15 Craziest Road Junctions in the World

there are a few things we humans hate more than traffic from bank holiday log jams to rush-hour congestion there is nowhere closer to the gates of Hell than the endless rivers of little red lights we find ourselves in every time we need to be somewhere in a hurry for as long as we've had cars and swear words nothing has brought the two together more successfully than traffic so join us friends as we explore the world's longest weirdest and most dangerous horizontal car parts at number 15 on our tour of the top traffic tastic Turnpike's is Atlanta's Spaghetti Junction the Tom Moreland interchange known locally as Spaghetti Junction is a 5 stack interchange at the intersection of Interstate 85 and interstate 285 Spaghetti Junction is named after former Georgian Transport Commissioner Tom Moreland although what the poor guy did to deserve that honor is a mystery of its own the junction handles nearly a third of a million vehicles every day there are no fewer than 14 separate bridges and the whole structure Rises a majestic 90 feet from the tarmac the wind concha intersection Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam you might think that a simple crossroads would be nothing compared to the concrete noodle stack that is the Tom Moreland interchange well you'd be wrong so very wrong what makes this particular crossroads so exhilarating is the sheer chaos surrounding it you see the wind concha intersection is the motoring equivalent of a black ski run cars mopeds took tooks and semi-trailer trucks fight it out daily with water buffalo cycling monks and an old woman who's been crossing the road every day for the last hundred years and doesn't see why she should have to change her habits because of a few million motorists the junction is further complicated by the rules of the road which in the case of this interchange owe more to Mad Max than the highway code we did our best to work them out and this is what we came up with if you were our car you can do what you like if you're on a moped the same rules apply but you can go a lot faster Shibuya crossing Tokyo Japan at number 13 is a junction right out of a horror movie like literally the Shibuya crossing Tokyo Japan is an infamous crossing in the heart of the Tokyo metropolis Japan the junction is so notorious there's a good chance to recognize it from one of its numerous big screen appearances commonly used as a TV location and often shot in fast frame footage of the interplay between scrambling pedestrians and gridlocked cars at the Shibuya crossing has become so recognizable that the junction itself has become a tourist attraction the junction is featured in too many TV segments to mention but it's big screen credits include lost in translation The Fast and the Furious Tokyo Drift and the Resident Evil franchise intersection in Ethiopia with no traffic lights at this time we travel from infamy to insanity mescal square Addis Ababa Ethiopia looks a lot like the Shibuya crossing at least at first glance but the only reason thousands of people aren't killed on the Shibuya crossing on a daily basis is thanks to the complex system of traffic lights following the rational train of thought then there literally is no reason at all why thousands of Ethiopians don't die in mescal square in mescal square there are no signs traffic lights roundabouts traffic cops or indeed any rules at all the lack of rules and lights do make the junction a dangerous place and the junction is known to be one of the country's worst accident hotspots but the fact that anyone survives it at all is testament to the sheer tenacity of Ethiopian motorists although to be fair they have had a lot of practice unlike many of the other crossings on our list mescal square has been a crossroads for nearly 2,000 years although maybe it's time they put up some traffic lights the Magic Roundabout Swindon England we're taking a break from cross roads and spaghetti junctions as we head to sleepy Swindon in the UK just inside the town you'll find the Magic Roundabout yes it's actually named after the legendary children's TV show and it's chissus Trippi designed in 1972 by Frank Blackmore the roundabout is in fact five mini roundabouts surrounding central hub it's something to navigate the Magic Roundabout is not for the faint of heart and indeed when I first made the attempt some years ago the advice I was given by my local passenger was just close your eyes and go for it despite the complexity of the structure which resembles a flying saucer when seen from above the Magic Roundabout actually boasts a decent safety record arc de triomphe paris we go from one crazy roundabout to another i would argue that the twelve spoke wheel surrounding the legendary art did trump paris has a greater claim to the title of Magic Roundabout but I don't get to name them built in 1806 the glorious Arc de Triomphe is a monument to those who died in the Napoleonic Wars and the French Revolution why the French then chose to surround the monument with one of the most dangerous and convoluted traffic systems on earth is anyone's guess driving around the Arc de triumph is so dangerous that there is actually an access to pay if you make an insurance claim as a result should you ever find yourself approaching the notorious Junction here are some tips to remember one keep your cool two priority is always to write 300 meters you want to make it on the roundabout grow a pair for your horn is a tool use it 5 Mirror Mirror Mirror Gibraltar Airport and number 9 we've got something a bit different for you the junction surrounding Gibraltar Airport may not have the lawlessness of mescal square or the sheer volume of traffic of Shibuya crossing it doesn't even have the complex systems of Swing dunes Magic Roundabout but it's the only place on this list we're jumping in amber light might mean sideswiping a 747 Gibraltar is not a big place indeed the British colony is little more than a single Rock on the coast of Spain because of its geographical restrictions gibraltars traffic planners had to get inventive when it came to the road layout and one of their workarounds was to turn the airport into a giant crossroad Shanghai's nan Phu bridge interchange in at number eight is the nan who bridge interchange Shanghai China we've had bridges we've had multi Lane intersections and we've had roundabouts so naturally it was only a matter of time before we got them all together Gate tower building across the China Sea we find number seven is it a road is it a bridge is it a building look in a sky chief since you asked the gate tower building in Osaka Japan is all three after all who I let something as insignificant as a tower block get in the way of traffic in fact the argument was fielded the other way around is it was the building owners who refused to give up their permit and fought the Planning Department for five years before eventually agreeing on a design which allowed the road to pass through the skyscraper fun fact the bridge upon which the road sits does not actually touch the tower at all judge Harry Gregerson interchange the judge Harry Gregerson interchange Los Angeles California was completed in 1993 at the time it was billed as the tallest most expensive traffic system in California and at 140 feet high it certainly earns that at least part of that honor moviegoers may recognize the interchange from the blockbuster Keanu Reeves movie speed you may be interested to know that the unfinished ramp Sandra Bullock is forced to jump in the movie was in fact fully completed and edited later to look incomplete gravelly Hill interchange at number five we find the second Spaghetti Junction on our list this time the honor belongs to the gravelly Hill interchange in Birmingham UK the interchange at gravelly Hills serves no less than 18 routes and is an engineering marvel the highest point of the intersection reaches 80 feet but in constructing the interchange engineers also had to consider four railway lines three canals two rivers and a partridge in a pear tree William izaki interchange if the Tom Moreland and the gravelly Hill interchanges are Spaghetti junctions the oi'm izaki interchange in Japan is a noodle junction did you see what I did there the oi'm Ezaki interchange is such a convoluted traffic system that it was once one of six options in a youtube competition to build a simulated working traffic system some of the entries are worth checking out by the way particularly if you think our top 15 are a bit out there Yun on East Road interchange Shanghai China we're back in Shanghai there are a few road systems anywhere which could be described as pretty but there is an argument that yen on East Road interchange could claim such a title the interchange is part of an elevated expressway in Shanghai China which runs along Yun on Road unsurprisingly it's photogenic nature won the eyes of a number of film makers and the interchange can be seen in a number of films perhaps most famously in the Bond movie Skyfall tycoons Gaia Square Moscow now Moscow is not the sort of place you want to end up in a road rage incident from known insurance scams to armed motorists driving in Moscow is not for the faint of heart at the best of times those fears are then compounded when you reach tagging skya square tagging scious Square Moscow is one of the world's worst designed traffic systems over 12 roads converge and a large oval roundabout with no clear rules signs and more traffic than Amazon on Black Friday oh and most of it is armed and angry Sharjah intersection and so we reach our number one it's not hard to understand Saudi Arabia is a religious country you only need to look at the Sharjah intersection to realize why the locals place so much faith in God after all who else do they have to protect them from certain death every time leave the city it is perhaps unfair to call the white knuckle ride known as the Sharjah intersection a traffic system it might be more accurate to describe it as a Raceway within a number of traffic systems with an added rally stage and a bumper car track not only does the intersection have an oval with fast straights type bends and multiple exits but it also has another fast oval within the first a hidden overpass with multiple on and off ramps and no discernible rules somehow we've made it successfully to the end of our top traffic tour and we thank you for joining us on our journey be sure to subscribe and make sure you see our next video first and if you've ever used one of these crazy junctions or know about one we've missed be sure to tell us in the comments

Channel: MAD LAB

Views: 305,153

Rating: 3.9159944 out of 5

Keywords: craziest, craziest junctions, junctions, craziest junction, spaghetti junctions, interchanges, motorways, roads, spaghetti junction, intersection, roundabout, interchange, motorway, crazy, unusual, road, top15, Best, insane, junction, highway, autobahn, crazy junctions, crazy junction, road systems, road system, roundabouts, giant crossroad, crossroads, crossroad, ROAD JUNCTION, ROAD JUNCTIONS, CRAZY, THIS

Id: rDzAomR6me4

Length: 11min 19sec (679 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 10 2019