# Left turn from right lanes



## martien (Aug 3, 2005)

In the city of Nogales, Sonora, Mexico they have this kind of lanes configuration where you have to drive on the right lanes to make a left or U turn. This was arranged like that because the median is very narrow and it was difficult for large trucks to make U turns. 

Is there any avenue with this kind of lanes arrangement in your city?


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## Radish2 (Dec 7, 2008)

I find this arrangment very dumb and unsafe, I am wondering which monkey made this out of his head, because he didn´t have the brain to think that some drivers which don´t see or accidently start driving on the lanes fro straight direction might crash into the leftturning vehicles or left turning vehicles pass the road when the trafficlight just turned red and other cars allready start driving.


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## PLH (Mar 9, 2007)

^^ That's interesting :nuts: 

And no, we don't have these. When the turn is too narrow, you simply cannot turn or make a U turn.


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## martien (Aug 3, 2005)

Well, there are tons of signs indicating the left turn lanes, I don't live in that city but the first time I drove with that new lanes I got the idea quickly and I wasn't confused at all. 

However, I don't have the statistics about accidents with that new arrangements.


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## martien (Aug 3, 2005)

I even searched on Wikipedia about this and I couldn't find anything. And they do have lots of articles about road configurations.


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## DJZG (Aug 2, 2007)

this is the first time i ever seen something like this... 
seems logical and nicely implemented... but then again, really dangerous and there should be warning signs all over the place so the people wouldn't get confused...


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## Billpa (Feb 26, 2006)

There's a ton of these situations in New Jersey. They're called jughandles here in the US. 
They're just about standard on roads with more than two lanes, which are everywhere in Jersey.










Here's one in Pennsylvania- this is the jughandle with the main road just to the left of this pic:


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## keber (Nov 8, 2006)

In most of EU U-turns are forbidden or at least discouraged, especially for trucks.


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## ChrisZwolle (May 7, 2006)

^^ Indeed. One good thing about the roundaboutmania in some countries is you can make U-turns quite easy.


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## Dan (Jun 16, 2007)

Salt Lake has some really weird turns that were only implemented like a couple years ago, I never got to experience one myself before I moved. I forget what they are called. But they have you drive on the other side of the road if you're going to turn left...or something like that. I'll have to try to remember the name...


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## CborG (Dec 2, 2003)

Here's one in Utrecht, NL:









http://maps.google.nl/maps?f=q&hl=n...094771,5.08559&spn=0.000577,0.001706&t=h&z=20


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## Dan (Jun 16, 2007)

Found it! Here are the new ones they've put in Salt Lake City:










What do you all think?


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## roccocancun (Apr 2, 2008)

Dan1113 said:


> Found it! Here are the new ones they've put in Salt Lake City:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


woooooooooooow crazy people men,its very dangerous.


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## martien (Aug 3, 2005)

I think that one in Salt Lake City is a continuous flow intersection. It was invented and patented by the Mexican engineer Francisco Mier.

In Mexico it's usually called "vuelta inglesa" (english turn)


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuous_flow_intersection


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

These are everywhere in Melbourne due to trams. They're called "hook turns".


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## TheCat (Apr 21, 2006)

I've never seen any of these in Canada. They are quite counter-intuitive, though it seems that in all cases they have dedicated traffic lights, which makes the risk very small, since it doesn't mean that one has to give way to cars going straight (and the ones coming from the other direction).

I would still probably get confused if I encountered such an intersection without any knowledge of it in advance.


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## Xpressway (Dec 2, 2006)

I think it's great! Very useful for intersections with lots of trucks.



> To reduce confusion regarding the left-turn lane, the left-turn lane and the straight-through lanes are usually separated by a concrete barrier or traffic island.


If properly isolated, drivers shouldn't really notice they're in a continous flow interchange, all you have to do is follow the directions and obey the traffic light.


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## Xusein (Sep 27, 2005)

That looks dangerous.


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## x-type (Aug 19, 2005)

why are you all talking about this as dangerous? it is absolutely not more dangerous than ordinary intersection with traffic lights. the only problem is this what TheCat has said - they are counter intuitive


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## Ron2K (Dec 28, 2007)

Svartmetall said:


> These are everywhere in Melbourne due to trams. They're called "hook turns".


I was just coming along to post that. :lol:


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