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322 is a challange

Bylion

Well-Known Member
May 29, 2001
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Today while driving west on 322 to State College we were stopped 3/4 of the way up the big hill. From that point on we just crawled. It seemed like a Flagger was controlling traffic one lane at a time. Actually it was flaggers controlling west bound, east bound and Route 144 at Potters Mills. You can loose 1/2 hr. or more.

If traveling it, give yourself plenty of time
 
Today while driving west on 322 to State College we were stopped 3/4 of the way up the big hill. From that point on we just crawled. It seemed like a Flagger was controlling traffic one lane at a time. Actually it was flaggers controlling west bound, east bound and Route 144 at Potters Mills. You can loose 1/2 hr. or more.

If traveling it, give yourself plenty of time

It’s been like that for 6 months.
 
Only 2 more years of that mess. But it'll definitely be worth it. Though we'll see how many accidents there are on game days because people are clueless on how to navigate a roundabout
 
They're putting in a roundabout? efff....

I thought same thing but then I looked it up. The roundabout looks like it will be after you get off the new interchange and not directly on 322

http://www.penndot.gov/RegionalOffi...Potters_Mills_Gap_Transportation_Project.aspx

However, with the 4 lanes going back down to 2 lanes right after the new interchange, I suspect it will still get backed up until they make it 4 lanes all the way into Boalsburg to connect with the existing 4 lanes.
 
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Only 2 more years of that mess. But it'll definitely be worth it. Though we'll see how many accidents there are on game days because people are clueless on how to navigate a roundabout

You gotta be kidding!
 
I thought same thing but then I looked it up. The roundabout looks like it will be after you get off the new interchange and not directly on 322

http://www.penndot.gov/RegionalOffi...Potters_Mills_Gap_Transportation_Project.aspx

However, with the 4 lanes going back down to 2 lanes right after the new interchange, I suspect it will still get backed up until they make it 4 lanes all the way into Boalsburg to connect with the existing 4 lanes.

Yeah it'll still back up just due to people being clueless on how to merge. At least the death trap of Potters Mills won't amplify it anymore.
 
However, with the 4 lanes going back down to 2 lanes right after the new interchange, I suspect it will still get backed up until they make it 4 lanes all the way into Boalsburg to connect with the existing 4 lanes.
Do we have confirmation this will happen? It would be incredibly stupid to do all this work widening 322 in places (Dauphin, Lewistown Narrows, Milroy, Potters Mills) coming up from Harrisburg and not completing the last seven miles. But then again this is PennDot we are talking about!
 
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PennDot hasn't been the problem. It's been the NIMBYs in the area.

They've tried to widen it before, even back in the 80s. But while everyone wanted it, no one wanted it near them. And it didn't get done.
 
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I don't know why Americans can't handle roundabouts. Maybe because merging requires too much intellectual exercise. Or maybe because they don't want to be forced to look up from their phones.

But roundabouts are MUCH safer than conventional traffic signals because you don't get head-on collisions, you don't get high-speed rear-end crashes, you don't have to do left turns across incoming traffic. When people screw up, it's fender benders, no injuries. A whole lot better than getting t-boned at 50 mph by some teenager playing Candy Crush.

Also roundabouts save a lot of time because you slow down to enter the circle but you don't usually have to stop. Let alone wait 2 minutes for a typical American 4 cycle traffic light.

If you drive in France, you see how much easier it is to travel with modern road design (the Europeans are 20 years ahead of us in this area). Driving is such a pleasure in the countryside because you can go hours driving through villages and towns without having to stop at a red light.
 
PennDot hasn't been the problem. It's been the NIMBYs in the area.

They've tried to widen it before, even back in the 80s. But while everyone wanted it, no one wanted it near them. And it didn't get done.

They should want it because there is too much truck traffic on that two lane stretch. It freaks me out every single time I drive that stretch at night. Seems rather dangerous to me.
 
Do we have confirmation this will happen? It would be incredibly stupid to do all this work widening 322 in places (Dauphin, Lewistown Narrows, Milroy, Potters Mills) coming up from Harrisburg and not completing the last seven miles. But then again this is PennDot we are talking about!
To PennDOT's credit, at least they're getting the section done which requires the most engineering. Getting a four lane limited access highway and a separate two secondary road through a narrow gap is no easy feat. Once that's done the remainder will be easy from a design standpoint. Of course the problems will be funding and keeping the locals happy.
 
The amount of people who don't know what a Yield Sign means is too damn high!
So true. A stop sign seems to be self-explanatory but many people don't get what "yield" is. For them it apparently means "force your way in regardless of what else is there".
 
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Eminent domain. As mentioned before, that stretch isn't safe. Too much truck traffic for that type of road. You can't keep everyone happy all the time or you never see any progress.

Instead of eminent domain of private land, why can't they use all the state owned land in Rothrock that parallels 322 all the way to Tussey Mountain Ski area? It would be the last mile or so where they would need to use eminent domain. I know they would have to build the highway on the side of a mountain but its been done before.
 
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To PennDOT's credit, at least they're getting the section done which requires the most engineering. Getting a four lane limited access highway and a separate two secondary road through a narrow gap is no easy feat. Once that's done the remainder will be easy from a design standpoint. Of course the problems will be funding and keeping the locals happy.

Biggest will be funding. The 99/80 interchange is getting some additional funding and may finally happen in next decade. Means the last 7 miles of 322 will not be until after that and again, will be hard to get that amount of funding. Maybe by 2030-2040.
 
I hope I'm wrong, but still very skeptical about how much congestion this will really eliminate. You're still going to have 4 lanes merging into 2 lanes, albeit several miles closer to State College than what you have now. But, this merge point will undoubtedly create a traffic backup.
 
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I don't know why Americans can't handle roundabouts. Maybe because merging requires too much intellectual exercise. Or maybe because they don't want to be forced to look up from their phones.

But roundabouts are MUCH safer than conventional traffic signals because you don't get head-on collisions, you don't get high-speed rear-end crashes, you don't have to do left turns across incoming traffic. When people screw up, it's fender benders, no injuries. A whole lot better than getting t-boned at 50 mph by some teenager playing Candy Crush.

Also roundabouts save a lot of time because you slow down to enter the circle but you don't usually have to stop. Let alone wait 2 minutes for a typical American 4 cycle traffic light.

If you drive in France, you see how much easier it is to travel with modern road design (the Europeans are 20 years ahead of us in this area). Driving is such a pleasure in the countryside because you can go hours driving through villages and towns without having to stop at a red light.

One of the reasons, at least here in the Bel Air, Towson area is they make them too small and then for some bizarre reason they think its a good idea to put a park with benches inside so not only do you have to deal with the traffic but also pedestrians. How F'n stupid can the designer be?
 
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I don't know why Americans can't handle roundabouts. Maybe because merging requires too much intellectual exercise. Or maybe because they don't want to be forced to look up from their phones.

But roundabouts are MUCH safer than conventional traffic signals because you don't get head-on collisions, you don't get high-speed rear-end crashes, you don't have to do left turns across incoming traffic. When people screw up, it's fender benders, no injuries. A whole lot better than getting t-boned at 50 mph by some teenager playing Candy Crush.

Also roundabouts save a lot of time because you slow down to enter the circle but you don't usually have to stop. Let alone wait 2 minutes for a typical American 4 cycle traffic light.

If you drive in France, you see how much easier it is to travel with modern road design (the Europeans are 20 years ahead of us in this area). Driving is such a pleasure in the countryside because you can go hours driving through villages and towns without having to stop at a red light.
It appears most American drivers can't grasp the simple "zipper technique" when reaching a merge point. Roundabouts are way, way, way too complex for these people.
 
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There really should be two four lanes built. One north past Centre Hall through a tunnel and into 99 past Pleasant Gap to capture the truck traffic headed to 80 and another to Boalsburg.

Could probably do both as grade roads like 22 past Ebensburg.
 
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I hope I'm wrong, but still very skeptical about how much congestion this will really eliminate. You're still going to have 4 lanes merging into 2 lanes, albeit several miles closer to State College than what you have now. But, this merge point will undoubtedly create a traffic backup.

Hopefully it eliminates the congestion heading out of State College at least.
 
In the meantime, most of the stretch is wide enough to have two lanes on traffic day headed in and two out using cones.

No way that will ever happen.
 
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So true. A stop sign seems to be self-explanatory but many people don't get what "yield" is. For them it apparently means "force your way in regardless of what else is there".

Well, some people think it means just go no matter what and others think it's a stop sign.
 
Well, some people think it means just go no matter what and others think it's a stop sign.

As well as the drivers who dont move over to the left lane to allow people to merge better. In MD it seems that people are always driving slow in the left lane except when you are trying to merge at an on ramp, where they stay in teh right lane when no one is in the left one.
 
In Maryland it's a game to see if you can prevent someone from merging. Or use the merge lane as a passing lane
 
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As well as the drivers who dont move over to the left lane to allow people to merge better.

The person on the highway has the right of way. The person entering the highway has to yield. Therefore, the person on the highway is not obligated to change lanes at all. Not sure why this has become an expectation. People get pissy if you don't move over for them. I usually try to move over because I'm a pretty passive driver. But it's not always possible and people still rage.

The people that drive me nuts are the people on the highway that slow down but don't flash their lights signalling that they are giving you space. Merging is about timing and when someone gets that timing out of sync by slowing down, it's worse than if they just stayed at full speed.
 
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Having the right of way doesn't mean you speed up or slow down to prevent the person from merging though.
 
As well as the drivers who dont move over to the left lane to allow people to merge better. In MD it seems that people are always driving slow in the left lane except when you are trying to merge at an on ramp, where they stay in teh right lane when no one is in the left one.

People also don't know how to zipper merge.
 
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This was going on last year when I traveled to a Saturday game in State College. The traffic was at a stand still, backed up for thousands of miles. I couldn't believe that the "State" would have people working this day and creating this situation. Then again I could. Stupid
 
The person on the highway has the right of way. The person entering the highway has to yield. Therefore, the person on the highway is not obligated to change lanes at all. Not sure why this has become an expectation. People get pissy if you don't move over for them. I usually try to move over because I'm a pretty passive driver. But it's not always possible and people still rage.

The people that drive me nuts are the people on the highway that slow down but don't flash their lights signalling that they are giving you space. Merging is about timing and when someone gets that timing out of sync by slowing down, it's worse than if they just stayed at full speed.
Even if you do flash your lights, some of those nuts don’t know what it means. Especially the younger drivers.
 
Even if you do flash your lights, some of those nuts don’t know what it means. Especially the younger drivers.

I dont know if it's everywhere but they dont teach those type of things in Drivers Ed anymore. They dont teach it as a class in school either from what I see. I regularly see a 'drivers ed teacher' driving down rt 100 here in MD going 45 in the left lane and not using turn signals.
 
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