Ramp meters rarely make news these days, but they managed to grab a headline or two yesterday when MnDOT announced that some meters might be used for longer hours (Strib story here, KSTP-TV version here). The news reminded Roadguy of an e-mail he received from alert reader Eric. Half of the e-mail was talked about in this post; Eric’s other question is here:

My wife and I have lived in the Cities for just under a year. Needless to say, there are a few things we’ve had to get used to in the realm of driving. One is the stoplights on highway entrance ramps. Never seen those before, and between the two of us, we’ve lived in about eight states. I’m sure you’ve addressed this at some point before, but what is the history of those things? Whose idea are they, and if they really work, why don’t they have them elsewhere?

Roadguy’s first instinct was to refer Eric to the massive ramp meter study, but Eric seems nice and doesn’t deserve to wade through a pile like that. So, lacking the time to come up with my own ramp meter dissertation, I’ve decided to open it to the floor: How do you explain ramp meters to an inquisitive out-of-towner? I’ve heard them called everything from a civic duty to a variety of unprintable words, so share your thoughts below. (Prose, haiku, sonnets — all are welcome)

This entry was posted on Friday, February 1st, 2008 at 6:05 am and is filed under Main, Transportation conversations, WUWT?. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.