Diverging Diamond Interchange

Want to avoid gridlock? Drive on the wrong side of the road. In July,traffic engineers in Springfield, Missouri, reconfigured the jammedI-44/Kansas Expressway interchange. The new design does away with riskyleft turns. The street approaching the highway now diverts to the left,and cars get uninterrupted access to the highway, which, experts say,can reduce clogging by as much as 60 percent. Think of it as a one-waystreet. Drivers who want to turn left onto the highway can do sowithout crossing oncoming traffic. Through-traffic, meanwhile, stays onthe left side of the road until it reaches a second stoplight, where itpasses back over to the right. The Federal Highway Administrationestimates that the diverging diamond configuration, the first in theU.S., enables 600 left turns onto the freeway per hour per lane - doublethat of an ordinary interchange, where drivers cross oncoming traffic.Plans are under way to implement similar designs around Kansas City andSt. Louis.

Source: modot.mo.govAdded: 12 January 2010