Reversible Lanes: Types, Your Thoughts, and the Dreaded “Squeeze Lane”

[jeffandnicole]

On Kauai, I believe on their Route 56, the normal allocation is 2 lanes South, 1 lane north, with left turning lanes at intersections. During the morning rush, in certain areas they have a manual setup of reversible lanes using cones, including (barely) marking out turn lanes.

The DRBA bridges between PA and NJ uses concrete zipper barrier on the Commodore Barry, used infrequently, a concrete zipper barrier on the Ben Franklin Bridge, used every weekday, and a metal zipper barrier on the Walt Whitman, used every weekday. Prior to this, on those 3 bridges they usually kept an unused lane between directions, but not always. The Betsy Ross Bridge, 8 lanes wide, had reversible lanes but didn't need to utilize them for different directions (usually) as the bridge ultimately was wider than the traffic demands required; they eventually added a fixed Jersey Barrier for protection and narrowed the bridges' usable thru lane pattern to 6 lanes total.

And, there's the infamous XBL on 495 and the Lincoln Tunnel, using pylons to separate the flow of traffic.

[cpzilliacus]

And, there's the infamous XBL on 495 and the Lincoln Tunnel, using pylons to separate the flow of traffic.

Though the XBL may be the hardest-working segment of pavement in the United States in terms of person trips carried.

[cpzilliacus]

The DC area has a variety of reversible lanes. The OP here mentions the reversible carriageway on I-95 and I-395. That's the only one on an Interstate.

The notable thing about streets with reversible lanes is that I'm not sure any in DC have the "red X/green arrow" lights some places use, presumably for aesthetic reasons (note that DC also seldom uses either mast arms or span wire for traffic lights). You have to know what the traffic pattern is. The only place I've seen overhead lane control signals in DC in recent years was on Arlington Memorial Bridge during reconstruction work that is now complete.

The District of Columbia has certain roads that completely reverse direction at certain times of day, and they're not all necessarily obvious to someone who isn't from here. On 17th Street NW, for example, you have to be aware of these signs and you have to know which days are holidays. I've seen plenty of near-misses on a couple of federal holidays that aren't always observed by the private sector, such as Columbus Day–you run a serious risk if you legally drive in the "non-peak direction" during the morning rush hour on those days. That applies even more so on District of Columbia territorial holidays, such as "Emancipation Day," because almost nobody except the city government observes those.

Former reversible roadways include Constitution Avenue, N.E.  between North Carolina Avenue, N.E. and 2nd Street, N.E. (I am not 100% certain about the limits).  I think it only operated in the morning weekday peak commute periods.

Perhaps the biggest one in D.C. was 13th Street, N.W. (and Piney  Branch Road, N.W. at the far north end) between Georgia Avenue and Logan Circle [Rhode Island Avenue]).  This ran four lanes in the peak-flow direction (south in AM and north in PM) of mixed traffic and express bus service from the Maryland suburbs.