Free Republic

CINCINNATI, OH (FOX19) - A traffic advisory has been issued for Thursday, September 22, 2011. The right northbound lane (bottom deck) and the left southbound lane (upper deck) of the Brent Spence Bridge and the 4th Street Entrance Ramp (northbound) will be closed. Long delays are possible. Motorists are advised to use alternate routes if traveling through the area.

The defendants stood before the hearing officer, traffic citations in hand, each accused of running a red light in Miami Gardens, as captured by one of the city’s 29 intersection cameras. Within minutes, seven of the cases were dismissed, with the hearing officer ruling they had tripped the cameras while making a legal right turn on red. The remaining three, who will now have to pay a $277 ticket, were sent off with a cheerful “Have a good day … and drive carefully.’’ While presumably those three violators weren’t happy with the outcome, neither are the municipalities in South Florida...

The Los Angeles Department of Transportation has fired a 23-year veteran employee who appeared in uniform three years ago in a pornographic video. Traffic officer John K. Dancler was discharged Monday. He challenged his firing on the same day, filing an appeal with the city’s five-member Civil Service Commission, said Maggie Whelan, general manager for the city’s Personnel Department. Dancler was hired in 1988 and earned nearly $56,000 annually. Whelan would not give a reason for the termination. Another traffic officer who appeared in the video, Vaughn Dorsey, still works for the department, Whelan said.

RIVERSIDE - A fourth highway worker since early May has been struck in a freeway accident and is now in critical condition, Caltrans officials said. The worker, who has not yet been identified, is an employee of Skanska, a Caltrans subcontractor, said Caltrans spokeswoman Terri Kasinga. He was struck today on the westbound 91 freeway at Van Buren Boulevard. Three other Caltrans workers have been struck in freeway accidents in the last two months. Richard Gonzalez, 52, was picking up trash June 20 on the 15 Freeway connector to Highway 94 in San Diego when he was struck by a...

Carmageddon ended 16-17 hours ahead of schedule, said the mayor at a Sunday morning news conference.

Thought this video was kind of cool. Hope I'm not breaking any rules.

Sorry, Prius owners. Starting Friday, your yellow sticker no longer works in California's car pool lanes while driving solo. The car pool privileges, originally allowed as an incentive for people to buy low-emission vehicles, have expired. The change affects 85,000 hybrid car owners -- about a third of them in Los Angeles. Bruce Yonemoto, 60, a professor of studio art at UC Irvine who commutes from downtown Los Angeles several times a week, said he often saves more than an hour during choked traffic because the yellow sticker on the rear bumper of his Prius gave him the right to...

Warning: The video below may cause you never to want to leave your house again. A School of Visual Arts thesis project by artist Ron Gabriel, named "3-Way Street," tracks a camera at the Manhattan intersection of 28th Street and Park Avenue. The New York mayhem known as street traffic ensues.

St. Paul, Minn. — The Minnesota Department of Transportation is warning motorists to watch out for roads that might buckle without warning. MnDOT spokesman Kent Barnard said the heat and humidity had caused pavement to heave on some Twin Cities metro highways. Monday afternoon lanes were closed in I-94 in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Barnard said heat damaged roads in more than 20 places. Barnard said he has not heard of accidents associated with buckling pavement. But he'd heard reports of damage to cars. Older concrete highways are more prone to heave up, as debris fills the cracks between the...

Millions hit the road to be with family and friends for barbecues and other outdoor activities on Memorial Day weekend. It’s no coincidence that police around the country were staked out on the side of the road in anticipation. That’s because the federal government encourages states to shake down travelers who pose no threat to others.

There are variations in driving styles on our roads and most motorists will fall into a distinct characteristic type depending on how they approach the task of driving. As you read through this list, you are likely to recognize yourself or someone you drive with. Which driving character are you? Nervous Nick: This driver lacks confidence in their driving abilities and is intimidated by traffic and highway speeds. The “Nervous Nick” will always drive at the speed limit or lower and will not accelerate enough to merge safely with highway traffic. They will display moments of indecision when it comes...

After lobbying federal officials hard and long for $270 million for the Springfield-to-New Haven high-speed rail project, Connecticut landed just $30 million Monday. U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced the distribution of $2 billion for fast train projects, and Connecticut was counting on a hefty share. Despite earlier signals from LaHood that Connecticut and the rest of the Northeast stood a solid chance, he ended up giving more than half the money to projects in the Midwest and California. Despite heavy traffic congestion and dense population, Connecticut got less than 2 percent of the funding. "Any money for high-speed rail...

Nothing will ruin a pleasant drive quicker than the sight brake lights coming towards you on the highway. Miles ahead, someone or something has spooked the bejeezus out of traffic and now you're about to pay for it with your free time. The mighty flow of America's highways is about to be plugged by you and a couple hundred of your closest strangers. The next time a traffic jam's iron grip has you in its clutch, you can at least take heart knowing that scientists have figured out why they happen and who's to blame. Follow the jump for this...

To what lengths will cash strapped Democrat controlled states, counties and municipalities go to fatten their coffers to pay for their inflated budgets? While law enforcement should be chasing “bad guys” – the crack dealer, the murderer, the thief – those types of law breakers only strain an already tight budget filled with this gimme program and that gimmie program. No, all you have to do is follow the money trail. One look at Rhode Island will illustrate just that. Truck drivers are prime targets for any number of traffic violations apart from speeding. The fact that they are “just...

RALEIGH -- David N. Cox says he was merely exercising his right to petition the government, but a state Department of Transportation official has raised allegations that Cox committed a misdemeanor: practicing engineering without a license. Cox and his North Raleigh neighbors are lobbying city and state officials to add traffic signals at two intersections as part of a planned widening of Falls of Neuse Road. After an engineering consultant hired by the city said that the signals were not needed, Cox and the North Raleigh Coalition of Homeowners' Associations responded with a sophisticated analysis of their own.

The Arlington Chamber of Commerce wants to see a speedy end to the county's HOT lanes lawsuit, arguing that the cost of suing to stop the construction of high-occupancy toll lanes is damaging the county's reputation and hurting efforts to improve transportation on busy interstates. Chamber President Rich Doud said the lawsuit could undermine efforts to relieve traffic congestion in Arlington, damage the county's relationship with the private sector and drive up the HOT lanes project's cost as the lawsuit drags on. The chamber includes ending the lawsuit on its list of public policy priorities for 2011. The county spent...

Driving to a Mariners game, Duane Innes saw a pickup ahead of him drift across lanes of traffic, sideswipe a concrete barrier and continue forward on the inside shoulder at about 40 mph. A manager of Boeing's F22 fighter-jet program, Innes dodged the truck, then looked back to see that the driver was slumped over the wheel. He knew a busy intersection was just ahead, and he had to act fast. Without consulting the passengers in his minivan — "there was no time to take a vote" — Innes kicked into engineer mode. "Basic physics: If I could get in...

If you’re planning on getting in or out of the lovely city of Vancouver this morning, especially near Pearson Air Museum or Portland International Airport, you should pack some extra patience and, maybe, a book on tape. Vice President Joe Biden is in town for a 1 p.m. get-out-the-vote rally for U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, which means police and the Secret Service have already started blocking off potentially safe and secure routes. “We’ve never had a president or vice president come to the Portland area without it seriously disrupting traffic,” said Portland police Capt. Todd Wyatt. Which brings us to...

Local law enforcement and federal agents conducted a checkpoint operation Tuesday afternoon in Douglas County, the Federal Air Marshal Service told the AJC. "This is a live operation intent on deterring would-be terrorists or criminal activity," Nelson Minerly, spokesman for the federal agency, told the AJC. The operation created a big distraction to motorists heading eastbound on I-20 in rush hour, and many motorists let the AJC and the WSB traffic center hear about it. But the operation, which also involves the Transportation Security Administration, is top-secret before it happens, Minerly said. “We don’t advertise when they’re going to happen...

This is what you might call a close shave. Quite an amazing video that must have been taken from a surveillance camera. A man is walking down the street when a car comes into view almost nailing the guy when it hits the wall and then careens off down the road. Then the driver gets out of the car and runs off leaving the car in the, middle of the road. The pedestrian is OK because of his quick reaction to getting out of the way. Amazing footage. Follow the link below to see the video of The Man Who...

WASHINGTON - Imagine having to pay to travel on most of the major roads in the region. The idea creating 1,650 miles of "variably priced" lanes on Capital Beltway, Interstates 270, 66 and 95, Route 50, the George Washington Parkway and others, is being floated as a "what-if" scenario by area transportation officials. "Congestion is a major threat to the economic vitality of the region and the quality of life its residents enjoy," says a new report from the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board. Charging a variable toll to drive major commuter routes would increase speeds 15 mph to...

HUAIAN COUNTY, CHINA—So you think struggling home from Ontario’s cottage country was tough? Think again. And consider, if you will, the case of Chinese trucker Pang Laisuo. On Sunday his coal-laden transport truck was caught in a traffic jam near here, about 240 kilometres north of Beijing. Pang knew he’d have something of a wait. What he didn’t know was that it would last 18 hours. “Everyone who pulled up at 4 o’clock Sunday afternoon ended up being stuck there until 10 o’clock Monday morning,” says Pang, a lean and grizzled man in his 50s speaking at a roadside stop...

A massive traffic jam in north China that stretches for dozens of miles and hit its 10-day mark on Tuesday stems from road construction in Beijing that won't be finished until the middle of next month, an official said. Bumper-to-bumper gridlock spanning for 60 miles (100 kilometers) with cars moving little more than a half-mile (one kilometer) a day at one point has improved since this weekend, said Zhang Minghai, director of Zhangjiakou city's Traffic Management Bureau general office. But he said he wasn't sure when the situation along the Beijing-Zhangjiakou highway would return to normal. The traffic jam...

A nine-day traffic jam outside Beijing has drivers fuming, street vendors turning a quick profit and Chinese traffic authorities struggling for answers. Traffic has been slowed to a crawl since August 14 on a 100-kilometer stretch of National Expressway 110 that runs between Beijing and Heibei province. Officials say the jam is caused by an increase in trucks carrying goods to Beijing and by highway maintenance work along the route. Highways have become numerous and complicated in and around Beijing in recent years as the Chinese public has made a large shift to motorized travel over the past 30 years....

BETHESDA, Md. - When candidates are vying for votes it can be hard to get them to agree on issues. But WTOP managed to get all the major candidates in the Maryland governor's race to make the same pledge: Not to distract drivers by waving campaign signs at them. This pledge comes after political volunteers created 10 miles of delays on Interstate 270 last week by waving signs from the Falls Road overpass. Some drivers were furious about the delays. Others believe roadside distractions of any kind are a hazard that can cause crashes. "We would never condone stopping traffic."...

After driving the new Scion tC in San Diego all day, I got back on the Amtrak Surfliner at 3 p.m. and headed north to Los Angeles, the laptop plugged in to a convenient 120-volt, three-pronged outlet and me typing the whole way. Again, I could look out the window and see, in addition to a one- to two-foot west swell at Trestles, traffic slowly crawling along on Interstate 5. I was glad not to be in a car. Is there anyone who loves driving in stop and go traffic for 128 miles? (One guy said that because I took...

RALEIGH — North Carolina’s traffic congestion could double in the next couple of decades, with Charlotte drivers facing the same types of delays Chicago drivers face now. That was the conclusion of a 2007 John Locke Foundation report. It recommended $12 billion of spending to clear North Carolina’s congested urban roads and prepare for future traffic growth. Many traffic problems outlined three years ago continue to cause concerns today. Randal O’Toole, senior fellow with the Cato Institute, recently tackled the issue from a national perspective in the book Gridlock: Why We’re Stuck in Traffic and What to Do About It....

THEY have been credited with supernatural or paranormal properties since the days of ancient Egypt. Now the putative power of pyramids is to be harnessed by Indian police to cut road accidents. Traffic officers in Nagpur, 870km west of Mumbai, have agreed to allow small pyramids to be placed at 10 accident-prone sites in the city to see if their claimed positive energy can reduce crashes. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Sahebrao Patil said the road safety initiative came about after a meeting with an expert in Vastu, an ancient Hindu system of construction which is similar to Chinese Feng...

We have all read about road rage in big metropolitan cities like like LA, NY, and Chicago, where some nut has gotten fed up with the traffic, so he goes berserk and either does damage to other vehicles, or pulls out a gun to shoot those whom he perceives as the problem. But have you ever seen a dog commit road rage?    Well in this video you will see a dog in a man's way on a road, but instead of moving out of the way, the dog decided to tear off the man's license plate from his car....

You knew his name, and his smooth soothing voice. Marty Ambrose was the dean of Houston traffic reporters. Over the years his calm voice shepherded millions of Houston drivers safely through the calamity of congestion that is Houston’s rush hour traffic. What you may not know about Marty is that his voice and his demeanor matched in real life, too. He was a gentleman and a gentle man who dedicated his time, talent and gifts to numerous Houston charities and causes both on and off-the-air. ....

We have all found ourselves riding around town looking for a place to park our car, just to find them all taken. So we decide to drive around the block a few times in the hopes that someone will leave and we can grab the spot. Then just about the time we are ready to give up the hunt, we spot a person getting into their car. Finally we have a sense of relief knowing that we will soon have a choice spot to park our car. Well in this video you will be presented with two men in...

We have all found ourselves riding around town looking for a place to park our car, just to find them all taken. So we decide to drive around the block a few times in the hopes that someone will leave and we can grab the spot. Then just about the time we are ready to give up the hunt, we spot a person getting into their car. Finally we have a sense of relief knowing that we will soon have a choice spot to park our car. Well in this video you will be presented with two men in...

We have all found ourselves riding around town looking for a place to park our car, just to find them all taken. So we decide to drive around the block a few times in the hopes that someone will leave and we can grab the spot. Then just about the time we are ready to give up the hunt, we spot a person getting into their car. Finally we have a sense of relief knowing that we will soon have a choice spot to park our car. Well in this video you will be presented with two men in...

The interchange of interstates 64, 65 and 71 in downtown Louisville is one of the worst in the country – that’s according to a new study out today from the American Transportation Research Institute and the Federal Highway Administration. It ranks Spaghetti Junction as the 11th-worst bottleneck in the nation. The report measured the average speeds at which a vehicle can navigate the interchange during peak and non-peak hours. Chuck Moore is the president of Eagle Steel, which operates in Indiana and Kentucky. He says the bottleneck creates a logistics problem for his company and others. “If you didn’t have...

Beginning July 1st, red light cameras could soon be popping up all over the state. Governor Charlie Crist signed the "Mark Wandall Traffic Safety Act" into legislation late yesterday. Wandall was 30-years-old when a red light runner killed him on October 24, 2003. But some people are having a hard time believing the new law is strictly a matter of driver safety.

 As though cameras on top of every traffic light weren't bad enough already: there's now a trial run of satellites that will catch you speeding, over a several-block range, from hundreds of miles up. Hope for clouds, I guess?The SpeedSpike system is being tested at two locations in London, and works a little differently than your typical trap: cameras on the ground are assisted by satellites that are capable of calculating your average speed between two points. Which to me just means a lot of speeding, then going very, very slowly, then speeding, and so on: The company said in...

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Two local groups say a Cincinnati-based political action committee is assisting the petition drives they are launching Friday to ban traffic cameras in Cleveland and Garfield Heights. The Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes (COAST) helped write the petition language for proposed charter amendments to end camera use in those cities and pledged legal help for the campaigns, said former Garfield Heights council president Frank Wagner, who is leading the drive in his city. "COAST has a track record of completion and wins on this issue," said Maryanne Petranek of Cleveland and the group Cuyahoga County...

Facebook reached an important milestone for the week ending March 13, 2010 and surpassed Google in the US to become the most visited website for the week. This may suggest a new trend in the way people navigate the web for information—people value their friend’s recommendations more than a computer algorithm. Computer algorithms are not good for answering general questions – like what is the best DVD player, or what bar should I visit this weekend or should I leave my boyfriend.

Seattle Makes Top Ten Most Congested Cities Jenni Hogan KIRO 7 Traffic Anchor Posted: 7:30 am PST February 23, 2010Updated: 8:18 am PST February 23, 2010  SEATTLE -- Seattle continues to be ranked the ninth most congested city in the United States. The ranking is according to a study released Tuesday morning by Inrix, a Kirkland-based company that provides traffic and navigation services for the nation.The KIRO 7 traffic team looked through all of the data and found the study showed that annually, drivers in the greater Seattle metro area who normally commute 30 minutes have wasted 46 hours last year stuck...

CAMP MEJID — Dozens of Iraqi Soldiers learned to operate Traffic Control Points in preparation for the Iraqi national elections during a 10-day course taught by Advise and Assist Army engineers here, Dec. 5 -15. Twenty-five junior officers and enlisted Soldiers from the 7th Iraqi Army Division were trained on TCP by engineers from Company A, 1st Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 1st Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division (Advise and Assist Brigade), with the intent of returning to their units and teaching other Iraqi Soldiers. The class focused on the principles of traffic control operations and included site selection, design, materials calculation,...

My Car was parked in Scotts Valley Ca in the Kragens Parking lot. Even though the car was parked Separately far from any other vehicle someone rammed their bumper into my Drivers Side Door. it is a hit and run and there were no witnesses and I asked the shop owners but there are no cameras around. I just wanted to vent this is the second time I've had a car hit in Scotts Valley and they just run off. I've heard as well of kids being scraped off the road there due to incompetent drivers. Merry Christmas Happy New...

Motorists who receive minor parking or traffic tickets in Indianapolis, Indiana are being threatened with fines of up to $2500 if they attempt to take the ticket to court. A local attorney with the firm Roberts and Bishop was so outraged by what he saw in Marion County traffic court that he filed a class action suit yesterday seeking to have the practice banned as unconstitutional. "The deck is stacked against the motorist," lawyer Paul K. Ogden wrote. "To penalize that person for seeking justice seems wrong. I know it is done for the purpose of discouraging baseless challenges to...

Portland has the 19th worst traffic congestion in the country, with 23 percent of the city’s roads having “heavy delays,” according to a report released Wednesday.Seattle’s road woes are the worst, followed by Los Angeles at No. 2, with 38 percent of its roads having heavy delays, followed by Chicago (37 percent), San Francisco (35 percent) and New York City (31 percent), according to global positioning system (GPS) company TomTom of Concord, Mass.The company ranked cities as most to least congested according to how fast cars could travel on the street network. Traffic was defined as congested if drivers...

I'm applying for a government grant to study this problem further. Wish me luck.

A scheme named “Developing of Traffic and Communication Network in NCR and Mega Cities and Model System of Traffic Management” has been included for implementation in 11th Five Years Plan with a provision of Rs. 200 crore. The scheme has two components viz., (i)Introduction of Intelligent traffic system (ITS) and (ii) Setting up of an Integrated Date communication Network (Cyber Highway). The scheme comprises a wide range of novel tools for managing transport networks, as well as services for travelers. The project broadly includes the state-of-art command and control centre, a city video surveillance system covering the maximum number of...

Weekly US Railroad Carloadings Down 17.2%, Cumulative Decline By 18.1% Submitted by Tyler Durden on 10/16/2009 16:02 -0500 AAR Commodity Housing Lennar Railroads US Volume Even as we have anniversaried the Lehman collapse, the primary indicator of economic viability and potential growth: intermodal traffic, continues to decline. In fact the weekly decline was slight worse, and came out at -17.2% YoY for week 40, nominally worse than the prior week's -17.1%. The categories most impacted were Primary Forest Products and Lumber and Wood Products, both instrumental in new housing construction. If there is a reason to be buying Centex, Lennar...

Prince William County decided not to join Arlington County in its lawsuit against high-occupancy toll lanes on Interstates 95 and 395, citing what it characterizes as race-baiting and class warfare in the suit. The county considered joining the suit because it shared concerns about the HOT lanes’ proceeding without a proper environmental study and their effect on traffic, but Board Chairman Corey Stewart, R-At large, said the board unanimously agreed Arlington’s suit raised too many concerns. “The board had a closer look at the suit and there are allegations in there about Pierce Homer, the secretary of transportation, and about...

RALEIGH, N.C. — Not everyone who paid to see Irish rock band U2 perform at Carter-Finley Stadium got to see the Saturday night show due to traffic back-ups. "We were really disappointed,” concertgoer Carrie White said. White spent $250 on U2 360° tour tickets for her husband’s birthday. She said they were stuck in traffic for three hours, and were then told no parking was available. "One of the state troopers told us, ‘Too late. All lots are full. Go home and see you next year,’” White said. The state Highway Patrol said the traffic congestion was not due to...

...There was this old Buick, a big late 60’s road yacht, crammed into the back of the trailer. The man and wife inside were hurt although not terribly so. But behind them was the little Datsun pickup truck (remember those?) that had hit the Buick hard enough to shove it into my trailer. The two girls inside were badly injured. The driver’s forehead had been essentially peeled back and the flap of skin was hanging down over her face. I eased it back into place and held it there to slow her bleeding until an ambulance arrived. The other girl’s...

Search giant Google Australia is continuing to add features to its Google Maps tool, launching a tool that allows users to monitor traffic flows in major cities and uses crowd-sourcing data on which the service relies. Information on Google Maps displays the current traffic status of many motorways, major and minor arterial routes in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and smaller areas like Wollongong, the Central Coast, Geelong, the Sunshine Coast and the Gold Coast. When the "traffic" function is turned on, roads are marked with a coloured line indicating whether traffic flow is fast (a green line), medium (yellow), heavy (red)...