They are actually pretty dangerous because they force traffic weaving. You have high speed traffic exiting the highway crossing low speed traffic entering the highway. In times of high volume traffic they get very hard to navigate and tend to cause a big choke point. That is why you will find many cloverleaf interchanges are being replaced.
Sounds like the danger you’re describing is a problem with all exits and on-ramps since all allow faster traffic to exit and slower traffic to enter the highway. I’m confused as to why it would be worse with cloverleaf as long as all of the exits are right exits. In my head, the dangerous merges are the left side on-ramps since you’re required to merge into the fastest traveling lane.
But isnt weaving a problem with any exit that’s immediately following an on-ramp rather than an issue specifically with cloverleafs? Pretty much every exit/on-ramp combination in the dense cities that i know has this problem of needing to weave into traffic so that you aren’t forced to exit at the next exit, all while others are trying to weave from traffic into the exit.
Because I already sent you two links that explain it. Your last comment doesn’t make it seem like you actually used the sources already provided. What you described in that comment is not weaving.
I completely read/watched the two links you provided (because I’m more interested with learning where I’m wrong than with being right), but it is now clear from your more elaborate reply that you did not even bother. If you had, you’d realize that your first link specifically mentions the exact situation that I called out.
Your wiki link states that the weaving problem “is most prevalent either where the junction designer has placed the on-slip [on-ramp] to the road before the off-slip [exit] at a junction (for example, the cloverleaf interchange), or in urban areas with many close-spaced junctions.” It makes it very clear that the cloverleaf presents just one example of the weaving problem, and the other example mentioned in the same breath is exactly what I presented to you.
Your YouTube link also explains that the smaller the cloverleaf, the more dangerous it is, and it says making the loops larger is better but not always possible because of the amount of land they take up. That’s why I have always noticed smoother weaving at larger cloverleafs like often exist in Texas rather than at a smaller cloverleafs that you often see in dense urban areas like in the northeast or western US.
Your one word answer didn’t make your ignorance clear, but now it is absolutely crystal clear that you either couldn’t be bothered to check your own bias with the links you shared before telling me “no” or you’re just trying to gaslight me in order to troll my downvoted comments.
Either way, whether you like it or not, the evidence you provided proves my point that the weaving problem is not simply a problem with cloverleafs but with all high speed junctions that are close together. It is not an inherent problem with cloverleafs entirely but the distance between on and off junctions.
But whatever your intentions, thanks for your links anyway. I did learn something and more than anything, they showed me that I’m already familiar with some of the alternatives to cloverleafs that I had always thought of as “modified cloverleafs.”
They are actually pretty dangerous because they force traffic weaving. You have high speed traffic exiting the highway crossing low speed traffic entering the highway. In times of high volume traffic they get very hard to navigate and tend to cause a big choke point. That is why you will find many cloverleaf interchanges are being replaced.
Sounds like the danger you’re describing is a problem with all exits and on-ramps since all allow faster traffic to exit and slower traffic to enter the highway. I’m confused as to why it would be worse with cloverleaf as long as all of the exits are right exits. In my head, the dangerous merges are the left side on-ramps since you’re required to merge into the fastest traveling lane.
It is because they make cars weave
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grade_separation#Weaving
https://youtu.be/7GTZRSPry70?feature=shared
But isnt weaving a problem with any exit that’s immediately following an on-ramp rather than an issue specifically with cloverleafs? Pretty much every exit/on-ramp combination in the dense cities that i know has this problem of needing to weave into traffic so that you aren’t forced to exit at the next exit, all while others are trying to weave from traffic into the exit.
No
Why not? Please explain how it’s different. I genuinely want to understand.
Because I already sent you two links that explain it. Your last comment doesn’t make it seem like you actually used the sources already provided. What you described in that comment is not weaving.
I completely read/watched the two links you provided (because I’m more interested with learning where I’m wrong than with being right), but it is now clear from your more elaborate reply that you did not even bother. If you had, you’d realize that your first link specifically mentions the exact situation that I called out.
Your wiki link states that the weaving problem “is most prevalent either where the junction designer has placed the on-slip [on-ramp] to the road before the off-slip [exit] at a junction (for example, the cloverleaf interchange), or in urban areas with many close-spaced junctions.” It makes it very clear that the cloverleaf presents just one example of the weaving problem, and the other example mentioned in the same breath is exactly what I presented to you.
Your YouTube link also explains that the smaller the cloverleaf, the more dangerous it is, and it says making the loops larger is better but not always possible because of the amount of land they take up. That’s why I have always noticed smoother weaving at larger cloverleafs like often exist in Texas rather than at a smaller cloverleafs that you often see in dense urban areas like in the northeast or western US.
Your one word answer didn’t make your ignorance clear, but now it is absolutely crystal clear that you either couldn’t be bothered to check your own bias with the links you shared before telling me “no” or you’re just trying to gaslight me in order to troll my downvoted comments.
Either way, whether you like it or not, the evidence you provided proves my point that the weaving problem is not simply a problem with cloverleafs but with all high speed junctions that are close together. It is not an inherent problem with cloverleafs entirely but the distance between on and off junctions.
But whatever your intentions, thanks for your links anyway. I did learn something and more than anything, they showed me that I’m already familiar with some of the alternatives to cloverleafs that I had always thought of as “modified cloverleafs.”
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://piped.video/7GTZRSPry70?feature=shared
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.