[formeromaharesident]

I was looking at Omaha on Street View with Google Maps and I noticed that they've put in a traffic light at the intersection of I-80 and L. You've got to be kidding me.

It's a cloverleaf intersection for crying out loud! It doesn't need a traffic light. This makes no sense!

[dsrich98]

Originally Posted by formeromaharesident

I was looking at Omaha on Street View with Google Maps and I noticed that they've put in a traffic light at the intersection of I-80 and L. You've got to be kidding me.

It's a cloverleaf intersection for crying out loud! It doesn't need a traffic light. This makes no sense!

I think your mapping is incorrect. There is no stoplight there. I looked at the map and think the features you may be referring to are overhead traffic signs. from asbove I guess could look like stoplights.

[formeromaharesident]

Originally Posted by dsrich98

I think your mapping is incorrect. There is no stoplight there. I looked at the map and think the features you may be referring to are overhead traffic signs. from asbove I guess could look like stoplights.

Did you use the Street View feature?

[Happygolucky]

Yes there is a stop light there. It is a an east bound left turn lane to go north onto I-680.
It works quite well it pulls traffic off of the cloverleaf ramp and make the commute to DTO muck better and easier. So if you there was a way to make a clover leaf intersection better they found a way.

[formeromaharesident]

Umm..., I think the purpose of a cloverleaf intersection is so that they don't have to put in a traffic light and cars don't have to stop. Otherwise, that would defeat the whole purpose of it even being a cloverleaf intersection in the first place.

Something that wasn't broken got fixed. I hate it when that happens.

[dsrich98]

I went through here last night and as has been pointed out there is a stoplight here. I think this is because they don't have it set up like a true cloverleaf. The south side ramp off of L is used for accessing I-80, and the northside where is used for accessing I-680.

The unfortunate thing about this is that the northside lane is not really needed because you can still access I-680 from the southside ramp where they are funneling I-80 traffic.

I'm sure some traffic engineer could tell us what the thought process is on this but I don;t see why it's needed. I guess they just didn't want all the traffic on the southside ramp.

[formeromaharesident]

They have way too many ramps at the I-680/I-80 interchange. When I lived there, it was just a simple intersection. Now it's all big, complicated and can be somewhat confusing to people, not that it is to me.

They changed it to the way it is today back in 1995. It took almost 2 years to complete. Frankly, I didn't care for the way they changed it. That's just me.

But anyway, I don't think a traffic light is needed at the L Street interchange because it's a cloverleaf.

[Jays1983]

I wouldn't lose much sleep over it...

[dsrich98]

Originally Posted by formeromaharesident

But anyway, I don't think a traffic light is needed at the L Street interchange because it's a cloverleaf.

Except it's not a true cloverleaf. There is traffic turning left across the lane. So the traffic light is needed.

[joelwnelson]

I remember when the intersection was redesigned, the concept of the collector-distributor roads was presented as a way to ease the traffic congestion caused by merging in and out of traffic in areas with a lot of exits and entrance ramps. It's helped by having the access points only be north of Center (I-680), near 96th St. (I-80), and south of Q St. (I-80). And eastbound I-80 from eastbound L St. at I St... NOT. That ramp has got to go. I always thought it was a bad idea, and looked forward to it being removed when they redesigned the intersection. And they never did. The traffic volume coming from eastbound L St. to eastbound I-80, taking the cloverleaf ramp, and then merging in to I-80 right before the I-680 exit causes a lot of dangerous situations with traffic having to weave and merge. Traffic from L St. to I-80, and traffic from I-80 going to I-680, have to compete for the same lanes and/or swap positions in a relatively short space. Not to mention in peak times the drivers on eastbound I-80 who just take exit 445, speed along the shorter CD road there, and try to merge back in on I-80 before 680 hopefully passing 3/4 mile of slower traffic.

The traffic light was supposed to help the congestion and merging problem. But IMHO it didn't do a bit of good. Drivers in the right lane on L St. still just use the cloverleaf and either merge onto I-80 or stay in the right lane in order to get to I-680. Drivers in the left lane can now use the other ramp but still just access either I-80 or I-680, while also forcing traffic on westbound L St. to have to stop at the light and back up toward 108th St. in peak traffic times.

The merge from eastbound L (cloverleaf) to eastbound I-80 needs to be removed. Fully go with the collector-distributor ramps, adding a lane on the ramp if needed. Just route all eastbound L St. traffic from the cloverleaf onto the CD ramps where westbound L and I St. motorists already join I-80 or I-680, and no more merging right before the I-680 northbound exit.