One of the most vexing aspects of traveling between mainland China and

Hong Kong is the car travel: People in the former drive on the right

side of the road; people in the latter drive on the left (a vestige of the British empire).

So to quell

confusion at the border and, more importantly, to keep cars from

smashing into each other, the Dutch firm NL Architects proposed a brilliant, simple solution, the Flipper bridge.

The bridge does exactly what the name suggests: It flips traffic

around. The key here is separating the two sides of traffic, using a figure-eight shape. One side of the road dips under

the other, funneling cars that were traveling on the left to the

right (and vice versa), without forcing them to encounter head-on traffic at an intersection. The bridge

makes what should be a disorienting switch exquisitely easy. Check out

PixelActive‘s 3D model of the traffic flow

below:

Say, for instance, you’re coming from Zhuhai. As you cross the

bridge on the right into Hong Kong, the highway slopes downward to let

you pass under the oncoming traffic. As it slopes back up, you reemerge

on the left. No cars barreling straight at you. No concrete labyrinth

to maneuver through. No sweat (and, ostensibly, no blood).