Posted on 08/29/2015 3:14:16 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
Watch (if you can) a driver slow down, maintain a distance and never stop moving, even in (almost) stalled traffic
We NEVER want to shift nor interrupt our favorite radio station
We sit high enough we can see ahead to provide a huge hole for the big truck wanting to merge in ... and never break momentum
THAT'S the mentality of using a rotary .... KNOW what it is .... WHERE you're going, PREPARE in advance your line of attack and just DO it.
easy peasy and Go 'head, gran'maw ... you can get in ....
maybe that is why the state song is “on Wisconsin.” they’d forget and sit stopped forever otherwise?
I was just in the Detroit area for a week of training and heard that many roundabouts are being installed there. What I’m hearing is they are good once people get used to them, but there is a real learning curve.
I suspect we’ll be fine with them as they become more common, but I can’t say I’m looking forward to them. It’s one area I’ll be fine with letting automated cars taking over for me and saving me the stress of dealing with it. ;-)
Americans have been SO intimidated and terrorized by SO MANY things in life, (did that food be processed with peanuts?) ... they WANT to be stopped, given a time out, before THEY ARE ALLOWED (red, MAY I?) to continue
red lights and stop signs are for discourteous people that don't know how to drive.
Kansas has the same issue.
There’s also the mentality of “THIS IS MY LANE! I REFUSE TO BE COURTEOUS AND MOVE!” It makes merging hell.
I found it more stress free driving in Los Angeles than Wichita.
Kansas City is a whole different matter.
Speed limit: 60; Construction Zone, Speed limit: 40. I’m doing 70 and being passed like I’m standing still.
They make sense in traffic flow sometimes. Stop, start, stop, start can be wearing on time, fuel, brakes, and patience.
You park your car and find yourself whistling
Hi chief ..... Naaahhhh ... piece o'cake
Does anybody care about visual clutter? Each roundabout in the little town adjacent to us has between 13 and 15 warning signs facing each direction (times 4) while a normal stoplight has 4 (maximum 8) warning signs. 60 warning signs protruding up in the air on a rural road is a little excessive. And the speed limit sign for the roundabout? It’s really small and can be easily missed.
I’m not thanking ex-Gov. Doyle for anything!
Wisconsin has many, many tractor-trailers and much farm machinery on the roads. Roundabouts DON’T work well with those.
It is a solution that drivers do not request, and do not like after the fact.
That kind of defeats the purpose of driving, no?
They ought to be finding ways of increasing the speed of travel, not decreasing it.
Very true. What is not taken into consideration with traffic models, is these kind of decisions that people make.
Traffic Circle navigation is a matter of balancing courtesy with aggressiveness. There are 3 traffic circles in Flemington, NJ... 2 of which have been screwed around with because nitwits don’t know how to drive.
The 2 circles on RT 22 in Alpha have both been destroyed and turned into actively signalled intersections (now featuring red light cameras).
The Somerville Circle on 202 exists as as a shell of itself with a massive flyover bridge and signals.
The goal shoukd be is to flow traffic naturally without the need for millions of Dollars worth of traffic signals that require mandatory monthly testing and repair.
Or like the idiots here that stop in the roundabout to let other people in.
The end result, a population of drivers who are all weather, all terrain, and all conditions of visibility trained, knowledgeable, and capable. There is a reason why the country that invented the motorcar, really invented the superhighway, manages it all so well even with unlimited speed limits in places.
The fault ain't in the roundabouts.
As opposed to here in SW Pennsylvania where we have what looks like four or three way stop signs where one direction doesn't have to yield, including sometimes where even those making the left has right of way? They seem to work fine for us locals familiar with the particular intersection, but I recall how frustrating they were when I first moved here. To be safe, you'd have to stop at every such intersection and figure out the signage from every direction from the shape of the back of the signs before proceeding.
We are getting our first roundabouts installed in the next couple of years . . . so we're going to have to learn the rules.
I've noticed two places in the country have a lot of roundabouts-- New England, which I suppose is a heritage thing, and cities near I-15 in the Rocky Mountain states. I'm not sure who to blame for the later. Maybe the Mormon pioneers who came from New England?
And here I thought that was a SW Pennsylvania thing.
No wonder our people cheer for the Green Bay Packers once the Steelers are out of the playoffs.
I learned all about the conservation of linear momentum in my dad's diesel '82 VW Rabbit. 52 screamin' ponies of RAW naturally aspirated diesel power! Do NOT take your foot off the throttle... NEVER touch the brake... and you'll be good.
I’ve been driving since 1963.
I still haven’t learned to like these circles.
see my #24
In my experience, when you are on the Interstate 78 just east of Far Hills, NJ and the Yenta in her Lexus SUV won't let you merge, I find what works best is driving a fully depreciated vehicle and just merging anyways.
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