I gather its unique, but it works very well in my opinion.

If you are trying to turn right into a street cutting across the traffic coming towards you, then at least you don't have to worry about the people in the other lane coming towards you who are [b:8cfcceebf6]also[/b:8cfcceebf6] wanting to turn into the same street, as they have to wait for you.

If you are the one turning left, who has to wait for the other cars turning right, you can still nip around the corner if they are held up waiting for a gap in the oncoming traffic.

All in all the time saved for the car turning right across the traffic flow is considerable, whilst the car turning left has plenty of opportunities to scoot around the corner.