June 17, 2010: Flipper Bridge
 

Problem ~
Chinese drivers, being a modern progressive country, drive on the right side of the road.
Hong Kong drivers, being a vestige of the empire, drive on the wrong side of the road.

Solution ~
The Flipper Bridge, which flips traffic to the opposite side of the road in the middle of the crossing.

http://cellar.org/2010/flipperop.jpg

Damn clever these Chinese... oh, wait... a Dutch company came up with this.

link

I like.

I watched the video and I still don't get it.

It would be more fun if it flipped the cars upside down.

What don't you get?

The fact you're suposed to drive on one side of the road? :lol:

Yeah, I reckon they could add a little hotwheels-style loop-the-loop in there. Maybe they should cross at the pinnacle of the loop.

I guess that area's not prone to flooding...

You'll put your eye out!

Yet...


And I don't getit neither! I donnah seen no dollfins anywheres. So how comes it's named after one?

Flipper was really a shark. He's currently under the bridge eating the toll trolls.

You know how it is with Chinese food though... an hour later, and you're hungry again.

I remember a family trip to England when we lived in Germany, and as we drove off the ferry, there was only one place to drive. It took us around the ferry terminal and then before we realized it, we had been dumped onto a two lane road on the left side. We never had the choice of which side to drive on. They just funneled us onto the correct side. Smart people, those Brits.

I also remember that when I got to sit in the front passenger seat of our vw bus with it's huge front window, whenever we approached an oncoming car on a narrow two lane county road, I would take both my hands and lift them up into view in an attempt to startle the other driver. Scratch my face or something. You see, they would think for a split second that I was the driver and I had taken both hands off the steering wheel. It's the little things.

"Say, for instance, you're coming from Zhuhai. As you cross the bridge on the right into Hong Kong..."

Those Dutch may be good at computer-generated bridges, but not geography. Zhuhai doesn't connect with Hongkong; it connects with Macau. (There's about 30 miles of sea between the two.)

Is no one thinking like an American here? If you drive a big enough car, it does not matter what side of the road you drive on. What ever side you are on is the right side if everyone else is getting out of your way.

This project is connecting all three. This bridge would be just one part of it.

I don't get how it fixes the problem. Too much of a lefty/righty spacial conundrum for me.

So, heading down the freeway, you -I hope- choose one of the lanes on the right half of the road because in America we drive on the Right.

However, if you were on a motorway in England, you would choose one of the lanes on the Left half of the road, because in the UK, they drive on the left.

Currently not a problem because there's a huge fucking ocean between them, so cars roll onto the ship from one side of the road and roll off it onto the other.

If we built a huge bridge, however, the cars would crash mid point:

UK

^ I V
^ I V
^ I V
<<<< CRASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!
V I ^
V I ^
V I ^

USA


STOP STOP! OK let's have a huge parking lot where we all stop and then leave driving on the correct side of the road for the country we're heading into.....

Or build a super bridge which solves this by lifting up the traffic coming from the US on the right side of the road and places it over to the left of the traffic coming from the UK, so it is on the correct side of the road as it enters the UK without having to interact with the oncoming traffic at all.

Look at the picture. See the white van at the far left of the picture? He's driving on the right-hand side of the road, correct? Now follow his route to the other side of the river. Now which side of the road will he be driving on?

Okay, I see it now. I guess I was confused because I wasn't getting that it was joined, then split, then joined again.

or I was just confused 'cause I'm a dumbass, either way. ;)

All they needed was one of these:

That would never work in Texas...
As soon as drivers there got off the bridge they would still pass on the shoulder and yell "Hoody" as they went by.

I must confess it confuzzled me too, until monster's explanation. I was thinking that you are still on the same road still going in the same direction as the other cars, and the road just zig-zagged. NOW I get it. I do have direction dyslexia, though.

In 1967, Sweden was the last continental European country to switch from left to right.
To ease the transition, buses and trucks made the change a week before autos.

No title. Who needs a title for a statement?
 

Absolutely, Diaphone! Wonderful way to make a whole country aware of the intention!

Sure. If you don't mind the cars flying in the air and flipping end for end when they meet at the crossover.

At least that's what they did when my brother and I had a model car layout when we were kids.

Right? So now they drive like in the US?

If they didn't fly off the track first because you pulled the accelerator down too hard.

Yeah, that happened too.

Good times. Good times.

when you were kids? beest has more of that stuff now thn he did when he was a kid.....

I heard the same story while working in Nigeria back in 67. Was to change the trucks on one day and cars next. Nigeria, that I can buy.

Problem solved!

"The Flipper Bridge, which flips traffic to the opposite side of the road in the middle of the crossing."

The Chinese don't need this,. I've been on the roads in China and they don't need a reason to change sides of the road, they just do it as it suits them!

They drive that way here, too.