Something We Could Do Better

Since I started driving I have held the conviction that the people that design the roads do not actually drive on them. Intersections for example. There is one intersection where I live that is called Five Corners because there are five different roads that converge at that particular spot. They come in at all different angles and butt into each other and there is only one light at the heart of the intersection which doesn't affect in the least two or three of the roads involved. There can be times when you have to wait and wait to push your way into the mix since there is no guarantee that someone will ever feel inclined to let you in.
Then there is getting onto the highway. There is one entrance where the highway runs in the opposite direction of the road that you enter it from. The curve is so sharp that that you have to slow way down to about 15 or 20 mph as you go around it, then quickly check for traffic that you only see just as it is almost upon you, and then gun it (which is sad in my parents' car, which always sounds like you're killing it when you try to quickly accelerate that like) to not get run over by the traffic, only to almost immediately slam on your breaks as you approach the light that is not far away.
Toll booths are another thing that I've found baffling, mostly because I've heard about them so much from my dad. For some reason, we have to get off the interstate, loop around back the way we've come for the express purpose of hitting a tollbooth, then loop back and pick up with the interstate again. What is the purpose of this? To my understanding of the matter, we started the toll in the first place to pay for the road repairs. But we are building more roads to get to the tollbooths. And I have to say, for all that toll booth revenue and gas tax that's supposed to go toward the roads in New York, they aren't anything to brag about.
These are just a few specific examples, but really I think a lot of this is rather illogical. I mean, with all the talk about cleaning up the air and having fewer carbon emissions and the like, wouldn't we want to make our roads as logical and convenient as possible so that there isn't all this wasted energy caused by traffic backups to say nothing of the increased possibility of accidents. All those waiting, running cars just sitting because someone obviously didn't actually drive on the roads they build. You would think they would have some kind of test of these designs before they actually built the roads that way. I suppose if one is working with limited space or something you might end up having some unusual and not very convenient ways of doing things. However, I just don't see how this can be the case Upstate and overall I think that the little illogical things like this waste a lot of energy and put us all at greater risk. It could definitely be designed better.