May 19, 2009

A Field Guide to Highway Interchanges: Part 1 and Part 2. Wow.
  • In the year 2929, these weird interchanges will be mythologized as alien landing markers. Since no one will know what they were really for anymore, if man still survives, and if woman can oblige, they will find... that they might make detailed ideograms when viewed from orbit. Kind of like cargo cult assemblages, meant to attract help to a dying world which has already recycled cars into battle axes, history books into door stops and brains into mush. Who knows? Maybe that could really be their ultimate purpose by then, and some extraterrestrial will drop care packages on us... That's the good news. The bad news is that we won't know what to do with the alien zizzles that they drop (heh).
  • This is seriously cool. I would soooo love to dazzle my passengers with arcane interchange terminology... if only I could actually afford to travel somewhere...
  • From Dane: Yeah, they’re beautiful…. when viewed from 1,500 feet in the air. On the ground, these places are inhumane nightmares,... I'm with that guy ^
  • Wouldn't be complete without the Museum of Dumb Highway Design.
  • Love it.
  • Oh! what a time killer. I just spent half an hour on Maps looking up interchanges. This was the best Australian one. I don't know which category it would be put in, it's got a bit of stack with braid, spaghetti and turbine in it. Maybe it needs its own category - chaos.
  • I love how google maps lets me stand atop your intersection and look around, tellurian. But what the heck is this? (big red pole thingy)
  • Tell, all that interchange and no vehicles! What gives?
  • Big red pole thingy looks like some kind of cellular tower. I'd say no, too weird, but there are these and these. So it's possible. LOVED rolypolyman's link. And tellurian's is scary-impressive. I never realized how weird highway design could be.
  • Very cool, polychrome. Thanks for posting this. A friend of mine works on highway design. This looks like a good bluffer's guide.