@db4690 You might not like MN reduced conflict intersections. To get across the highway or turn left, you have to turn right, then make a U turn. Glad I don’t have ro do that with my boat trailer! Better learn that smart car this trick! more details http://www.dot.state.mn.us/d3/hwy371/images/RCI_pq.pdf
And as if the buses aren't bad enough to watch out for.
As a person who’s walked many many miles in Boston, I’d prefer a driverless car then a Bus or Cab driver. You take your life in your hand if you cross an intersection when you have the right-of-way and there’s a bus or cab within 1/4 mile of you…don’t walk…RUN across the road.
That’s interesting, but it’s a completely different situation
The person making that u-turn has a protected lane, or whatever it’s called, so at least there’s nobody behind him honking, stressing him out
As a matter of fact, I kind of like that solution
I’d rather go that round about way you pictured, versus crossing the highway straight ahead, and possibly getting clobbered by a speeder who came out of nowhere, and is on the cellphone, and didn’t even slow down, because they didn’t see me
But you’re right, for anybody pulling a trailer, it would not be good
There are some intersections I use on a daily basis I would LOVE that forced turn. People scream down the line of cars using the left turn lane and then just go straight, forcing the people that have waited in line to make room for them. A nice little concrete (or granite) curb forcing them to turn would be sweet! One of my coworkers refused to yield to one of these yokels and the guy actually hit him trying to force his way in. The cops, wanting to avoid any work if at all possible, kept coaching the guy to say he tried to merge further back but, surprise!, he was an idiot and kept saying, no I came all the way to the intersection and tried to move over but he wouldn’t let me, what was I supposed to do??? The cop got ticked then and yelled, YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO TURN LEFT!
Barky, IMHO those designs cause accidents rather than preventing them.
NH has gotten into this principle of using “jughandles”. If you want to access a business on the left side of the road, you have to go a mile past the business and use the “jughandle” to get to the other side of the road. It keeps everyone on the road a lot longer than they would otherwise be.
We have a road here called 101A that I’ve been driving since the '70s. Before they installed the dividers and the jughandles it wasn’t bad, but as soon as they rebuilt the road it became a nightmare. There’s a lot more traffic there now, but I truly believe there’d be a lot less if they’d stayed with simple center turn lanes. Much of the traffic is trapped in a back & forth pattern trying to get to the other side of the road and then get back to the direction they were originally headed. I worked on that road for a total of about 20 years, and I know the issues intimately.
When I moved out here 101A was already divided. But since I moved here it’s really expanded - all the way to Amherst and a lot more businesses tucked away that some you can’t easily see from the road.
When I bought my 14 highlander I test drove a Pilot first from Peter’s (on 101A). Had to drive to the turn-around and then “Look - a Five Guys”. So we stopped for lunch…then went to Peters.
@barkydog If that’s the McStop intersection, yeah it’s really nuts. What they want you to do is go south and make a long loop to come back to the road where the stop lights are. Most people just make the U turn.
They don’t say less accidents but less fatalities, same claim for roundabouts. Do not know McStop.
I 35 and county 70 or 50, I forget.
MikeInNH: In Athens, Greece it was much the same. There were pedestrian signals very much like ours. My advice was “Red man dead man”. “Yellow man, run Forrest run”! If you made it to the sidewalk you still had to deal with high speed motor scooters on the sidewalk bypassing the clogged streets! Total traffic anarchy. I did not drive there.
While traffic lights perhaps make driving safer ,they sure slow down traffic flow ,but I can see the necessity on crowded roads and still I prefer the synchronized,timed lights over the so called smart lights,one nice town near (a lot of civic pride ) you could make one green light run the speed limit and go all the way without stopping again,of course the population explosion has stressed everything and the perceived necessity of people being unable to stay at home anymore only makes matters worse ,some areas always seem to be in a state of "rush hour ".
Strange someone should mention roundabouts ,I dont think there are but a scant handful in VA and they work fine ,but the solution VDOT Engineers have devised is an horrendous mess of crisscrossing lanes ,lights and confusing signage,that occupies a lot of otherwise nice real estate,but with the increase in urban traffic,what can one do?
I dont think there are but a scant handful in VAJust looked at the VDOT site "roundabout inventory" here is a whole lot more than I thought. I only knew of a couple in Culpeper and Loudon Cnty.
Roundabouts aka traffic circles work fine for light to moderate traffic. Want to see a traffic circle that’s not so nice - drive through the rt2 and 2a traffic circle in Concord MA during rush hour.
You can have synchronized smart lights. They work very well.
@kmccune
"While traffic lights perhaps make driving safer, they sure slow down traffic flow,
but I can see the necessity on crowded roads and still I prefer the synchronized, timed lights over the so called smart lights, one nice town near (a lot of civic pride ) you could make one green light run the speed limit and go all the way without stopping again…"
Those timed lights are nice, I agree. I once managed a Mazda/Volkswagen dealer Parts Department and I commuted straight line on a surface street 24 miles. There were 48 traffic lights, almost all were timed. It was great. Traffic flowed while going the speed limit. It was a half hour ride. 
However, when snow began and the streets got slippery, a little tire spin at each light and early braking while approaching them, knocked the cars’ speed down so it didn’t coincide with the limit and the timing. It became a one hour+ experience. :neutral:
It wasn’t the lights that were the problem, but rather foul weather.
CSA
A relative is a metro traffic engineer and talking about the stop lights he said they aren’t called go lights but are meant to stop traffic. Also said at least in his experience, accidents tend to go up at intersections where lights are installed. Maybe people blindly rely on them that they wouldn’t in an uncontrolled intersection.
101 is super nice compared to driving 128 in MA heading toward Logan. You want to get to the other side? Better hope you know where that loop exit is and get in the right lane WELL before you need to…
Yesterday on the radio I heard that a gov’t agency is looking into Tesla’s self driving feature, and has asked them to provide all the necessary info on how it works and how it was verified by a certain date in the not too distant future. If not complied with, they said Tesla would be looking at a multi-million dollar fine. The radio announcer said the gov’t might be wondering if Tesla was using the purchasers of its cars as Beta-testers for the self-drive feature.
It is a Beta…and the buyers are well aware of it.
“We tell drivers to keep their hands on the wheel just in case, to exercise caution in the beginning,” Elon Musk said today at a press event. “Over time, long term, you won’t have to keep your hands on the wheel—we explicitly describe this as beta.”