>That's a pretty nasty crash!  I hope there were no injuries, but the
>condition of the cars makes me suspect there were.  Walking on those
>sidewalks will be pretty creepy now.
>
>I live near Hiawatha Ave. and have seen some horrible pile-ups at the
>52nd street intersection (near the old Holiday station).  After the last

[snip]

Hiawatha speeds are rational. This doesn't mean they are safe. Just 
that most drivers will rationally look at the driving conditions and 
adjust their speeds to match the conditions. Disregarding the extreme 
drivers and the obsessive law-abiding types, Hiawatha is judged by 
most drivers to be a 45-50 MPH road. It doesn't really matter that 
the signs say 35 MPH. Drivers decide all the time to drive Hiawatha 
at just under a 45 MPH average.

It's the design of the road that creates this situation: two lanes, 
wide shoulders, generous median, long stretches between 
intersections, large setbacks to adjacent buildings. All these things 
combine to create a situation where a rational driver will choose  45 
MPH as the safe speed in this environment.

The Hiawatha "freeway" situation is a good lesson in traffic calming 
- if only to highlight the opposite effects that result from roadway 
design that encourages agressive driving instead of calmed traffic.

Regards,
Keith Nybakke
Keewaydin
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