4 ms·

It's not an open shared middle lane. There's a wire fence separating traffic. Here's how it looks: http://www.motor-life.com/sites/default/files/articles/vagver

• vacri 12y ago
  Meh, in Australia we have plenty of these 2+1 roads with no fence, just road markers. We don't have an epidemic of head-on collisions. All you need to do is at the end of the '+1' section, have the outside lane merge into to inside lane. There's no 'sudden switchover' where traffic in the middle lane is coming at traffic going the other way.
• belorn 12y ago
  As far I know, the wire fences primary purpose is to prevent cars from going into the opposite lane during a car crash. Most roads just use a painted dashed line in the middle to indicate that you are on a 2+1, and a continuous white line if you are on the 1+2 side.
• PhantomGremlin 12y ago
  Sometimes dysfunctional state politics plays a major role in US highway fatalities. E.g. I-5 [1] in Oregon. It has had numerous head-on crashes over the years because there are no barriers on large stretches of the road. This isn't a "farm to market" road which some local hicks use to bring their vegetables in to the city to sell. This is the primary Interstate highway that goes North-South from the state of Washington thru the state of Oregon to the state of California. It's heavily used by both local commuters and long distance travelers. BTW it rains a lot in Oregon! [1] http://www.oregonlive.com/commuting/index.ssf/2014/11/odot_signs_7_million_deal_to_i.html http://www.oregonlive.com/commuting/index.ssf/2014/11/odot_s...