Things that make you go hmmm

I ran into this on the LFT this morning. It takes some skill to manage to get the car there. The question is how long is it going to take the parks district to get the car off the path given that the front passenger wheel has a broken axle and the pinch points are too narrow to get a tow truck to the car.

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Permalink Reply by S on March 30, 2015 at 4:45am

The weight is probably not a problem, if you assume the car weighs about 4000 lbs (the average new car weight in 2014), that's equivalent to about 20 people. There might be an issue with weight distribution, but probably not.

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Permalink Reply by This PBL dosnt make me feel safe on March 30, 2015 at 8:57am

75 psf per the latest AASHTO, but if the sidewalk is wide enough to fit a vehicle, its typically also designed to carry a 10,000 lb service vehicle (that is, if the sidewalk region is specially designed. In newer bridges the sidewalk is usually as strong as the main roadway)

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Permalink Reply by Lisa Curcio on March 30, 2015 at 4:38am

Actually, cars weight a lot in relation to us and to our bikes, but 3000 lbs is not likely to have any effect on the bridge.

Last year a car made it up to the south end of the bridge right next to the elevator before it somehow crashed/became disabled, but it was close enough to the path that it probably was not too hard to maneuver it out. And it did not have a broken axle, either.

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Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on March 30, 2015 at 4:59am

Add that to a long, long list of "stupid human tricks."

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Permalink Reply by Yasmeen on March 30, 2015 at 6:00am

HAHAHA :-)

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Permalink Reply by Joe Guzzardo on March 30, 2015 at 5:51pm

Hmmm, not sure. But there was no seaweed covering the vehicle and no water damage that I could see either. Those new Buicks can be equipped with an optional water floatation system, which is why they're big sellers around the tsunami plagued Pacific rim countries.

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Permalink Reply by Tom Z on March 30, 2015 at 6:00am

My guess it was probably a stolen car some punks were joy riding. A-Holes!

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Permalink Reply by Jared on March 30, 2015 at 6:15am

Its a Buick. I'm guessing its someone that's really too old to be driving.

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Permalink Reply by Tricolor on March 30, 2015 at 6:25am

Were there scrape marks indicating it dragged itself there? I can't see any damage on the bridge itself that would account for tearing the wheel off. I'll have to go home that way tonight and see if it's still there. This is the most interesting thing I found on the trail so far: