For a long time, the S-curve on Lake Shore Drive in downtown Chicago was designed with two 90-degree turns close to each other. This is a major route with 4 or 5 lanes in each direction as I recall. I used to drive it fairly regularly; you just learned to slow down a lot and then proceed. Maybe slow down more if it was snowing.
LSD is so frustrating. Could take you 15 mins to drive the whole thing but weird road construction and lights around Grant Park turn it into an hour. Chicago needs a Big Dig.
Lake Shore Drive dates to the late 1800s and horse-drawn carriages. The bascule bridge and the S-Curve design work was in the late 1920s, with construction finishing in the late 1930s. Speed limits for cars were 20-30 MPH, so it was perfectly safe at the time.
If you want to look at a curve that was wholly inappropriate for the time, look at the 90 degree curve on Interstate 90 in Cleveland. Built in 1960, it is a 30-35 MPH curve. And, unlike Lake Shore Drive, they still haven’t fixed it. You can drive it today, and see all the tire rubber and other impact marks on the concrete wall - it gets hit constantly:
> (January 8) Cleveland Fire crews have responded to 28 crashes since Jan. 6 at the same location on I-90’s notorious Dead Man's Curve.
> There were four crashes before noon Wednesday, including a pileup involving seven vehicles.
> “Going to the same location 10 times in a shift will get people's attention,” Lt. Mike Norman, a spokesperson for the Cleveland Fire Department, said.
For a long time, the S-curve on Lake Shore Drive in downtown Chicago was designed with two 90-degree turns close to each other. This is a major route with 4 or 5 lanes in each direction as I recall. I used to drive it fairly regularly; you just learned to slow down a lot and then proceed. Maybe slow down more if it was snowing.
https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20160315/downtown/remember-o...
LSD is so frustrating. Could take you 15 mins to drive the whole thing but weird road construction and lights around Grant Park turn it into an hour. Chicago needs a Big Dig.
Clearly the engineers who designed LSD were taking LSD.
Lake Shore Drive dates to the late 1800s and horse-drawn carriages. The bascule bridge and the S-Curve design work was in the late 1920s, with construction finishing in the late 1930s. Speed limits for cars were 20-30 MPH, so it was perfectly safe at the time.
If you want to look at a curve that was wholly inappropriate for the time, look at the 90 degree curve on Interstate 90 in Cleveland. Built in 1960, it is a 30-35 MPH curve. And, unlike Lake Shore Drive, they still haven’t fixed it. You can drive it today, and see all the tire rubber and other impact marks on the concrete wall - it gets hit constantly:
> (January 8) Cleveland Fire crews have responded to 28 crashes since Jan. 6 at the same location on I-90’s notorious Dead Man's Curve.
> There were four crashes before noon Wednesday, including a pileup involving seven vehicles.
> “Going to the same location 10 times in a shift will get people's attention,” Lt. Mike Norman, a spokesperson for the Cleveland Fire Department, said.
https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/local-news/odot-engineer...
This was always one of the fun signs to see by the side of the road.
Never lived in Chicago, but have visited and seen this.Its more of a 60 degree bridge, non paywalled picture https://www.odditycentral.com/architecture/7-engineers-suspe...
This one is even better, _three_ real 90 degree turns in a row https://www.moneycontrol.com/europe/?url=https://www.moneyco...