Jughandles. You're sure to run into the dreaded ALL TURNS FROM RIGHT LANE sooner or later if you get off a freeway in NJ (or hit my exit lists). They are usually used on divided highways. NJ uses them more than any other state; DE and PA use them sometimes, especially in the parts near NJ, and occasionally you run into one elsewhere. They make the road more like a freeway in that all turns are from the right lane and the left lane is for passing only. On jughandled roads median breaks are limited to lights and jughandles are used for U-turns.
The 2 major types are shown above. The first is a standard jughandle which exits to the right before the light and either hits the cross road or curves to the light if there is no road on the right. The problems with this are turning left onto the cross road; this backs up the jughandle and the cross road. Occasionally at high volume jughandles a light is used at the end of the jughandle; this lets left turning traffic off the jughandle go.
To attempt to fix this problem without extra lights, the reverse jughandle was started. This is shown in the second photo. The advantage is that left turning traffic only has to merge. However this traffic must go thru the light twice. It is also harder to make a U-turn, especially if the cross road is wide.
Occasionally jughandles are killed. One example is on NJ 36 at NJ 71 in Eatontown. This was a standard 2 jughandle intersection, and traffic turning left off the jughandle got really backed up. Double left turn lanes were added to NJ 36 in the late 1990s, but the jughandles still remain for U-turns. A strange case is on US 202 north of Flemington. Originally there was a 2 jughandle intersection with a blinker. But it was at the bottom of a hill and there were many accidents. So the median break was closed and the jughandle is still used, but traffic can only turn right.
Return to the SPUI Freeway Thanks to Alex Nitzman and Mike Moroney for the sign photos and Ausway for the map.
