newjerseynewsroom.com

BY ERIC MODEL

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

JOURNEYS INTO NEW JERSEY

Most don't think much of our roads here in New Jersey. They're too crowded. Many from elsewhere associate our state with the less scenic parts of the Jersey Turnpike, making us the butt end of too many jokes. But the fact is that New Jersey has been an innovator in highway design.

Yes, there's the turnpike and Garden State Parkway.

But beyond these roads, New Jersey is famous for having introduced the likes of the jug handle, the Jersey barrier and the traffic circle.

Take the jughandle intersection. A jughandle is way left-turning traffic uses a ramp on the right side of the road. In a standard forward jughandle or near-side jughandle, the ramp leaves before the intersection, and left-turning traffic turns left off it rather than the through road. Right turns are also made using the jughandle. In a reverse jughandle or far-side jughandle, the ramp leaves after the intersection, and left-turning traffic loops around to the right and merges with the crossroad before the intersection.

By the beginning of 1960, New Jersey had 160 jughandles, most if not all standard before-intersection jughandles. The 160th one was on U.S. 1 between New Brunswick and Trenton.

Another example is the Jersey barrier or Jersey wall. This is a modular concrete barrier employed to separate lanes of traffic. It is designed to both minimize vehicle damage in cases of incidental contact while still preventing crossover in the case of head-on accidents.

The Jersey barrier was developed right here in New Jersey (Hoboken) at Stevens Institute of Technology, under the direction of the New Jersey State Highway Department to divide multiple lanes on a highway. The first concrete median barrier used in New Jersey was installed in 1955, and it was only 18 inches tall.

Cloverleaf interchanges, are another N.J. innovation. Resembling the leaves of a four-leaf clover, the first cloverleaf intersection built in the United States was right here in the Garden State — the Woodbridge cloverleaf at Route 25 and Route 4 (now US 1/9 and Route 35) in Woodbridge Township.

Then there is the traffic circle.

New Jersey at one point boasted a total of 101 traffic circles, 44 of which were part of state roads.

Back in the 1920s and 1930s, New Jersey felt that traffic circles were an efficient way for moving traffic through three or more intersecting roads. Built in 1925, the first traffic circle in New Jersey was the Airport circle in Pennsauken.

When first introduced, the traffic circle, or rotary, concept was meant to keep traffic flowing by allowing cars to pass through an intersection in a circular motion without stopping.

However, the number has shrunk as traffic circles have been phased out by the state Department of Transportation.

The state folks now contend that traffic circles might have worked back then, when roads were less congested and drivers were more polite. But not so today, they say — citing how lengthy backups on roads leading into the circles, and accidents are commonplace.

There was also an aspect of confusion — more specifically, about what the right of way rules of the road were for traffic circles. The governing statute, NJSA 39:4-90, "The driver of a vehicle approaching an intersection shall yield the right of way to a vehicle which has entered the intersection. When 2 vehicles enter an intersection at the same time the driver of the vehicle on the left shall yield the right of way to the driver of the vehicle on the right."

Since a circle is comprised as a series of uncontrolled intersections, the driver to the right (entering the circle) has the right of way.

So, they claim that New Jersey's traffic circles had become outdated. Starting around the 1970s, the transportation folks began phasing out traffic circles — the most common methods of eliminating circles involved building a road through the circle, adding traffic lights, and the use of grade separation.

Ironically, at a time that traffic circles have been phased out, a variation of it — the roundabout — has gained favor. Today's roundabouts are much smaller than older traffic circles — about 100-200 feet in diameter compared to 400-600 feet -- and they're designed with fewer and narrower lanes that force drivers to slow down.

Transportation planners say the newer design — which originated in Europe and found its way to the United States around 1990 — results in improved traffic flow and fewer accidents.

Many drivers, though, seem to be confused with the distinction.

Locally, roundabouts may be found at the intersection of Routes 33 and 34 near Freehold and along Route 520 at the entrance to Brookdale Community College.

Apparently, what goes around comes around — especially in the case of traffic circles or roundabouts.

Finally, it might be useful to recall these past innovations as we reflect on the most recent killing of the Hudson River rail tunnel project by New Jersey's governor and its repercussions beyond today's political campaigns.

Eric Model explores the "offbeat, off the beaten path overlooked and forgotten" on SIRIUS-XM Radio and at www.journeysinto.com.