Posted on 02/17/2020 10:52:44 PM PST by ducttape45
Anyone out there in Hoosier territory have any knowledge or opinions on this matter?
Who you gonna believe?
You’re own common sense or some Government Bureaucrat shoveling crap?!?!
For the curious, here are two videos that discuss and illustrate these types of intersections. I think it is an interesting idea, but without knowing about the traffic patterns for the proposed locations, it is hard to judge if these are appropriate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPcMeh0gDC0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09RZ8llXjZQ
These intersections look dangerous and confusing.
Dang. That looks Suicidal
I ran into one of those GD* things a few months ago. Avoided that route ever since.
*Gosh Darn
But Nichole Hacha-Thomas, media relations director for INDOTs Fort Wayne district, said data shows that median U-turns work reduce the number and severity of crashes, regardless of the negative sentiment some have towards them.
Unfortunately, the U.S. 31 Coalition has given J-turns a bad name, she said. Some of the fears about turning into traffic and merging into three lanes is just unfounded, because thats not the way you drive a U-turn.
Hacha-Thomas said median U-turns make it easier to navigate an intersection because drivers only have to manage one direction of traffic at a time. She said the intersections would be designed to accommodate large vehicles such as semis and tractors.
Installing median U-turns will also achieve the states goal of making U.S. 31 a free-flow highway with no traffic lights, she said, but at a fraction of the cost of installing full on interchanges like the one at U.S. 31 and Ind. 28 in Tipton County.
...
They’re a great idea.
"Michigan Left"
That's how it keeps traffic at the targeted intersection, "free flowing", a lot of people avoid that intersection and choose another route. I suspect that after declaring the solution a great success they'll present the plan to widen and alter alternative routes at significant expense.
The cost of modifications to alternate routes will be attributed to anything but the problems these intersections cause. I don't know the area, but in areas where there is declining population and therefore less traffic, it's going to justify other construction that isn't now justifiable.
JMHo
It’s less suicidal than trying to make a left turn on a busy highway. I generally turn right then make a u turn at first opportunity. It takes less time than waiting for traffic to be clear from both directions for a left turn.
Sure would hate to have to slam the brakes as some semi turns in front of me trying to get back up to speed.
Idiots!
They haven’t seen anything till they cutoff and take land if they make it a freeway.
Jug handles will work in that area.
The speed limit is not 65 .
The guy from the opposition is a liar.
Something that traffic planners probably didn’t think about when designing a ‘J’ turn is the increasing numbers of cars that have the ‘stop/start’ technology. If one is driving a newer car with this ‘feature’ and you are waiting to J-turn into traffic that is moving at a high rate of speed, the last thing you need is for your car to pause while it spools up the engine.
It would seem that ‘J’ turns are an idea just waiting for class-action lawsuits against the auto makers who built the car, the local governments who install J-turns, and possible the Federal DOT for mandating the ‘stop/start’ crapola.
Cars going 70 through there slamming on brakes for the stop lights are a real issue.
I think it is just to save money on an overpass. Having trouble remembering the term for the cost of project vs. human life
For me, it all boils down to the state going back on a promise to not install them, to now cramming them down our throats whether we like them or not. Plus the intersections that they propose installing them at will NOT be better served by them. The county was promised something like what other counties got, and we deserve something in that vein.
They are just that. Many people have been killed at the intersections they are proposing installing J-turns at. They won’t help.
Do not even know what a J turn is.
Looks like a fishing hook. Any good for catfishin'?
True...but you know the light is there and “should” be ready for it...most have advance flashing light warnings ahead of the intersection. At least its that way on roads I travel.
The J intersection is much more random and uncertain with regard to speed of the merging traffic, yeilding, the judgment of the turning driver with regard to distance etc. IMHO, a turning tractor trailer rig trying to get back up to speed would be a huge concern to me especially in more adverse conditions like snow, rain or fog.
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