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Comment by dmurray | Hacker News Reader

I've noticed while driving in the US that American highway exits seem to be designed differently than those in the UK. The rightmost lane of three-lane highways will often become the exit lane, so if you stick to the rightmost lane you'll frequently need to switch lanes to your left to stay on the road. In the UK, in contrast, the exit lane is usually the new lane, and you have to switch lanes to get into it.

So instead of constant lane switching, use the middle lane for going straight ahead, and the leftmost lane for passing.

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That depends on the region and age of the road. In more rural areas where the freeways are newer things are much more consistent and usually just as you'd expect. In older areas like New York or California where many of the freeways predate the Federal Interstate system, and where lane expansions, lane extensions, and exits have grown far more organically, there are inconsistent designs (although often consistent within the time period) and even bizarre, one-off stuff.

California didn't even adhere to Federal Interstate guidelines for exit numbering until relatively recently (sometime in the early to mid 2000s, IIRC), decades after most other states. California's scheme predated the Federal Interstate system and they weren't keen on changing it.

Only tangentially related, but New Jersey has a special case of this. It used to be all in on "jug-handles" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jughandle), where you would need to be in the rightmost lane in order to make a "left" turn. But they have also built intersections that have the standard left turn lane, on the left. You only know which one it is as you approach the intersection, then either need to get all the way to the left or right. Always a fun surprise!

>California's scheme predated the Federal Interstate system and they weren't keen on changing it.

Massachusetts is about to embark on a project to renumber all of their exits per federal mandate. The consensus is that the only way they can take "exit 17"[1] from us is by lasering it out of our brains. I know people who are planning a guerilla renumbering campaign for this sign after it is harmonized.

[1]: https://i.imgur.com/3X8gIOf.jpg

Back when Connecticut re-numbered the highways they struck a deal where they'd re-number the highways as the signs were replaced to save money. Massachusetts being Massachusetts they'll inevitably find a way to replace all the signs three or four times to maximize the number of favors they can do for the well connected people in the relevant industries.

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