MoDOT's trying to lure me home…

…by opening an interchange that has people driving on the left side of the road!?

On Monday, the Missouri Department of Transportation completed construction on a new traffic scheme at the junction of Interstate 44 and Highway 13 in Springfield, best known as the exit leading you to QuikTrip and Fantastic Caverns. The intersection design, called a divergent diamond, has only been done three times before in France. (Were I still on the wrong side of 36°30', or at least in Southwest Missouri, I would likely have driven through this intersection at least once in the next month on account of desiring to visit the grandparents near the Fourth of July holiday and a greater desire to gork out on QuikTrip's fountain quarts whilst driving, but I digress.)

In short, the intersection is structured to where traffic signals only handle traffic across the bridge, while traffic exiting the freeway need only yield to oncoming traffic and entering the freeway simply exit when they need do. This results, however, in Missourians using that intersection now driving on the left side of the road. (Next thing you know, Heartland Chevrolet will add Vauxhalls to their lineup.) Traffic flow across the bridge only one direction at a time, hopefully preventing backups and negating the need for turn lanes. However, there runs the risk of confusing the crap out of drivers, especially at night if the glare guards don't do the trick.

For MoDOT, this is the first implementation of this design coming to fruition (and the first in the U.S.). MoDOT initially proposed it for the semi-truck heavy intersection between I-435 and Front Street in Kansas City's East Bottoms. Along with Front Street, they also plan to introduce it at I-270 and Dorsett Road in the St. Louis suburb of Richmond Heights. And several other state DoTs are looking into it.

If they really wanted to give Missouri a taste of Britain, they could have done a roundabout interchange instead! That's practically the standard along Britain's motorways!