Junction (traffic)

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Chicago Transit Authority signal tower 18 guides elevated Chicago 'L' north and southbound Purple and Brown lines intersecting with east and westbound Pink and Green lines and the looping Orange line above the Wells and Lake street intersection in the loop. CTA loop junction.jpg
Chicago Transit Authority signal tower 18 guides elevated Chicago 'L' north and southbound Purple and Brown lines intersecting with east and westbound Pink and Green lines and the looping Orange line above the Wells and Lake street intersection in the loop.

A junction, when discussed in the context of transport, is a location where traffic can change between different routes, directions, or sometimes modes, of travel.

Contents

Etymology

The word "junction" derives from Latin iunctus, past participle of iungere, to join. The word "junction" in this context may also refer to:

History

Historically, many cities and market towns developed wherever there was a junction. A road intersection offered opportunities for rest or trade for travellers and merchants. Towns sprang up to accommodate this; the first such in Europe were probably at intersections of the Roman roads.

A similar effect came with the growth of rail transport; so-called railway towns grew up near major railway junctions  originally to accommodate railway workers, but expanding into fully functioning settlements over time.

Junctions also developed where different modes of transport intersected, e.g. canal and rail.

Junctions for specific transport modes

See main articles: Junction (road) and Junction (rail).

There are many types of different junction for road transport and rail transport (including metro and rapid transit systems). If many of these are contained in a small area, and where passengers can change from one transport mode to the other in them, it is said to be a transport hub.


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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Intersection (road)</span> Road junction where two or more roads either meet or cross at grade

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Junction (rail)</span> Train track interchange

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chatswood railway station</span> Railway station in Sydney

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grade separation</span> Type of road junction

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transport hub</span> Place where passengers and cargo are exchanged

A transport hub is a place where passengers and cargo are exchanged between vehicles and/or between transport modes. Public transport hubs include railway stations, rapid transit stations, bus stops, tram stops, airports, and ferry slips. Freight hubs include classification yards, airports, seaports, and truck terminals, or combinations of these. For private transport by car, the parking lot functions as an unimodal hub.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Journey planner</span> Specialized search engine for travelling

A journey planner, trip planner, or route planner is a specialized search engine used to find an optimal means of travelling between two or more given locations, sometimes using more than one transport mode. Searches may be optimized on different criteria, for example fastest, shortest, fewest changes, cheapest. They may be constrained, for example, to leave or arrive at a certain time, to avoid certain waypoints, etc. A single journey may use a sequence of several modes of transport, meaning the system may know about public transport services as well as transport networks for private transportation. Trip planning or journey planning is sometimes distinguished from route planning, which is typically thought of as using private modes of transportation such as cycling, driving, or walking, normally using a single mode at a time. Trip or journey planning, in contrast, would make use of at least one public transport mode which operates according to published schedules; given that public transport services only depart at specific times, an algorithm must therefore not only find a path to a destination, but seek to optimize it so as to minimize the waiting time incurred for each leg. In European Standards such as Transmodel, trip planning is used specifically to describe the planning of a route for a passenger, to avoid confusion with the completely separate process of planning the operational journeys to be made by public transport vehicles on which such trips are made.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glossary of road transport terms</span>

Terminology related to road transport—the transport of passengers or goods on paved routes between places—is diverse, with variation between dialects of English. There may also be regional differences within a single country, and some terms differ based on the side of the road traffic drives on. This glossary is an alphabetical listing of road transport terms.