Patterns and Traffic Usability

It's no secret that the Factory re-located a while back across the street into our new LEED certified building.  It was a shining example of 100% integrated project delivery (IPD) and written up in many places such as here and here.

The new site has turned up an interesting usability issue.  It's not related to the building but its site access.  On arriving to the office one may see a vehicle slowly creeping across the parking lot toward the ramp to our garage. Living in Boston I've developed a predictive instinct as to what drivers are going to do, such as cut me off or hold up my lane making an illegal U-turn, so when I see these vehicles they clearly convey confusion on the part of the driver.  They exhibit none of the single-mindedness I am used too.

The issue is our entrance is about thirty feet from the I-95 South on-ramp.  The location and direction of our driveway implies it will reach the highway even though it won't.  Some cars have made it all the way into our garage and one of our own workers sadly watched as a semi-truck slowly backed into their car trying to correct the mistake.  I imagine the driver starting to wonder...Why are cars parked on the sides of the ramp?  Why are people walking on the highway?  Did they add another new toll or tunnel?

How to fix this?  A traffic island in the middle of the drive with our address/company name on it might help.  You would have to slow to navigate around it and exit ramps don't have these.  Perhaps some traffic experts can comment.

It's amusing on the surface yet bad signage did lead to deaths in Atlanta.

It's hardly the first confusing traffic situation in the Boston Area.

Traveling in Multiple Directions at Once

In summary patterns can work for or against you.  Things that look the same are expected to work the same and vice versa.

_erik

Comments

[Raul]

Well, this is an extremely bad traffic arrangement design overall that is opposite to simple safe road design rules, see "Sustainable safe road design: a practical manual" (http://www.irfnet.ch/knowledge.php?action=byresource&id=3&page=2). This manual gives a good strategy to solve these kind of problems.
The root cause in this situation is land-use within interchange (between I-95 and ramps). As building is very close to I-95, this root cause cannot be eliminated without relocating the building, so something else must be figured out. I could do some sketching.

[pierre-felix breton]

i would put a roundabout there. no more traffic lights, less accidents (proven!) and a chance to undo your mistakes.

it is unfortunate that north america has not picked up on something that solves so many problems in europe... ;)

[Anthony Hauck]

Thanks for the reference.  I dont know that there are any thoughts to do something to address the condition so only share your ideas if your interested in the thought experiment.  I am curious what existing patterns there are as this might be difficult to address after construction.  Ive heard of traffic simulations but Im not sure how advanced they are in exposing issues like this.  It should be easy to write a program that mimicked user perceptions.

[Anthony Hauck]

Its ironic as Massachusetts has more roundabouts than anywhere in the U.S.  Connecticut where I grew up has almost none while right next door Mass has many.  They do cause issues though since out of state drivers arent sure of the rules or how to navigate them.  Its a case of a pattern being implemented in a limited fashion.  It needs to be more common to be effective.  Regardless they do slow people down and minimize dangerous accidents.

[Rhys]

Ah now whats needed here is a Magic Roundabout.
http://www.cbrd.co.uk/indepth/magicroundabout/

[Anthony Hauck]

That is amazing.  Im intrigued but Im not sure a typical American driver would make of this.  Sadly they might prefer an eyesore or ramps and underpasses instead.  Thanks for sharing that link.  Truly fascinating.

[Tom Vollaro]

To show you how common this failure is, here is video from this morning:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXDHyvZxgvY