Talk:Malfunction Junction

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I've never heard the Interstate 80 and Interstate 380 interchange near Iowa City, Iowa referred to as such. But I do remember when living in the area that a lot of people didn't really care to much for the interchange. There were a number of accidents - such as trucks winding up on their sides because of the tight turns required by some of the ramps. I heard they're going to fix that particular interchange. Another thing that was odd about the interchange was that there were signs placed announcing the interchange 30 miles away on each side.
JesseG 22:49, 15 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Tautology

"The name is an adaptation of "Conjunction Junction"." Removed this, a. seems nlikely so needs a cite.b. Redirects to Scholhouse Rock! Rich Farmbrough 16:28 16 May 2006 (UTC).

  • The redirect to SHR makes sense, although I think you could argue that "Conjunction Junction," "Interjections," and "Shot Heard Around the World" should have their own pages. I digress. The problem is finding a first reference for "malfunction junction." If it predates the early 1970s, then the link is blown; otherwise, it's an open issue. —C.Fred (talk) 01:14, 17 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] The true story of Tampa's Malfunction Junction.

Malfunction Junction was an interchange with an on ramp that had no view of the merging traffic. To compensate for that they installed lights on the guardrail that showed vacancies in the traffic above. If you synchronized your vehicle with the blank spot in the lights, you should be positioned to merge between vehicles when you arrive at the elevation of the freeway.

While an ingenious idea and heralded as an advance in future automated highway technology in practice the system did not work. It merged one vehicle with a pre-stressed concrete beam that sensor mistook for two vehicles with a space between. At other times, the system simply failed to operate at all leaving motorists to merge blind and unassisted.

The greatest problem was that motorists did not trust it and it therefore became ignored and useless. The system was removed and the ramp modified. Now the junction is a conventional interchange joining two hopelessly overloaded highways. Malfunction junction at I4 and what is now I275 gets blamed for Tampa’s traffic nightmares but in fact is an adequate junction between two inadequate highways.

To this day, there are people who will not drive through this junction and some who slow down when approaching it exacerbating the already bad traffic flow in the region. Other interchanges have received the nick name but none has deserved it quite as much as Tampa’s own Malfunction Junction —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 208.189.189.177 (talk • contribs) 18:19, 21 June 2006 (UTC).

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