Posted on 02/17/2020 10:52:44 PM PST by ducttape45
PERU – The Indiana Department of Transportation is moving forward with plans to install five J-turn intersections on U.S. 31 in Miami County just three year after pulling a similar proposal that received fierce pushback from legislators and residents.
INDOT confirmed last week it will install the intersections, which the state now calls median U-turns, at the intersections of 850 South, Ind. 218 South junction that goes into Bunker, Ind. 218 North junction that runs by Grissom Air Reserve Base, 100 North and Ind. 16.
Median U-turns are an alternative to traditional roadway intersections that requires traffic turning onto U.S. 31 to first travel south or north and then make a U-turn into traffic.
In 2017, INDOT announced plans to eliminate the traffic lights along U.S. 31 at the intersections of Ind. 218 North junction and Ind. 18 and install median U-turns.
That proposal drew unanimous and fierce criticism from residents, county officials and state legislators during an hours-long public hearing, which led INDOT to pull the project.
Now, three years later, county officials are calling foul after INDOT confirmed it will install five of the controversial interchanges as part of the state’s long-term plan to turn U.S. 31 into a free-flowing highway without any traffic signals.
Jim Tidd, executive director of the Miami County Economic Development Authority, said it’s difficult to believe the state is moving forward with median U-turns considering the instant, and sustained, criticism the last proposal received in 2017.
“Needless to say, we’re disappointed,” he said. “This is totally different than what we heard out of the governor’s office when this issue came up. They are still claiming these are going to add safety to U.S. 31, and we’re saying they’re not, and I think most of the residents say they’re not. It’s just a cheap way of getting out building interchanges.”
Brad Bagwell, president of the U.S. 31 Coalition, which advocates for the highway be turned into a freeway, called the new median U-turns “Band-Aid fixes” for the safety issues on U.S. 31.
He said over half the traffic on the highway drives over 65 mph in most places, which makes it difficult to make a U-turn into traffic.
“J-turns work in some places, and can be a great fit for low-traffic, low-speed roads,” Bagwell wrote in an editorial. “But U.S. 31 is not that type of road.”
But Nichole Hacha-Thomas, media relations director for INDOT’s 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 that’s 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 state’s 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.
“Why use dollars that aren’t needed?” Hacha-Thomas said. “If we can reach the same goal at a more cost-effective dollar amount, why wouldn’t we? That’s our duty to the taxpayers.”
But, Tidd said, it’s unfair for INDOT to spend millions of dollars on new interchanges in Howard and Tipton counties, but then use a low-cost approach in Miami County that won’t solve any problems.
“It may be in the best interest of INDOT for cost saving, but it’s not in the best interest of the constituents up and down the corridor of U.S. 31,” he said.
INDOT is installing two new full-on interchanges in Miami County at Ind. 18 and Business 31. Those projects are projected to be finished by 2023.
New interchanges are also being built at 236th Street in Hamilton County and Ind. 10 in Marshall County. The total cost of all four new interchanges is around $100 million, according to INDOT.
The state’s long-term capital plan, called Next Level Roads, is also investing nearly $300 million on U.S. 31 to improve intersections, remove railroad overpasses and eliminate private driveway access.
Hacha-Thomas said although Miami County will have five median U-turns, INDOT could reevaluate the intersections in the future to see if they warrant full-on interchanges like the ones being built at the two intersections.
“We can still reevaluate our plans as we move forward,” she said. “Priorities can change. What we know now is that we can go back and build interchanges if we find that that’s what warranted.”
Hacha-Thomas said some intersections on U.S. 31 at lightly trafficked county roads may not be changed at all and require drivers to simply stop and merge into traffic like they do now.
Tidd said local and state officials are currently formulating a plan to convince INDOT to hold off, once again, on installing median U-turns on U.S. 31 in order to develop a long-term plan to fund the construction of interchanges instead.
But, Hacha-Thomas said, once the median U-turns are implemented, it won’t take long for drivers to get used to them.
“Miami County may not love this, but we know that they work and they’re worth the investment,” she said. “People will learn how to use them.”
I watched one video looks safe to me, People do this all the time with out a intersection for it. I live in a area of the country with some of the fastest growth of about 3-4 decades of people moving into the area, slow moving traffic jambs like crazy during rush hour, if you got to turn left to go from one shopping center to get to another it is just easier to turn right go down the road, get into the center lane, and then pull and then turn left, these J lanes just make it much much safer especially for semi trucks once you get use to it. These are like roundabouts, if your not use to them they can be dangerous, once you get use to them you say to your self why don’t we build more of these things, if you can’t handle roundabouts stay off the road.
Jug handles work fine even for semis and cars.
They work great in Michigan .
If anyone has issues with them or has speed and distance perception issues, they should not be driving.
The county was promised something like what other counties got, and we deserve something in that vein.
...
Expensive interchanges?
I just returned from Florida and while there I was wondering, why everyone was making U-turns. Here in North Carolina we still have the suicidal four lane island intersections. This will take a lot of re-education in N.C. We had three new traffic circles ten years ago in our county and people still can’t figure them out. The first month it was like the Dukes of Hazard. They had to launch a public education campaign. I would miss the excitement of crossing three lanes of 70 mph just to find my median blocked by a horse trailer. It is a smart idea. It will take awhile for the people here in western NC to get it. Our drivers can’t figure out a four way stop intersection or a bicycle lane, plus most are over eighty and heavily medicated.
I too experienced those for the first time in Michigan several years ago, but my opinion is exactly 180. When I planned my trip for a one week class in Sterling Heights, I chose a hotel 10 minutes away. With the
J-turns and the traffic....that turned into a 35-40 minute ride in hell every day. That area is not known for being courteous to other drivers.
Much safer than a Roundabout.
There are thousands of these in Michigan. They work just fine.
The problem with this concept is that they gave these types of median openings a name. The FDOT removed the median opening for exiting my subdivision long before I moved here. Now, instead of waiting for a break in 4 lanes of traffic when I want to go north, I only have to wait for a break in the 2 southbound lanes so that I can turn right. Then I go southbound for a very short distance, get into the left turn lane, and then wait for a break in the northbound lanes. I much prefer this to a traffic signal that would delay 4 lanes of traffic tor me to exit my subdivision and for me to be delayed going up and down the road for other locals to exit theirs. This system works very well and is better at moving traffic and avoiding delays than a trafgic light at the entrance to every subdivision. But there must be room for the left turn storage lane at the u-turn location.
My new job in Ann Arbor, MI has these along the road. Speed limit on that stretch is 55mph and goes down to only 45mph later. Lights are still at the major intersections and even some of these “turns” have their own lights due to the amount of traffic.
The first time through they are daunting. There are definitely safety concerns in my mind. I don’t see where they are coming up with the cost savings as they require additional lanes and often additional lights. Why do they have to mess around with something they know works.
It is called a “Michigan Left” and installed properly with lights at the turns, is the safest way to make a left hand turn on a busy road. We have been doing it for many many decades here, and it works
Those are called “leftovers” around here. Much cooler name than J-turns...but just as dangerous.
We have several up here in Wisconsin on state highways. They are used on four lane highways where traffic is 65+. They have prevented a lot of accidents.
A J-turn is what I always called a policeman turn around.
They oughta just install a series of roundabouts.
/s
I love the Michigan “turn arounds”. Beats the heck out of left turn lanes!
Interesting but what the designers may be missing is that the U-turn motion is considerably slower than the forward momentum of the left turning vehicles.
What may happen is that the vehicles making the U-turn at the end of the J turn are going to run afoul of speeding and/or inattentive drivers on the mainline. That is to say, they won’t be able to pick up speed quickly enough to avoid conflicts with the drivers on the mainline.
These types of road, called “expressways” in California, are nerve-wracking to turn onto even under favorable conditions, and once they reach a high enough average daily traffic (or excessive accident rate) Caltrans replaces them as soon as possible with freeways.
(Love her accent)
Slightly off topic, but have you seen that the DOT is pushing to build the I-67 road? It runs north-south and is halfway between I-65 and the unfinished I-69. It will go from nowhere to nowhere. A stupid waste of money.
YES! The amount of deaths on US 31 in central Indiana facilitates the need for interchanges the size and magnitude on other places of US 31.
After having used a the J intersection at the US 41 - Ind 114 intersection. I’ve decided they are more dangerous than a normal 90 degree intersection and/or a traffic circle. One is required to cross 2 lanes of US 41 traffic to get to the left turn lane and then swiftly cross 2 more lanes to continue either east or west on 114.
Local officials are going to confront the issue and reiterate their disapproval of J-turns. But it seems the State of Indiana is adopting a familiar contra, “You’ll like it when it’s built.” Seems awfully similar to “You’ll be able to see what’s in the Obamacare bill once it’s law.”
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