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The "Jersey Left" - All Turns From Right Lane
We’ve all seen these signs while driving along New Jersey hi and bi-ways. But why on earth would I have to move right to turn left? To improve traffic flow, of course, allowing cars to continue to flow, by moving those who want to make a left turn off the main road...sometimes referred to as a “Jersey left”.
As a seasoned driver, I am aware that this indicates there is a jughandle in my future if I intend to make a left-hand turn. But, wait—in fact, it requires a right turn, a u-shaped turn, then an opportunity to cross the road I was just on. Believe it or not, this phenomenon is not limited to roads in New Jersey. However, New Jersey does have more jughandles than any other U.S. state. Approximately 600 jughandles exist in New Jersey today.
Just to add to the curiosity, there are three different types of jughandles. There is the Type A (Forward Ramp) , the most common type, which has you take ramp on the right before you arrive at the intersection, curve around, and then either cross the road or make a left turn back onto the original highway (you just made a U-turn). Then there is the Type B (U-turn Ramp) with no road intersected, used as a “T” intersection or “U-turn only”. Finally there is Type C (Reverse Ramp), the same as Type A, however, it comes after the intersection.
As far back as th 1940’s New Jersey was constructing jughandles. "What were they thinking?", you might ask.
There are two sides to every argument—pros and cons exist around this topic as well.
Here are a few pros: cars turning left don’t hold up traffic, it’s safer to make a right and wait than to attempt turning left across three lanes of traffic, people crossing at the intersection have a shorter distance across, those people continuing forward have a shorter wait time for the signal as there is no left-turn arrow to wait for.
Here are a few cons: people unfamiliar (out of state drivers) with them, might cut across traffic to get into the right lane to turn left, sometimes the ramp just isn’t long enough and traffic backs up, pedestrians approaching the intersection have to cross the ramp as well as the main highway, if the exit ramp isn’t long enough, traffic may back up.
As a closing thought - if you ever visit Melbourne, Australia, watch out for those Hook Turns where you make a right-hand turn from the left lane - YIKES!!! Suddenly a jughandle doesn't seem quite as disturbing...