Doesn't look any worse than the cloverleaf at the intersection of California 92 and US 101 in San Francisco. (Google Earth says longitude -122.296, latitude 37.553.)
3. Brian Tiemann - 22:12 Mon 5/12/2008 ( email | web )
What, this? Child's play. And symmetrical and elegant at that.
See, at 92 & 101 you'll notice that there is a ramp from every direction to every direction. Driving through the interchange there is never any confusion about where you're going or how to get there.
In the section of New Jersey pictured in the post, however, you've got a major freeway that's divided into local and express lanes, AND is toll-controlled, so entrance/exit is metered at a toll plaza. There's no symmetry to it, there's at least three major highways all coming together at once, and what's more, you can't get from certain directions of certain routes to certain directions of certain other routes (for example, you cannot get from 18 southbound onto the Garden State Parkway northbound; you have to continue on 18 for another mile and a half south until you can exit, and woe betide you if you don't realize that just taking an exit won't put you at a traffic signal where you can cross over on an overpass and get back on the freeway going north—no, it's a divided expressway with no signal that it dumps you onto, and there are two separate exits from the freeway onto it, and only the latter puts you in a direction that gets you across the freeway and allows you to get back on it without dorking around in some abandoned parking lot).
Empire State Roads' Interchange of the Week was one of my favourite sites back in the day. If this one were in NY instead of NJ I'm sure it would have been covered.
5. Mark Aanerud - 06:27 Tue 5/13/2008 ( email | web )
It's a shame there aren't any signs that give you directions and such. Signs that tell you what exit does what or what's coming up.
Seriously, though, this one's fun, too. The ramp exiting bottom-left goes to O'Hare Airport in Chicago. I'll be very interested to see what this looks like when they're done with all the massive construction going on in that entire area.
Hey, I grew up not far from there at all, and worked right in that area for some time (contractors at Ft Monmouth). It's actually not that bad an interchange, despite what the overhead view shows. It's the Rt 18 / Rt 36 / Garden State Parkway interchange at Hope Road. I live west of there now, out in Freehold. Whatcha doin' in central jersey these days, Brian?
Brian Tiemann
1. Chris Cogdon - 21:50 Mon 5/12/2008 ( email )