I’ve been in every state except Rhode Island, Alaska and Hawaii. As much as I can remember, in most states, when a U-turn is allowed on a divided highway there’s just a paved gap in the median. It’s as if the highway designers said, “Here ya go. Good luck if there’s a lot of traffic.”
But along the stretch of US-101 near Port Angeles, Washington (and perhaps elsewhere) there are a series of “U-turn Areas,” as the signs call them. They look like this:
To make a U-turn you start by moving into a special left lane that sets you up to cross the oncoming lanes rather than immediately merging with it. When there’s a sufficient break in traffic you cross the oncoming lanes and enter a loop that sets you up to merge back onto the highway.
I never had reason to use one of the U-turn Areas but they seem easier, less stressful and safer, especially if you're driving something long with a wide turning radius. I imagine their existence is the result of too many accidents.
I saw a similar thing in Baja California, but for left turns and not on divided roads. There the loop is on the right side, like a highway exit. Then you end up facing 90° to traffic in both directions and straight ahead to the road you want to turn onto. This way you can see traffic in all directions and instead of sitting in the middle of the highway waiting to turn, you’re safely at the side.
That second one is known as a Jersey Jughandle; they are common in New Jersey. I've never seen the first one but I like it, too. I've also been known to go around a round-about more than once until I figured out which exit I wanted. :)
ReplyDeleteLinda Sand
I made several laps around roundabouts in Wales because the town names all looked like jumbles of consonants
DeleteI kind of like round abouts, except that they rely on good sense and courtesy when someone is entering ahead of you, both of which are becoming in short supply in this country. They kind of lose their allure when usage is so heavy there has to be traffic lights to meter the flow entering the circle.
ReplyDeleteI was nearly in a traffic circle accident a couple of weeks ago. It was a small diameter circle, so there wasn't a lot of time to judge whether approaching cars were going to exit or continue. I had yielded to a couple of vehicles and there was a gap. The next car was on a wide arc that looked like it was going to exit, so I entered the circle. But I was wrong, or they changed their trajectory. There was honking and brakes and probably curses, but I was far enough into the circle that my only real option was to floor it and keep going. But generally, yeah, I like roundabouts.
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