Traffic circles AND French drivers
Posted on 10/22/2012 7:52:22 PM PDT by logic101.net
Stop the roundabouts
The vast majority of us hate roundabouts. Unfortunately, the state Department of Transportation loves them, as do their close friends, the road builders. Why the road builders love them is simple - they can charge us 10 times more to put them in.
Sadly, the DOT prefers to make its friends happy rather than the taxpayers. They now have taken to trying to hide their plans from us by referring to them as "broad, looping, free-flowing."
Often we will be told that they work so well in Europe. However, Europe's idea of a big truck is about the size of a U-haul van. Our big trucks have 53-foot trailers and need the entire roundabout to get around them, creating a dangerous situation.
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Dang you people that offer that knee-jerk observation. We ditched the old country when we established out independence from it. All you liberal European socialists just STFU!!!
I am so pleased that this newspaper is one of the first to offer a truly American observation and sound the cry to sink this outgrowth of phony moral superiority amongst lovers of liberalism.
They won't be happy till we're all riding bicycles around those stupid roundabouts dressed as Chinese Commonists in identicle clothing shaded by those cone-headed coolee hats like in 1972 when Nixon (another socialist) went there to see some ping-pong games!!!
Until you have been on the roundabout in the middle of Paris, France, you haven’t lived (err, almost died).
I was with a seasoned French woman driver of roundabouts and that’s the worst kind because they jam their foot on the gas and brake at the same time, alternating those at the speed of light. It was frightful.
Then we had to get our bags out of the hotel and there was no place to park, so she parked in a driving lane in front of the hotel. We threw our bags in the car, all the while a police car was two cars back of us with screaming siren going trying to get to us because we were blocking that lane of traffic jammed with cars.
We took off in the car and I don’t know what happened to the cop car.
Then, another day, after shopping for china, she is driving us through the Alps and it’s two lanes made out of one lane, and there is a sheer drop off to eternity on my side. She is driving in the middle since it’s so narrow, going around blind curves at this fast speed. I am thinking the beautiful china I just bought is going to end up off the mountain along with me if a car comes around the bend.
French drivers are nuts.
The guy who started the thread literally did.
MN they can't, and WI is similarly progressive and anti-automobile.
You are implying rounds are a conspiracy to drive people off the roads and don't even try to deny it. And your implication is insane.
They are usually only dangerous for a couple months until drivers in the area figure out who has the right-of-way, and which lane they need to be in to get to their exit point. Give them a chance, and be extra vigilant until everyone figures it out.
They really do keep traffic moving. I’ve seen the effects of pre- and post-roundabouts. We used to sit at stop signs and traffic lights for 10-15 minutes during rush hour. Now there is very little backup and traffic keeps flowing.
We lived in Naples, Italy for 3.5 years, there was a roundabout there which had 6 roads running in to it, had a small radius. One of the roads was a bridge which T into a road which was perpendicular. The Americans there called it “The Circle of Death”
I love roundabouts, because they separate drivers from idiots. However, a lot of roundabouts are built a little too small, which makes it hard to easily maneuver around them.
There are other really cool ways to do intersections that make a lot more sense than the traditional 4-way stop sign/light. But people are resistant to change, even good change.
For example, one thing we are seeing more of is the urban interchange. In this configuration, instead of a large cloverleaf (which people do like, and which btw is a lot like a roundabout), you bring the lower road entrance/exits away from the road, but then swing them back at each other, having them intersect in a cross at the bridge with the other road. This gives you a 6-way intersection, which you can control easily with a stop light. Takes up almost no space, hence the “urban intersection”, but also reduces accidents if the cross-road is very busy (controlled light instead of idiots trying to merge).
Anyway, the thing I loved most driving in England was their roundabouts. I was actually better at them than the british drivers, who didn’t have the skill we get here in the states at speeding up to merge into small gaps.
I close with my favorite wife anecdote. We’re driving through England, where they use road signs that tell you where you are going, rather than what road you are on. We hit a roundabout, and I started circling while my Wife looked at the map to figure out which way to go off the roundabout. I circled once, twice, and said “figure out yet where we are going” and she said “no”. Circled 3, 4 times, and said “are you ever going to figure it out”, and she burst into tears.
Blame the US Department of Transportation for this one. Their FHWA guidebook says that roundabouts should be favored over traffic signals.
just follow the money though....they make big bucks for somebody's friends....
I love roundabouts. The ones built in Alaska have reduced congestion and greatly sped up traffic. I’m all for them.
when they are deliberately undersized they are very dangerous and that is the situation we are facing around wisconsin where they sare putting them in.
you don’t live here, it is not wrong headed to oppose undersized roundabouts. besides they are also in heavy urban corridors used bylarge trucks, not ruralroads where they would be more beneficial.
OMG, you really think there is a conspiracy to hurt drivers?
You are a sad sad little man.
Why not put in traffic lights? Well, the road builders can’t charge you 10X more for the intersection, and the road builders spend allot of cash to get what they want....
If you think roundabouts are safer, try running inside a big truck going through one. The line “studies show” always bugs me; studies show whatever the person ordering them wants them to show. I started to write the person paying for them, then realized that is a whole different group of people....
If a group selling studies shows the “wrong” results they are done in that industry.
equally silly to say they are NEVER the best solution
True, however DOT in WI is putting them everywhere they can sneak them in. They are obsessed with them and need to be if not stopped at least slowed down. They are never always the best solution and often they are the worst.
DOT had to put up warning signs on I-43 about them because they backed up traffic so far on the hwy.
We hit a roundabout, and I started circling while my Wife looked at the map to figure out which way to go off the roundabout.
Yes, if you want to go around in circles roundabouts are great. However I want to get where I need to go; preferably w/o crushing any 4-wheelers in the process. When that happens the paperwork is a drag and really slows me down.
you are a total moron.
the roundabouts are undersized for large semis, they have a difficult time navigating them. these are not small european trucks. we have double size semis that run on our freeways and they cannot use these roundabouts, and it’s a real problem when they put them on exit ramps directly off the freeway. many of the roundabouts do not have middles that can be driven over by a large truck that can’t make the normal circle radius turn. regular semi or double length have problems.
are you such an idiot to believe that government DOT workers always get things correct? they are screwing up our traffic here, again, you do not live here.
i never said conspiracy either, freak show. it’s big government stupidity.
Why kill roundabouts?
They work better than intersections, they save time and fuel.
They are also safer than intersections.
The only reason to hate them is if you don’t know how to use them.
They are easy to use, really. Just remember:
When entering the roundabout yield to the traffic already in the roundabout. You don’t stop before entering except to yield to traffic already in the roundabout.
If you are IN the roundabout you don’t stop at each entrance/exit point (unless some idiot pulls out in front of you, of course) you have the right of way and the traffic that is waiting to enter the roundabout is supposed to yield to you.
If you miss your turn out, just go around again!
Really, if somebody can’t handle something as simple as a roundabout then they really should reconsider their fitness to be behind the wheel.
No, you remember. We live in The United States of America. We also don't drive on the wrong side of the road. We don't use the metric system. We use farenheit, not celcius. We speak english, not some foreign language. We love God and our exceptional country and we're not apologetic, or embarrassed about it!!!
Furthermore we have our own culture and traditions, mores and taboos. As long as we are good upstanding citizens we shouldn't be irritated by our government of, for and by we the people to endure anymore of this obsessive, compulsive nonsense!!!
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