Roundabouts

Why are round-abouts evil? They move the traffic very well and are far bettet and faster than stop signs IF the people know how to use them( the traffic alredy in the roundabout has the right of way). Any comments from the European members?

 

I agree. I have heard so many silly stories of people giong round and round.( probably exxagerated). Where is Vail?

 

I remember getting off I-70 in Vail before they built the roundabouts. They have really solved the gridlock problem on busy weekend mornings.

New England has plenty of roundabouts, if you care to experience those on this side of the Pond without having to go to my favorite ski resort.

 

Hilton Head has some roundabouts.

-drew

 

Ther is one at my street corner in Oakland(rockridge), CA !!! Will post a photo later.

 

Here in the Netherlands municipalities and other government institutions responsible for road maintenance have gone a bit roundabout mad. There are roundabouts at lots of intersections, I don't mind them in the least, but busses and heavy trucks have sometimes difficulties getting past the smaller ones. Some roundabouts even need to be changed, because the fire brigade couldn't get past them...

But in general I think roundabouts make certain intersections so much more safe; plus they're less annoying than traffic lights. Especially at night when there's hardly any traffic. No need to wait for a red light while you're the only 'car' in the area...

What does annoy me is the millions (well perhaps a bit less) of speed bumps or sleeping policemen, I like that name better than speed bumps. I understand speed bumps are sometimes necessary, but often they are way to steep and bumpy. I'd like them to be high enough to prevent speeding, but low enough so you don't have to brake for every single one of them. But maybe when my Prius arrives it won't be as bad, because of the CVT.

A nice thing about the roundabouts is the fact that a lot of municipalities try to make them look nice and green. Lots of hedges, small trees and what not are planted on them. In the city where I live all landscaping companies have adopted one or several roundabouts and put little signs with their company name on them. The roundabouts have become a showcase of their abilities as gardeners.
One of the best is a medium sized roundabout with a pool in the center. Too bad the ducks in the pool had to be removed, because they endangered themselves and the traffic. :wink:

I'm saving up to buy a digital camera, once I've bought it, I'll post some pictures if you want. No wait! I found a few pics...

http://priuschat.com/forums/album_showpage....php?pic_id=699

http://priuschat.com/forums/album_pic.php?pic_id=698

 

When I went to England 10 years ago, I noticed that some roundabouts also had signals to enter them. I guess it was too hard to get into them at certain times of the day. We found them particularly useful. The driver can get in the middle and go around a few times while the navigator figures out which road they are supposed to take

 

Signals? You mean traffic lights? Some roundabouts have traffic lights, but generally only the big ones (with three or more lanes), especially when one or two highways 'meet'.

 

There are roundabouts in New England, but they call them rotaries and they are fairly scary. Everyone believes that they have the right of way so no one yields getting on or off. This leads to some rather interesting exchanges between drivers. The trick there is not to make eye contact with the other driver. The minute you do so, you give up all rights to be on the road. :crazyeyes:

Going around one more than once is not an urban legend. Been there, done that, don't have a tee shirt. Imagine outside Boston Garden 5 minutes after the hockey game lets out. Confusion reigns and we went around the rotary 3 times before we could get to an exit. My dear spouse prefers not to remember that experience because he was driving.

 

Hehe, I can imagine. Sometimes things get a little hectic. I remember when the first roundabouts appeared, if there are no right of way signs, traffic that wants to enter the roundabout has right of way. Some municipalities forgot to put those signs up, resulting in dangerous situations. Also people still don't know when to signal with their blinkers. Chaos!

 

Exactly. Sorry, I used the term common in the U.S.

 

Even before your next paragraph, it was obvious you were, at least at one point, a Boston driver. When I moved to VT 25 years ago and needed to drive to Boston, I was warned with exactly that advice!

 

How did we get from rear defrosters to roundabouts? My head is still spinning. Anyway, it's funny how different the terminology is in different parts of the US. In my neck of the woods traffic light is the common term and the term "traffic signal" might be confused with any number of things including railroad crossings, etc. For that matter I was scratching my head trying to figure out what a "roundabout" was. I guessed from the context what it was but I had to check the dictionary to be sure: the common local term is traffic circle around here. Washington DC has several circles (not surprising since the streets were layed out by a Frenchman) with 3 or more roads converging -- the hard part for me is trying to go straight -- I really have to pay attention or I wind up making the wrong "turn". My county (Fairfax) in VA has a couple of modified circles regulated by traffic lights; all right, left, and U turns are handled by the circle but the circle is also split down the middle for those going straight. NJ also has several circles.

There's an awful intersection called 7 corners near me that would have greatly benefited from a circle. There are actually 7 entry/exit points from the intersection. Thankfully it's been helped by an underpass but it's still an intersection I try to avoid.

 

Used to be, I'd get AM whine and it would be blamed on resistor-free spark plugs. Rev the engine, and hear more whine.

Maybe some of the electronics are un-resistored to make them work right?...

 

From what I've read, a traffic circle or rotary is a primitive kind of roundabout, lacking the two main safety features of roundabouts in most European countries: deflection of the mainline on approach and clear priority to circulating traffic. The very early roundabouts gave equal priority to circulating and entering traffic, so they were supposed to merge - the roundabout was effectively a continuous weaving section, becoming more and more dangerous as traffic levels increase.

The give-way rule was introduced in the 1960s to solve the priority problem - it also meant that roundabouts could work in smaller dimensions, without the need for weaving room.

There was an interesting programme on Radio 4 a couple of months back - I must find out if anyone I know recorded it.

 

Perhaps one of the moderators would like to split the roundabout stuff into separate "House of Pancakes" thread so the original topic is again 'pure'