Originally Posted by
John E
Novel idea: Let's do away with those freeway ramp meters, which keep ramps from functioning properly as acceleration lanes (much-needed for many of us with underpowered cars), and traffic calm the mouths of the ramps.
Novel and good... too bad you are not a traffic engineer. Those meter lights have always driven me crazy... a ramp designed for merging then stifled with a light.
That is akin to putting fat heavy wheels on a CF racing bike.
Traffic calming the mouth of the ramp would slow the access to the ramp and "meter" the flow of traffic automatically. It would also allow for a graceful way to transition from lower speed streets to on ramps... we would not need 55MPH arterials acting like pseudo freeways. Lower speed streets feeding traffic calmed ramps could control the flow of traffic quite well.
John didn't mention a study that shows that road speeds above 40MPH are NOT conducive to good flow?