“There were a lot of people who looked at me like I was a little nuts,” says traffic engineer Gilbert Chlewicki, the inventor of this unconventional interchange. “Like, why are you putting me on the other side of the road?”
As you enter the interchange, the right and left sides of the road cross over each other at a stop light. You are, in fact, driving on the left side of the road at this point. From there, left turns become a lot easier, because there’s no oncoming traffic in the way. Instead of waiting for a signal, you get a free left turn.
There’s one of these interchanges at the junction of Rt 59 and I-88 in Naperville, IL…historically a notorious junction. It was and is a bit strange to roll through intermittently, but anecdotally people in the area seem to think its improved traffic flow. It does catch unfamilar drivers off guard, tho, especially during off-peak hours when there isn’t much traffic to follow.
So it’s where you get off of an interstate?
Holy shit, now that I think about it, there is one near Seattle in Shoreline. It always confused the crap out of me, but now I think that’s what it is.
Try to watch their video if you can, it really does look insane.
Edit: The reason this is here is because our municipalities could enact it, it’s better to understand what it is. Seattle tries all kinds of this kind of stuff as soon as they can.
