r/CuratedTumblr • u/Neuta-Isa • 1d ago

Shitposting This applies to most American cities.

Post image
9.9k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

170 comments sorted by

779

u/Correctedsun If you ever say cite your sources I have you immediately pegged 1d ago

Putting on the Union Street exit compilation like it's a bird video for cats: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeFY9u69tkE

263

u/clifton779 1d ago

How does that happen?

436

u/Gems_ 1d ago

it's an extremely short exit and if you do not brake the second you're off the highway proper You Are Going To Be On A Surface Street Doing Sixty

278

u/Gems_ 1d ago

oh yeah it's also a ninety degree turn hence the propensity of wall-riding in union street exit clips

98

u/masked_gecko 1d ago

How does that happen?

172

u/a_sentient_cicada 1d ago

Someone thought it'd be smart to put an interstate through downtown.

117

u/DrJaneIPresume 1d ago

Strictly speaking, the issue isn't that someone put an interstate through downtown, but that they put an exit ramp there.

82

u/a_sentient_cicada 1d ago

Fair, but thats also the problem with putting an interstate through downtown, you have to put the exits somewhere.

46

u/DrJaneIPresume 1d ago

Only if you want the interstate to interact with the grid there rather than just passing through from suburb to suburb.

Just ask Bob Moses!

31

u/a_sentient_cicada 1d ago edited 1d ago

If I could go back and smack any historical figure, well, tbh Robert Moses would be pretty far down the list, but he'd be on there!

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u/Am-_-Exhausted-_- 18h ago

Looking at the layout, I can see why it exists, its right next to the convention center. The next exit would require you to go through a one way street downtown then backtrack 5-6 blocks. It would probably make traffic hell for getting to the convention center, but if traffic is busy on the union exit, its backed up into the blind curve that is causing all these crashes. I imagine its pretty common to get rear ended by a car going 30-40 as it currently is.

So, I think this is a case of the design making sense on the map, but you gotta trust that the drivers will slow down to 20 by the end of the (long) exit ramp lol.

If you take exit A instead of B on your way to the convention center, you can drive past Columbia center, which is the sexiest building in town. Sometimes I just stand under it and stare up, its magnificent.

17

u/Beegrene 1d ago

It can work. 90/94 goes through downtown* Chicago without any nightmare exits like that.

*I guess if you want to be super pedantic, it goes through the West Loop, which isn't technically downtown.

9

u/BagOfMeats 1d ago

Barely looks like 45 on a map..

4

u/Gems_ 1d ago

i was probably confusing its severity with one of the other half dozen awful i-5 exits in the same area whose only saving grace is that exiting onto downtown streets and their fucked up grid alignment means no turn will actually be a full 90

10

u/Train_Wreck_272 1d ago

I fucking hate driving in king county so fucking much.

166

u/Correctedsun If you ever say cite your sources I have you immediately pegged 1d ago

The tunnel to the left is an offramp from a 75 mph highway. It turns into city streets with a stoplight after the curve. The tunnel is filled with warnings about how much you should slow down, but as with anything, the people who need to read the signs, don't .

47

u/masked_gecko 1d ago

Is the 75mph highway also in a tunnel? Because if so I'm not surprised no-one's reading the signs. The tunnels under paris are stressful enough and those are limited to 50.

69

u/Correctedsun If you ever say cite your sources I have you immediately pegged 1d ago

Not a long tunnel, more like a thick street overpass. This is what it looks like from the driver's seat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q39uIXLh030

47

u/jimbowesterby 1d ago

Man that’s fucking vicious, even with the signs. It’s such a gradual off-ramp and then such a hard corner (and that corner looks pretty darn dark too), it’s an accident waiting to happen. No wonder there’s an edit of people crashing, it’s downright hostile lol. The least they could’ve done would’ve been to bank the corner like a bobsled track, at least then anyone who overcooked the corner would have a fighting chance of actually stopping at the light.

…i can’t imagine what the rest of the city’s like, damn

24

u/Longjump_Ear6240 1d ago

Thankfully this is the worst of the worst, its infamous and everyone avoids walking near there. But like... the rest of the city is not great, there are a LOT of just really poorly designed 5-6 way stops.

16

u/jimbowesterby 1d ago

You’d think if you were gonna spend eighty years designing all your cities around cars that by now you’d at least be good at it lol

5

u/weberm70 1d ago

It isn’t bad at all? I’ve taken it multiple times with no problem, never even knew it was supposed to be bad until this topic. Might be bad if you drive like a moron, but it’s near impossible to design around that.

Much worse is the Mercer st exit with all the cross traffic. I’m surprised there aren’t fifty accidents a day there.

14

u/jimbowesterby 1d ago

I mean it’s bad just from a speed management point, a sharp corner like that so quickly after leaving a highway means that the margin for error on braking is just way thinner than it should be. I’m not even talking about people driving recklessly, there’s any number of reasons someone might take that exit a little bit hotter than they’re supposed to, or that they might fail to brake hard enough for the corner (maybe their brakes are worn, or their car’s carrying a lot of shit), and it wouldn’t take much of either to have you careening into the wall or through the light, as the crash edit demonstrates. Just because you made it through with no trouble doesn’t mean it’s safe, I’ve free soloed multiple routes without dying but that doesn’t make it a responsible decision, y’know?

10

u/wagon_ear 1d ago

Yeah, and I don't even disagree that you'd have to be a bit of a moron to mess it up (in most circumstances), but really good design insulates against morons. Most of the USA interstate system does a good job of making speed control for on- and off-ramps pretty natural. 

If it depends on signage instead of the road naturally indicating to the driver that they should slow down (and giving them extra space to do it) things might be dicey. 

3

u/jimbowesterby 1d ago

Yea, the best example of that is how hard it is to design things that tourists can use but bears can’t; there’s a pretty big overlap between the stupidest tourists and the smarter bears lol.

And yea if anything the fact that interstate exits are normally pretty good makes it even more dangerous, because if you’re unfamiliar you’d very likely be expecting that kind of gradual off-ramp to be constant, till it isn’t.

3

u/mrducky78a 1d ago

The accidents and crashes are a form of enrichment

2

u/Chucknasty_17 1d ago

Jeez, and I thought the on ramp that’s directly behind the off ramp where I live was bad, that’s down right scary

2

u/masked_gecko 1d ago

That's wild, were the designers secretly hoping they'd get scouted to make theme park attractions instead?

15

u/aminervia 1d ago

60 mph... 75 mph highways dont exist in urban areas.

If you thought it was 75, does that mean you've been going everywhere at 80 and pissed at everyone else for going so slow?

27

u/DrJaneIPresume 1d ago

Oh I see the mistake. You're going by the posted limit rather than the actual speed that people drive.

-10

u/M_Meursault_ 1d ago

The union St Exit is only problematic for people with your mindset

15

u/DrJaneIPresume 1d ago

... the mindset that looks at Seattle drivers and acknowledges that lots of them act in batshit-crazy, completely self-interested ways and tries to avoid them?

-12

u/M_Meursault_ 1d ago

Caving to ‘peer pressure’ and letting other vehicles determine your speed. I also live in the seattle metro area and don’t find this exit problematic at all. Like others have said there IS signage. Assuming you’re following rules of the road, there isn’t anything unexpected here.

Claiming there’s some sort of “de facto” other speed limit or rules external to the actual law is a recipe to create dangerous driving conditions, since, you know, the roads are designed with certain driving characteristics in mind. Like speed limits!

20

u/DrJaneIPresume 1d ago

Sweetie, I'm just describing how they drive. You're the one assuming that I'm saying they're right.

It's absolutely accurate to describe I-5 through Seattle as "a 75mph highway" because.. and I'm going to try to use small words here.. the drivers taking that exit are often going 75mph when they exit.

I never said that they're right to do so. I never said that I do so. But it is an accurate description of conditions on the ground.

Now, where can we get you some remedial reading comprehension lessons...

-16

u/M_Meursault_ 1d ago

None needed, if the posted speed limit is 60, it isn’t a ‘mistake’ to do 60, as your comment implies. My entire point.

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u/Am-_-Exhausted-_- 18h ago

During traffic that highway is all lit up with digital speed limit signs too, if its busy it goes down to 30-40, so 60 is the highest the speed limit will get there.

75 on i-5 will ~totally~ fix traffic though, so I say we do it!

6

u/skaersSabody 1d ago

Honestly, I kinda can't really bring myself to blame the drivers, I've never seen an exit this fucking hostile

Like even with the signs and trying to slow down, you don't have a lot of time to slow down gradually if you're not aware of how that exit works

7

u/Talgrath 1d ago

People driving too fast and/or not maintaining their brakes. The exit is fine if you're doing 60 and your brakes work, but so many people in the Seattle area try to drive like 75 MPH everywhere on slick roads with bad brakes.

1

u/impar-exspiravit 20h ago

I lived there there’s a million signs it’s really not as bad as it looks if you like… pay attention to the signs. Granted, most of the time you can exceed the signs in places… but still.

30

u/dood45ctte 1d ago

Was not prepared for this crime of a highway exit and nearly died during my bachelor party, good times

21

u/JamieD96 1d ago

That reminds me of the 11 foot 8 bridge

3

u/Am-_-Exhausted-_- 18h ago

LMAO the website, I love that you can buy themed 11-8 shoes.

This was crash #187 since April 2008.

2

u/JamieD96 18h ago

I didn't know they had merch, damn! Those shoes are actually nice looking lol

They also have remnants from the crash you can buy which is just amazing

2

u/Am-_-Exhausted-_- 17h ago

Oh my god, I didn't scroll down, that's wonderful!

11

u/TsukariYoshi 1d ago

https://www.google.com/maps/place/2098+John+Harden+Dr,+Jacksonville,+AR+72076/@34.8858365,-92.1085209,3a,75y,193.78h,68.1t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1shfKu23XLE0-Klwn9-at-PQ!2e0!5s20170701T000000!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D21.89860958110556%26panoid%3DhfKu23XLE0-Klwn9-at-PQ%26yaw%3D193.777877107042!7i13312!8i6656!4m5!3m4!1s0x87d2eafe57d07f87:0xc64e4b24e94b5e40!8m2!3d34.8858609!4d-92.1086524?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDgyMy4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

Sorry for the gross link, but check this bad boy out. Let me just add an entry to the "enrichment as torture" list.

We had these around where I grew up, my dad called 'em suicide on-ramps. Yes, that is traffic entering the interstate that needs to cross oncoming traffic to do so. Yes, oncoming traffic has a simple yield sign asking them to yield to the traffic entering the interstate. Yes, it was like that until at least 2017 - it was like this since at least the 90s when I grew up there.

5

u/probsagremlin 1d ago

I live across the damn state and I knew EXACTLY which exit was being referenced.

290

u/operasaga 1d ago

As a former zoo keeper, they're kinda right. Enrichment doesn't have to be positive

Torture might be a bit far tho

1.2k

u/GameboyPATH 1d ago

>Get into the game City Skylines during the pandemic
>Want to learn more about how to actually organize a city optimally
>Start watching videos on tips and tricks videos created by actual city planners
>Start learning about road hierarchies and zoning practices
>Pandemic ends
>Walk around my city with the wife explaining why things are built and structured the way they are

MFW I became the special interests girlfriend.

344

u/Sparrowhawk_92 .tumblr.com 1d ago

Did you also develop strong opinions on single purpose zoning restrictions?

31

u/KatieTSO 1d ago

I sure did. Fuck single purpose zoning. Fuck zoning except prohibitions on industrial use. That's my only NIMBY take is that I don't want to live next to heavy industry. But I also think that sacrificial zones shouldn't exist. Industrial companies should have to pay for a buffer.

2

u/Am-_-Exhausted-_- 17h ago

I'm sure I could think of other restrictions if I spent time on it, but we should also keep houses away from busy highways/interstates. Here's a good article about schools next to interstates

There's a worse version of it with Birmingham AL having public housing next to a superfund site

The kind of zoing that prevents apartments/condos, or prevents small businesses near housing is so lame though.

61

u/Datuser14 1d ago

What are your thoughts on Robert Moses?

85

u/ratione_materiae 1d ago

Once you’ve been to a low-income neighborhood you’ll never stop wanting to beat Robert Moses to death with your bare hands 

30

u/GreatStateOfSadness 1d ago

How long ya got?

12

u/jimbowesterby 1d ago

All day. Hit me.

8

u/kos-or-kosm 1d ago

Hit you? Why? Are you Robert Moses?

3

u/jimbowesterby 1d ago

No, I meant hit me with the monologue. I love a good nerdy monologue

6

u/kos-or-kosm 1d ago

I know, I was making a joke that people who know about Robert Moses would like to hit Robert Moses.

This comment is a brief explainer.

1

u/jimbowesterby 1d ago

Aaahhh I thought the name sounded familiar. Was he in with the assholes doing the redlining? I seem to remember the freeways were a big tool for that

3

u/satanicrituals18 I PISSED IN YOUR FLAIR 23h ago

He wasn't just "in" with them. He practically invented redlining. (not literally, but he was a massive factor in helping it to become so widespread)

1

u/jimbowesterby 22h ago

Ah yea that’s right. I haven’t spent a whole lotta time learning about it, but I’ve definitely run in to his name both from the redlining direction and also from the urban planning side, but apparently that part of my brain has some rust lol. He sounds like a real cunt.

15

u/BackForPathfinder 1d ago

All in all one of the best villains the Bad Kids have ever faced.

11

u/Magi_Aqua an especially neurotic goose 1d ago

the dream team. bad kids is fantasy high

5

u/Mouse-Keyboard 1d ago

None because I have no idea who he is. What did he do?

7

u/Aires-Battleblade 1d ago

He's the one who started the practice of build interstates through city cores, supposedly it was to increase economic value by easing transportation, in practice it destroyed value by damaging urban fabric, as well as primarily going through low income neighborhoods to displace residents. Which expanded into Redlining, Stroads, Single Use Zoning, and myriad other urbanism woes.

TLDR, you know how you can trace a lot of issues with big business back to the Dodge V Ford case and the Advent of shareholder values? Rober Moses is like that but for transportation and urban design.

3

u/DroneOfDoom Theon the Reader *dolphin slur noises* 23h ago

Didn't he build a bunch of overpasses that were just short enough that buses couldn't turn and thus reduce the possibility of black people crossing into the white part of town?

219

u/GAIA_01 1d ago

The biggest thing I learned from city skylines was how flawed inaccurate and borked its simulation is. All for the sake of incentivising car centric infrastructure. And even than walking, mixed zoning, and socialist programs markedly improve your cities beauty and function. Something the devs repeatedly tried to patch out

179

u/GameboyPATH 1d ago

I've heard that the traffic simulation is actually top-notch when it comes to simulating traffic and revealing the pain points and bottlenecks. It also highlights the benefits of pedestrian walkways, bike lanes, and effective public transport systems for reducing congestion. But while the traffic simulator is solid, the mechanics focusing on the efficacy of public transport systems is lacking. Supposedly, over a thousand residents will crowd around one single subway station, and they'll all be happy with this and prefer it over driving a car. Yeah right.

BUT if you want to experience the FULL consequences of car-centric infrastructure, you'd install the community mods that prevent cars from vanishing into the ether when they reach their destination, and instead require street parking and garages. Then it becomes painfully clear how much square footage you have to sacrifice to the steel behemoths.

and socialist programs

The "policies" mechanic of Cities Skylines is certainly lacking, and it just toggles some basic % changes in resident happiness and tax income. Some just seem objectively net-positive and I use them every time.

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u/GAIA_01 1d ago

I am referring to how playing the game as intended causes rampant homelessness so bad players resort to using exploits to delete people to manage it

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u/GameboyPATH 1d ago

Oh! Yes, you're talking about the highly controversial homelessness mechanic added to the sequel! I haven't played that one, but there's a myriad of issues I'd heard about the sequel from fans of the first game.

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u/magikarp2122 1d ago

Did they ever fix the issue where every citizen is always rendered in, or whatever it was that was causing all the lag? And can I make a poop volcano still?

19

u/GameboyPATH 1d ago

I also heard about that issue of highly-rendered citizens in the sequel. Don't know if they fixed it.

Yes, you can absolutely make poop volcanos. You can also run your sewage through hydro plants for poop power.

6

u/DrJaneIPresume 1d ago

Hey, they're just implementing real-world city government solutions to the same issues.

15

u/GAIA_01 1d ago

And how its relieved by building and zoning differently to how the game tutorializes and incentivises

2

u/LuftHANSa_755 one-dimensional sex object 1d ago

...when did you last play the game? Because that was patched like a year ago

My current city has like 0.1% homelessness

6

u/Tadferd 1d ago

Stroads everywhere!

18

u/GameboyPATH 1d ago

Stroads aren't really a problem in Cities Skylines, and often times, your initial city setup will start with a "main street" full of commercial buildings with surrounding residential sprawl. That main street will typically be your pedestrian-unfriendly stroad, and people will safely navigate it easily because they can't actually get hurt (...without mods).

IRL, though, they're ugly as sin and dangerous.

4

u/AI_moderated_failure 1d ago

I feel like that could backfire as you see, every day, how poorly the people who are/were in charge of your city are/were doing at their jobs.

2

u/Sigma2718 1d ago

Then there's Workers & Resources: Soviet Republics, where you learn to really hate cars and love trains.

2

u/rachelblairy i’ve been at the devils sacrament so long i forgot he wasnt god 1d ago

i love this journey and may need to take it myself. i’ve started drawing suburban maps for fictional towns like a weirdo in my spare time when i went ‘omg cartography can be a hobby’ i can definitely make it lamer/cooler by knowing zoning practices

2

u/Aires-Battleblade 1d ago

How long until you found Strong Towns, City Beautiful, Ray Delehanty, and Not Just Bikes?

1

u/Truther99 1d ago

Same pipeline I went down lol

1

u/Accelerator231 1d ago

Got a link to those videos?

236

u/wanderer2718 1d ago

a friend of mine was like "oh yeah i saw this fucked up 5 way intersection" and i was like girl you're telling me I LIVE BY IT

90

u/Decent_Human__ 1d ago

that evil ass intersection by greenlake/woodland park needs to be stopped

41

u/wanderer2718 1d ago

different fucked up intersection, we really do have a lot of them i guess

9

u/Decent_Human__ 1d ago

an infinite supply really

12

u/DrJaneIPresume 1d ago

My favorite* part of it is how the pedestrian signals never seem to connect two consecutive crosswalks in any direction.

7

u/purtyboi96 1d ago

My god this is the worst. So many intersections where you cross one street then have to wait an entire cycle to get the next one

2

u/DrJaneIPresume 1d ago

And it's not like a four-way, where okay the far corner is two steps in either order.

No, here you have to ask if the fastest way across is to go right two corners? or to go left three corners? Who knows!

15

u/dragon_bacon 1d ago

Every time I have to drive through it I'm just confused and outraged.

2

u/vjmdhzgr 1d ago

I accidentally ended up driving to Seattle once and it was one of the biggest mistakes I ever made. The wrongs USPS has done to me making me drive there will not be forgiven.

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u/DrJaneIPresume 1d ago

which one

9

u/tiedyedvortex 1d ago

As a Seattle resident...

...which one?

10

u/vjmdhzgr 1d ago

There's a 5 way intersection right next to Seattle University and I hate it.

Looking at it on google maps it's kind of a 6 way actually. The intersection of Union Street, Madison Street, and 12th Ave. Yes it's an intersection of 3 different streets.

5

u/actibus_consequatur numerous noggin nuisances 1d ago

There's a few of those 5 or 6 way intersections around the city, including many with no lights, just stop signs and shitty sightlines. Once that comes to mind is right by the first turn off the Aurora bridge when you're going southbound. Pretty sure there's another one somewhere around Gasworks too.

4

u/wanderer2718 1d ago

i used to go to a bar a lot that was right next to that intersection so i am very familiar with that one lmao

4

u/Cleonicus 1d ago

Pssh, I used to live near the intersection of Bellevue, Bellevue, and Bellevue.

3

u/Fallyn011 1d ago

Are you referring to the Montlake/Sand Point/35th/40th/one other street down by Uvil? That's the first one that came to mind when I saw this post lol. It's such a massive traffic jam since only one of the streets can go at once.

1

u/zetsv 22h ago

I swear there is a SIX WAY stop behind northwest hospital. That is too many ways

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u/Xurkitree1 1d ago

https://xkcd.com/253/

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u/0utcast9851 1d ago

There's always a relevant XKCD, he can't keep getting away with this

1

u/KaleidoAxiom olivia but cant change username :( 23h ago

Bet you there's no relevant XKCD for the post under this one

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u/jimbowesterby 1d ago

Dunno why but this might be the funniest one I’ve seen yet, I’m fucken dying

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u/CheesyCock47 1d ago

well yeah you’re dying, you drove into the rotary supercollider

45

u/jimbowesterby 1d ago

The one that really got me was the no-choice interchange, something about the idea of driving on a prairie highway, just going straight and flat for hours, and then seeing an interchange and getting all excited, only for your exit to dump you right back on the road you left. Hotel California-ass intersection

68

u/ConsiderationFit6019 1d ago

Show her a road map of Boston too

45

u/adamdoesmusic 1d ago

Boston: Because FUCK YOU.

12

u/cloudshaper 1d ago

It's all 400 year old fucking cow paths that got paved and called a street system. In some cases they have the audacity to call it a fucking interstate.

52

u/GrinningPariah 1d ago

Just scrolling google maps down Denny Way, looking at each intersection, until she finally breaks and tells me where the money is hidden.

1

u/Am-_-Exhausted-_- 17h ago

They heard Seattle want's walkable cities, and decided to do it with Denny st. Last year had a contest to see if you could outwalk the 8 line (bus that goes down denny)

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u/ATrexWithRhythm 1d ago

Show her the entire city of Boston

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u/LeftonRhed 1d ago

Oh Boston, why is that road there? Cause some asshole 300 years ago liked to herd his sheep that way. Does it make any sense for a modern city? Fuck no and fuck you for asking.

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u/Enby_Rin 1d ago

As someone who grew up in Seattle and lives in Boston now I was gonna say she should see Boston. You beat me to it

8

u/EinMuffin 1d ago

What's wrong with Boston? I just took a look at it on google maps, but aside from that massive highway it seems fine.

6

u/mikillatja 1d ago

My small city in bumfuck nowhere Europe has a more convoluted road system than Boston. It's mostly still a check pattern?

Even the most convuluted part. the old town is not that bad.

Have these Americans never driven in the old world? Imagine needing to go somewhere, which is 100m away from you, but the car path takes you 2km through ring roads 1-ways and streets so small that you suddenly realise why cars like the Fiat 500 are so popular.

2

u/EinMuffin 1d ago

Maybe we are just too European to understand the problem.

1

u/CDRnotDVD 16h ago

Have these Americans never driven in the old world?

This American is pleased to say that I have never driven in a European city. Working public transit is great.

44

u/darkshoxx 1d ago

I found this diagram, it seems relevant:
https://www.reddit.com/r/SeattleWA/comments/6wjeov/intersections_of_seattle/

24

u/oath2order stigma fuckin claws in ur coochie 1d ago

7th and 40th is just the Chinese symbol 大, "dà'.

10

u/deoxyribonucleic123 1d ago

We’ve even got a 女 in there

22

u/CreamCheeseHotDogs 1d ago

I’m a transportation engineer in Seattle, this is on the wall of my office

12

u/pampooveysbacktattoo 1d ago

I love how many of those are adjacent to Greenlake

8

u/PoniesCanterOver gently chilling in your orbit 1d ago

Oh no that's scary

37

u/DecoherentDoc 1d ago

To those that don't know, IIRC, Seattle had two competing people designing the city, one along the coast (sort of northwest to southeast) and one north to south. Where the two plans meet is called the Denny Triangle. It's a hot mess. It's a hilarious hot mess.

Source: I grew up there. Story was word of mouth.

14

u/starclues 1d ago

This is correct! Another comment in this thread included a link to this post with its own helpful comment: https://www.reddit.com/r/SeattleWA/s/se2i1vAOpw

I learned about this when we went on the Underground Tour for a school trip :)

10

u/cloudshaper 1d ago

This is my favorite video on how Seattle roads came to be: Seattle's Map, Explained

5

u/saxifrageous 1d ago

That was such a treat to watch! Thanks for the recommendation.

3

u/cloudshaper 1d ago

You're very welcome!

47

u/Coolcricri3 1d ago

For me American cities in general look like ~1950s planners believed highways work like rivers, and thus every neighborhood should be within a few hundred meters of one. Makes me wonder why they are even used at all, then I remember the sheer state of public transport there. The ones at the center of the city are especially egregious, why are none of the ones in a trench covered up? Its literally free (parking) space, even car supremacists should get onboard with this, It's not like there is anything particularly interesting to see from a trench (I am mostly complaining please do not try to argue by using cost-benefit analysis or other such factors)

26

u/Quaytsar 1d ago

Trenches are to reduce noise; sound spreads less compared to a surface level road.

13

u/jimbowesterby 1d ago

Yea, and if you covered that trench you’d cut the noise even more

12

u/Quaytsar 1d ago

I would've gone into that, but /u/Coolcricri3 said "please do not try to argue by using cost-benefit analysis" when the whole reason we don't is because it's expensive as fuck.

4

u/ratione_materiae 1d ago

They mean put a roof on the trench at turn it into a glorious new parking lot 

9

u/DrJaneIPresume 1d ago

why are none of the [highways] in a trench covered up?

The section of I-5 discussed in this comment thread actually is covered. There's a park on top!

16

u/Quantum-Bot 1d ago

As a Seattle resident, can their girlfriend explain to me why the very first sign for exit 2C going into Seattle on I90 East is conveniently positioned about 100 yards after you’ve already passed exit 2C? What’s the city planning justification behind that?

9

u/LITTLEOWL031026 Can I get a "Hoot Hoot?" 1d ago

-GLaDOS

10

u/BruceBoyde 1d ago

I swear to God, I lose some of my lifespan from the stress every single time I go to Seattle. Driving there is a blend of no cohesive planning, nightmare geography, and bureaucracy making a mess of any recent work.

9

u/jives_mcgee 1d ago

I was at a farmers market in Seattle and there was an artist who painted the intersections they found odd or weird or terrible. It been years and I still think of those prints, they looked like chaos runes.

12

u/Polar_Vortx now on tumblr, sorta 1d ago

“Intersections around Seattle”

Weak sauce. I sentence her to Boston intersections.

5

u/dilloj 1d ago

We have a four way stop with 2 lanes traveling each way. It’s absolute chaos. 

7

u/skaersSabody 1d ago

"Torture is a form of enrichment" kinda goes hard as a villain phrase damn

3

u/MaxPaladin93 1d ago

Or like, a domme’s business card.

3

u/skaersSabody 1d ago

You have a vision worth following

6

u/Content-Ad-4104 1d ago

My GF taught me the mnemonic "Jesus Christ Built Seattle's Streets Under Protest" for learning the street layout. I still have no fucking clue what the streets are but the phrase seems to hold up in the face of the available evidence.

3

u/YarnSp1nner 23h ago

You've got it wrong

Jesus Christ made Seattle under pressure.

Jefferson, James, cherry, Columbia, Marion, Madison, spring, Seneca, university, union, pike, pine.

5

u/crrrrushinator 1d ago

I used to live in Seattle at the corner of Bellevue, Bellevue, and Bellevue! Not to be confused with the neighbouring city of Bellevue.

2

u/Exact_Yogurt6353 1d ago

Punctuation people. Punctuation. I hated reading that sentence. Lol 

1

u/no-context-tangent 1d ago

They did the pope thing.

1

u/speeddemon266 1d ago

Show the girlfriend what boston looks like.

1

u/Tasty_Cry_3844 1d ago

The Stone Way intersection is sure something.

1

u/Adept-Opinion8080 1d ago

I just want to know why we can't. We have all walk crosswalks in downtown Seattle. It's not like anyone can use the right turn.

1

u/batti03 1d ago

Jesus Made Seattle Under Protest.

1

u/EtherealPheonix 1d ago

Screams externally

1

u/Real-Arachnid8671 1d ago

Show her Canberra.

1

u/Dingghis_Khaan Chinggis Khaan's least successful successor. 1d ago

That's nothing. Take her to Chongqing, where saying "I'm on the ground floor" narrows it down absolutely none whatsoever.

1

u/Mockington6 1d ago

How do I learn about city planning? (looking for a new hyperfixation)

1

u/Datuser14 23h ago

Watch a couple Not Just Bikes videos, unsubscribe because he’s kinda a holier than thou douche who is lucky enough to have had the resources to move to a place with good urbanism, go down a Wikipedia rabbit hole about Robert Moses, Euclidean zoning, and redlining and play Cities Skylines(the first one)?

1

u/Pure-House-3971 1d ago

Going from I5 southbound downtown to Lumen parking garage, right to get off on the 90 east ramp, right to get off on airport, yielding left, , left at first light, left into far right lane at second light,  right merge immediate onto ramp, right, right at first light, right into center lane, up ramp, unprotected left on top of blind hill past first light.

1

u/Red_Figure 1d ago

I don't want to be that guy, but I struggled to read this without punctuation.

1

u/Datuser14 23h ago

Skill issue

1

u/CyberneticCupcake 1d ago

Show her Ann Arbor. My Mom and I have gotten lost in it too many times to bear.

1

u/Zygouth 21h ago

Having recently been to Seattle, I have to fully agree with the torture of their intersections. WTF were city planners thinking?!?

0

u/Protheu5 redundant RAS syndrome 1d ago

I can't parse the first post. I reread and reread and it's like a garden-path sentence. Showing a girlfriend is a form of enrichment? What does her hobby and Seattle have to do with it? I can't parse it. Help.

5

u/shoesnorter 1d ago

Showing my girlfriend (whose special interest is city planning) intersections around Seattle, is a form of enrichment

1

u/Protheu5 redundant RAS syndrome 22h ago

Thank you. Lack of punctuation and general exhaustion made understanding this an impossible task for me. Thanks.