The Strangest Railroad Crossing You've Ever Seen [In the U.S.]

To "turn" left, the "thing" I describe a few posts up (with link) causes one to merge right onto highway with people going 70mph, immediately get in left lane, and then do a sharp U-turn in front of the oncoming traffic, again, going 70 to 75 mph, to go back the other way. Imagine a school bus doing that!
 
To "turn" left, the "thing" I describe a few posts up (with link) causes one to merge right onto highway with people going 70mph, immediately get in left lane, and then do a sharp U-turn in front of the oncoming traffic, again, going 70 to 75 mph, to go back the other way. Imagine a school bus doing that!

That's something that's not found very much up where I live, but I do recall seeing a lot of 70-75 mph back roads and two-lane main roads while across the Midwest, and parts of the South. Old US 1 and some other roads up my way have turn arounds, but they use those jug-handle type setups where people have to go right then up and over to head back the other way. There are also some with sets of lights on the road they're crossing, but those do cause traffic tie ups. These are, however, a new addition probably put in during the last 30 years during an effort to make the road safer, but Old US 1 was and still is a dangerous road to drive.

It's only 2 lanes in some places and 3 lanes in others, with shopping plazas and malls along both sides with random sets of lights at various points. With these shopping plazas and malls, there is no separate access road, which I've seen down in Texas or elsewhere, and the entrances and exits are right there on the road. To add insult to injury, the speed is 55 mph, but no one does that and people fly along then suddenly stop dead at stoplights. The other scary thing are stop signs for the onramps. Yes! People have to stop dead then enter a highway with people moving along at 55+plus mph. When a lot of the idgits pull out on to the main road, they don't bother to come up to speed either and that causes more rear-ender accidents just as they do when they enter from a shopping mall.

When driving this road, my heart is up in my mouth and pounding hard because there's always an accident or one waiting to happen. I'm glad I don't do that very often!
 
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