A Diamond in the rough — for drivers

By Tom Fetters
copy editor

Safer and cheaper – so what’s not to like about Double Crossover Diamond Interchanges?

After reading Sean Ryan’s story this week about the Federal Highway Administration wanting to study how drivers react to the new interchange design that can prevent accidents and cost less than cloverleaf setups, my reaction was: Bring ’em on.

If Double Crossover Diamonds can save lives and money, let’s have more of them. And after looking over the photo of the DCD in use in Springfield, Mo., I’m confident that motorists will have little trouble adjusting to the new design.

After all, we’ve handled traffic-flow innovations before.

Take roundabouts. We learned to ease onto and off from these merry-go-rounds with minimal effort, improving flow and, studies show, reducing crashes.

And the Michigan Left. Sure, at first it was awkward turning right to turn left. But before long, we appreciated avoiding those long waits in the left-turn lane — and we sighed in relief at no longer getting cut off by motorists racing to finish their lefts on red lights.

So let’s get going with those studies, refine the design and make interchanges cheaper to build and safer to navigate.

Tom Fetters is a copy editor at The Daily Reporter. He appreciates left-hand turns and, of course, NASCAR.