Jersey Jughandles

[signalman]

I was just wondering what folks thought of New Jersey's infamous jughandles.  For those of you who don't know, many divided highways not grade seperated and controlled by traffic signals often don't allow left turns from the mainline.  Instead, one must exit from the right via a small ramp, aka jughandle and turn left onto the side street to meet the signal to make your u or left turn.  These work well in some places.  Others a protected left turn signal from the mainline would work better.  I've written to NJDOT in the past citing several intersections that I think would work better with a protected left.  I never got any response from them, not even negative and decided trying to communicate with the state was futile. 

[Duke87]

The largest flaw with jughandles is the matter of what's known as "driver expectation". You have to go to the right to make a left turn. A bit counterintuitive. So advance signage for it is necessary.

They find themselves more useful on divided highways where often the place you're looking to get to is on the other ide of the road and will require a U-turn to access. The jughandles permit U-turns, ordinary protected left turn signals really don't. Certainly not as safely, anyway.

If the highway isn't divided, then it starts to become a bit pointless, although there are cases where geometry will dictate it. For instance, High Ridge Road (CT 137) at the Merritt Parkway (CT 15). Traffic from 137 north to 15 south uses a small jughandle to get to the ramp. In this case, the problem is that due to the limited width of the underpass there isn't room to put in a left turn lane. So the state improvises instead. And it's nasty. At rush hour, that jughandle always backs up into the right lane of 137 under the highway, so if you're not looking to get on the parkway you really want to be in the left lane.
Meanwhile, southbound, getting in the left lane will likely get you waiting behind someone looking to make a left onto the parkway north or onto Buxton Farm Road neither of which has a left turn lane, again, due to lack of space.
That overpass was redone in 1994. I remember them redoing it. If CONNDOT was more in touch with the situation, when they replaced it they would have done so with a wider one that permitted a fifth lane underneath for left turns. But alas, they did not. And so here we still have what, as far as I know, is the only jughandle in the state of Connecticut. And a lane in each direction that through traffic will want to avoid.

[Chris]

Oh, I've seen this in Spain, it's quite inventive actually, remember that turning left on an intersection is pretty much the worst one you can get. On non traffic light controlled intersections, it's safer (and better for the flow), if you can stop, and take your time to cross safely. It only works if there's not too much left-turning traffic though, if you have like an office park to the left, one or two left-turn lanes would be better, or even a fly-over.

[NJRoadfan]

IMO, the only advantage of jughandles is that it eliminates the left-turn signal phases from the main road, which allows the DOT to allocate more green time to the main road through phase.

It also makes timing those lights easier since they have only one phase. They must be having a positive effect though, as they seem to be spreading to other states.

If an intersection has heavy left turning traffic, a reverse jughandle is usually installed. They have more queuing space, plus it gets traffic out of the center of the road, a problem when a left turn lane "overflows" into the adjoining through lane.

[Hellfighter]

The only two I know of here in the Detroit area, are at US-24 @ Maple Road, Bloomfield Hills, and Newburgh Road @ Edward Hines Drive, Livonia

[froggie]

It also makes timing those lights easier since they have only one phase. They must be having a positive effect though, as they seem to be spreading to other states.

It only makes timing easier on the main road.  If the side road has heavy traffic, then you still have the issue of multiple phases.  Some of the split-phase signals along US 1 (Edison comes to mind) can take a long while.

Also, in my experience, the only state they've really spread to is Pennsylvania, and most of the jughandles I've seen there are decades old.

If an intersection has heavy left turning traffic, a reverse jughandle is usually installed. They have more queuing space, plus it gets traffic out of the center of the road, a problem when a left turn lane "overflows" into the adjoining through lane.

The downside here is this requires left-turning traffic to go through the signal twice, which for the REALLY unlucky motorist means two red lights just to make a left turn.  I just can't see where these movements would be any better than LOS E or F.

[njroadhorse]

The jughandles are perfect for New Jersey on a lot of our 4-lane "Jersey freeways."  These roads usually are lined with businesses and have no room for more turning lanes.  Given Jersey's traffic situation, the jughandles are pretty efficient and necessary for NJ.

[SSOWorld]

ahhh, jughandles - a Jersey visitor's worst nightmare

I can guarantee you they have contributed to my getting lost in Jersey at least five times in one night 

[Sykotyk]

PA-18 in Mercer County uses 'exit ramps' to make left turns at at-grade intersections.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Greenville,+Pennsylvania&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&ie=UTF8&hl=en&cd=1&geocode=FcDRdwIdbnI1-w&split=0&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=23.875,57.630033&ll=41.348875,-80.410459&spn=0.003842,0.009323&t=h&z=17

Sykotyk

[mightyace]

One area of PA that did (does?) have a lot of them is US 202 from the Delaware Line to West Chester and PA 100 from West Chester to the PA Turnpike exit at Downingtown.

[J N Winkler]

Oh, I've seen this in Spain, it's quite inventive actually, remember that turning left on an intersection is pretty much the worst one you can get.

Do you have map links to Spanish examples?  I am personally not familiar with any.  What I know Spain does use (having downloaded proyectos de construcción for at least one) is hamburger junctions.  These work somewhat similarly to jughandles in that a left turn is converted into a three-quarters maneuver where you leave at the right, go halfway around the roundabout portion of the hamburger, cross the road you just left at a stop- or yield-controlled junction, and then go along the other half of the roundabout until you reach your turning.  But jughandles are somewhat different in that each jughandle is a quarter-circle link, not necessarily part of a roundabout, and can also be oriented so that the driver performs two right turns (right off the main road, right onto the side road, across the main road at stop or signal control) instead of one right turn followed by a left turn onto the side road.

PennDOT is using jughandles extensively, notably for the US 22 upgrade in District 3 (many jughandles with a few interchanges).

[treichard]

Some of the jughandle configurations are awful in NJ.  You follow the right lane as it bears right to get to the side road so you can make a left, but there's enough traffic backed up at the light and enough turning lanes on the side road that you sit there for 10 minutes  staring at your stop sign and waiting to make your left.  Or the only lane you can make that left turn into before several traffic signal cycles pass is the left-turning lane of the side road, which isn't where you need to go.  So ultimately you give up and make a right onto the side road, then find a place to make a U-turn to come back to the intersection.  And now you're 15 minutes late.  Granted it's not always this bad, but sometimes it is (US 1 north of Princeton at rush hour).

[njroadhorse]

PA 309 uses them in Montgomeryville, north of Philadelphia.  Here are some examples:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&q=PA-309+%26+W+Welsh+Rd,+Montgomery,+Pennsylvania+19454&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=48.374125,78.75&ie=UTF8&cd=1&geocode=FYB-ZQId8CmE-w&split=0&ll=40.206164,-75.224622&spn=0.005736,0.01369&t=h&z=17

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&q=PA-309+%26+Stump+Rd,+Montgomeryville,+Montgomery,+Pennsylvania+19454&sll=40.206164,-75.224622&sspn=0.005736,0.01369&ie=UTF8&cd=1&geocode=FdPJZQIdIgWE-w&split=0&ll=40.225647,-75.23401&spn=0.011468,0.02738&t=h&z=16

[chesko]

Some of the jughandle configurations are awful in NJ.  You follow the right lane as it bears right to get to the side road so you can make a left, but there's enough traffic backed up at the light and enough turning lanes on the side road that you sit there for 10 minutes  staring at your stop sign and waiting to make your left.  Or the only lane you can make that left turn into before several traffic signal cycles pass is the left-turning lane of the side road, which isn't where you need to go.  So ultimately you give up and make a right onto the side road, then find a place to make a U-turn to come back to the intersection.  And now you're 15 minutes late.  Granted it's not always this bad, but sometimes it is (US 1 north of Princeton at rush hour).

This is true.  I commute across US 1 in Middlesex County each day (at New Road, and formerly at Ridge Road).  The jug handle ramps meet up with backed up traffic, especially in the evening rush.  I always try to keep the lane open when I am the first car in queue that is backed up to to the jughandle (I.e., I avoid gridlock)...and THAT usually helps, except for when jug handle drivers are afraid to come into the space I have obviously left open for them.

[NE2]

Yep, that's called not blocking the intersection. Post signs and enforce it.

As for jughandles, there are at least five in Florida:
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=28.424718,-81.472222&spn=0.000988,0.002575&t=k&z=20 (U-turn)
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=25.971966,-80.233939&spn=0.001015,0.002575&t=k&z=20 (U-turn to access a ramp)
http://maps.google.com/maps?sll=28.424718,-81.472222&sspn=0.063255,0.164795&ll=26.232281,-80.186331&spn=0.004052,0.0103&t=k&z=18&layer=c&cbll=26.232281,-80.186331&panoid=65rItsM7UnwlWVie2_hGdA&cbp=12,113.08,,0,-14.03 (two reverse left turns)
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=26.810355,-80.152291&spn=0.004012,0.008256&t=k&z=18 (reverse left turn)

I'd guess that most states have at least a couple at complicated junctions.

[papaT10932]

I think Jersey jughandles are the absolute greatest! When a state's roads and highways are as hectic as Jersey's, I don't know of a better traffic configuration than a jughandle. When my out-of-state friends complain about them, I remind them that the purpose of a jughandle is NOT so left turns can be made faster, but rather, it's so the left turn can be made SAFER.
Other states should learn a lesson from Jersey-  particularly Florida. (particularly US-19 in the Pasco/Pinellas County area  )

[SteveG1988]

ahhh, jughandles - a Jersey visitor's worst nightmare

I can guarantee you they have contributed to my getting lost in Jersey at least five times in one night 

I thought the traffic circle was the visitor's worst nightmare?

[jwolfer]

I think Jersey jughandles are the absolute greatest! When a state's roads and highways are as hectic as Jersey's, I don't know of a better traffic configuration than a jughandle. When my out-of-state friends complain about them, I remind them that the purpose of a jughandle is NOT so left turns can be made faster, but rather, it's so the left turn can be made SAFER.
Other states should learn a lesson from Jersey-  particularly Florida. (particularly US-19 in the Pasco/Pinellas County area  )

I grew up in NJ and i absolutely HATE, DESPISE and LOATHE jughandles.  Yeah they say they make the intersections safer.  I am not an engineer but I would think that it just moves traffic problems from the intersection to a bit down the side road where the jug handle meets the side road.  Especially if the side road is busy ( i.e. Route 37 and 166 in Toms River) 
No other state uses them widely because a well designed Left turn lane handles traffic better(IMHO) even with multiple phases at a traffic light

[SteveG1988]

I love the jug handle, i hate being in the left turn lane on a road like US-206 in columbus NJ waiting to turn into columbus market, havign cars zoom by at 50+ MPH shaking my sedan up each time. It scares me sometimes when there is high traffic, knowing that at any given moment someone may have to swerve around a car and possibly ram into my rear end. On smaller roads i can see where it is a disadvantage, but it makes sense on larger roads with higher traffic volume.

[froggie]

Is there any hard data showing that jughandles are really safer than traditional left turns?

I was also under the impression that jughandles exist not necessarily to improve left turns, but are mainly to simplify signal phasing, in that you don't need a left turn phase on the main route.

[jwolfer]

I love the jug handle, i hate being in the left turn lane on a road like US-206 in columbus NJ waiting to turn into columbus market, havign cars zoom by at 50+ MPH shaking my sedan up each time. It scares me sometimes when there is high traffic, knowing that at any given moment someone may have to swerve around a car and possibly ram into my rear end. On smaller roads i can see where it is a disadvantage, but it makes sense on larger roads with higher traffic volume.

Again a well designed configured left-turn signal/turning lane would solve the problem.  And urban areas such as LA, Phoenix, Atlanta and Miami all have roads with no jughandles.  I would like to see some statistics comparing accident data, traffic volume etc.  But I am not a traffic engineer, just an interested layman

[NE2]

Again a well designed configured left-turn signal/turning lane would solve the problem.  And urban areas such as LA, Phoenix, Atlanta and Miami all have roads with no jughandles.  I would like to see some statistics comparing accident data, traffic volume etc.  But I am not a traffic engineer, just an interested layman

The Miami area has a couple (linked above), not that that invalidates your point. Actually there are a couple on US 27 (Okeechobee) as well, but using local streets to make the turns.

[Revive 755]

There's a pair on MO 100 a little west of I-270, although left turns onto MO 100 are still allowed from the cross street:
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=38.596682,-90.473801&spn=0.003186,0.0103&t=k&z=18

I would be curious about the various trade off between a jersey jughandle and a Michigan left, other than ROW.

[PAHighways]

PennDOT has been putting jughandles in where US 22 has been upgraded in Districts 9, 10, and 12 between Murrysville and Ebensburg.

[jemacedo9]

southbound US 11/15 between Selinsgrove and Duncannon has jughandles to allow U-Turns.  I've really only seen jughandles in PA and NJ.