[cache.viewimages.com] Looks like spaghetti junction in England

Northern Virginia residents scoff at their cheap imitation of our pride and joy:

[maps.google.com]

that main pic you have there looks like it was PRETTY basic - until they decided to add on that new 5th road at the bottom left!

houston, and socal people scratch their heads and wonder what the big deal is about.

If that's Beijing, then the Chinese have been carbon-copying the interchanges in Albany.

Man, I'm glad I'm not the only one who's a big dork.

Cloverleaf clusterfuck.

Some of those look like fun to take fast, maybe in a Geely, but not a Brillance. Of course, if the signage is as difficult to read as Chinese arithmatic, which is supposedly as hard as a dick's hatband, then I'd have to rent a rickshaw and be driven.

Phew, any fears I had of any terrorist attacks on the Olympics are all but gone.. No doubt they will become completely lost and frustrated.. the new target, Beijing's department of transportation.. if there's such a thing, I'm guessing no by the pictures.

These pics must have been taken early in the day, when the factories were all shut down and nobody had started their commutes. Usually, the interchanges, like large portions of the great wall, are made invisible from space by the smog.

Also, after 5:00 in the morning nobody takes any interchange fast in any car - you crawl along next to all of the other drivers who used to use bicycles.

I stood next to an intersection in Tianjin for 15 minutes, just to see how every pedestrian, car, bike, and motorcycle ignore the traffic signals AND NOT run into each other.

My Beauty Leopard could handle those interchanges with great aplomb.

reminds me of Atlanta's interchanges...click to see bigger

Malfunction Junction, oriental style. Smokeydawg, you want to weigh in on this?

@tenbeers: I've been through there many times. I always need to triple check my exit.

@Dr.Danger's got the power: wow that third one is pretty cool... very nice cloverleaf formation!

@tenbeers: Pff, that's like amateur hour compared to these Beijing pics. At least the American ones have the benefit of comprehensible road markings and lack of hilarious Engrish.

@Maxichamp: Beijing is quite a bit more orderly than Tianjin. The police have literally been thrashing people with bamboo canes for about two years, trying to prep them for the Olympics. I watched that happening with a slight feeling of discomfort, yet with a modicum of joy because Chinese drivers are deeply unskilled and pretty much depraved.

@Number_Six: "people" meaning "drivers"

@bzr - Pinko Commie Bastard Edition: I was slightly confused when I drove onto a "Big Brigade Superspeedway" outside Lanzhou last year. Apparently that's what the Chinese for "highway" translates into.

I can picture pretty much any of these having my dad crap his pants. For a guy who owned a 1969 Jag E-Type in his youth, the man cannot drive freeways/cities/places with cars.

Those all look like standard, modern interchanges with flyovers to me. They're remaking the entire west side of Indianapolis over the next 5-10 years, and they'll all look like that.

My only confusion is on the 1st of the small pictures why the north/south main road seems to split right in the middle of the interchange, then merge right back together - that makee no sensee.

@layabout: that looks like standard 1950's "hey, let's see how much road we can squeeze into this one acre of space we have" highway design.

@tmkforever: I think you win for worst series of interchanges!

@tenbeers: You win the "Google Maps has been updated, but the satellite image has not" award for the day!

Actually, if you think about it, crazy interchanges are not the height of chaos. They're perhaps the middle level, or maybe the basecamp. No, the height of chaos would be multiple roads, all funneling into the same intersection, with no interchanges. Extra points for a lack of traffic lights.

@LionZoo:

Check out "Seven Corners" on Google Maps. There are (oddly-timed) traffic lights though, so deduct points accordingly.

/I hate this area!

In Canada, more specifically Mississauga, Ontario, we have what's called "The Basketweave" on the 401. Check it out, I think it's on Wikipedia.

@tenbeers:Without even clicking, I'm sure that must be the Mixing Bowl. I especially enjoy the bits where you are more or less in a concrete chute, unable to see anything ahead, behind, below.

@Morphine: Is that so unbelieveable?

@Branden.Tang:

Try the interchange at Hwy 401 and 427 in Toronto:

[maps.google.ca]

And this is the basketweave Branden was talking about. I think technically it's in North York, not Mississauga.

Oops, second link:

[maps.google.ca]

@Dr.Danger's got the power: Hooray for the Luftwaffe-esque Spaghetti Junction (about 15 mins from my house, heh)

I remember the road maps are available when I accessed Google maps from within China but not outside. So I suppose if you find a way you access that server you can get your road maps. In Chinese of course.

[ditu.google.cn]

A friend of mine lives just 200 meters north of the first interchange. Weirdly the overhangs have flowerboxes along the sides - with living (possibly fake) flowes in them!

Believe me when I say that there are some crossings that are worse in Shanghai - and definately in India.

Every interchange in Madras/Chennai comes to mind.