Roundabouts?

[Optimistic Paranoid]

A Google search on "roundabouts vs traffic light intersections" shows studies that indicate roundabouts are much safer.  Any accidents that occur are minor compared to head on collisions and t bone right angle collisions, so fatalities are much less.

I don't particularly like them, but that's probably because I still find them strange.

 

[GotSmart]

Invented in New Jersey, they were called traffic circles. Mostly named by location, such as Red Lion Circle, Airport Circle, and others. Mostly were used where more than 2 roads would intersect. They worked well enough for years, but heavier traffic became a problem. Most were eliminated. With varying degrees of success. Some intersections were much worse after the circle was replaced. See Airport Circle in Atlantic County.

Thanks for the laugh.  

1768 Sumerset England.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roundabout

 

[tx2sturgis]

Thanks for the laugh.  

I chuckled too.

We Americans figure everything is invented here.

Well isn't it?

 

[Florida boondocker]

roundabouts vs red light

i vote roundabouts .... here the red light have camera with big fines, seem like the guy in front of you slows down right at the light just
so you get a ticket

 

[tx2sturgis]

Here's a great instructional video from the state of Michigan, on roundabouts, and it covers automobiles, trucks, pedestrians, and bicycles.

It should be shown in every driver's ed class...

One problem tho, is that many roundabouts are smaller, with only one or two circular lanes thru the circle, and this is where people get confused around trucks or larger RVs, since we have to take up both lanes or swing really wide to make it thru.



[video=youtube]

 

[Gary68]

the last few years they have been replacing out in the country 4 way stops with roundabouts and they are evil,evil things of mass confusion

i say its because they want to be all euro and they cost way more then a stop sign to build and maintain so job security?
but who knows it's the gubberment

 

[Weight]

""The operating and entry characteristics of these circles differ considerably from modern roundabouts""

 

[Ballenxj]

Funny, the things that occur to a person early on a Sunday morning. So this is part musing and part questioning. 
<--------->
Then, flash forward many years, I return at the end of last year, and every place I look in the western states I've been in, there are roundabouts. They're like bunny rabbits. Even Pahrump, NV is building roundabouts for God knows what reason. And of course, they decided they had to put them on one of the two main roads into town to entirely clog everything.

They're gonna ruin Pahrump too?
A few years back they put roundabouts in a few select area's in North Las Vegas. About a year later they took them back out. Probably because they were confusing people that don't know how they work. Combine that with inattentive drivers due to texting, ignorance, or whatever. Heck, I watch people at four way stops that are dumbfounded. I think paying attention to driving, while you are driving is becoming a lost art.
Just like synchronized swimming, there are those that can, and those that absolutely cannot.
But anyway, gotta spend those tax dollars somewhere. :dodgy:

 

[Putts]

World's most confusing roundabout: The Magic Roundabout in Swindon, England, was constructed in 1972[1] and consists of five mini-roundabouts arranged around a sixth central, anticlockwise roundabout.

Better know it's there coming home from the pub.

 

[slynne]

I am a roundabout convert. On my commute there is a place where the road crosses the freeway near an intersection with another road. It used to have three traffic lights (one each at the entrances/exits from the freeway and one at the other intersection). During rush hour, those intersections would back up for miles. I can remember it taking me an hour to get through it when there was construction on alternate routes. Then, they replaced the lights with three roundabouts in a row. Traffic moves so much better. It is like night and day. For that road at least, the roundabouts were a huge improvement. Also, they work when the power is out.

 

[decodancer]

After 10 years in NY, Ct, and NH, I've grown to like roundabouts. My only complaint is the idiots who use them to pass a slower car or in my case, cut off a motorhome so they don't get stuck behind me.

 

[tx2sturgis]

World's most confusing roundabout: The Magic Roundabout in Swindon, England, was constructed in 1972[1] and consists of five mini-roundabouts arranged around a sixth central, anticlockwise roundabout.

Repeat after me:

CLUSTER F**K!

 

[Putts]

Well, they already run around on the wrong side of the road...how much more confusing can it get?

 

[Kathleen]

Can't stand them! So non-New Mexican.

 

[tx2sturgis]

Can't stand them! So non-New Mexican.

There's one in Clovis...I'm wracking my brain and cant think of any others in NM but there might be.

Edit: Oh yeah, there is one at the Route 66 Casino at Rio Puerco.

 

[ZoNiE]

Don't get me started about the ones in Sedona/Oak Creek. They put the damn things in and every tourist stops at them, even when there are NO OTHER CARS present. Hate 'em.

The ones in Scotland are nutso. I could drive to work and back to the hotel every day for a week and not stop one single time. It'll take 50 years AFTER they have them EVERYWHERE in the US for the general public to get them here.

Some of the ones In Nijmegen, The Netherlands, have traffic lights INSIDE them. Took me a while to figure those out.

 

[TrainChaser]

Here in W. WA, they apparently have to take them in Fours, so they install four of them, often quite close together. Here are some of the problems:
* They build the centers high, so you can't see over them, or if someone is coming.
* Most of the young guys try to take them as fast as they can. Since you can't see over them, if you don't see anyone coming, you pull out just in time for the mental midget to come flying around, almost on two wheels.
* In residential areas, the center divider is raised AND planted with trees close together so no one can jump the median -- like paramedics and fire trucks responding to an emergency -- so these emergency responders have to go all the way down to the next roundabout (sirens blaring), and there always seems to be someone who just can't wait, and charges out in front of them.
* There often aren't any warning signs on what the coming cross street is named, so some drivers don't realize this is the place to turn until they're right there, and then they slam on their brakes to slow down enough to make the turn. There are often broken red tail lights decorating the pavement.
* Some of them have the little surprise of lane reduction right after the roundabout -- you are in the right lane of two lanes, go halfway around, start going straight and then realize that you have to merge left, and the left people aren't going to let you.
* WA drivers think turn signals are either optional or simply decorative; sometimes they use them, sometimes they don't, sometimes they use the left one when they intend to turn right.
* Some people fail to make the turns (probably going too fast, which is very popular), and they skid into someone's front yard.

 

[caretaker]

if there is one thing i know i will never get nostalgic for its roundabouts

 

[Kathleen]

There's one in Clovis...I'm wracking my brain and cant think of any others in NM but there might be.

Edit: Oh yeah, there is one at the Route 66 Casino at Rio Puerco.

NM is notoriously behind the times. We're known for our small dirt roads right near the state capital bldg. Winding roads, non grid layout, tourists get lost easily.

NM tops the nation in bad drivers. Suddenly we have 2 roundabouts and they are a free for all. Apparently Yield is a word most drivers do not understand.

tx2sturgis, are you from SD or do you bike there for the big event?

 

[wayne49]

New Jersey has had traffic circles since whenever.

Entering the circle, yield to traffic in the circle.

New Jersey has a wrinkle on circles. The entering lanes are like on ramps, they don't go all the way around. The lane to turn out of the circle is like an off ramp only exist just before the turn. You need to negotiate getting into the circle, changing to the inner through lane, and getting back into the outer lane to exit. All in a rather small area. Watchung Circle, I am looking at you.

There is a circle at the Ehrenberg Flyin' J exit.

State 372 in Pahrump is getting circles to avoid left turns crossing busy 372 with the stream of heavy truck traffic on the road. The alternative is many traffic signals in a short length of road with the multiple timing to allow left turns, etc. The traffic signals at the intersection of 160 and Basin do not make a good experience. Ditto 160 and 372.

The alternative of a yield to enter circle is way more appealing than idling at a traffic signal. Safer, no light to run, no way to cross oncoming traffic. Easy to make a legal U-turn. Did you think of that benefit?

Things that you might not think of. GPS units will need to be updated. As always you should verify what the GPS is telling you with what you see.

My bad GPS experience was in Switzerland with a Hertz rental with GPS. At night, off the freeway on a dark local highway, (the warm smell of) the GPS says turn left in 100 meters. Okay. Get to that point, check for traffic and make the turn and see the headlights of an oncoming car in the circle, no collision, but some very angry honking. It was a newer circle from the looks of it.  Okay.

That wasn't the end of it. A newish circle out in the countryside, not good, no blood, no foul.

Get back to Geneva. Old city. Downtown, late evening. GPS says turn right in 50 meters. Turned right onto a broad six lane street with side parking. All One Way, the Other Way. My first clue was the cars parked on my right facing me.

Hertz refunded the fee for the GPS.

I like to enter a destination into both my Magellan GPS and Google Maps on the phone. Compare and Contrast. For entertainment I use both, each with a different routing. I listen as the one I am not following gets a little crazy. Hilarious when I actually use a third route and both units go crazy. Not often I can get away with ignoring two female voices giving me directions. Why do they use female voices?