Posted on 09/16/2017 1:04:21 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
If our grandparent’s generation had the insight of these idiots, we’d still be using horse and buggy.
“Hi Bill. I see you want to leave your property. That’ll be $25.00.”
Washington, PA, according to my road atlas.
For the curious, if you’ve never encountered one, there’s a whole website on these things: http://divergingdiamond.com.
Wikipedia has some pretty good illustrations as well.
But what do I know? I just have to drive on these streets; I'm not smart enough to design them.
I wonder haw many additional miles I’d be willing to travel to avoid one of those things? So far it’s just a rhetoric question.
Illinois has one.
Works great.
I forget which city it was, but the main road through it had a traffic light over every one of the eight lanes. During rush hour there might be seven lanes of traffic heading east out of town and only one heading west.
Did you ever try to beat the light and make a left turn against seven lanes of traffic? I did. It’s amazing I lived a long as I have. Oh, I beat the light.
You are correct. I know that area well, as I lived near there for 11 years.
We had one of these interchanges installed near where I lived in Georgia. For years traffic in that intersection was a nightmare. After they put in the DD you could zip through in no time flat. It’s a stupid sounding idea that works brilliantly.
A new one close to me in Waukee IA.
It caused a guy to get confused (yes he had been drinking) and get on I 80 the wrong way. He hit a police car head on and killed two cops and a prisoner they were transporting at 2:00 am.
We have one of those at IL-59 and I-88. It’s the most confusing intersection I have ever encountered and my wife agrees.
Ashford-Dunwoody at I-285? It works great, though I still avoid the area on general principals most of the time. I have home field advantage, I can pick and choose routes.
I love all the nay-sayers who’ve probably never transited a DD interchange.
LOL it does take getting used to but for Spfld, MO anything is better for them. All different drivers in that town of 5 universities, retirees, Branson tourists, and country drivers. What a mess. For a small town there were a lot of accidents. Years before I moved there they had never had a traffic study and when they did it made it easier for driving but the locals were still in the habit of going thru the red lights. I learned to look both ways before going on a green light. Boy, do I miss Bass Pro.
I thought it was the first in the US...
And the first is?...
After a few false starts, one that fell prey to fears over the safety of an unproven design, and another that was simply delayed by lack of funding, the first DDI outside of France was opened at I-44 and Hwy 13 on June 21, 2009 in Springfield, Missouri. The project cost just $3.2-million, because they were able to utilize the same bridge from the previous diamond interchange. MoDOT then opened the second DDI about a year later on July 12, 2010 at US-60 and National Avenue, also in Springfield.
http://www.divergingdiamondinterchange.org/
I looked carefully at the site and tried to picture myself driving through the intersection with different destinations in mind.
I think I saw the same thing you did.
It removes one hazard by replacing it with another.
The only difference being that the new hazard has a light controlling it.
But I have seen plenty of high volume traditional "cloverleafs" that accomplish the same thing by the use of traffic lights on the ramps.
Having drivers switch sides of the road (to me) is highly counter-intuitive.
It's gone now, replaced with multiple elevated ramps.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.