Roundabouts - Yay or nay?

[grrlpurple]

The only roundabouts that don't work and cause more accidents than they prevent are those stupid tiny mini roundabouts that are just a painted white circle on what was an existing T junction - you know the ones, usually on raised "speed humps" in housing estates... nobody seems to understand that it is a roundabout and not a T junction - hence the accidents...

 

[DromeGT]

Yay for getting sideways!
Nay for those stupid roundabouts with traffic lights and lots of mini roundabouts.

 

[Pupik]

I get the idea that the small, vestigal roundabouts are purely for design purposes, and not really for improving traffic flow. There's some of these little 8-footers that exist for no reason other than to have some potted plants spruce up mini-mall parking lots, whereas painted stripes would do the trick.

One town near me got creative with the problem of straight-liners by placing concrete and iron sculptures in the centers. On the other hand, they refuse to widen their road, but they at least removed the stop signs, so its a good compromise.

All in all, I think they do a great job in medium to low-traffic situations, but I'm not convinced enough people use them properly to warrant their usage for major intersections...never mind that traffic cameras help municipalities pay the bills.

 

[176OES]

Oh yes, get to post about this again.

I'm a big fan of them, they work, even this one:

In my home town and it works wonderfully, drive across this twice a day at least and the traffic always flows, accidents are rare and those that do occur are minor.


Scaff

Pretty sure that if I were ever driving in that area and came across that for the first time, my arsehole would pucker so tight it would probably take a bite out of the seat.

 

[homeforsummer]

Mini's get put in when the space is tight and not enough room for a vehicle to actually drive around it, a bus for example. But many near me they are so tight than even a Smart car would not be able to drive around a painted roundabout

I've never come across one that tight. The only vehicle I've ever really had to think about to get around a mini roundabout was a long-wheelbase Transit.

In a normal car it should be possible to get around any mini roundabout as its maker intended - I expect there's a roadbuilding regulation somewhere which necessitates this. Whilst driving over them isn't illegal, it is a bit lazy.

 

[Jim Prower]

The "Town Square in my town features a roundabout, one lane, but the issue is that there's parking spots all around it for the shops on the square. Parking spots which are a nightmare to get out of due to all the cars going 'round...furthermore, stop signs are present at two of the intersecting roads, and said road actually goes straight across at one side.

That being said, there's usually a back-up at about 5:00 PM on weekdays on the west side of the square, but other than that, it seems to work fine. The stop sign on the north side, with cars driving straight across, along with one of those center turn lanes leading to a supermarket, seem to be the source of this problem. As well, cars must yield to the large amount of foot traffic in the crosswalk, as well to any cars occupying the roundabout. Most people around here treat yield signs as stop signs, so that doesn't help much.

http://ci.washington.il.us/pdf/squaremap.pdf

You can see how it works here, in a way. Unfortunately, there's no lane lines, just know that north main goes straight across, south main turns and goes around the square, and Peoria and Walnut have center turn lanes. Speed limit is 20 mi/h, and heavily enforced.

A roundabout isn't that difficult unless the intersection is already awkward anyway. A typical "cross" or "Tee" intersection would work fine. Throwing a kink in the street may make it more difficult to find, and putting a big one in a busy city center, especially with large buildings close by, would be a nightmare...not to mention, how do you put one on a one-way street?

 

[Famine]

On a roundabout? Easily.

Entrances to roundabouts have "give way" lines on the road (that is, you must yield to traffic already on the roundabout or in the process of entering it from your right [in the UK]). Exits do not. A One Way street off a roundabout would have no line. A One Way street onto a roundabout would have a line.

See the junction Jet badger posted? We have loads like that, and there are four One Way roads on them - two motorway entry slip roads (allowing traffic off the roundabout onto the motorway) and two motorway exit slip roads (allowing traffic off the motorway and onto the roundabout).

 

[Keef]

See, now that makes no sense.

How does it make no sense? It makes just as much sense as a roundabout.

This video shows what happens on a standard 4-lane road when somebody needs to turn left into a parking lot. Actually, it is somebody not using the center turn lane correctly, but the same traffic holdup would happen on a 4-lane road. Then, it shows a person properly using the center turn lane and how traffic keeps flowing and doesn't have to stop for the person turning left.

 

[Kylehnat]

^^It's not called the "suicide lane" for nothing . Those center lanes do work well...it's not as scary as it looks to non-Americans .

I love roundabouts. Olympia has tons of them, and everyone is just fine with them. It isn't a mass bloodbath like some people in the U.S. are trying to convey. In general they save time, and if they're empty, it's time to test the lateral grip of the car

 

[Famine]

We got on okay with cent"er" lanes in the US. I don't think ///M-Spec was too concerned with my wife driving his S4

It has to be said that if you have anything like a logical approach to driving, you can get on most places - town and highway planners might use their own logic sometimes, but there is at least a method behind their madness. Usually.

 

[Keef]

It has to be said that if you have anything like a logical approach to driving, you can get on most places - town and highway planners might use their own logic sometimes, but there is at least a method behind their madness. Usually.

Lately it seems the method behind cities' traffic light timing is maximum revenue enhancement. Recently they retimed a light where quite a lot of people exit my neighborhood. Where it is common to have 10 or more cars lined up, the light stays green long enough for 3 to move through, and yellow long enough for five.

 

[Famine]

Green lights in the city of Sheffield are all programmed to stay on for eight seconds.


Of course, whether they do or not is a different matter altogether.

 

[chuyler1]

Living in New England my whole life I really don't see what the big deal is. When 4+ major roads converge into one central hub (like the center of almost every Massachusetts town) a rotary allows traffic to continue to flow in all directions no matter what spoke on the hub has heavier traffic. The only people who complain about rotaries are drivers who are afraid to merge into traffic.

The cost to construct them is paid back numerous ways when you think of the "big picture".

* Time: Unless you get some idiot who is afraid to merge, rotaries can allow significantly more traffic to flow at a faster rate allowing drivers to get to their destination quicker.

* Gas: Cars spend less time in idle stop-and-go waiting for their turn to get through the intersection. This improves fuel economy of all vehicles that pass through the intersection. It's a small amount per vehicle, but when you add up the number of vehicles that pass through a given intersection it can be significant.

* Safety: I would venture to guess that more accidents are caused at major intersections utilizing stop signs and traffic lights than rotaries. Growing up, the only accidents that occurred at the center of my town were from drunk drivers late at night who simply drove into the center common grounds...the same driver most likely would have killed someone had they driven through a red light...but instead they just ruined a few flowers and broke a fence.

* Gridlock: A series of rotaries can keep heavy traffic flow in one direction moving. Traffic lights create gridlock conditions when the signals are not perfectly timed. Most gridlock seen on rotaries is not due to the rotary itself but instead a) timid drivers or b) traffic lights on the spokes of the rotary backing up into the rotary itself.


However, in recent years I have seen many low-volume intersections converted into tight-radius traffic circles. Retro-fitting an intersection doesn't appear to work too well. A small radius rotary prevents drivers waiting to enter from feeling confident that a driver already on the rotary is about to exit. It also causes problems with America's large trucks which cannot take such tight radius turns without basically driving over the center of the rotary.

I have also seen some rotaries in New England removed. The common thread for eliminated rotaries is traffic entrance speed. When cars are on a road where the speed limit is over 35 mph, it can cause traffic to back up when one car fails to merge quickly. A major multi-lane highway with a speed limit of 55+ that dumps into a rotary is a recipe for disaster.

 

[Kylehnat]

Again, it's all in the eye of the beholder. When I was in the Netherlands, I was surprised that the 120 km/h A6 and A7 motorways intersect with a roundabout. The speed limit drops before you get there, and it is well-marked. No problems whatsoever.

 

[ell470]

I didn't know roundabouts are rare in some parts of the world, here in Sweden we've got them everywhere!

I have to drive through 2 of them just to get to work. In the more central part of the city I live in there are 6 of them!

I think they're great! I'll go for a roundabout over a traffic lights intersection any day of the week

 

[Moot]

Of course in Britain we have so many as we got used to them as kids in the playground. It's basically a road network based on nostalgia.
These 2 ladies invented the modern roundabout in 1958.

This shows one of the classic roundabouts, with a kid demonstrating the prone style riding position. Quite safe.

While this example shows the inherent dangers of the wooden materials, the bones found were repatriated.

Creating a roundabout system for cars instead of dizzy children had it's ups and downs in the planning stages and was nearly caught in a circular argument for and against. But the leader of the NO campaign flew off into a hedge at a late stage and history was made.
It was noted by philosophers that it appeared to be an enlightened stage of human endeavour, of which to supersede the notion of staying fixed on a rotating platform, to that of using ones own momentum to navigate around a fixed circular area. The Roundabout renaissance.

 

[Ardius]

There is only one roundabout I hate, and its one near where I live. This particular one is a so called "mini-roundabout" with just a small concrete hump placed in the middle of the road on a normal 1-lane road. If you approach it from one direction, the view to your right (and hence the right turn) is made completely blind by a high hedge from someone's house which is very close to the pavement (the pavement is quite narrow here too, so its very close to the road).
The problem I have with it is basically because the right turn is completely blind and because the traffic from the right in this country has right of way, I have to be super, super careful approaching and driving across here. I have been caught out a few times by pulling up to the roundabout, checking the right, checking around me, checking the right again and then almost driving straight into a cyclist.
What had happened was, the cyclist had pulled out onto the roundabout from the right in between me looking to my right and checking around me. When I checked my right a second time, the cyclist was in the blind spot of the pillar between the windscreen and my side-window. Forunately I waited enough time to not drive straight into him as he past me but it was really just a little surprising to suddenly have a cyclist appear from nowhere in front me!

Now, this isn't really a problem per se with the roundabout but more to do with this particular part of road. It would suffer regardless because of the close, high hedge and completely blind entry/exit. Even if it was a normal junction, the traffic wanting to cross would have trouble telling if there was any traffic coming because the vision is severly limited. (Plus its a fairly fast road). This is probably why the roundabout is here in the first place.
Basically, the problem has transferred from a major problem to a slightly less major problem, at least with a roundabout the traffic is required to stop and check.

Anyway, I hate approaching this roundabout because of this, and personally I would never ever try and cross any such section of road on a bicycle anyway! Sure the cyclist had right of way, but he was lucky I was more careful than perhaps some drivers are...if I hadn't waited to double check I would have run him over never knowing he was coming.
If the hedge wasn't there, I would more easily spot cyclists approaching from the right and preparing to enter the road. But as it is, I can't even tell if they are there until they have almost decided to go.

 

[Moot]

At night-time the regulations for roundabouts are relaxed, as this CCTV demonstrates.

 

[Philly]

Those things are pretty awesome, helps keep your speed down in tight neighborhood streets and helps in traffic management.

The only problem with those mini-roundabouts is that I've seen so many people just drive the wrong way to turn left instead of going around the roundable to turn left.

That and they are actually pretty tight, especially with cars parked on the street. Trying to tow a 40 foot trailer behind a full size pickup truck through a neighborhood full of those was... interesting to say the least. Ask me how I know.

I usually cut those too when I'm turning left if there's no traffic. I can't imagine trying to get through those with a trailer though. The streets are tight enough without those...

We also have a couple 5-way stops in Seattle that could use a roundabout. Don't ask how they work. Pretty sure nobody knows.

http://maps.google.com/?ll=47.655775,-122.321391&spn=0.0014,0.003484&t=h&z=19

See, now that makes no sense.

They're great because people can turn left into driveways without blocking all the traffic in the left lane, which is very frustrating. Also, when the road is busy, you can turn left into the dual turn lane when there is a gap coming one direction and wait there for a gap going the other direction to merge into. But the legality of that is questionable.

 

[Keef]

But the legality of that is questionable.

It's a non-issue actually. Not only is it illegal, but it's also quite unsafe. It also gives me a target to harass, which is always fun.

 

[Rotary Junkie]

It's a non-issue actually. Not only is it illegal, but it's also quite unsafe. It also gives me a target to harass, which is always fun.

It annoys the hell out of me when people do that. Why pull out if you know you can't actually make the gap? It annoys me further when they then will not leave said lane until they can mosey into the proper driving lane then accelerate rather than accelerating while in it to make a gap.

 

[therealEnzo]

Where i live there is a piece of road of maybe 500m to 1 km that has 4 roundabouts. It used to be cross roads if i say that correctly. I Find 4 within 1km à little to much. It's like driving round and round over and over again.

 

[Moglet]

Tomorrow I'm going to go out and film some roundabouts from in my car. Small, flat painted ones to huge 5 lane mammoths. Just so you can all see how it's done.

 

[the_stig_1]

Oh yes, get to post about this again.

I'm a big fan of them, they work, even this one:

In my home town and it works wonderfully, drive across this twice a day at least and the traffic always flows, accidents are rare and those that do occur are minor.


Scaff

What The 🤬
That is the most stupid thing I've ever seen.

 

[Keef]

Tomorrow I'm going to go out and film some roundabouts from in my car. Small, flat painted ones to huge 5 lane mammoths. Just so you can all see how it's done.

WHY HAVE YOU NOT DONE THIS.

I am very interested.

 

[CMvan46]

They are pretty new here but I do like them. They help with traffic and I've yet to see any sort of serious accident from one. Because they are fairly new here a lot of people are still clueless on how to go around them. I still routinely see people go left (we drive on the right side) around them, stop to let another car in, and throw on turn signals all over the place so you have no idea where they are going. It is getting better though.