Don't want to sound like a smartass, but wouldn't a large enough two lane roundabout do just fine? No phases at all, less electricity bills (only for street lamps, no traffic signals), less stopping so consequently less CO2 and less fuel consumption etc. Plus it allows pedestrians to cross safely, as roundabouts slow the flow, and that even rhymes, wow. Conclusion: roundabouts are awesome. Right?
@@coltonkinsey2977 hell no, where did you get that from? They cost about as much as the conventional intersections to build, and are much cheaper in the long run. You're way off buddy.
Aahh, the good old JerseyJug Handles...lol. Rt. 70 near Brick Township is the craziest stretch. Within 3 intersections, all different, a jug handle, circle, and something else that I don't even know the name for...lol.
@@z609gaming yes I do, right by where it intersects with 571. It's like they should have removed the traffic light and replaced it with an overpass making it a Cloverleaf interchange. I used travel through that intersection as a kid to go to the shore at Island State Park.
Across the river, PA has some Jersey-style jughandles, all on 4-lane roads. Examples include US422 in lower Berks north of Pottstown, PA309 in Montgomeryville.
When I was in Germany, in the late 1960s, they had something odd on the side of the streets in larger cities. It was an old fashion looking "Side of the street, traffic control light looking Light" like we used to have HERE in the 50s a before (when people actually PAID ATTENTION to said Lights). It had 4 lenses and each lens had a Number on it. When the number lite up, all you had to do is adjust your speed to THAT number and you would make the NEXT GREEN LIGHT. You never saw much traffic congestion and the traffic was always moving. Saved on fuel, brakes and yes, even TIME. As you didn't have to come to a complete STOP then take off again. Always wondered why they didn't do that HERE in the U.S.
And I wonder why we don't have more of these here in Germany. According to Wikipedia we have less than 20 Geschwindigkeitssignale (speed sign) installed here in Germany. I regularly drive on a road with such a system and I think it works perfectly (as long as nobody drives faster than the sign says). So I don't understand why it isn't used more often.
@@Jehty_ Here in the states, that variable sign would just say ZERO. I swear traffic control teamed up with the oil companies to try and MAXIMIZE fuel consumption. I cant tell you how many times I stopped at a red light for minutes, and NO ONE went through the green, and as soon as the cross traffic turned red and we turned green, cars would start accumulating on the cross road that was just green while we were waiting..
@@josephj6521 Only if we replace the homes with high density housing with no parking. They don't need parks because they're in a 'high transit access area' (at least until we bulldoze the bus stop for another intersection).
Went through one of these in Utah. By, "went through", I mean that I wanted to turn left but was so confused, I ended up going straight through having to do a U-turn and right over a period of about 5 minutes and probably breaking a few laws.
@@JonathanNelson-nelsonj3 The one at the beginning of the video in the time lapse was State Street and Center Street in Orem. So there's two, less than 2 miles apart.
Dude your channel directly appeals to a weird nerdiness I have about traffic engineering and I'm so thankful I found it. I'm literally a doctor in training lmao.
I was about to say, just replace everything with roundabouts, and im from America But we are still figuring them out. People think either A) always _stop_ before you enter a roundabout, even if its empty, or B) you always enter at _full speed_ even if the roundabout is full
@@jeremywoods770 not even sure why it's that difficult. Yield means yield to existing traffic. If no traffic, you have nothing to yield to so you just... Go. Then again this is the same country that can't seem to figure out how to merge into a freeway. Most seem to think you're supposed to match up with a random driver in the right lane and play a game of chicken with them.
@@alexmawdsley Bold of you to assume people know how to drive :P Yeah I see the chicken thing everywhere. In my city there are two or three roundabouts and I see one every day where I run. I see absolutely pants-on-head retarded operation by at least one car there every single day, and I'm only looking at it for a minute or so. People waiting for cars on the other side of the roundabout to come all the way around/exit the roundabout are the biggest problem. If the car's not near you you *cannot* physically hit it, simple physics, just go, just drive!
UDOT loves to try out new ways of frustrating drivers. We have the CFI’s, Diverging Diamond’s, FLEX lane’s and the absolute worst is this left hand turn light that actually happens after the intersection. UDOT since this video has removed an additional 5 CFI’s along the Bangerter Highway and have since converted them to freeway interchanges. Makes driving that highway much nicer. The issue with the CFI’s is remembering that you shift over much earlier to make a left turn and sometimes you forget and miss the turn. Well, guess there is also another issue of people still going to the light and still try to turn left holding up the through traffic.
I LOVE the CFI in Cities Skylines. The improvement over a conventional intersection is dramatic, and watching it work is like art. I didn't think I'd like it even better than the diverging diamond interchange, but I do. It is THE highest capacity level intersection, and so much less disruptive than a grade-separated highway interchange.
@blackhole4106 At the levels of traffic where a CFI is needed, nothing short of a highway interchange does that. If a roundabout hits capacity, people have to stop and wait too.
I go through this intersection a lot. It made a huge difference in how long it takes to get through that very busy intersection. I love the new design. Very smooth and efficient.
The "long term" strategy to these is kind of clever in a way. In the example you gave they had already purchased the right of way for the planned future freeway, so maximizing that footprint without building a grade separated interchange increases the value of that investment while waiting to finish a future phase of development. Also the increased pre-existing road surface seems like it would make construction phasing safer and more efficient when you do upgrade eventually.
In Germany we have something called "Right-hand drive bid" [Rechtsfahrgebot] which applies especially to our Autobahn. (Highway) This rule ensures that overtaking is only legal from the left side and that slow vehicles have to take the lanes on the right side. I have seen a lot of dashcam footage with accidents that would have been prevented by this rule.
@@c2PlayTV, in North America we also have this principle, but it's never enforced. They keep adding lanes to major highways, and the slowest drivers distribute themselves to be in all lanes.
In the UK we wouldn’t even attempt to find a “one size fits all” solution. You just build whatever intersection suits the circumstances and people just deal with it. (Well mostly).
Yes and because of the ''non standard'' aproach you have no idea what lanes you can use for forward unless you have clear markings and signage. Lack of road markings and random unnecessary logic are the reason for plenty of near misses and accidents that could simply be avoided by a bit more standardisation and leaving only the more complicated situations as ''exceptions''...
Americans: "we have to find a way for people to turn left without many crashes... Let's make a Super intricate road!" Europeans: "...what about roundabouts?"
Roundabouts in The States are really becoming fairly common. They blew a lot of peoples minds at first, but they've adapted fairly rapidly. I've experienced a few of the intersections in this video and they DO WORK.. but are much more intricate and people don't pay enough attention to be in the correct lane upon approach for them to be so sporadically placed.
In most areas of the US anything heavier than neighborhood traffic comes to a 3-way standstill in a roundabout and they greatly increase accidents because most US drivers aren't familiar with them
There's actually a roundabout just off camera to the left! They're unfamiliar to most drivers in the US. The cameraman is standing in behind the largest university in Utah. Very few people know how to drive in them properly, and the traffic in the surrounding area is too heavy for proper enforcement (or teaching). Two: roundabouts are often known as a traffic calming device, because they force traffic to slow down. This doesn't work well in places like Utah where snow plows require a certain amount of momentum to do their job properly.
@@osco4311 the whole slowing of traffic is crap doesn't stop the plows in northern Europe: Sweden Finland etc. That all have very snowy winters and require the road closing. Roundabouts literally would solve this issue and more
Ran into one of these outside Cincinnati, I'm sure it's great if you know about it, I definitely missed my turn when I used it cuz I knew my left turn wasn't until the next intersection but didn't realize I had to cross at the previous one.
Great videos, Rob! Your explanations and visuals are incredibly helpful and easy to understand. I also want to mention - thank you for your Lexus video. I have a base 1991 LS that is very similar to yours - no sunroof and cloth interior. However, I did get the keyless entry and mudguard options. I didn't even know keyless wasn't standard, until I saw yours! Keep up the great videos!
Excellent videos, Rob. Subscribed when i saw your first one. The big drawback of cfi is the space it will take. In my opinion, when the space is tight and traffic is heavy, the best way is to have each direction have its time, with smart use of right- and left- turns in other directions so the use of common area is maximized.
As someone from the Netherlands, its really interesting to see road engineering in the US. This is a very clever solution to keep CARS moving. However, wouldn't it be more effective to invest that money and engineering time into providing options for people to walk, cycle or use public transport? Instead of building roads to deal with endlessly increasing demand, off load some of that car demand to other means of transport. I find it funny that pedestrians were mentioned once, with no real alternatives except for an expensive tunnel that I'm sure most of these intersetions won't have. I didn't see a single cyclist or form of public transport. No wonder traffic sucks in the US.
[sarcastic answer] Well, yeah, but This Is America! and it would be Un-American do do anything that might upset or harm our oil-company overlords! [end sarcasm] Honestly, most newer cities and pretty much all suburbs (where most Americans live) were designed from the ground up to be car-centric and car dependent. Social prestige is often affected by how car-dependent your neighborhood is (how big is your yard? how hard is it for "The Poors" to get to?) To make US suburbs walk/cyclable, you'd have to convince people to give up land for paths and lanes for bicycles (and protection curbs), convince people that maybe they don't really *need* that much lawn, and maybe there could be more housing instead. Convince people that poverty is not a personal moral failure (that's the hard part). It would be easier to level it all and restart from scratch. In the place where I grew up, cars were so necessary for living that the concept of not having one was utterly unthinkable. Not having even the crappiest most beat up car meant you were the poorest of the poor, and in America, that is a Sin. The importance of cars is baked into American culture and, though we're making tiny inroads on changing that, will take a lot more than a couple of pedestrian-aware intersections to fix. Pardon the rant, but "wouldn't it be more effective" makes it sound a lot simpler than it is.
The US is a big country and unless you live in a metro area and only travel within the metro area you'll need a car if you want to do what you want to do and not just wherever the bus happens to go at certain times. State of Utah alone is over 5 times larger than your home country, some people's commutes each day is measured in hours not minutes so having your own vehicle is a must if you want to have a decent job. Not to mention the time and cost of building infrastructure over a big country, not every place is going to be great and everyone learns how to deal with it and get on with their day.
@@s0nnyburnett I never said get rid of cars lol, plenty of Dutch people drive to work because its the best option. My point is that there should be more options, and even in the US, a lot of car journeys are short and in built up areas where other transportation options are possible. In the country side, of course, use a car, we do that too.
Those pedestrian tunnels must be scary. Seems like a place where people frequently would get robbed or assaulted. I think I would rather dodge the cars.
Who wants to spend hours lining up and waiting at the side of the road just to get on a Coronawagon? Public transport use in my region has stabilized at 40% of traditional level for the past year. The "change" that has occurred is that people have realized that taking the bus is inconvenient and disease-ridden. I will ride in the comfort and safety of my personal automobile and go where I want, when I want.
I live in Canada and they are just about to open the first ever displaced left turn in the country in my hometown. I personally think it'll be a lot better than the conventional intersection however a lot of people are freaking out over it and saying they're going to just completely avoid it. Hopefully, once it opens, they see it's really not that hard to navigate and the only difference is the left turn.
Austin liberal commies using socialist engineering! Jk 😋 we have a couple here in Georgetown Tx and boy it works! Kinda confusing but you get used to it 😁
My city opened one up there I live at an intersection that was always congested and the traffic would run back forever up and down the road. Once the intersection went in, the entire highway cleared up. It was like magic.
UT-154, also known as Bangerter Hwy was an under budget solution which saved cost without compromising performance more an necessary. In SLC County is also Redwood Rd. which also uses a CFI.
They stopped saying most of the names and if a highway number is available. It sucks, because nobody knows where Hwy 154 (Bangerter) is, and definitely not Hwy 85 (Mountain View Corridor).
We have several of these in Fenton, MO on Highway 30, and they _massively_ improve the traffic flow during rush hour. We also have multiple diverging diamond interchanges as well, but not nearly as many as Springfield, MO.
My favorite unique road intersection is where you can take an exit and then rejoin the express lanes at the the light and beat a line of cars. Palatine Rd.
Come to Gwinnett County GA: We have it all - Diverging Diamonds (two on I-85), Continuous Flow Intersections (Main Street Snellville). We don't have any straight roads that follow cardinal directions though.
Hey Rob, I am a big fan of your videos. The way you present information is extremely entertaining and informative. It would be really interesting if you could do a video on 4-way stops. It seems like no one actually knows how to use them properly. The city that I live in has also started replacing some of them with roundabouts. I'd be interested to hear what you think of 4-way stops, if they are the most effective solution, and if traffic lights or roundabouts are better options.
We have several 4 way stops where I live and a few are high traffic-ish. They work great. You get to go when it is your turn. I sit at a 4 way stop 30 seconds tops. A light cycle 2 minutes.
We have one in baton rouge louisiana and i never knew what they were called until now. You would never know how good it is until you have one it helps traffic sooooooooooo much. The 50% of the time having green is pretty accurate the traffic flows so well.
This came up on my feed and I knew instantly I'm gonna like this channel. And as an European my obligation is to bring up roundabouts! Safe and affordable!
The road I live on has 6 consecutive single-lane roundabouts. It's probably an artifact of bad city planning given how extremely close they are, but they work very efficiently.
Also as an European I have to add the fact that city planning can also be made without giving cars the priority. European suburbs are much denser and thus have more potential to get public transport such as trains, and local walkable surroundings with cafes and shops. Of course European suburbs are car-dependent on many cases at least on the outer edges of the city, but the street network is planned to serve both pedestrians and cars.
Roundabouts are coming to the US. Around here they're building a ton of them on country roads where cars don't feel like yielding to traffic. But I also see them being built near freeway on/off ramps and in spaces where they have multiple roads intersecting and have the space to put in a roundabout rather than a light.
I might not stick to the channel, but its not because of Rob. This guys enthusiasm and general love of what he does is infectious, I hope I find something I love as much as he seems to love traffic engineering.
I've actually seen it over a number of interchanges and some high-traffic exits in the LA/OC area, especially near Disneyland. It seems to be spreading as they work on other areas, as well.
This can be very useful in situations when you have an intersection where a left turn is used more than average while having a lot of thru traffic. Plus, overpasses aren't always appropriate (as well as an eyesore) and a roundabout isn't going to work well when a lot of traffic wants to get off on the left most exit. I installed one of these on Cities: Skylines for this specific situation, along with timed traffic lights, and it's extremely smooth with less congestion.
I love this kind of stuff. I suppose I'm a traffic nerd like you. Didn't know there was so many people like me! I'm in Utah also and like the creative things they've done on left turns. You should do one on the U Turn lane things.
They JUST built one of these in downtown Snellville, GA near where I live! Thanks so much for the video, it was really nice getting to hear a little bit about it because when I first saw it I thought it was the strangest most confusing intersection ever.
The intersection shown there isn't really in what'd I'd describe as "countryside" - it's right next to a university campus so the land was probably pretty expensive.
Doing this at a smaller, 2 lane scale also has its benefits. Especially for those making left and right turns. I just cant help but feel like its an optimal solution in almost all cases...
My very first time driving on Bangerter Highway was in the middle of a heavy snow. Tried to turn left. Ended up getting confused because the signs seemed so be sending me into incoming traffic. Ended up giving up and making a U-Turn to look for a sane road.
Great information. I travel to Logan Utah twice a year. On the way back to the Salt Lake airport, I drive through one of those weird left turn lanes to get on the freeway. I had no idea why it was designed that way. Now I know. It's actually pretty clever.
I'd love to see you do a video about the benefits of electric / hybrid cars! I dont know if its in your wheelhouse, but I think you could have an interesting take on it
There are none... The batteries and other tech in the cars are MAJOR polluters and those cars are COAL powered for the most part or fossil fuels. Now if CA wanted to put in a bunch of Thorium Salt reactors to make electricity, then we are talking about a long term sustainable power source. Much more Thorium than Uranium and you cannot turn the leftovers into bombs. But they could be used for Nuclear batteries for communications devices on mountain tops and other remote places as they cool off. The waste from Thorium is much less hazardous than standard Uranium reactors.
I like your vids. One traffic issue we have in Southern California is the proliferation of left-turn arrows. Yeah they're fine at most intersections but they also create more congestion in many cases. Some areas here have LT arrows from one residential street to another. These streets might have 5 or 6 cars a minute. It's stupid. Fortunately some areas like Orange County and Palm Springs area have LT arrows but switch to yield-on-green so we aren't stuck when there's on coming traffic.
Rob, I just finally got my head around how this works because you never explained it in the video. This intersection is more efficient because the people turning left are crossing over _during_ the green light phase for the crossroad. It took me 5 years, but I think I'm finally tracking.
That spot already has a bridge taking traffic over the highway below. He said that the diverging system he talked about was used only to allow the state to save money to build a bridge which is a more permanent solution.
There’s a 1/2 one (it’s a normal intersection on one side, this on the super busy side intersecting it) on SR82 just outside Ft. Myers, and it has made a huge difference! It looked crazy, but when the traffic to turn right backs up the 4 lane road for a mile at least twice a day, and the highway is getting widened, why not, right? Awesome. There is a ton of farm traffic that comes north on SR 82 from Immokalllee, semis filled with produce from the tomato, bell pepper, and fruit farms, and of course the citrus groves, and it is dangerous as all get out. Mix it with a large suburb (Lehigh) with underdeveloped infrastructure, and you can imagine that it’s a mess. That intersection is one of the 2 main ways to get into Lehigh from Ft. Myers, I-75, Cape Coral, etc., so it sees pretty heavy traffic and was a great place to try it out. It takes twice the space, but traffic flows a million times better. Thank goodness, because a new high school opens up next year not far from it, lol! Good luck and hopefully the planners in Miami-Dade will be able to sell the idea on your side of the state!
We had one of these built in my city not too long ago. Its confusing to use at first but after using it a few times it makes a lot of sense and helps with the flow of traffic.
Illinois too, I'm in Northern Illinois about 10 minutes from the Wisconsin border and they're putting them in over here too. They are built in areas that honestly didn't need them and the budgets are in the millions, its insane.
@@AcousticGString yep, seen unnecessary round abouts. Some I'm told are only busy part of the day such as a school or large company letting out. Cities will put in small round abouts to discourage semi traffic in certain areas. Oshkosh wi has round abouts back to back. No sooner are you through one, there's another. You really need to know where you're going when you hit these. My pet peeve with round abouts, beside snowplowing, is that they mound up the center and plants things obstructing the view of traffic. The whole idea is to increase traffic flow instead they hinder it by restricting the view.
As someone living in the US who is from a country where roundabouts are common. Yes people struggle with them here. Just think of them as joining a one way road, that's it, you get on it when it's clear then take whatever exit you need. Don't stop on it just like you wouldn't randomly stop on a normal road because someone was waiting to pull on to it. Also it keeps traffic flowing and doesn't need electricity. It could be used to replace so many stop lights. It really would be a great solution for a lot of intersections. You can use them to pull a u-turn safely. I love them.
Hi Rob, I have never seen one of these CFI. In StLouis we have a few diverging diamond, but not that popular. In Detroit, they have jughandle left turn lanes. If you want to turn left, you turn right, go 100 feet or so, and get to the far left lane and make a U-turn. Some have a stoplight to regulate the flow. Seems to work well.
Hi! I'm from Belgium and live in the town with the 3rd deadliest xing in the flemish region. Always wanted to do a video about this, since people will not believe how this thing could exist in a developped country. While researching how the problem is called I always ended up on displaced left turn. Your video actually explains this very well. I'm not sure this xing over here is fully related tho since right, left, straigt cars and straight peds/bikes get green at the same time. So there are multiple conflicts every cycle. Add on top that most bikes just run a red, so when you are going straight keep an eye out and be prepared to brake. Local people know this xing so they tend not to get into accidents, however people not familiar sometimes end up having a bad day. When I was still a novice driver I actually had a sneaky detour so I could avoid doing a left turn.
That intersection doesn't work well for me, there have been times where cars cross in a yellow light and get stuck in that intersection during a red light. My solution is to make a left turn a block before and go the long to get to that shopping center there, I have noticed that over time more cars doing the same thing, I got that idea from public transportation, the local bus does that.
The left turn to get to my appartment can take up to 6 light cycles. And in florida lights take minutes to change. This would be perfect for where I live!
We got one of these at 1431 / I-35 in northern Austin. 1431 used to back up for a LONG ways every morning leading up to that interchange, now it goes as smooth as ever. Big boon to traffic in that area.
The other big downside I see from these is the extremely large amount of space they take, these really seem to be a very niche option for intersection design.
@@madmonkey8141 from what I find online the 2 roundabouts were always meant to be an interim measure. Looking at the aerial photos of them, they are quite small compared to the ones we use in the UK. In fact they are on par with the ones we use to get into a supermarket and don't look fit for purpose for a busy intersection. Although I agree with you in principle with your particular example, a big 3 lane roundabout at the junction in the video would work better than the way it is currently. You could also use traffic lights on the roundabout during rush hour, again fairly common here.
I’ve seen this in Mexico. And never understood it until now. I thought it was weird too. But now having an explanation as to the why. I get it. I love it. And I wish we had this in souther California.
That is ingenious - basically you are allowing the cars that want to turn left crossover the oncoming lane while the side street has a green. Now for the next video: The 2009 MUTCD created a new "Flashing Yellow Arrow (FYA) which allows for people to make left turns even though the oncoming lane has a green. In old days, there were signs "Left Turn Yield on (Green Ball)", but these new flashing left arrows bring some additional control to that idea. They've been popping up in my state in the past few years, and they took a little getting used to. Would love to see a video about them.
Have one here in Round Rock, TX. On the same street a few miles down we have one of those converging diamond intersection. I like the continuous flow because I can make the light most of the time.
Problems: 1. We're actually _not_ European, and 2. that would probably be too expensive for this size of street and our state, or too much hassle to go around in right there on our way to the freeway which is just barely past that.
@@HelloKittyFanMan. Yes, we know you're not European, because you drive cars big enough to have a grizzly bear behind the steering wheel. Point is, a roundabout or turbo roundabout is definitely cheaper than some convoluted traffic light system. It depends, of course, on how many lanes of traffic you have, but more than two lanes in either direction should not have a single-level intersection.
@@SeverityOne: Why do you bring up the size of _some_ of our vehicles, as if that should make any difference (like you don't have any over there)? And what do you mean by "a roundabout or a turbo roundabout," as if turbo roundabouts aren't already roundabouts despite the word "roundabout" in their term? Look at the number of lanes on our road right here in the video then. It was my understanding that a roundabout that size could be prohibitively expensive, at least for our city or state. And many more people head to the freeway from this side than from the west side of the city, so they probably are glad that they don't have to be bothered with hooking into and out of a big circle every time they just want to go to the freeway entrances, which are just the next block.
@@HelloKittyFanMan. I didn't say "as a European", that was "nerdegem". And indeed, nobody over here drives such big cars as they do in North America. The roads simply aren't big enough. A turbo roundabout is indeed a roundabout, but a more efficient one. It has a greater capacity than a normal roundabout, but like a roundabout, it has a certain limit to its capacity. Point is, a roundabout (and especially a turbo roundabout) has a greater capacity than a traditional intersection, with or without traffic lights. I've never quite understood the American aversion to roundabouts. They weren't a thing when I was young (let's say the 1970s, early 1980s) but now you find them everywhere. The other Europeans looked at what the British were doing and figured "yeah, that makes sense".
@@SeverityOne: Oops, I lost track of which people were saying what, LOL; sorry! Anyway... I bet there are some people over there at least some places in your continent with things like a Ford Excursion or a Chevy Suburban. Maybe not many, though. You're still not making sense with your " 'turbo roundabout' vs. 'roundabout' " logic. It's as if you don't think the differentiation words "standard" and "regular" don't exist, so you say "but like a roundabout" as if the other option wasn't also one. You did use the word "normal," though; however, you didn't perpetuate that. The comparison only makes sense if you continue to use a word like that to separate the two. Roundabouts "weren't a thing" when you were young? Oh? When were they invented, according to you? The encyclopedia says the term was coined in 1960 and the first standardized one in the UK was installed in 1966. And maybe they existed even before the 60s under a different term, but I can't find anything "concrete" until 1960. So obviously they existed before you were born. I don't know about the Latin countries or Canada, but at least here in the U.S. part of the continents, I'm not sure why people claim we've had an "aversion" to roundabouts. We have several smaller ones right here in Utah. Maybe on this particular road they've studied that and figured that it wouldn't clear enough traffic like this CFI does. Maybe we don't want to have to go through a roundabout right before trying to enter the freeway right there. Maybe it would be too close to the roundabout that's already at the front of the college right there. Maybe they figured that it would be too costly to figure out how to integrate and then do so with the proximity of this intersection's branches combined with the number of lanes (it may be too irregular). But that's just my guess for this particular one. I have no idea about the others. But we do have a lot of roundabouts these days. Even my parents' little city of around 3000 people installed one at kind of the front of the city from the outskirt roads. It's a single-lane one as most of our roundabouts are. I don't even know if we have any multilane ones.
There are a couple of these in Georgia and they work fairly well. They are also introducing roundabouts, but I think that those will take a little getting used to.
I was thinking that too. But Americans aren't well constitutionally suited to big roundabouts. Each driver thinks the whole thing is theirs. Drivers in roundabouts have to be willing to work together.
Why the heck am I watching videos about traffic design? I found your videos the other day. They're so damned entertaining. Rob could probably make paint-drying videos fun to watch.
It's amazing how these things that make walking even worse are considered a band-aid to the final solution of just ridding the area of foot traffic entirely, when all you did was make the area into a pass-through nothing blob space that's ugly, noisy, and produces no tax revenue. Good luck with that.
We used to have something very similar to this at a major intersection in my town. It had been put into place in the 1960s. For some reason, in about 2009 or so, the State of Michigan removed it and put in a standard intersection with a two-phase traffic signal and no protected lefts. It was a bit strange, but everyone in town was used to it. It was the only one I ever encountered.
In London in the UK they had a craze for building flimsy flyovers out of girders in the 70s... They were only supposed to be temporary solutions but they're still there today and amazing for traffic flow. Even just having one lane at 30mph crossing an interchange helps a ton with traffic flow on roundabouts (as this is the UK after all - but could definitely coexist with some American cross-section designs). Big examples in my mind are Gallows Corner, Lodge Avenue, and the Hogarth Roundabout
There's one of these in downtown Toronto. When one wants to turn left from Lakeshore rd traveling East bound on to Bathurst st traveling North bound. They have a crosswalk at surface level and its staggered; you cross the right hand turning lanes going South and the left hand turning lanes going North and then you need to wait for a secondary crosswalk signal to walk across the East West traffic.They even have dedicated transit lanes including streetcar tracks. The intersection is enormous. I love turning left from the collecter lane. For this particular intersection I believe it's a permanent solution.
"They just don't let people cross the street, so you got to go buy a car". Yes, not so funny. We have got some of those. Also the kind you can't cross when you are on a bike. For a car at 60Mph one mile detour is one minute, for a pedestrian .. who cares ! Main objective to save the car a minute.
Just stumbled onto your channel. Solid content man, keep it up! Plus, it's cool to see a channel so close to my house, I drive these intersections almost every day, age I have to say I like the one by Walmart. I think it made a big difference there.
Thank you. Texas needs these so bad on hwy 380 between Denton and McKinney. Right now they are adding more lights on an already clogged and busy highway.
Please explain the growing trend of tail gators five feet off the rear. Any methods to correct this behavior? "Come closer so i can release the oil" is my favorite. Tailing closely seems a bigger problem lately or perhaps i'm getting old.
"Let the Wookie Win" Highly recommend changing lanes letting the tailgaiting doofus zoom past. It saves innocent drivers from having do deal with the speeder weaving around the "slow" lanes -- and is good for my blood pressure. Added bonus: *They* grab the highway patrol's speed trap before I get there.
You should go over what to do when traffic signals are plugged with snow? There is a good solution so the don’t get plugged up. Great video by the way.
This guy is a nerd...in the best way! Rob you rock man I’ve only seen 5 of your videos so far and I’m hooked these are so informative!
Same here!!
Then you should like NotJustBikes at least as much! : ua-cam.com/video/knbVWXzL4-4/v-deo.html
Don't want to sound like a smartass, but wouldn't a large enough two lane roundabout do just fine? No phases at all, less electricity bills (only for street lamps, no traffic signals), less stopping so consequently less CO2 and less fuel consumption etc. Plus it allows pedestrians to cross safely, as roundabouts slow the flow, and that even rhymes, wow. Conclusion: roundabouts are awesome. Right?
@@dudoboi yea.... you know building a round about cost millions right?
@@coltonkinsey2977 hell no, where did you get that from? They cost about as much as the conventional intersections to build, and are much cheaper in the long run. You're way off buddy.
Everyone who learned to drive in New Jersey: "They let you turn LEFT?!"
Lmaao it’s true
Aahh, the good old JerseyJug Handles...lol. Rt. 70 near Brick Township is the craziest stretch. Within 3 intersections, all different, a jug handle, circle, and something else that I don't even know the name for...lol.
@@mr_coffee0109 and then there’s also Bay Ave and Hooper Ave. An at-grade cloverleaf in Toms River by Ocean County Mall. If you know then you know
@@z609gaming yes I do, right by where it intersects with 571. It's like they should have removed the traffic light and replaced it with an overpass making it a Cloverleaf interchange. I used travel through that intersection as a kid to go to the shore at Island State Park.
Across the river, PA has some Jersey-style jughandles, all on 4-lane roads. Examples include US422 in lower Berks north of Pottstown, PA309 in Montgomeryville.
When I was in Germany, in the late 1960s, they had something odd on the side of the streets in larger cities. It was an old fashion looking "Side of the street, traffic control light looking Light" like we used to have HERE in the 50s a before (when people actually PAID ATTENTION to said Lights). It had 4 lenses and each lens had a Number on it. When the number lite up, all you had to do is adjust your speed to THAT number and you would make the NEXT GREEN LIGHT. You never saw much traffic congestion and the traffic was always moving. Saved on fuel, brakes and yes, even TIME. As you didn't have to come to a complete STOP then take off again. Always wondered why they didn't do that HERE in the U.S.
Because innovation costs money.
They do something similar for trains in the USA.
@@ashkebora7262 Not as much as making new roads!
And I wonder why we don't have more of these here in Germany.
According to Wikipedia we have less than 20 Geschwindigkeitssignale (speed sign) installed here in Germany.
I regularly drive on a road with such a system and I think it works perfectly (as long as nobody drives faster than the sign says).
So I don't understand why it isn't used more often.
@@Jehty_ Here in the states, that variable sign would just say ZERO. I swear traffic control teamed up with the oil companies to try and MAXIMIZE fuel consumption. I cant tell you how many times I stopped at a red light for minutes, and NO ONE went through the green, and as soon as the cross traffic turned red and we turned green, cars would start accumulating on the cross road that was just green while we were waiting..
I came here to say “we have tons of these in Utah!”
And then you said it.
Same lol
Wow, never seen one of these before. You need A LOT of space for them.
You do, but it’s wonderful!
Better bulldoze that bicycle lane and bus lane to make room.
@@schroedingershat7912 and homes, stores, parks, etc?
@@josephj6521 Only if we replace the homes with high density housing with no parking. They don't need parks because they're in a 'high transit access area' (at least until we bulldoze the bus stop for another intersection).
Considering they're being replaced with on ramps and bridges, the space isn't really an issue. Either one takes plenty of land.
They put one of these in by my old on ramp and it genuinely saved me 15 minutes every day.
Went through one of these in Utah. By, "went through", I mean that I wanted to turn left but was so confused, I ended up going straight through having to do a U-turn and right over a period of about 5 minutes and probably breaking a few laws.
by any chance (?) did the cop say:
"may I see your out of state driver's license . . .
" Yup ! . . . you're good to go ! "
B-)
@@solarnaut lmao
Where did you find a revolving McDonalds sign? Ain't seen one in years.
I've NEVER seen one!
The intersection shown here is University Pkwy and Sandhill Rd in Orem Utah. So there is at least one there.
There is one near my house on Dorchester Rd. Summerville, SC
Riiight
@@JonathanNelson-nelsonj3 The one at the beginning of the video in the time lapse was State Street and Center Street in Orem. So there's two, less than 2 miles apart.
Dude your channel directly appeals to a weird nerdiness I have about traffic engineering and I'm so thankful I found it. I'm literally a doctor in training lmao.
Cities skyline will fix that itch
As a Brit, we don't have this sort of space, especially in urban areas, so we just use roundabouts.
I was about to say, just replace everything with roundabouts, and im from America
But we are still figuring them out. People think either
A) always _stop_ before you enter a roundabout, even if its empty, or
B) you always enter at _full speed_ even if the roundabout is full
@@jeremywoods770 not even sure why it's that difficult. Yield means yield to existing traffic. If no traffic, you have nothing to yield to so you just... Go. Then again this is the same country that can't seem to figure out how to merge into a freeway. Most seem to think you're supposed to match up with a random driver in the right lane and play a game of chicken with them.
@@alexmawdsley i know, right!?
@@alexmawdsley Bold of you to assume people know how to drive :P Yeah I see the chicken thing everywhere. In my city there are two or three roundabouts and I see one every day where I run. I see absolutely pants-on-head retarded operation by at least one car there every single day, and I'm only looking at it for a minute or so. People waiting for cars on the other side of the roundabout to come all the way around/exit the roundabout are the biggest problem. If the car's not near you you *cannot* physically hit it, simple physics, just go, just drive!
@@quantum_immortal69 Make you wonder if they also stop at highway interesections, because they see a car comming from the right?
You have a great way of conveying a lot of complex information in the most straightforward way. Awesome content you're providing
lol I had no idea these were actually things. I thought it was just "something weird." Great video, keep them coming!
They are the crazy intersections in UDOT's nightmares!
I live here and hate them.
Out of town visitors always complain about them!
We have this here in San Marcos TX. It is in fact weird to drive on the left hand side of the oncoming traffic suddenly.
UDOT loves to try out new ways of frustrating drivers. We have the CFI’s, Diverging Diamond’s, FLEX lane’s and the absolute worst is this left hand turn light that actually happens after the intersection. UDOT since this video has removed an additional 5 CFI’s along the Bangerter Highway and have since converted them to freeway interchanges. Makes driving that highway much nicer. The issue with the CFI’s is remembering that you shift over much earlier to make a left turn and sometimes you forget and miss the turn. Well, guess there is also another issue of people still going to the light and still try to turn left holding up the through traffic.
@@castirondude there are a couple near College Station as well.
I LOVE the CFI in Cities Skylines. The improvement over a conventional intersection is dramatic, and watching it work is like art. I didn't think I'd like it even better than the diverging diamond interchange, but I do. It is THE highest capacity level intersection, and so much less disruptive than a grade-separated highway interchange.
it is great for traffic flow, but the only problem I have with it is that it doesn't let through traffic continue without stopping.
@blackhole4106 At the levels of traffic where a CFI is needed, nothing short of a highway interchange does that. If a roundabout hits capacity, people have to stop and wait too.
I go through this intersection a lot. It made a huge difference in how long it takes to get through that very busy intersection. I love the new design. Very smooth and efficient.
They added one of these to my hometown 2 years ago. No one had a clue what they were going for but it's honestly great.
The "long term" strategy to these is kind of clever in a way. In the example you gave they had already purchased the right of way for the planned future freeway, so maximizing that footprint without building a grade separated interchange increases the value of that investment while waiting to finish a future phase of development. Also the increased pre-existing road surface seems like it would make construction phasing safer and more efficient when you do upgrade eventually.
People can’t even handle a simple left turn arrow. I can see this going very wrong in Los Angeles.
@lmao this isn't a name agreed
Miami too.
@lmao this isn't a name should be a returning thing. Like you need to recertify every 2 years. Lots of people don’t seem to know the rules of the road
In Germany we have something called "Right-hand drive bid" [Rechtsfahrgebot] which applies especially to our Autobahn. (Highway) This rule ensures that overtaking is only legal from the left side and that slow vehicles have to take the lanes on the right side. I have seen a lot of dashcam footage with accidents that would have been prevented by this rule.
@@c2PlayTV, in North America we also have this principle, but it's never enforced. They keep adding lanes to major highways, and the slowest drivers distribute themselves to be in all lanes.
In the UK we wouldn’t even attempt to find a “one size fits all” solution. You just build whatever intersection suits the circumstances and people just deal with it. (Well mostly).
[shudders in magic roundabout]
hatched yellow boxes work really well
basically what these americans are trying and failing at
@@Hdtjdjbszh hatched boxes work when people actually listen to them... or know what they even are
Yes and because of the ''non standard'' aproach you have no idea what lanes you can use for forward unless you have clear markings and signage. Lack of road markings and random unnecessary logic are the reason for plenty of near misses and accidents that could simply be avoided by a bit more standardisation and leaving only the more complicated situations as ''exceptions''...
A big weird roundabout with 7 directions, 23 traffic lights and 3 shortcuts so nobody understands what's going on?
Americans: "we have to find a way for people to turn left without many crashes... Let's make a Super intricate road!"
Europeans: "...what about roundabouts?"
That was literally my thought when starting this video 😂
Roundabouts in The States are really becoming fairly common.
They blew a lot of peoples minds at first, but they've adapted fairly rapidly.
I've experienced a few of the intersections in this video and they DO WORK.. but are much more intricate and people don't pay enough attention to be in the correct lane upon approach for them to be so sporadically placed.
In most areas of the US anything heavier than neighborhood traffic comes to a 3-way standstill in a roundabout and they greatly increase accidents because most US drivers aren't familiar with them
There's actually a roundabout just off camera to the left!
They're unfamiliar to most drivers in the US. The cameraman is standing in behind the largest university in Utah. Very few people know how to drive in them properly, and the traffic in the surrounding area is too heavy for proper enforcement (or teaching).
Two: roundabouts are often known as a traffic calming device, because they force traffic to slow down. This doesn't work well in places like Utah where snow plows require a certain amount of momentum to do their job properly.
@@osco4311 the whole slowing of traffic is crap doesn't stop the plows in northern Europe: Sweden Finland etc. That all have very snowy winters and require the road closing. Roundabouts literally would solve this issue and more
Ran into one of these outside Cincinnati, I'm sure it's great if you know about it, I definitely missed my turn when I used it cuz I knew my left turn wasn't until the next intersection but didn't realize I had to cross at the previous one.
Great videos, Rob! Your explanations and visuals are incredibly helpful and easy to understand.
I also want to mention - thank you for your Lexus video. I have a base 1991 LS that is very similar to yours - no sunroof and cloth interior. However, I did get the keyless entry and mudguard options. I didn't even know keyless wasn't standard, until I saw yours!
Keep up the great videos!
So glad I live in Utah where we are constantly changing the intersections and confusing everyone
mmm yes and annually seeing the state flower; the elusive orange cone.
And every time it rains it's a guessing game of whether you're following the right semi-invisible road lines
Excellent videos, Rob. Subscribed when i saw your first one.
The big drawback of cfi is the space it will take. In my opinion, when the space is tight and traffic is heavy, the best way is to have each direction have its time, with smart use of right- and left- turns in other directions so the use of common area is maximized.
As someone from the Netherlands, its really interesting to see road engineering in the US. This is a very clever solution to keep CARS moving. However, wouldn't it be more effective to invest that money and engineering time into providing options for people to walk, cycle or use public transport? Instead of building roads to deal with endlessly increasing demand, off load some of that car demand to other means of transport. I find it funny that pedestrians were mentioned once, with no real alternatives except for an expensive tunnel that I'm sure most of these intersetions won't have. I didn't see a single cyclist or form of public transport. No wonder traffic sucks in the US.
[sarcastic answer] Well, yeah, but This Is America! and it would be Un-American do do anything that might upset or harm our oil-company overlords! [end sarcasm] Honestly, most newer cities and pretty much all suburbs (where most Americans live) were designed from the ground up to be car-centric and car dependent. Social prestige is often affected by how car-dependent your neighborhood is (how big is your yard? how hard is it for "The Poors" to get to?) To make US suburbs walk/cyclable, you'd have to convince people to give up land for paths and lanes for bicycles (and protection curbs), convince people that maybe they don't really *need* that much lawn, and maybe there could be more housing instead. Convince people that poverty is not a personal moral failure (that's the hard part). It would be easier to level it all and restart from scratch. In the place where I grew up, cars were so necessary for living that the concept of not having one was utterly unthinkable. Not having even the crappiest most beat up car meant you were the poorest of the poor, and in America, that is a Sin. The importance of cars is baked into American culture and, though we're making tiny inroads on changing that, will take a lot more than a couple of pedestrian-aware intersections to fix. Pardon the rant, but "wouldn't it be more effective" makes it sound a lot simpler than it is.
The US is a big country and unless you live in a metro area and only travel within the metro area you'll need a car if you want to do what you want to do and not just wherever the bus happens to go at certain times. State of Utah alone is over 5 times larger than your home country, some people's commutes each day is measured in hours not minutes so having your own vehicle is a must if you want to have a decent job. Not to mention the time and cost of building infrastructure over a big country, not every place is going to be great and everyone learns how to deal with it and get on with their day.
@@s0nnyburnett I never said get rid of cars lol, plenty of Dutch people drive to work because its the best option. My point is that there should be more options, and even in the US, a lot of car journeys are short and in built up areas where other transportation options are possible. In the country side, of course, use a car, we do that too.
Those pedestrian tunnels must be scary. Seems like a place where people frequently would get robbed or assaulted. I think I would rather dodge the cars.
Who wants to spend hours lining up and waiting at the side of the road just to get on a Coronawagon? Public transport use in my region has stabilized at 40% of traditional level for the past year. The "change" that has occurred is that people have realized that taking the bus is inconvenient and disease-ridden. I will ride in the comfort and safety of my personal automobile and go where I want, when I want.
I live in Canada and they are just about to open the first ever displaced left turn in the country in my hometown. I personally think it'll be a lot better than the conventional intersection however a lot of people are freaking out over it and saying they're going to just completely avoid it. Hopefully, once it opens, they see it's really not that hard to navigate and the only difference is the left turn.
There’s one of those on highway 71 in Austin! I just thought it was poor design but it makes sense. Thanks for the info!
Austin liberal commies using socialist engineering!
Jk 😋 we have a couple here in Georgetown Tx and boy it works! Kinda confusing but you get used to it 😁
There are also a couple in San Marcos and College Station.
My city opened one up there I live at an intersection that was always congested and the traffic would run back forever up and down the road. Once the intersection went in, the entire highway cleared up. It was like magic.
UT-154, also known as Bangerter Hwy was an under budget solution which saved cost without compromising performance more an necessary. In SLC County is also Redwood Rd. which also uses a CFI.
Ever hear a GPS try to pronounce "Bangerter highway"? I forget exactly what it is but it's funny.
I know where that is.
When I saw this video the first place I thought of was Bangerter/201.
They stopped saying most of the names and if a highway number is available. It sucks, because nobody knows where Hwy 154 (Bangerter) is, and definitely not Hwy 85 (Mountain View Corridor).
We have several of these in Fenton, MO on Highway 30, and they _massively_ improve the traffic flow during rush hour. We also have multiple diverging diamond interchanges as well, but not nearly as many as Springfield, MO.
I would love to see a video about the Michigan left turn.
My favorite unique road intersection is where you can take an exit and then rejoin the express lanes at the the light and beat a line of cars.
Palatine Rd.
Without clear signage I would totally miss the left turn, because I would think "Oh, I'm not turning there, I'm turning up *here*!"
Thats the problem. Road signs in the US are not clear or consistent. European road signs are much clearer.
Come to Gwinnett County GA: We have it all - Diverging Diamonds (two on I-85), Continuous Flow Intersections (Main Street Snellville). We don't have any straight roads that follow cardinal directions though.
Hey Rob, I am a big fan of your videos. The way you present information is extremely entertaining and informative.
It would be really interesting if you could do a video on 4-way stops. It seems like no one actually knows how to use them properly. The city that I live in has also started replacing some of them with roundabouts. I'd be interested to hear what you think of 4-way stops, if they are the most effective solution, and if traffic lights or roundabouts are better options.
Traffic lights are never a better solution on junctions with light traffic.
We have several 4 way stops where I live and a few are high traffic-ish. They work great. You get to go when it is your turn. I sit at a 4 way stop 30 seconds tops. A light cycle 2 minutes.
We have one in baton rouge louisiana and i never knew what they were called until now. You would never know how good it is until you have one it helps traffic sooooooooooo much. The 50% of the time having green is pretty accurate the traffic flows so well.
Airline at Siegen, I live right around the corner. Greetings!
@@wadeguidry6675 hiya haha
This came up on my feed and I knew instantly I'm gonna like this channel. And as an European my obligation is to bring up roundabouts! Safe and affordable!
The road I live on has 6 consecutive single-lane roundabouts. It's probably an artifact of bad city planning given how extremely close they are, but they work very efficiently.
On roundabouts in The Netherlands: ua-cam.com/video/41XBzAOmmIU/v-deo.html
Traffic circles killed the round about. The average person doesn't know the difference
Also as an European I have to add the fact that city planning can also be made without giving cars the priority. European suburbs are much denser and thus have more potential to get public transport such as trains, and local walkable surroundings with cafes and shops. Of course European suburbs are car-dependent on many cases at least on the outer edges of the city, but the street network is planned to serve both pedestrians and cars.
Roundabouts are coming to the US. Around here they're building a ton of them on country roads where cars don't feel like yielding to traffic. But I also see them being built near freeway on/off ramps and in spaces where they have multiple roads intersecting and have the space to put in a roundabout rather than a light.
I might not stick to the channel, but its not because of Rob. This guys enthusiasm and general love of what he does is infectious, I hope I find something I love as much as he seems to love traffic engineering.
Maybe you can do a video on the complete lack of high mast lighting in CA and how every other states puts them on EVERY interchange! Cool videos BTW!
didn’t even know this was a thing until i left CA 😭
I've actually seen it over a number of interchanges and some high-traffic exits in the LA/OC area, especially near Disneyland. It seems to be spreading as they work on other areas, as well.
This can be very useful in situations when you have an intersection where a left turn is used more than average while having a lot of thru traffic. Plus, overpasses aren't always appropriate (as well as an eyesore) and a roundabout isn't going to work well when a lot of traffic wants to get off on the left most exit.
I installed one of these on Cities: Skylines for this specific situation, along with timed traffic lights, and it's extremely smooth with less congestion.
When I started watching this video, I did not expect to see the intersection across from my school being featured
I love this kind of stuff. I suppose I'm a traffic nerd like you. Didn't know there was so many people like me! I'm in Utah also and like the creative things they've done on left turns. You should do one on the U Turn lane things.
We have one of these in Lafayette La (Johnston St @ Guilbeau Rd). People still get confused at it years after
I saw someone turn left from Johnson and end up in the left turning lane on Camellia just this week.
I swear there’s on in Baton Rouge but I can’t find it
@@nc818 It was the first CFI in the US, and it's at Sherwood/Siegen and Airline.
They JUST built one of these in downtown Snellville, GA near where I live! Thanks so much for the video, it was really nice getting to hear a little bit about it because when I first saw it I thought it was the strangest most confusing intersection ever.
In columbus we have inverted and diamond interchanges on 270. I like them, except right turns must go SLOW. You can blow thru left turn.
First vid of yours I’ve seen, I’m pretty sure this is gonna be my UA-cam binge for the next while. Great vid
You can do a lot of interesting designs when you are in the country side where the land is almost free.
You also usually don’t have the traffic to justify weird designs.
Yeah there's really a lot of opportunity to ruin everything with more concrete
The intersection shown there isn't really in what'd I'd describe as "countryside" - it's right next to a university campus so the land was probably pretty expensive.
Doing this at a smaller, 2 lane scale also has its benefits. Especially for those making left and right turns. I just cant help but feel like its an optimal solution in almost all cases...
Huge one of these was completed last year at the intersection of the loop 1604 frontage road and Bandera road in San Antonio, Texas.
ah i hate that intersection so much lol
My very first time driving on Bangerter Highway was in the middle of a heavy snow. Tried to turn left. Ended up getting confused because the signs seemed so be sending me into incoming traffic. Ended up giving up and making a U-Turn to look for a sane road.
can you do a video on teardrop roundabouts/dumbbell roundabouts?
I'm not familiar with those. Holy cow, those look crazy! I need to see if there are any out west that I can see/video. Thanks!
@@RoadGuyRob look at carmel, indiana
Look kids Big Ben Parliament
These are super common at minor freeway interchange in New Zealand.
@@RoadGuyRob I-25 and 14th Street, Loveland, Colorado. Right next to the Loveland Park-n-Ride.
Great information. I travel to Logan Utah twice a year. On the way back to the Salt Lake airport, I drive through one of those weird left turn lanes to get on the freeway. I had no idea why it was designed that way. Now I know. It's actually pretty clever.
I thought this intersection type looked familiar, we’ve got one in Fenton, MO, suburb of STL.
Im stunned how much i love these videos. Much Love Road guy Rob❤️🥴
I'd love to see you do a video about the benefits of electric / hybrid cars! I dont know if its in your wheelhouse, but I think you could have an interesting take on it
There are none... The batteries and other tech in the cars are MAJOR polluters and those cars are COAL powered for the most part or fossil fuels.
Now if CA wanted to put in a bunch of Thorium Salt reactors to make electricity, then we are talking about a long term sustainable power source. Much more Thorium than Uranium and you cannot turn the leftovers into bombs. But they could be used for Nuclear batteries for communications devices on mountain tops and other remote places as they cool off. The waste from Thorium is much less hazardous than standard Uranium reactors.
I like your vids. One traffic issue we have in Southern California is the proliferation of left-turn arrows. Yeah they're fine at most intersections but they also create more congestion in many cases. Some areas here have LT arrows from one residential street to another. These streets might have 5 or 6 cars a minute. It's stupid.
Fortunately some areas like Orange County and Palm Springs area have LT arrows but switch to yield-on-green so we aren't stuck when there's on coming traffic.
Feels like a good opportunity for someone to end up in a lane going the wrong way
Obviously the designers know that and design accordingly. Like how they place a jutting edge on a highway exit so people dont accidentally turn in.
Rob, I just finally got my head around how this works because you never explained it in the video. This intersection is more efficient because the people turning left are crossing over _during_ the green light phase for the crossroad. It took me 5 years, but I think I'm finally tracking.
Please bring this design in a hurry to i95 exit 16 ives dairy road, (NE, 203) in Miam, FL.
That spot already has a bridge taking traffic over the highway below. He said that the diverging system he talked about was used only to allow the state to save money to build a bridge which is a more permanent solution.
There’s a 1/2 one (it’s a normal intersection on one side, this on the super busy side intersecting it) on SR82 just outside Ft. Myers, and it has made a huge difference! It looked crazy, but when the traffic to turn right backs up the 4 lane road for a mile at least twice a day, and the highway is getting widened, why not, right? Awesome. There is a ton of farm traffic that comes north on SR 82 from Immokalllee, semis filled with produce from the tomato, bell pepper, and fruit farms, and of course the citrus groves, and it is dangerous as all get out. Mix it with a large suburb (Lehigh) with underdeveloped infrastructure, and you can imagine that it’s a mess. That intersection is one of the 2 main ways to get into Lehigh from Ft. Myers, I-75, Cape Coral, etc., so it sees pretty heavy traffic and was a great place to try it out. It takes twice the space, but traffic flows a million times better. Thank goodness, because a new high school opens up next year not far from it, lol! Good luck and hopefully the planners in Miami-Dade will be able to sell the idea on your side of the state!
We had one of these built in my city not too long ago. Its confusing to use at first but after using it a few times it makes a lot of sense and helps with the flow of traffic.
Oh your God, Wisconsin is still trying to master the round about. Couldn't imagine having this.
Illinois too, I'm in Northern Illinois about 10 minutes from the Wisconsin border and they're putting them in over here too. They are built in areas that honestly didn't need them and the budgets are in the millions, its insane.
@@AcousticGString yep, seen unnecessary round abouts. Some I'm told are only busy part of the day such as a school or large company letting out. Cities will put in small round abouts to discourage semi traffic in certain areas.
Oshkosh wi has round abouts back to back. No sooner are you through one, there's another. You really need to know where you're going when you hit these.
My pet peeve with round abouts, beside snowplowing, is that they mound up the center and plants things obstructing the view of traffic. The whole idea is to increase traffic flow instead they hinder it by restricting the view.
Some other ideas: ua-cam.com/video/41XBzAOmmIU/v-deo.html
As someone living in the US who is from a country where roundabouts are common. Yes people struggle with them here. Just think of them as joining a one way road, that's it, you get on it when it's clear then take whatever exit you need. Don't stop on it just like you wouldn't randomly stop on a normal road because someone was waiting to pull on to it. Also it keeps traffic flowing and doesn't need electricity. It could be used to replace so many stop lights. It really would be a great solution for a lot of intersections. You can use them to pull a u-turn safely. I love them.
Round abouts are pretty awesome when done correctly and not confused with a traffic circle.
Hi Rob,
I have never seen one of these CFI. In StLouis we have a few diverging diamond, but not that popular. In Detroit, they have jughandle left turn lanes. If you want to turn left, you turn right, go 100 feet or so, and get to the far left lane and make a U-turn. Some have a stoplight to regulate the flow. Seems to work well.
Nice videos, I have an idea/suggestion for one.
"Michigan Left"
Hi! I'm from Belgium and live in the town with the 3rd deadliest xing in the flemish region. Always wanted to do a video about this, since people will not believe how this thing could exist in a developped country. While researching how the problem is called I always ended up on displaced left turn. Your video actually explains this very well. I'm not sure this xing over here is fully related tho since right, left, straigt cars and straight peds/bikes get green at the same time. So there are multiple conflicts every cycle. Add on top that most bikes just run a red, so when you are going straight keep an eye out and be prepared to brake. Local people know this xing so they tend not to get into accidents, however people not familiar sometimes end up having a bad day. When I was still a novice driver I actually had a sneaky detour so I could avoid doing a left turn.
HEY THAT’S MY SCHOOL YOOOOOO I’m like “wait, Utah’s university parkway uses that!!!”
I saw the name of this and I was like Ibet that is what they are using on university parkway. Then I started the video and was confirmed.
That intersection doesn't work well for me, there have been times where cars cross in a yellow light and get stuck in that intersection during a red light. My solution is to make a left turn a block before and go the long to get to that shopping center there, I have noticed that over time more cars doing the same thing, I got that idea from public transportation, the local bus does that.
Me too!
@@PurpleObscuration: "Shopping center..." Ha, you could just say "Walmart."
Brigham Young's ghost must have convinced them! 😂
The left turn to get to my appartment can take up to 6 light cycles. And in florida lights take minutes to change. This would be perfect for where I live!
As someone who uses an intersection like this quite often, I find them awful. They take FOREVER and people just don't know how to use them
Do you know why they are confused? Que up at the arrow of your direction sounds pretty straight forward to me.
@@p1x3lman you underestimate how retarded some drivers are
I don’t know how you do it, but you make traffic interesting. I love your vids thanx.
Hey Rob, What about the famed Michigan Left?
We got one of these at 1431 / I-35 in northern Austin. 1431 used to back up for a LONG ways every morning leading up to that interchange, now it goes as smooth as ever. Big boon to traffic in that area.
The other big downside I see from these is the extremely large amount of space they take, these really seem to be a very niche option for intersection design.
When in doubt roundabout as i always say.
@@zerotheliger: That would probably be even harder on a road this size.
your videos give me comfort during work or travel
I'd rather sit an extra minute or two than endure 10 years of road construction to add these lanes.
Damn I watched couple of vids, this channel is truly a hidden gem which for sure deserves M of subs! Thanks for those great vids!
Or you could build a roundabout! They work no matter how busy they get
False
Happy Valley, AZ roundabouts were redesigned into a crazy looking intersection
Look it up if u don’t live here
Because they were way too damn busy
@@madmonkey8141 from what I find online the 2 roundabouts were always meant to be an interim measure. Looking at the aerial photos of them, they are quite small compared to the ones we use in the UK. In fact they are on par with the ones we use to get into a supermarket and don't look fit for purpose for a busy intersection.
Although I agree with you in principle with your particular example, a big 3 lane roundabout at the junction in the video would work better than the way it is currently. You could also use traffic lights on the roundabout during rush hour, again fairly common here.
@@anthonycarless1748 On Dutch way of roundabouts; ua-cam.com/video/41XBzAOmmIU/v-deo.html
@@raphdroidt692 just like ours but without the cycle lane. Do the cyclists have right of way?
I’ve seen this in Mexico. And never understood it until now. I thought it was weird too. But now having an explanation as to the why. I get it. I love it. And I wish we had this in souther California.
Try a traffic circle. It’s much more efficient. But then again most motorists aren’t smart enough to use them correctly.
That is ingenious - basically you are allowing the cars that want to turn left crossover the oncoming lane while the side street has a green.
Now for the next video: The 2009 MUTCD created a new "Flashing Yellow Arrow (FYA) which allows for people to make left turns even though the oncoming lane has a green. In old days, there were signs "Left Turn Yield on (Green Ball)", but these new flashing left arrows bring some additional control to that idea. They've been popping up in my state in the past few years, and they took a little getting used to. Would love to see a video about them.
There's a serious need for federal oversight on all roads because of the looney things the locals do with TDC
It’s bad enough places are putting in roundabouts.
Have one here in Round Rock, TX. On the same street a few miles down we have one of those converging diamond intersection. I like the continuous flow because I can make the light most of the time.
As a European, just build a damn roundabout 😂
Problems: 1. We're actually _not_ European, and 2. that would probably be too expensive for this size of street and our state, or too much hassle to go around in right there on our way to the freeway which is just barely past that.
@@HelloKittyFanMan. Yes, we know you're not European, because you drive cars big enough to have a grizzly bear behind the steering wheel. Point is, a roundabout or turbo roundabout is definitely cheaper than some convoluted traffic light system. It depends, of course, on how many lanes of traffic you have, but more than two lanes in either direction should not have a single-level intersection.
@@SeverityOne: Why do you bring up the size of _some_ of our vehicles, as if that should make any difference (like you don't have any over there)?
And what do you mean by "a roundabout or a turbo roundabout," as if turbo roundabouts aren't already roundabouts despite the word "roundabout" in their term?
Look at the number of lanes on our road right here in the video then. It was my understanding that a roundabout that size could be prohibitively expensive, at least for our city or state. And many more people head to the freeway from this side than from the west side of the city, so they probably are glad that they don't have to be bothered with hooking into and out of a big circle every time they just want to go to the freeway entrances, which are just the next block.
@@HelloKittyFanMan. I didn't say "as a European", that was "nerdegem". And indeed, nobody over here drives such big cars as they do in North America. The roads simply aren't big enough.
A turbo roundabout is indeed a roundabout, but a more efficient one. It has a greater capacity than a normal roundabout, but like a roundabout, it has a certain limit to its capacity.
Point is, a roundabout (and especially a turbo roundabout) has a greater capacity than a traditional intersection, with or without traffic lights.
I've never quite understood the American aversion to roundabouts. They weren't a thing when I was young (let's say the 1970s, early 1980s) but now you find them everywhere. The other Europeans looked at what the British were doing and figured "yeah, that makes sense".
@@SeverityOne: Oops, I lost track of which people were saying what, LOL; sorry! Anyway... I bet there are some people over there at least some places in your continent with things like a Ford Excursion or a Chevy Suburban. Maybe not many, though.
You're still not making sense with your " 'turbo roundabout' vs. 'roundabout' " logic. It's as if you don't think the differentiation words "standard" and "regular" don't exist, so you say "but like a roundabout" as if the other option wasn't also one. You did use the word "normal," though; however, you didn't perpetuate that. The comparison only makes sense if you continue to use a word like that to separate the two.
Roundabouts "weren't a thing" when you were young? Oh? When were they invented, according to you? The encyclopedia says the term was coined in 1960 and the first standardized one in the UK was installed in 1966. And maybe they existed even before the 60s under a different term, but I can't find anything "concrete" until 1960. So obviously they existed before you were born.
I don't know about the Latin countries or Canada, but at least here in the U.S. part of the continents, I'm not sure why people claim we've had an "aversion" to roundabouts. We have several smaller ones right here in Utah. Maybe on this particular road they've studied that and figured that it wouldn't clear enough traffic like this CFI does. Maybe we don't want to have to go through a roundabout right before trying to enter the freeway right there. Maybe it would be too close to the roundabout that's already at the front of the college right there. Maybe they figured that it would be too costly to figure out how to integrate and then do so with the proximity of this intersection's branches combined with the number of lanes (it may be too irregular). But that's just my guess for this particular one. I have no idea about the others. But we do have a lot of roundabouts these days. Even my parents' little city of around 3000 people installed one at kind of the front of the city from the outskirt roads. It's a single-lane one as most of our roundabouts are. I don't even know if we have any multilane ones.
There are a couple of these in Georgia and they work fairly well. They are also introducing roundabouts, but I think that those will take a little getting used to.
It would had been easily solved with a roundabout...
I was thinking that too. But Americans aren't well constitutionally suited to big roundabouts. Each driver thinks the whole thing is theirs. Drivers in roundabouts have to be willing to work together.
Why the heck am I watching videos about traffic design? I found your videos the other day. They're so damned entertaining. Rob could probably make paint-drying videos fun to watch.
It's amazing how these things that make walking even worse are considered a band-aid to the final solution of just ridding the area of foot traffic entirely, when all you did was make the area into a pass-through nothing blob space that's ugly, noisy, and produces no tax revenue. Good luck with that.
We used to have something very similar to this at a major intersection in my town. It had been put into place in the 1960s. For some reason, in about 2009 or so, the State of Michigan removed it and put in a standard intersection with a two-phase traffic signal and no protected lefts. It was a bit strange, but everyone in town was used to it. It was the only one I ever encountered.
Now show us how an elderly wheelchair user and a kid biking to school get through here.
Did you not watch the video? There is a pedestrian tunnel beneath.
In London in the UK they had a craze for building flimsy flyovers out of girders in the 70s...
They were only supposed to be temporary solutions but they're still there today and amazing for traffic flow. Even just having one lane at 30mph crossing an interchange helps a ton with traffic flow on roundabouts (as this is the UK after all - but could definitely coexist with some American cross-section designs). Big examples in my mind are Gallows Corner, Lodge Avenue, and the Hogarth Roundabout
ah, yes... the youtube algorithm, brings us here once again
There's one of these in downtown Toronto. When one wants to turn left from Lakeshore rd traveling East bound on to Bathurst st traveling North bound. They have a crosswalk at surface level and its staggered; you cross the right hand turning lanes going South and the left hand turning lanes going North and then you need to wait for a secondary crosswalk signal to walk across the East West traffic.They even have dedicated transit lanes including streetcar tracks. The intersection is enormous. I love turning left from the collecter lane. For this particular intersection I believe it's a permanent solution.
I swear, this guy looks like PewDiePie's half brother!
Love these videos. Rob is amazing!
"They just don't let people cross the street, so you got to go buy a car". Yes, not so funny. We have got some of those. Also the kind you can't cross when you are on a bike. For a car at 60Mph one mile detour is one minute, for a pedestrian .. who cares ! Main objective to save the car a minute.
Just stumbled onto your channel. Solid content man, keep it up! Plus, it's cool to see a channel so close to my house, I drive these intersections almost every day, age I have to say I like the one by Walmart. I think it made a big difference there.
We have one of these in beautiful down town Snellville, GA and it seems to work very nicely. I hope to see more of them.
Holy shit you make roads/traffic so entertaining. I didn't think I'd ever be watching hours of your videos every day....
I gotta tell ya, you really do make this mundane stuff interesting!
Thank you. Texas needs these so bad on hwy 380 between Denton and McKinney. Right now they are adding more lights on an already clogged and busy highway.
Please explain the growing trend of tail gators five feet off the rear. Any methods to correct this behavior? "Come closer so i can release the oil" is my favorite. Tailing closely seems a bigger problem lately or perhaps i'm getting old.
"Let the Wookie Win"
Highly recommend changing lanes letting the tailgaiting doofus zoom past. It saves innocent drivers from having do deal with the speeder weaving around the "slow" lanes -- and is good for my blood pressure. Added bonus: *They* grab the highway patrol's speed trap before I get there.
You should go over what to do when traffic signals are plugged with snow? There is a good solution so the don’t get plugged up. Great video by the way.