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Laughs in european
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Hmm. I agree it’s mostly a question of keeping your nerve. Have you driven one of London’s big multi-lane gyratories? Hangar lane, marble arch, Hyde park corner? Having to merge left and right simultaneously while driving much faster than is sensible can be a bit daunting. Some people indeed have screaming panic attacks the first time and still have nightmares.
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Confusing those in Kentucky is a pretty low bar
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They’re replacing some roundabouts with diverging diamonds where I am (Arizona). Supposedly they have even higher throughput than roundabouts.
I used to live in Indiana, which has many roundabouts. Carmel, Indiana has the most of any city in the US. Some of those are oddly shaped, pinched in the middle to fit into the existing space.
Roundabouts are still relatively new to Indiana, so some people yield going into them, while others charge in. There are also those within the roundabout that yield to incoming traffic. It’s pretty unnerving never knowing if someone’s going to pull out into the roundabout in front of you, or have someone in the roundabout jam on their brakes to let someone in. Never saw anyone going the wrong way round though.
Roundabouts seem to work well when there isn’t a prevailing flow of traffic. I used to go through one where 90+% of the traffic was driving north and south. If you approached the roundabout from the east or west, you had a long wait for a gap.
Many of the roundabouts in the UK have traffic lights leading into them, or even within them. To me, that’s a sign that you’ve exceeded capacity and a roundabout is no longer the right solution. Roundabouts are all about keeping the traffic following.
I grew up in Massachusetts, which has rotaries rather than roundabouts. Many of these are very large in diameter and people drive at highway speeds around them. Roundabouts are lower speeds by design.
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Sad, I was expecting more of this:
or
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That’s crazy. Even without signage, who’s instinct is it to go around on the left?
I can identify with being confused by something new, but that’s because it was a divergent diamond interchange and even though signage was telling me to go on the left every fiber in my being was screaming not to go on the left because that leads to a head-on collision.
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The driver on the wrong side of the road, and the cars that followed suit were the worst part, IMO.
That depends on the traffic laws in the state where the roundabout (or circle) is located. In some states, cars entering have the right of way over cars already in the circle. I grew up in a state where the laws in the neighboring state were the opposite, so we had to learn both and pay attention to the signage. Fun times for kids with a learner’s permit.
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Notice how that in spite of there being no signage or clear instructions there were no accidents either?
There’s an interesting theory going around that taking signs and lights away from an intersection actually makes them safer. Counterintuitive at first, but human nature being what it is, removing instructions forces people to actually navigate the intersection much more carefully and negotiate their way through with the other drivers, pedestrians, etc. out of self interest and self preservation. As as result, accidents decrease.
Not sure we’re really ready for a widespread application of this theory just yet but it is an interesting concept.
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We had several roundabouts and traffic circles (a larger roundabout) in the city I grew up in. They’re efficient and easy to use as long as you know and obey the rules. The main one: if you are going 1/4 around enter and exit on the outside lane, otherwise enter and exit on the inside lane. And never change lanes while you are in it.
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My grandparents who lived in southwestern Kentucky had a roundabout in their neighborhood, in front of their house. People didn’t get confused by it as far as I can remember. Maybe it’s a regional thing?
Bonus: My step-grandad was unsatisfied with the plain Jane roundabout, so he planted a flower garden in it. It was lovely.
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I’m confused… is it two one way streets? Were they going the wrong way in the left lane?
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This! Imagine if they get used to going around it clockwise, and then have to unlearn that when the signs and lines go in?
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Came for this, was not disappointed!
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I can’t not hear this whenever someone says ‘roundabout’.
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The DOT (or whatever they’ve got going on in KY) may need to run some educational commercials on the local broadcast channels, and maybe a couple cable “news” channels to try to correct the initial failure.
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But wait, there’s more!
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They’re pinched in the middle not to fit space–an oval would also serve that purpose. They pinch them to keep the cars turning. One of the concepts of a roundabout is to limit sight distance and to slow traffic down without stoping it. So, they put the ‘waist’ in the elongated traffic (oval) to keep cars turning and to limit their sight lines. Or so we were told…
I did see people go round the wrong way when they opened one near me. It was some senior who looked to barely see over the dash. I’m not sure who was more frightened.
I’ll second that. There’s one near my house that is on a residential feeder road. Everyone goes west in the morning and east at night. So, if you’re going south in the morning or north at night, you’re in for a wait. That said, they still flow better than the stop light controlled intersections they replaced.
Agreed to that as well. One of the concepts behind them is to keep a steady flow of traffic. If you’re stopping traffic for any length of time, you did something wrong (possibly that was choosing to put in a roundabout).
I’m unfamiliar with any state where you yield to entering traffic. That’s insane and leads to traffic stalled on the circle unable to exit. Why would you ever do that? I hope someone can explain the logic of that to me. Thanks for making me aware of that. And I agree, always pay close attention to the signage.
Near a newly opened roundabout near me, there’s an entrance/exit to a church right before one of the approaches (one of the dominant ones in the morning). I watched a car pull into the church’s entrance, get out of the car, walk over to the sign, stare at it for a good few minutes. Seems they were there long enough to raise the ire of the (extremely bitchy) church custodian because the cops showed up and spoke with the motorist. Anyone who took more than a second to assess the situation would conclude that they’re reading the signage for the traffic pattern for the brand new roundabout. I thought it was very responsible of the motorist to take the time to learn the intersection rather than to bull through and maybe cause an accident.
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Wisconsin has started using Roundabouts in the past 20 years and they seem to work well.
- Are proven to reduce the number of severe injury crashes and deaths
- Provide a good economic value
- Reduce delay and improve traffic flow
- Are a greener alternative with less vehicle idling, lower fuel emissions and less wasted fuel
source: Wisconsin Department of Transportation Roundabouts
If Wisconsinites can figure this out Kentuckians can too.
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Which really makes no sense. One would think the traffic in the circle needs to clear out before adding more in…
Enough cars merging in forcing cars in the circle to stop is a recipe for gridlock in my opinion.
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