The idiot who designed this should be fired! |
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This page
last updated April 21, 2021 |

A frequent remark I see on social media and in the comments
section of news stories about road projects is something along the lines of
this:
"The
idiot who designed this should be fired!"
Yes, major
changes to roads can be sometimes seem bewildering and
ill-conceived-- I get that. But there usually is a method to the
madness, so before throwing around the idiot cliché, you should take a beat and consider
the following.
It's never just one idiot
First
of all, it's pretty much never just one engineer who designs a road
project. It's usually a team of planners, engineers, and specialists
that
design and review plans. Those plans are vetted and approved
by
senior engineers. This process ensures that designs are
sound,
address the need, are based on valid assumptions, and adhere to relevant
standards. Plans for major projects are then usually presented to the
public
for their review and comments-- this is your chance to chime in if you
don't like what you see and/or think you have a better idea. If
you don't participate in the process, you don't have much right to
complain later.
You might not know everything Sometimes,
it
doesn't occur to people that maybe something was designed the
way it was due to constraints or considerations that are not
obvious to them. Before passing judgment on someone or their
work, one should consider that they just might not know all the reasons
for the
decisions that were made in that project. There likely is a
good
reason for the seemingly stupid design if one
just took the time to find out. I realize in this day and age
that many people are too busy to make the time to
learn the facts about something before releasing their inner Karen,
and that's a major cause for discord in our society IMO. I'm sure
you make decisions in your job or life that others
would
initially think to be stupid but that you had a legitimate reason for
doing the way you did. Perhaps this can best be summed-up in the words of author H. L.
Mencken: "There is always a well-known solution to every human problem—neat, plausible, and wrong."
Nobody likes change
If
the changes that have a burr under your saddle are recent, then give it
some time before drawing a conclusion. Whenever a road is
modified, it's often troubling to folks who drive it regularly simply
because it's new and different, and for many people, any change is going
to be stressful. But
after some time
when things settle down and people get familiar with
the new layout,
the intended benefits of the change are usually realized, even by those
who initially decried it. There's
a whole psychology to how people react to change, and changing something
fundamental to someone (such as a road they frequently use) often
evokes a visceral negative reaction that the
person
later realizes was unwarranted. Changing something familiar can be disorienting and
puts
people outside their comfort zone, which requires them to have to expend
some energy (even unconsciously) to learn and adapt to the change, a
process that can manifest itself negatively.
Hindsight is always 20/20
On
the other hand, if the road in question is older, then realize that
when it was designed, it was designed for the traffic conditions and
projections at
that time using the standards that were current then. Since
then,
things have likely changed and now the design is obsolete. You
can't fairly judge something designed decades ago based on the
situation today. 
Popular engineering fail meme
Engineers are human, too
That
said, yes, despite the controls in place, sometimes engineers do make
mistakes (they are human beings after all) and sometimes things work
better on paper than they do in practice. Large projects are
complex and have many details and moving parts that can sometimes get
overlooked. All of us have
projects every once in a while that
don't work out as planned. Traffic
engineering is a lot of science, but also part art, and both
require
some degree of trial-and-error on occasion. Expecting
engineers
to get it perfect the first time every time is unrealistic and unfair. Don't let perfect be the enemy of good It
would be nice if the world were a perfect place. But many times, "good
enough" really is good enough. Engineers often have to make compromises
to satisfy various constituencies, solve complex problems, and/or stay
within budget and schedule. Engineers are empirical Many
times, folks will think they see a potential problem in the making, the
proverbial "death trap". And in blatantly obvious cases, you can often
get quick action to remedy the problem. But most cases are more
nuanced,
and engineers usually have to wait for more objective data, such
as crash rates, before determining that there is an issue. It may seem
negligent or even criminal for officials to wait "until someone is
killed" to act on what you might consider an obvious hazard, but
spending scarce resources on an anecdotal problem is hard to justify.
Many times, perceived problems are not subsequently backed up by the
data. In short, there isn't a problem until there is.
Let's fire everyone
I'm
always flabbergasted that many people's first reaction is that someone
should be fired for making a mistake. Really?? Very
few
mistakes warrant being fired. If an engineer designed a
bridge
that collapsed due to an error on their part, then that's probably
termination-worthy (and likely litigation-worthy.) Otherwise, it's better in the long
run to keep people who have made mistakes because they gain experience
from them. If every employee who ever made a mistake on the job was
fired,
then everyone would be getting fired all the time, including you (yeah,
I said it), and we'd always be dealing with a whole bunch of amateurs making the same
mistakes. People these days seem exceptionally quick to judge
and alarmingly bloodthirsty-- what ever happened to tolerance and
giving people the benefit of the doubt? It's amazing how
worked-up
people can get about roads sometimes... occasionally it's justified,
but it usually seems like a First World Problem.
Still have a complaint? If
you still have a legitimate complaint about a roadway and are calm,
rational, and reasonable, then certainly contact the agency that's
responsible for the roadway in question and express your concern. Be
specific, receptive, and respectful and you'll likely get
results. Sometimes, they may take your advice and make a
change,
but sometimes you may just get an explanation for why things are the
way they are. Accept that that's okay, even if you don't
necessarily agree with it. If the issue really is as bad as you believe
it to be, problems will manifest at some point and the engineers will
then take note and have something to work with, and you can say, "I told you so!" :-)
Finally,
everyone is certainly entitled to their opinion, and I don't really
expect everyone to have an epiphany after reading this
page (but let me know if you do!) But if you find yourself muttering
the title of this page to yourself often, I hope the explanations on
this page will filter into your consciousness and maybe help you to see
whatever is irking you at the moment in a different light. A little humor to close on... 
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