of the Autobahn, I didn’t see a 12-foot lane with 2-foot shy distance anywhere in Europe. Most lanes were probably 10 or 11 feet wide with little or no shy distance, leading to relatively short crossing distances and quick cycle lengths at traffic signals. The end result of the mixture of narrow lanes, big cars, numerous pedestrians, and of course availability of an extensive rail network, was a very organized, minimally congested, and efficient road- way network.
1) what's a "shy distance"
2) we need narrower lanes in Minneapolis
shy distance
The shy distance is the space left between vehicles (or pedestrians and vehicles) as they pass each other. Generally speaking, the greater the speed of travel the more shy distance is required. One way to think of it is that it is space designed to allow for motorists to drive too fast and too distracted. They get a couple of feet to correct their mistakes before they crash into another vehicle or a person on foot.
ped in USA must jaywalk
I have to defend American pedestrians in their seeming glee at jaywalking. Unfortunately pedestrians are forced to jaywalk in the States due to the proliferation of Don't Walk signs here. I was surprised that Mr. Erpelding didn't comment on the much lower ratio of signalized intersections in Europe. Contrast Cedar Ave in Minneapolis, with 8 signals in the mile between Lake and 40th, with Karl-Marx Allee in Berlin, with 3 signals in the mile between Alexanderplatz and Strasse der Pariser Kommune. Can you think about how frustrating it is to walk Cedar, having to stop every tenth of a mile as the signal, timed for cars, turns red?
Prague
Quote:
Add to that a significant at-grade light rail system in the central business district (as compared with the under-ground systems in Munich, Berlin or Frankfurt) and the traffic we saw was not all that surprising.
Prague has subway as well. The problem lies in fact, that the town is 1500 years old, while in Germany everything was rebuilt after the WW2, as there were only ashes left, in Prague the planning is limited by the old buildings and streets. Most of the centre was planned and built in the 1300's with other significant redevelopment in 1800's. Now the congestions are even worse due to extensive works on tunnel complex under the city and outer city ring (so far the west-east transport has to go through center, which is yet another fault of past socialist planning). When the tunnel complex, outer city ring and new subway (covering center) as well streetcar (covering wider suburbs) will be finished in next few years, the situation will be hopefully much better.
Tunnel complex Blanka: http://www.tunelblanka.cz/informace-o-projektu.php?action=1
Prague Subway: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague_Subway
As to the Prague tramway network. Worth mentioning is that in the centre it is used in the way streetcars are used in US, while in suburbs it rushes through in a manner of Light Rail.