Horray for Jughandles
We've spent years cursing the New Jersey Phenomenon known as a jughandle.
[(1) A U-turn / Left turn past the intersection allowing cars to smoothly merge immediately onto the cross street; (2) a Jughandle before the intersection where U-turn and Left turning vehicles must first turn onto the cross street; both models are superior to left hand turn lanes down the center of a highway]
But after spending some time in Pennsyl-tucky, our minds have changed. Horray for Junghandles. Certainly there are jughandles in other states, but New Jersey has dozens in every square mile.
The situation: on multilane highways outside of the Garden State, traffic light intersections often have a dedicated lane down the center for left turning vehicles. Before the highway is given a green light, vehicles from both directions are given a green arrow to turn. This makes no sense since now vehicles in opposite directions are making left turns while coming head on at each other. Not only is this dangerous, but it adds congestion to the highway by lengthening the green light for highway traffic and often leading to left turn backups.
The jughandle on the otherhand allows cars to queue up on the cross street rather than in the middle of the highway. Traffic runs more smoothly because the highway is given a green light faster. Trust us, in New Jersey, we know traffic congestion.
So lets celebrate the jughandle. Hip hip Horray!
[(1) A U-turn / Left turn past the intersection allowing cars to smoothly merge immediately onto the cross street; (2) a Jughandle before the intersection where U-turn and Left turning vehicles must first turn onto the cross street; both models are superior to left hand turn lanes down the center of a highway]
But after spending some time in Pennsyl-tucky, our minds have changed. Horray for Junghandles. Certainly there are jughandles in other states, but New Jersey has dozens in every square mile.
The situation: on multilane highways outside of the Garden State, traffic light intersections often have a dedicated lane down the center for left turning vehicles. Before the highway is given a green light, vehicles from both directions are given a green arrow to turn. This makes no sense since now vehicles in opposite directions are making left turns while coming head on at each other. Not only is this dangerous, but it adds congestion to the highway by lengthening the green light for highway traffic and often leading to left turn backups.
The jughandle on the otherhand allows cars to queue up on the cross street rather than in the middle of the highway. Traffic runs more smoothly because the highway is given a green light faster. Trust us, in New Jersey, we know traffic congestion.
So lets celebrate the jughandle. Hip hip Horray!
2 Comments:
we have them here in New Hampshire, too. sure is interesting to watch the uninitiated (tourists) try and make a left turn directly instead of entering the jughandle. yikes!!
Ian, when we moved to Pennsylvania from California in 1991, we were shocked at how many of the highways provide little time/space to merge into traffic. I understand that a lot of it is due to the creation of roads/highways in an earlier day of less and slower traffic, but still, it's a bit of a roadshock.
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