Traffic Circles/Roundabouts?

[Bluest]

Oh my. That looks like organized chaos.

I've never driven it, but it's been their a long time so I assume (dangerous where local authorities are concerned) it works.

 

[turnkey4099]

I don't see the advantage over a 4 way stop. You are suppose to stop before entering anyways. I'm partial to just 4 way stop with flashing red light. But they have them in Ocala and Gainesville FL. Both between 50-100k people. Always where a 3 or 4 way stop used to be, never a real intersection.

Never seen a roundabout where you had to stop before entering. Always a "Yield" which does require a stop if traffic in approaching in the circle.

Harry K

 

[turnkey4099]

I loved the ones in Germany (Hof am Saala, I spent 6 years there) they were mostly cobblestone pavement and in the winter one could practice 4-wheel drifts going around them late at night.

Harry K

 

[ruffdog]

A too small roundabout and a partial load in a semi caused this. Truck was found to be going slow.

Tanker truck overturned while navigating roundabout | News - Channel3000.com

 

[jerrybob]

Easy to use.......

European Vacation - Roundabout - YouTube

 

[Sysop]

I remember not long ago reading or seeing on TV about a "test" they did in the UK or someplace over yonder where they removed ALL traffic control devices (lights, signs, etc.) from a lightly used neighborhood and found in the course of a year the number of collisions had decreased by over half and the collisions that occurred, damages were much less severe. When they removed all the traffic control from the intersections they noticed that speeds decreased dramatically because nobody was racing to get through the green lights and everyone expected someone to be pulling out due to no stop signs. Average time for most drivers to get where they were going was reduced as well.

Forcing a driver to come to a complete stop at every intersection is a ridiculous waste of time and money. Making them set and idle, sometimes for no reason, is also a huge waste. With in-town driving, driving slowly intersection to intersection, stopping only when truly needed, decreases fuel usage, decreases travel time, and increases safety. Roundabouts are great, as are the underused yield signs. Stoplights are a waste of money for everyone...

 

[NY_Yankees_Fan]

Tons of them in New Jersey, the state with the most people per sq. mile! They work this way, if you have an old car and or no insurance, enter at maximum speed, do NOT yield. If you are in the circle and you have a new car and or insurance you yield to the idiot in the old car. Got it??! Great idea in 1925, not so in 2014.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

MD uses them a lot, they have really helped eliminate a lot of stop signs. I like them. I learned to drive them overseas. Here is a picture of a bike race going around the main downtown circle in Lisbon, Portugal. I was walking up the sidewalk, and cops started closing off streets. All of a sudden here comes the swarm of bikes, as soon as they went by, the road was opened back up. This circle is 5 lanes wide, and even has stop lights within the circle.

 

[SPIKER]

not all that many around here I know of a couple is all. There are some in Cleveland and one or two in small towns. I agree that the stop lights are one of the worst energy/time/wear wasters for US traffic. Out in country I use the CA stops, drop it below 5 or so MPH and cruise up slow enough to see all way down roads as I slide thru. Always slow enough to STOP if someone is coming the other way.

Mark

 

[redman135]

Roundabouts above a certain traffic volume are inefficient and the traffic lights beat them. In hamilton new zealand we went from traffic lights on 2 major intersection in 2004/2005 to roundabouts and then eight years later ripped the roundabouts out and put traffic lights back in and sped traffic up. The problem was in 8 years the traffic had more than doubled.
Each change ment months of disruption and cost millions$ per intersection and a lot of pissed of people . It felt like the engineers hijacked the council.
Round abouts have worked in low and medium volume with mainly car traffic.
Mixing trucks with cars clogs things up fast as truck have to go slower, see the link to the tanker rollover. Roubabout camber is critical for truck ESPESIALLY when you have a liquid load.
Engineers often don't have a truck lisence so will design a roundabout to cause a rollover (SH1 southbound out of hamilton , 3yrs to fix) or taupo haevy vehicle bypass(roundabout so tight that heavy haulers couldn't get onto bypass without running of the road, so had to go through town,) the bypass was ment to take trucks out of town.