It seems like the upper westbound deck on the queensburo bridge was reversible at some point. Does anyone have any information on this?
Here (http://dropped%20pin
See link. Scroll down to "Since the 1980s."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queensboro_Bridge
BTW, your link doesn't work because you put text into it in addition to the URL.
Both upper level roadways are reversible, actually - the upper level is closed outbound from 6-10 AM Monday-Friday. From 6-9:30 AM, what is normally the outbound roadway runs inbound and is HOV-2+ only.
That said, the reverse flow capability of the normally inbound roadway is not currently used and, as far as I know, there has never been a normal situation where the entire upper level operates outbound. It has this ability because, in the fall of 1996, the city decided it would be clever during the PM rush hour to reverse both upper level roadways, running left hand traffic over the bridge. This experiment failed and was undone after being in place for only four weeks (https://www.nytimes.com/1996/10/31/nyregion/queensboro-bridge-entrances-will-exit.html), but the signs on the bridge enabling the outbound contraflow have never been removed.
Having reverse outbound flow makes less sense in general anyway because:
- outbound has an extra normal lane on the outer roadway (although it did not when the failed left-hand operation experiment was run)
- the upper level has more exits on the Queens side than on the Manhattan side, so outbound traffic has a greater availability to disperse rather than bottlenecking under normal operation
- PM peak traffic has less directional differential. Not a lot of outbound traffic in the morning, but there absolutely is inbound traffic in the evening.
In 1996 I drove the upper deck inbound roadway going outbound. It was like that in the seventies too.