How Are Highways Designed?

I think the DOT in my state could learn a thing or two from this video.

Should be shown in every Driver’s Ed course!

I’m a commercial electrician who builds data centers, I enjoy running all sorts of raceways and conduits. Stacked EMT racks are good fun. I’ve always liked thinking the installs were like highways for pulling conductors. Many of these principals are the same!

The question I want answered is: Why do designers of surface streets place manhole covers directly in the path of every vehicle’s right wheels, instead of in the middle of the lane?

USA highway engineers/designers are complete idiots.

Do they consider animal crossing ? Where do they cross the road ?

Cash niggin

Two different roads in rural northeast Oklahoma; a country road driving between the hills at 35 mph, and I came upon a right sweeping curve that was totally wrong. The whole thing sloped down and out towards the outer guardrails. Scared the hell out of me and based on the skid marks and damaged rail. A lot of others. The second was another country road through flat farmland at 55 mph. Without a warning sign anywhere I found myself bombing down into a hallow, bottoming out and climbing again. More skid marks everywhere. On the back side of the hollow in the field on right was a round bale of hay, kinda angled by the fence. As I approached I seen more skid marks and slowed, as I passed the bail, out of the corner of my eye I seen something and looked again at the bail. The farmer had a pair of boots and pants sticking out of the center of the bail. This all happened on one vacation in 1991. They have since fixed the roads but the farmer and his bail is there every year.

nice explaination for the design of highway. Thank you

Our "highways" are designed (?) by third grade drop-outs who presume to think that our pathetic roadways can support the monumental excessive tonnage of modern behemoth roadway destroyers which Dominate every square inch of pavement designed for vehicles manufactured over 100 years ago, which themselves were too heavy for roadways even back then!

Why are the roads lines so faded that it's a wash out during heavy rain event and why are the curb not painted? It's f#@$&ing frustrating and it's a safety hazard 😡😡

Wow, a 3-year-old episode! Well done.
I think there are just a few factors that make our roads super inefficient.
* Inattentive drivers. They take too long when a light goes green. HUGE gaps between cars, especially those turning left. We can stop a lot of red-light running by making sure that ALL cars stopped at a red will make it through THIS light as well as the next, assuming they drive at the posted speed limit, or within a small variance of same.
* Badly timed or untimed traffic lights. This is ESPECIALLY true on roads with a series of multiple intersections all within close proximity of each other...for example, at roads with ramps; roads at under or overpasses for a freeway.
* Intersections (number and type of lanes, lights, speed limits, and "other") not designed for maximum THROUGHPUT of traffic.

It is my feeling that most governments just want to get us out of our cars and into buses or onto bicycles anyway, so they are not motivated to change or improve anything.

I drive on freeways all day and they fascinate me

Highways are and were built for the military we can only use them in peace time

Again If we are spinning at a thousand miles per hour on the equator and rotating around the Sun at 66,600 mph and also orbiting with the sun 490,000 mph why is none of this taken in consideration? Also I haven't caught anything on the curvature of these roads either as far as Pythagorean theorem or 8 in per mile squared to go along with the curve of the Earth. I understand that engineering is very highly detailed and it should be but this would be a factor that would definitely play into effect but I seem to not be able to find it and any of these engineering videos. Now why is that?

Engineers are ginious

it makes me wish that even a fraction of this design and effort was put into sidewalks

But when engineer's don't know how to drive, they don't know how to design a highway! Like some who doesn't play golf, designing the golf course.

Please ask the Georgia DOT what happened in north ATL; sight distance was not a consideration.

Nice video. I’ve been a transportation engineer for over 10 years and have yet to design a spiral curve. They’re only a thing in select states, generally.

I designed M90 Craigend Interchange (near Perth, Scotland), in the late1960s - no access to computers then, so I had to do 150 pages of calculations instead. Heavily wooded now - quite scenic !

I love your channel. The most useful concept I learned in Engineering is the concept of "safety buffer" if you don't have an idea for a new video how about making one to teach us how Engineers think about safety and why it's so important to understand the concept of "buffer"

In my area, there are two super curves and it constantly amazes me how drivers do not understand that it isn't necessary to slow for them. The posted speed never changes or is warned, yet the majority will slow by 10 MPH as though they are taking a tight flat curve. Taking these curves at the posted speed barely even provides any noticeable centrifugal forces on the body.
Great video! I learned about some of these from a roommate who was a surveyor/engineer who had graduated from Purdue. I've never forgotten those things and think about them often as I drive.

the volvo fh 2009 in the thumbnail 😮

What happens to the engineers that party their way thru college ? They design parking lots !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

poorly is generally the answer

Traffic blocks guaranteed

It's weird to recognize a roadway featured in a stock footage.

Great video ! Being from Canada it drives me wild how you can be out in the country on a perfectly flat, wide, straight road with nothing but wide open sky and the road stretching as far as your eye can see then they slap a 60km/h (35mph) speed limit on there.

What's also frustrating is the country roads that connect smaller towns and cities typically have random pockets of housing built right off the road. Which means the limit that's already low at 80km/h goes down to 50km/h many times on your journey.

And absolutely worst of all is that there are ZERO shortcuts in my Canadian city. Not because there aren't side roads, but the issue is any non-main road will inevitably having 4-way stops signs at EVERY SINGLE INTERSECTION no matter how small.

How come the roads near me where the yellow signs around curves say 40 or 45 is comfortable to go 55,but not the one that says 50

I don't know how many miles of State freeways and highways I've staked in California over the last 30+ years. The only spirals I've encountered are for rails, not on roads. Maybe I've seen a couple here and there, but California DOT doesn't use them. I think that the 12' lane width allows the driver to create their own spiral. When we used to have to do a lot of calculations, I am glad we didn't have to deal with them. Profiles are parabolic, though, since the suspension can't correct for the abrupt change a circular curve would create.

very informative and easy to follow

In Germany multilane streets like Autobahn and Bundesstraße are mostly build so precise that you can keep one steering angle throughout a hundreds meter long curve, even when the slope is constantly changing (of course that is limited by driver skill).
I think that is really cool since looking from above it might not be a perfect arc, though driving on the surface it actually is 😅

Sometimes whenever I drive on the interstate, I often wonder if the roads are made of cobblestone

Take Germany (no not like that!)






They have beautiful highways.. 300kmh poses no problem


BUT drivers are instructed well and until they can handle it they don't get their licence


However

International visitors from countries with weaker licence regulations cause problems


They don't move aside... they don't keep appropriate distance

They don't "time" braking distance



It all takes many years of experience from a young age to drive a foreign car and it is only throwing fuel on fire by giving a young person a foreign vehicle

I have always admired the "flow" of highways, bridges, railroads, and sometimes even power lines. Even on model railroads, the suggestion of superelevation in curves makes the track look better. And try as I might, I can NEVER get my model highways to look like much more than painted plastic!

How many trees are slaughtered for Roads, Rail, Power LIne Poles plus other infrastucture ? Lighting the roads need electricity. Are LED lights the right ones ? If so what height they should be ?
The roadside guardrails system can use "used tyres". So rather than burning them they can be put to use here. ???

So why don't we just double deck major highways and have each deck go the opposite direction to ease traffic?

How do they know where to get place the lane markers?

This never applied to the pennsylvania turnpike

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this Remind me 17 years Laugh In Finland.Never going there.