Monday, November 09, 2009

PSA: Bay Bridge S-Curve Should Be Called Bay Bridge Chicane

This morning, KTVU's Kraig Debro described the Bay Bridge S-curve as "Grand Prix-like curves". To which I thought: Why not just call it a chicane?

Merriam-Webster's definition of chicane: a series of tight turns in opposite directions in an otherwise straight stretch of a road-racing course.

Maybe if we call it a chicane, people will take it more seriously. "S-curve" sounds easy. "Chicane" sounds challenging and potentially dangerous.

Chicane at Paul Ricard (sequence starts at 0:12)

Chicane at Bay Bridge (sequence starts at 1:07)

1 comment:

  1. AlanNovember 10, 2009 at 5:31 AM

    you call that an S-curve? bah.

    We used to have one on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago that consisted of two 90 degree turns that appeared quite suddenly in the middle of 50 MPH + traffic.

    That was a chicane.

    Here's a pic of it shortly before the redesign in the '80s:

    http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3010/2950916664_5d96386e72.jpg

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