Presenting the worst intersection on the Eastern Seaboard

"area man" (hurrburgring) 07/27/2015 at 14:06 • Filed to: None

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The first time my Los Angeles-raised fiancee saw my New England hometown, her overarching impression, reinforced through a half-dozen disorienting car trips, was these roads make no sense . I can allow that it may be hard for someone raised in a grid to appreciate the anachronistic charms of wagon trails beaten into submission. I can also allow that sometimes that heritage makes for some truly terrible intersections - like this !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in New London.

Here it is with the entry paths highlighted. It’s basically two two-lane roads converging in a fork, with a third two-lane road slicing right through the middle and turning into an entry-exit setup for that shopping center on the other side. If you think this is confusing, check out the below image with all the possible paths worked out:

That, my friends, is a clusterfuck. Be sure to maximize the image for the full effect. The road at the bottom is split into two one-lane one-way paths by that lowest island, and they remain single lanes until meeting up with oncoming traffic along the sides of the big island at top. This is all governed by just four stop signs, with the red path being the lucky right-of-way winner. Let’s investigate this horror with some street view shots.

Green Arrow View

This was actually the direction I drove through this crucible on the way to high school every day - it’s hard to tell but this is a downhill slope, and one time I slid on ice right through the stop sign and threaded the needle between two crossing cars. Anyway, this is not fun because traffic coming from the top left corner of the screen can either go straight past you on the left or follow the curve between the islands in front of you, where they don’t have a stop sign. But the curve is pretty abrupt and oncoming drivers rarely signal into it, so if you don’t want to get t-boned you have to wait until the last possible second to see if they’re really going straight. But even without the stress of the right-of-way traffic, the jockeying for stop sign order is also difficult because everything is so spread out. People who don’t know the intersection (my grandfather) will often hook an immediate left around that large triangular island to get to the shopping center, driving into oncoming traffic. It’s stupid because the legal way to do that is totally counter-intuitive - you drive around the outside of that small island in the middle and hook and even harder left turn that feels illegal.

Also, as you’ll see below, traffic coming in from the shopping center on the left will gun it off the line and try and beat you, because they think they’re not part of the equation yet and they follow the path of the red arrow into the intersection and are thus (in their feeble minds) granted right of way.

Blue Arrow View

So yeah, this path complicates things. You can either follow the silver car and hope that whoever is stopped where that red van is (green arrow) grants you right of way or turn right. This sounds simple, but that white car illustrates the danger. Traffic coming from the road opposite this side (yellow arrow) hooks around the island to turn left. I’ve seen more than one accident where someone following the path of the white car didn’t signal left, so someone waiting at this stop sign started to pull out and wham . And the same problem of red arrow people coming from the left and not signaling into the intersection affects you here too, because you have to wait to ensure you’re not going to get nailed. The limit is 35 on the pass through so red arrow people are carrying some speed since they never have to stop even if they turn.

Red Arrow View

Even the Google Street view car didn’t want to deal with this intersection too much, as there’s no imagery following the red arrow. So this is the best I could do - the top image is the right-of-way path through the islands, the head of the arrow. The bottom picture is where all the lines exit on the clusterfuck map, to the left of the base of the arrow. Let me tell you, it can be very nervewracking as you approach following the red arrow and you see people holding at every stop sign - sometimes someone will lose focus, bank on taking a path you’re not and start to go while you’re in the middle of it. Or someone won’t know how the intersection works and assume you have a stop sign - that’s my personal favorite. Then they’re angry and dangerous.

Yellow Arrow View

Again, the Google driver refused to make five passes through this thing and so we have an offset yellow arrow image as well. The main danger here, aside from people from the shopping center charging through and hooking a hard left around the middle island into your path, is people from the green arrow side. A lack of a turn signal can mean several things - they could interpret straight as proceeding directly across the intersection toward the camera in this image. Or it could mean going off the left side of the screen, because in reality it’s a very gentle turn and in their mind the hard left around the island into the shopping center is more worthy of a signal.

Black Arrow View

It’s harder to see in this shot because the Jeep is blocking the right-of-way red arrow path, but if you aren’t paying attention and don’t see the small KEEP RIGHT sign on the central island, it’s very easy to believe you’re supposed to drive up the wrong way into oncoming traffic. Again, you have to wait a long time if there are other drivers crowding around because it’s so hard to judge intention and direction. If you’re waiting at this sign, people following the red path will start to speed up before they even reach that far island to make it dangerous for you to try and pull out before they get through.

So what can be done? It’s been like this my whole life and likely several whole lives before that, which is often the guiding principle for making (or rather, not making) decisions that cost money in cloistered small towns across the country. There are countless ways to improve the traffic flow here - bulldoze everything except the northernmost large island, put in a comprehensive light with multiple turn cycles - but given that infrastructure seems to be a bottom-level budget priority these days, I doubt any of that will ever happen. Maybe one day I can drive the wrong way through this intersection with my concerned grandson in the back seat too.

That Bastard Kurtis - An Attempt to Standardize My Username Across Platforms > area man 07/27/2015 at 14:11

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New England roads: Because fuck you, out of towner.

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > area man 07/27/2015 at 14:14

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At least the lanes line up. It’s kind of hard to see in this picture, but they built this intersection crooked. Coming from left to right, the road shifts to the left a lane in the middle of the intersection. They eventually put some dotted lines down for cars to follow, but for a while every time I went under this overpass I had to dodge other cars that weren’t aware of the shift and have witnessed so many accidents there. To make it worse, you can’t see the shift because the crown of the road is too tall and it’s in the shadows anyway. To also make it worse, they built this overpass to reduce congestion, then added a “straight” lane in the exit, meaning that the lights have the same number of stops as they did before.

norskracer98-ExploringTheOutback > area man 07/27/2015 at 14:15

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There’s a similar, slightly less complicated intersection like that in my town. Although it’s got stop lights.

spanfucker retire bitch > area man 07/27/2015 at 14:15

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That’s the kind of intersection I’d make in Cities: Skylines.

area man > SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie 07/27/2015 at 14:15

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That’s terrible!

area man > norskracer98-ExploringTheOutback 07/27/2015 at 14:16

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That makes all the difference.

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > area man 07/27/2015 at 14:18

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What’s really terrible is using the exit ramp to make a left or something and when you’re waiting for the light seeing cars line up in the straight lane. It’s insane how many people get off just to get back on again. It seems like it’s at least three or four cars per cycle, and there are no driveways to or from any of the ramps. The only reason to go straight is to add a light to your commute.

norskracer98-ExploringTheOutback > area man 07/27/2015 at 14:19

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It really does.

Snuze: Needs another Swede > area man 07/27/2015 at 14:24

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Behold, Seven Corners in Falls Church, VA. (if it’s not showing up try zoom)

I would try to explain how it works but I might have a heart attack just thinking about it.

Rainbow > spanfucker retire bitch 07/27/2015 at 14:26

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I came here to say that exactly.

cletus44 aka Clayton Seams > Snuze: Needs another Swede 07/27/2015 at 14:33

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That’s an abomination.

deekster_caddy > That Bastard Kurtis - An Attempt to Standardize My Username Across Platforms 07/27/2015 at 15:05

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That’s how we roll!

Svend > area man 07/27/2015 at 15:11

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Simple answer. Roundabout.

deekster_caddy > area man 07/27/2015 at 15:11

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Just for grins, here’s a good competitor in Belmont, MA - I used to drive through this intersection every day on my way to Cambridge. What makes it fun? Busy, 3 direction interchange with a lot of people turning left... and NO stop signs. No traffic lights. No yield signs. Right of way goes to the biggest vehicle or most aggressive driver. And you are coming out of an underpass on one of the busier sides.

Svend > area man 07/27/2015 at 15:12

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Nice, the NSA have a supermarket. I bet the FBI and CIA don't.

shop-teacher > Svend 07/27/2015 at 18:46

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Exactly, this is a perfect spot for a roundabout. It would be much cheaper than putting in traffic lights, and traffic would flow a lot smoother.

Svend > shop-teacher 07/27/2015 at 19:01

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The basic foundations of a roundabout are there bar the yellow traffic which would no longer be able to just turn left but navigate round the roundabout.

By all the talk on here the U.S. doesn't really know what to do on a roundabout though so it may be a learning curve for some.

shop-teacher > Svend 07/27/2015 at 19:34

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It would be a bit of a learning curve. Roundabouts are just starting to gain a bit of popularity in the UD, and I must say I am a fan, but they are still fairly uncommon.

I was shocked to find one near my hometown when I went back recently, but it was a massive improvement over the old clusterfuck of a 4-way stop.

Svend > shop-teacher 07/27/2015 at 19:57

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They do really aid traffic flow if used correctly. We have a part time traffic light system on a couple of roundabouts near me which are used at peak times in the morning and evening but generally they are great.

I mean they don’t need one like this one in Milton Keynes.

shop-teacher > Svend 07/27/2015 at 20:00

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Wow!

Svend > shop-teacher 07/27/2015 at 20:15

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It's actually quite easy really, the five outer roundabouts operate normally (clockwise) while the central one operates anti-clockwise.

shop-teacher > Svend 07/27/2015 at 20:42

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Oh, OK then. I’m sure it’s a bit daughnting at first, but you’d get used to it.

Svend > shop-teacher 07/27/2015 at 20:44

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Ye’, you can take the easy way out and instead of leapfrogging through you can just go all the way round the outside as if it was just a large roundabout.

shop-teacher > Svend 07/27/2015 at 22:34

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Ha! If I ever see something like that in person, I think I’ll just sit there for a while and study the traffic pattern.

gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > Svend 07/28/2015 at 07:43

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They are more common in New England. Useful except when a tourist shows up.

gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > deekster_caddy 07/28/2015 at 07:49

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Oh the “we can’t figure it out, fuck it, drivers will just have to figure it out themselves.”

deekster_caddy > gmporschenut also a fan of hondas 07/28/2015 at 08:46

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It’s horrifying to watch at times, but somehow there aren't a lot of accidents there!

area man > Svend 07/28/2015 at 09:58

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New England as a region has a number of them (we call them rotaries), and actually this town has one at a different clusterfucky intersection that was redesigned about 20 years ago - so if they do get around to this, that just might be what they end up going with here.

area man > deekster_caddy 07/28/2015 at 10:00

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survival of the fittest!

area man > Snuze: Needs another Swede 07/28/2015 at 10:01

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That makes me deeply uncomfortable.

Snuze: Needs another Swede > area man 07/28/2015 at 10:11

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I avoid it like the plauge, which sucks because my favorite cheap/fast mexican food joint is there (Rio). In fact my wife and I are looking at buying our first house. We went and looked at one near there... it wasn’t that great and we had to drive back through that and we were both basically like “screw this, no way!” So now we’re looking outside the beltway.