You have to make a left by basically taking almost like a freeway ramp off to the right.
If you miss your left turn ramp on the right in some parts of Jersey, you end up driving many miles to get another opportunity due to all the Jersey barriers that basically prevent real left-hand turns.
Missing a turn in New Jersey is a unique kind of frustration. The frustrating thing is that these are not highways, but simple routes that in most states would have normal intersections.
The system is clearly more efficient if you know exactly where you are going - it's an expert system. Which also implies it's unforgiving to people unfamiliar with it. (As in, me.)
Me too. Made me insane the first time I drove around NJ... until the understanding kicked in. Then I saw the efficiencies though that took awhile to make up for the earlier frustrations as a visitor.
When I was in highschool in New Jersey in the 1970s, right-on-red was legalized; a classmate realized that this meant that under light traffic conditions, if he faced a red light while driving down the highway, he could turn off onto the jughandle, then make a right back onto the highway, regardless of whether the cross-traffic light was still green or had turned red.
More recently, Google maps at one point had a routing bug that caused it to propose a 360-degree double U-turn at every intersection while traveling along US 1, which in practice would result in the same maneuver.
ARGH - I HATE those. Couple those with poor signage and out-of-towners will be lost for, well, if not hours, certainly tens of minutes. :/ (cherry hill ... lost several times in that area and no ways to turn around for miles).
It is a lot better than collisions at lights. A NJ DOT friend says the jughandles are a lot safer-- the principle is keeping stopped and turning cars away from moving traffic.
Would many DOT workers say their systems are stupid? Michigan DOT people probably justify the Michigan Left as safe/efficient/etc, and other places use roundabouts (Camden seems to have removed their roundabout(s) last time I was there).
Also, forcing people to drive an extra 3-4 miles because they missed a turn is probably not very good for the environment. Just sayin'
The worst offenders are easily the towns that mix the jughandle turns with "traditional" left turn intersections; you never know which damn lane to be in to turn.
The reverse Jughandle is the standard way to change Autobahns in Germany, driving many miles if you miss the intersection included. But hey: no speed limit!
You have to make a left by basically taking almost like a freeway ramp off to the right.
If you miss your left turn ramp on the right in some parts of Jersey, you end up driving many miles to get another opportunity due to all the Jersey barriers that basically prevent real left-hand turns.