Eternity RPC Board
You would have to drive on it to see for yourself, but in general it's actually much quicker. The intersections involved (both the main intersection and the u-turns if they have lights) are all two-phase intersections, meaning there are only two "phases" the intersection uses. For a large intersection, you would typically need three or four phases, meaning the two usual ones as well as a "left hand turn phase". Furthermore, the lights are very easy to coordinate since they're all simply two phase systems.
I'm not doing a terribly good job of explaining this, but I hope that helped.
These types of intersections aren't necessarily about getting people where they want to go faster, but managing the flow better, so there aren't as many stoppages. It also reduces the number of collisions (left hand turns cause a large number, you'd be surprised) and also makes pedestrian travel easier, since they don't have to deal with left hand turns crossing their paths. You definitely have to travel more distance to make the left turn. I read something like an average of a half a mile? That being said, traffic flow is typically better.
Also the good thing about these roads is that, if you do miss the U-turn, there's always another just a bit down the road. It's also not terribly hard to get over. speeds aren't usually that crazy at the big roads in Detroit and especially the u-turns right by the intersection people know not to be in the left-hand lane since that's where the slow people are (since they're decelerating into the turn lane). Some that I've been on actually have a dedicated lane just for the u-turns.
I'm not doing a terribly good job of explaining this, but I hope that helped.
These types of intersections aren't necessarily about getting people where they want to go faster, but managing the flow better, so there aren't as many stoppages. It also reduces the number of collisions (left hand turns cause a large number, you'd be surprised) and also makes pedestrian travel easier, since they don't have to deal with left hand turns crossing their paths. You definitely have to travel more distance to make the left turn. I read something like an average of a half a mile? That being said, traffic flow is typically better.
Also the good thing about these roads is that, if you do miss the U-turn, there's always another just a bit down the road. It's also not terribly hard to get over. speeds aren't usually that crazy at the big roads in Detroit and especially the u-turns right by the intersection people know not to be in the left-hand lane since that's where the slow people are (since they're decelerating into the turn lane). Some that I've been on actually have a dedicated lane just for the u-turns.