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The Vortex Junction

When I saw the headline, I thought it was referring to where the Santa Monica freeway intersects with the 405, but alas, it’s a novel interchange configuration, suitable for the Slough-ey, office-park-ey, pedestrian-free places of the world, perhaps some kind of next-century CFI.

(thanks Phil)

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 30th, 2010 at 2:12 pm and is filed under Traffic Engineering, Traffic Wonkery. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

4 Responses to “The Vortex Junction”

  1. Todd Scott Says:
    March 30th, 2010 at 3:07 pm

    Looks like a nightmare for those of us who travel on bikes or on foot — something the designer apparently failed to consider.

  2. Josh R Says:
    March 30th, 2010 at 9:27 pm

    Yeah, I agree with Todd. This looks like a perfect intersection provided you lived in the setting of the Disney movie “Cars”

    It would however, suck for actual people who have to occasionally exit their automobiles.

  3. Jan Says:
    March 31st, 2010 at 12:22 am

    The number of vehicles doing lane changes on this monster must be enormous. Would’t this, and the fact that you drive in a bend all the time, therefore being unable to see clearly in both mirrors, cause a lot of side collisions?

  4. Daniel Says:
    April 1st, 2010 at 3:03 pm

    “The VORTEX roundabout…” …Not. Roundabouts are small and require entering vehicles to yield to vehicles already inside.

    At best, this thing could be seen as a perfected traffic circle in the sense that traffic circles are usually designed to facilitate high speed. I’m ashamed to say I kind of like the concept. It could have been “the way of the future”… back in the 60’s.

    “In the vortex they [the drivers] can spend as much time as they like while they select the correct exit.”

    Wanna race?

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Traffic Tom Vanderbilt

How We Drive is the companion blog to Tom Vanderbilt’s New York Times bestselling book, Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us), published by Alfred A. Knopf in the U.S. and Canada, Penguin in the U.K, and in languages other than English by a number of other fine publishers worldwide.

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