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Comment by mc32 | Hacker News Reader

Included in the article is an illustration of/for a modified intersection that has so-called bulb-outs which slowen cars and make crossing a street shorter for walkers.

What is their solution for trucks and buses? It's not only walkers and drivers who navigate on or across streets. A regular old box truck or articulated truck delivering goods (people move house and businesses need to receive and ship goods) even city busses would have a difficult time with a narrowed intersection, unless they made provisions for them.

You have to assume traffic is flowing both ways. The illustration does not depict a vehicle in the opposite direction stopped waiting for traffic/light/stop sign, etc.

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80-foot trucks with massive sleeper cabs are not naturally occurring. They are a policy choice/failure. They are never, ever seen in many real cities around the world, none of which are deprived of goods or mobility.

I'm not sure what you mean, if I need something shipped directly from Colorado to my house I want it shipped directly to my house, I don't want to require the the delivery to happen somewhere else and then be put on some short truck.

You have 18-wheelers driving up to your front door right now? And even more surprising is that you want that to continue!

That's what happens now and I'm totally fine with it. If I get an equipment or appliance delivery (not that often), it's almost surely moved most of the distance on a 48'+ trailer at some point, then cross-docked once or twice, then delivered to my house on a smaller liftgate truck, since I don't have a loading dock at my residence.

The policy choice is whether anyone cares about your preference when weighed against dead pedestrians.

I don't understand. This isn't what Vecr wants.

We've entered the virtue signaling part of the discussion.

What are you having delivered on semi?

The only thing that regularly gets delivered on semi are cars. Moving those to smaller flatbed is more work.

The other thing with semis are moving trucks. But there are smaller ones that work.

Per the article, this is a change to the lanes and intersections via paint, not a physical change by adding a structure. Trucks should be able to handle it pretty well.

> Adding paint at a dangerous intersection should be a quick project that can be undertaken by a roadway maintenance crew in a couple of hours.

But if you did make it a physical bulb-out, there are two things: It's till 24' across, most trucks seem to handle that in neighborhood streets reasonably well already. If it's still a concern, use an approach I've seen in some similar situations where they want to control speed. Make the bulb essentially a very large speed bump, don't give it a steep curb. This prevents most people from speeding around the corners because they won't want to damage their cars, but gives plenty of space for trucks and emergency vehicles, they just have to take it slow.

Only as a modified speed bump/grade separation would this work. Drivers would not respect paint. But extra manoeuvering space is necessary to allow trucks and busses -even if raised. Trucks and busses have wheels large enough to accommodate something like that.

Also you have to account for two way traffic missing from this illustration ---so it's 12' of space for a turning bus/truck.

This is the intersection BSMB wanted to save when they posted the image in 2023: https://maps.app.goo.gl/XLZ6VLo4x2JBmVBa9

Bulb outs usually don’t shrink the road so that larger vehicles can’t get through. They replace the parking lanes to increase visibility and slow down vehicles.

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