Huh the RCUT is neat, TIL. Essentially a crossing with a “Michigan Left” except only it’s only mandatory for straight or left throughfare from the side street, they have to right turn, uturn, right turn.
Even if it seems annoying it means a person needs to pay attention to one direction of vehicle traffic at a time which is a huge benefit.
I’m by no means a traffic expert, but that seems like a sensible option for that intersection. I think a roundabout makes the least amount of sense in that location.
Roundabouts are generally safer than Michigan left turns due to the shallow angle at which any collisions occur. You can get t-boned in a Michigan left where you can’t in a roundabout. Plus the Michigan left requires you to cut across 2 lanes of traffic to get to the u-turn lane.
Maybe I’m just biased living in a community with lots of roundabouts, but I hated trying to get around Detroit with all the Michigan lefts last time I visited.
Understandable, but this intersection is on the open highway, not in a community. I’m not sure how viable a roundabout would be.
Viability for roundabouts is usually centered around the question of: do we have enough land or right of way at this intersection to fit a roundabout. Where the 1 & 5 intersect there’s plenty of room for one, especially with the pre-existing on/off ramps
Yeah, space certainly shouldn’t be an issue there.
I’ve seen these large roundabouts in the Ottaway region of Quebec on Autoroute 50, they work pretty well.
