Traffic Circles/Roundabouts?

[tkappeler]

I don't know about the ones you have but here the entrances are marked with yield signs not stops. If built right without sight obstructions in the center you can see the cars coming around and adjust your approach speed to slide into an open slot without stopping or clashing with them. Sort of like gears meshing in a well synced transmission.

:laughing: That's a good one. Well synced transmission. That does not work in NJ! It's always "me first" and you can't have everyone be first.

 

[dmccarty]

With my apologies to Aggie graduates, was that project designed by Texas A&M civil engineers?

Steve

Nah, that "intersection" had to be designed by a NC State graduate. :laughing::laughing::laughing:

<Sigh> I wish EE Bota was still with us so I could get his goat. <EndSigh>

Later,
Dan

 

[tcreeley]

I grew up with rotaries or traffic circles in Mass.. Dangerous- accidents with all of the merging and criss-crossing. I don't like them. Maine has just started to build them- too small.

 

[vtsnowedin]

There is a difference between old style rotaries and traffic circles and the newer Roundabouts they are building today. Mostly it is the size of the center circle. Old style was often a hundred feet or more in diameter and new roundabout is fifty or less. Except for being a pain in the ***** to plow the new style seems to work pretty well and save a lot of gas in cars that would have had to stop for a red light and wait their turn. Bring in more then one lane from each direction though and they get quite harry and the local body shops best friend. When they get anti collision auto drive on all cars that work in a roundabout it will be a great thing if we still have gas to drive with then.

 

[mrmikey]

They're not bad as long as people realize who does/doesn't have the right of way. When they first came around here I cursed them, now I think they're great....Mike

 

[redman135]

3930dave, in australia on roadtrain (2-4 trailers) routes through towns ,they have a raised concrete dome (painted for visibility) so the road trains can drive over it .1st trailer goes round 2nd cuts in 3rd & 4th trailers go over part or all of centre dome. The trailers are 15m long. As long as your engineers learn from australian experiance they should be ok. Lastly remember a truck with a long trailer often needs to turn from the opposite lane, ie turn left from right lane as trailer will cut in to the left lane on smaller roundabouts. If you use the left lane left turn approach you have trailer tracks in the centre lawn/garden,and a lot of mud on the road ,oops.

 

[jaotguy]

As long as your engineers learn from australian experiance they should be ok.

up here , they definitely didn't ....

the original round abouts were small , flat and out in the country and low speeds .... you approached, saw what was coming in all directions, adjusted your speed to suit and went round ....


here they build a multi lane unit ... raised center with "pretty trees , shrubs. and signs" in the middle to block the view of the area, then put in the pedestrian cross walks a short distance away..... then wonder why they have more accidents and don't work as well as the European ones ....

 

[reb]

:laughing:Obviously, they work in some places, but I think everyone was glad to see Dallas get rid of the traffic circle on Harry Hines Blvd at Northwest Hwy many years ago. I did work some interesting wrecks there in the mid-60s.:laughing:

I think that is the one I encountered the first day when I moved to Dallas 40+ years ago. I was concerned about navigating it so I would not get lost, so I counted the turnoffs as I went around so I could find my way back if the road I took didn't work out. A good idea, except that I assumed it was a four road intersection. I found out after a couple of tries that there were five exits.:laughing:

 

[boggen]

KISS (keep it simply stupid) *raises fist in anger* *arghs*

i understand as cities get larger and more traffic occurs, you need more lanes, etc....
prefer if they would just make ever other road a one way streets, and turn "individual blocks" like a huge round about.

 

[Bird]

I think that is the one I encountered the first day when I moved to Dallas 40+ years ago. I was concerned about navigating it so I would not get lost, so I counted the turnoffs as I went around so I could find my way back if the road I took didn't work out. A good idea, except that I assumed it was a four road intersection. I found out after a couple of tries that there were five exits.:laughing:

Yeah, and that huge mound of dirt in the middle didn't allow you to see all the traffic, the entrances and exits as you entered the circle. And I wonder how many people ever saw what was in the middle. I'd been driving around that circle for years without ever seeing what was in the middle until one night, probably 2 to 3 o'clock in the morning, when I got a call on an accident at the circle. I drove up there and around the circle twice; not a single vehicle or person in sight anywhere. The dispatcher had no information on the caller; just that there was an accident at the circle. As I slowly went around the circle again, I happened to notice a utility pole at the inner edge of the circle that didn't look right, so I got out for a closer look. I soon learned that the "mound" of dirt only a berm all the way around the inner edge of the circle. It was like a bowl in the middle, and there was a Plymouth upside down right in the middle. It was soon quite clear that he had been northbound on Hines at a high rate of speed, hit the curb, became airborne, went through the utility pole about 6 feet in the air, and landed upside down in the middle. I assume the driver was not injured, or at least not seriously, because there was no one in or around that car. But he had hit that utility pole, completely shattering it, and the wires had obviously caused it to settle back in place so that it wasn't readily apparent that the pole had been struck.