Editing 253: Highway Engineer Pranks

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==Explanation==
 
==Explanation==
Some classical but inaccurate {{w|Interchange (road)|interchanges}} are shown. In general, these interchanges are designed to allow the traffic to flow without directly crossing any other traffic stream. But here we can see some different approaches:
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This deviant design given makes the {{w|cloverleaf interchange}} inescapeable. The tangled interchange below gives you zero choice; and the unconventional {{w|roundabout|rotary}} makes all the cars supercollide.
  
*The first design resembles a {{w|cloverleaf interchange}}, but has no way to merge back onto the highway once you enter it, making it inescapable.
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{{w|Boston}} gives the impression of being a (slightly more complicated) prank in itself. A common fiction is that the streets evolved from old cowpaths; but in the 17th century they avoided swamps and marshes and followed shorelines before the original peninsula comprising the city was expanded with landfill in the 19th century. {{w|Transportation in Boston#Road infrastructure|Boston's road infrastructure}} in general lacks a {{w|street grid}}. On top of that, roads change names and lose and add lanes seemingly at random. Prank #12 is [http://www.google.com/imgres?um=1&hl=sv&sa=N&tbo=d&rlz=1C1SKPC_enSE376SE390&biw=1241&bih=593&tbm=isch&tbnid=bkozs95jLXWv7M:&imgrefurl=http://goofy313g.free.fr/calisota_online/maps/mcintyre.html&docid=iJXb0NBWfgz8HM&imgurl=http://goofy313g.free.fr/calisota_online/maps/mcintyrebig.jpg&w=1028&h=901&ei=Fi3sUO7MLsX54QSFroCoBQ&zoom=1&iact=rc&sig=106516870722152120231&page=1&tbnh=150&tbnw=171&start=0&ndsp=20&ved=1t:429,r:8,s:0,i:112&tx=107&ty=99 Duckburg.]
 
 
*The second interchange has off-ramps that you would normally use to change to the other highway, but in this design they simply merge back to the original highway, so you don't really have a choice in where to go. This is sometimes seen on real freeways where one lane must go around an obstacle such as a bridge support.
 
 
 
*The {{w|roundabout|rotary}} has a path that puts cars from opposite sides of the rotary onto a collision course. This is a humorous reference to {{w|particle accelerators}} (such as the {{w|Superconducting Super Collider}}), which are designed to put particles on a collision course.
 
 
 
In the title text, {{w|Boston}} is mentioned, a slightly more complicated prank in itself. A common fiction is that the streets evolved from old cowpaths, but in the 17th century, they avoided swamps and marshes and followed shorelines before the original peninsula comprising the city was expanded with landfill in the 19th century. {{w|Transportation in Boston#Road infrastructure|Boston's road infrastructure}} in general lacks a {{w|street grid}} like most other US cities have. On top of that, roads change names and lose and add lanes seemingly at random. [[Randall]] himself lives in Boston.
 
 
 
Highway engineers were also the subject of [[781: Ahead Stop]], [[1726: Unicode]] and [[2728: Lane Change Highway]].
 
  
 
==Transcript==
 
==Transcript==
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:The Zero-Choice Interchange:
 
:The Zero-Choice Interchange:
:[On- and off-ramps exist, but they lead back to the same lane they disconnected from.]
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:[On and off-ramps exist, but they lead back to the same lane they disconnected from.]
  
 
:The Rotary Supercollider:
 
:The Rotary Supercollider:
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{{comic discussion}}
 
{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Engineering]]
 

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