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Old 07-11-2018, 10:00 AM
 
Location: Austin, TX
12,059 posts, read 13,880,864 times
Reputation: 7257

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So I took my annual trip "up north" to where the weather is milder each summer. This year I was up in South Dakota seeing Mt. Rushmore and other sites up there.

I was surprised to see Single Point Urban Interchanges (also called Single Diamond Interchanges, which is not to be confused with the Diverging Diamond Interchange we see in Round Rock) at almost every interchange in Rapid City.

Here is how they work:
https://attap.gitbooks.io/muid/conte...terchange.html

Here are some google map views of this. I noticed the traffic always flowed and was "more logical" than our models.

One with the exit on a bridge:
https://www.google.com/maps/@44.1006.../data=!3m1!1e3

One with the exit below the freeway:
https://www.google.com/maps/@44.1004.../data=!3m1!1e3

You can still have service roads but they "don't interact" with the interchange. I feel a lot of times we use the service roads as "crutches" by simply dumping the interstate exit onto the service road.

The question is why can South Dakota create more viable intersections than Texas? They are a much poorer state. We really need to think about this.

We're getting left in the dust here folks.
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Old 07-11-2018, 01:10 PM
 
737 posts, read 1,582,036 times
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What do you recommend most up in that area to see if we only have 2 days? So far I have learned that Needle Highway, Mt. Rushmore, Wall Drug and Badlands are good.
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Old 07-11-2018, 01:42 PM
 
Location: Austin, TX
12,059 posts, read 13,880,864 times
Reputation: 7257
Quote:
Originally Posted by janejanejanejanejane View Post
What do you recommend most up in that area to see if we only have 2 days? So far I have learned that Needle Highway, Mt. Rushmore, Wall Drug and Badlands are good.
I recommend:

1st day:
Go Wind Cave and book an afternoon tour, like 2:30. These tours sell out quickly that's why I'm saying book it in advance this way.
Drive back to Mt. Rushmore, tour it and have some ice cream there overlooking the monuments. The trails are under construction unfortunately but do see the movie and museum and take photos.
Drive to Custer and have lunch at Mac's, really great burgers.
Drive back to Wind Cave NP and go on your Wind Cave Tour
If you still have energy head to Mt. Rushmore Adventure Park. if you have kids this place is fun, it has a western style shoot-em up virtual reality and also a self controlled roller coaster. It's basically an individual roller coaster with a brake that you can control that goes down a mountain, very interesting.

Day 2:
Drive to Badlands and tour it. For lunch go to Wall Drug but don't get the roast beef. It was tough like leather. I think the buffalo burgers are their best thing there. My son gobbled up his buffalo burger. The pies are good as are the cookies and ice cream. Coffee is 5 cents.
If you didn't go to Mt. Rushmore Adventure Park on Day 1 then do it then.
Otherwise go to WaTiki Indoor Waterpark Resort and wash off the day's dust. It's a pretty nice Indoor Water Park.

We found a Blaze Pizza in Rapid City that we ate at a couple of nights and we tried a Mongolian BBQ another night.

Then we headed onto the next phase of our trip.

Last edited by cBach; 07-11-2018 at 01:57 PM..
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Old 07-11-2018, 02:02 PM
 
Location: Austin, TX
12,059 posts, read 13,880,864 times
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Even Kansas is getting in on creative interchanges. Look at the use of roundabouts on the Kansas Turnpike (I-35):

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Ka...!4d-96.3965524

When will the Airport Road roundabout be ready? We are so behind here folks!
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Old 07-11-2018, 02:34 PM
 
2,132 posts, read 2,224,057 times
Reputation: 3924
Quote:
Originally Posted by cBach View Post
I was surprised to see Single Point Urban Interchanges (also called Single Diamond Interchanges, which is not to be confused with the Diverging Diamond Interchange we see in Round Rock) at almost every interchange in Rapid City.

Here is how they work:
https://attap.gitbooks.io/muid/conte...terchange.html
Those animated intersections are fascinating! The Single Point Urban Interchange looks intimidating to me. Lots of cars coming and going from a lot of different directions. But then it took me a while to get used to jug handles when I moved to New Jersey.

It seems the trend in Texas is to build lots of flyovers, which isn't an option in northern states because of road freezing. In that climate, you need to stay on the ground as much as possible.

This would be a good topic for the Urban Planning forum.
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Old 07-11-2018, 05:25 PM
 
Location: South East Austin
122 posts, read 95,122 times
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Plano has several interchanges like that over I75.
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Old 07-11-2018, 05:26 PM
 
Location: Austin, TX
12,059 posts, read 13,880,864 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by eqshadimar View Post
Plano has several interchanges like that over I75.
Can you please post the google maps for those?
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Old 07-11-2018, 05:35 PM
 
445 posts, read 413,223 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by eqshadimar View Post
Plano has several interchanges like that over I75.
US-75. I-75 runs from Detroit to Atlanta and beyond. Sorry, couldn't resist .
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Old 07-11-2018, 05:45 PM
 
3,073 posts, read 3,260,320 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cBach View Post
Can you please post the google maps for those?
They just redid 75/Parker a year or two ago: https://goo.gl/maps/zPUaukcCGCF2
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Old 07-11-2018, 06:31 PM
 
Location: Austin, TX
12,059 posts, read 13,880,864 times
Reputation: 7257
Quote:
Originally Posted by austinnerd View Post
They just redid 75/Parker a year or two ago: https://goo.gl/maps/zPUaukcCGCF2
Hmm it's almost there. You still have to get on the service road with all those businesses from Parker Road West to 75 N or Parker Road East to 75 S. Even when TxDOT tries something new, they still manage to louse it up. Compare to how the service road is in Rapid City in that google maps view. See how the service road doesn't interact at all with the interchange?
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