If you've driven throughout the United States. It's very likely you've encountered a highway interchange
Interchanges are intersections between two roads.
In this case, we have a car in this lane and a car in this lane.
We're going to have a problem unless the two of them work out a way to communicate with one another.
Negotiating these interchanges, as you can imagine, requires both cooperation and communication with your fellow drivers
So let's take a look at some of the common interchanges, and we'll talk about their pros and cons
The first example of a common U.S. highway interchange type is called the cloverleaf.
This design takes advantage of these curved roadways as you can see here.
These resemble a cloverleaf when viewed from above.
The Cloverleaf is great because it allows for a very fluid interchange of traffic between two freeways with pretty minimal disruption.
The one challenge with a cloverleaf interchange is that the curved exits that do allow for a lot of fluidity...
...also create a little bit of a hazard for drivers
because they're going at freeway speeds when they approach these and they do need to adjust from that high speed to something a little lower
so that they can safely navigate these curves
This is an example of another very common Highway interchange in the United States
This is called a diamond interchange and that's because of its telltale diamond shape
Similar to the Cloverleaf the diamond interchange allows the exchange of traffic between a secondary and a major roadway
The one downfall of a diamond interchange is that they are often accompanied by left or right turns...
...onto the secondary roadway, which can slow traffic
Now this is an example of a trumpet interchange. The trumpet interchange is commonly used when you have two highways...
...intersecting and it typically takes the place of a T-intersection
This last example is called a Frontage Road interchange
A frontage road interchange allows for the exchange of vehicles using parallel secondary one-way, or...
...two-way roadways. For instance, I have traffic going this way and then I've got
this multi lane roadway and this multi lane roadway here.
The frontage road uses turnarounds. Turnarounds are these little u-turns here and here.
That allow for drivers to safely exit a multi-lane roadway and then use the opposing frontage roadway
to enter a different multi lane roadway going the opposite direction.
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