"In and around the lake
Mountains come out of the sky
And they stand there!"
Posted on 07/21/2009 6:58:18 PM PDT by Arec Barrwin
Don't Be So Square Why American drivers should learn to love the roundabout.
By Tom Vanderbilt Posted Monday, July 20, 2009, at 6:54 AM ET
Here is a narrative that has been playing out over the last several years in any number of American towns: Traffic engineers notice that a particular intersection has a crash problem or is moving traffic inefficiently. After a period of study, the engineers propose a roundabout.
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
I have a truck. I drive right across the grass in the middle.
I hate it when people don’t follow the order at 4 way stop signs. Drives me insane.
Roundabout? Are you referring to a Traffic Circle?
I also like roundabouts.
I love them. Single lane only though. If it’s multi lane, use a stop light.
“Another problem is that the word roundabout brings up for many people an image of an old “traffic circle” or, in the Northeast, a “rotary” intersection. But these are not necessarily roundabouts, just as the Arc de Triomphe is not a roundabout, nor is New York City’s Columbus Circle (which, for the record, is acknowledged as the world’s first “rotary system” intersection).
The two are fundamentally different beasts. You are in a modern roundabout if it is the entering driver who must yield to traffic already circling. You are NOT in a modern roundabout if you are expected to yield to entering drivers or if you encounter traffic lights or stop signs.”
I’d love to kick the **** out of the moron who designed the one on the north end of Payson, Arizona.
For some reason drivers in Latin American and Europe can figure out the roundabout concept but American drivers cannot.
The smaller ones may be a bit of a challenge for larger trucks, though.
"In and around the lake
Mountains come out of the sky
And they stand there!"
Gotta hand it to Michigan. Leave it to the “Motor City”. We have had a boatload of roundabouts constructed here in Oakland County over the last couple of years. I love ‘em. Best compromise ever invented for intersections.
There’s quite a few here in Golden, Colorado. They’re pretty sweet. Seen ‘em first in UAE, though.
i learned to drive roundabouts overseas, and wish we used them more here. but drivers herw could use more training.
I hate 4 way stops just because of how dangerous they are, I have nearly been hit a couple of times because people don’t wait their turn. I however hate roundabouts as they can be even more dangerous.
O.k., I'll lay off the coffee a while. You would think it is people who go before their turn at a 4-way stop that aggravates me the most, but it is these people who really grate at me.
A city next to where I live has had one of those things forever. We hicks call it a circle.
A circle is a terrible idea. The spokes come up quite fast, and it’s easy to miss where you want to go and have to ride around again. Each trip around contributes to clogging traffic on the spokes. Ideally, if you’re going more than 1/2 way around, you should move to the inner lane, then migrate out as you approach your destination. You really want Americans to figure that out?
My mother got in a crash one time at the circle, and from then on would go miles out of her way to avoid the darn thing.
Save them for Europe, we don't need any U.N. crap over here. They need to move their congregation elsewhere also.
And that tune plays in my head every time I drive through one. :)
No thanks. You guys can drink the koolaid, but I hate 'em. Give me good old traffic signals and stop signs anyday.
only 3 items necessary, the horn, the accelerator and one hand free to gesture with. backing down or braking is not allowed.
those are ridiculous things.
How about the idiots who don’t go straight through when the car across from them is going straight through? Or those who try to follow the car in front of them?
If I remember correctly in Great Britain the drivers entering the roundabout yield, in France you yield to the entering drivers. I had fun in England going left entering the roundabouts.
Awesome. I love the live version of this song from Yessongs.
Have you seen the acoustic version of Long Distance Runaround from the Relayer tour? Brilliant.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7NlyzpGcnQ
I believe I’m one of the few under the age of 35 who loves Yes...lol
Hell no, they are a pile of crap!!!!
Keep the foreign crap foreign!
Roundabouts are the reason that Europeans and Koreans are such bad drivers, IMO!
I hate them.
OK....I drove a bunch in France and they have roundabouts everywhere. They keep traffic moving much better. I know it is France but it isn’t such a horrible place. I found the same thing in Belgium.
You nailed it...
Traffic engineers in Europe have studies that show safety is increased when striping and traffic control signs are removed. They claim that cars slow down
and it makes it safer for bicycles and pedestrians.
A small town in Oregon has started to implement this on some narrow streets. I hate to admit it but it does help.
I’ve only been through the craziness up in the Brighton area off 23. That SPUI is just nuts.
I’d live with roundabouts if they’d get rid of the Michigan Left. The one where you can wait through four traffic lights just to make a left turn.
NO TO TRAFFIC CIRCLES!!!
I will say that is true, on country roads that have no markings or signs, I go 45 at most even though if the same road has markings I would go 60
LOL! I like that.
Are you not allowed to enter the intersection and make a left turn as the light turns from yellow to red?
MN is building roundabouts out in the middle of nowhere...just because they can...
Socialism is un-American.
Its an American truck. An F150 to be precise.
Of course if you want to build some autobahns, I'm okay with that.
Some are OK if properly designed-there is one in Anchorage that has 3 lanes, and I’ve come close to getting creamed there more than once. How it seems to logically work and the actual use are not in synch and if you followed the old directions the state posted on the net, which did not match the signs in the actual roundabout, doom was kind of likely. Judging from the piles of broken glass and plastic, I’m not the only person who has trouble with it. I pretty much refuse to use it anymore
They’re fun, especially multi-lane ones when traffic is very light. Even more fun on a motorcycle :)
I was coming in from Strawberry on a very dark, rainy night the first time I encountered that idiocy. I almost busted my ass. You don’t expect something like that out in the middle of nowhere in Arizona.
There’s one in Rome that will scare the **** out of you.
In Tucson roundabouts are put in neighborhoods where there’s a whiny neighborhood association that doesn’t like cars, they tend to be associated with speed bumps and “no through traffic” roads. This gives roundabouts a high level of guilt by association.
The local traffic engineers have been installing them at most of the new major intersections. They are very efficient and most of the time you barely even have to slow down and rarely do you have to come to a full stop. The feds subsidize them because the fact that you don’t have to come to a full stop and then accelerate from a stand still means that it eases air pollution and decreases gas consumption. Of course, there are some folks who just can’t seem to get the hang of them, but there are morons wherever you go.
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