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1 posted on 05/23/2013 4:54:56 AM PDT by Notary Sojac
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To: Notary Sojac

I remember when I lived in England in 1975 there was a super round-about that had one giant roundabout at the center of a circle of smaller round abouts (5 or 6). Each entry into the round about complex had a pull-off car park
with a big sign that mapped out how to negotiate it.....


2 posted on 05/23/2013 4:58:43 AM PDT by Gaffer
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To: Notary Sojac

The single lane roundabouts near me have the concrete curbs worn down from so many vehicles banging over them. They’re not big enough for larger vehicles (such as street maintenance trucks), which is probably by intent.


3 posted on 05/23/2013 5:02:42 AM PDT by jjotto ("Ya could look it up!")
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To: Notary Sojac

LOL! Thanks for the morning chuckle!


4 posted on 05/23/2013 5:03:22 AM PDT by knittnmom (Save the earth! It's the only planet with chocolate!)
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To: Notary Sojac

You want excitement, pull up to a roundabout in Italy and if you have to stop and yield for traffic soon you’ll have vehicles that were once behind you pull up to the side of you like at the starting line of a road race!


5 posted on 05/23/2013 5:03:57 AM PDT by Hotlanta Mike ("Governing a great natiorn is like cooking a small fish - too much handling will spoil it." Lao Tzu)
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To: Notary Sojac

Haha! Good humor ping. Thanks for posting.


6 posted on 05/23/2013 5:04:45 AM PDT by spankalib ("I freed a thousand slaves. I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves.")
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To: Notary Sojac

My first relationships with roundabouts came in Washington DC. I understand they were meant to confuse an invading army. They certainly do an effective job of confusing invading commuters.

Greensboro has recently added roundabouts in several locations, some downtown and some in the burbs. I actually saw one woman, stop, watch for a few minutes and then backup to the nearest place she could turn around. I don’t understand how a woman that can backup can be intimidated by a roundabout.


8 posted on 05/23/2013 5:10:21 AM PDT by Roses0508
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To: Notary Sojac
Is a roundabout what we Massachusetians call a rotary ?

Rotaries are the epitome of driver ed;
Y'gutt'a look and think ahead as to what you want to do .. place yourself in line for that act .. and once in ... you're committed.

Rotaries are for intelligent people.

If a rotary (or roundabout) baffles you ... I'd suggest a bus or cab ...

9 posted on 05/23/2013 5:11:07 AM PDT by knarf (uals-two logic)
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To: Notary Sojac

Heh! It also kinda reads like Patrick F McManus’s The Grasshopper Trap.


14 posted on 05/23/2013 5:20:53 AM PDT by RandallFlagg (IRS = Internal Revenge Service)
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To: Notary Sojac

I hate these things, while in them I’ve almost gotten nailed many times by a person entering it who forgot that I had the right of way.

One time I was behind an elderly lady as she started to enter one. I then looked to the left and saw a vehicle about to enter it and knowing I had plenty of time and room, I then accelerated and headed forward. Unfortunately, the dumb lady ahead of me stopped while she was half way in and I rear ended her.

Thankfully there wasn’t any damage but when I asked why she had stopped insteading of continuing into it she said “I didn’t know what the guy on the left was going to do....” Sheesh!


15 posted on 05/23/2013 5:21:10 AM PDT by Hot Tabasco (This space for rent)
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To: Notary Sojac

“Big Ben...Parliament...”


16 posted on 05/23/2013 5:21:14 AM PDT by ItsOurTimeNow ("This ain't no party, this ain't no disco, this ain't no foolin' around.")
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To: Notary Sojac
Kinda like a crop circle.


17 posted on 05/23/2013 5:22:48 AM PDT by Daffynition (Stand Your Ground)
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To: Notary Sojac

LOL My wife feels the same way about Volvo drivers.

They put a roundabout down my way. I must admit —it works.

The intersection was a true danger, there was an accident there almost every day. Serious accidents. Since the roundabout the accident rate has practically ceased., and when there is one it’s not serious.

Of course the truckers hate it.


18 posted on 05/23/2013 5:23:30 AM PDT by Venturer
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To: Notary Sojac

Roundabouts are OK as long as you’re playing a little Boots Randolph to get you in the mood.


19 posted on 05/23/2013 5:24:32 AM PDT by Lurkina.n.Learnin (President Obma; The Slumlord of the Rentseekers)
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To: Notary Sojac
In most American cities traffic circles do not make sense. They were designed long long ago in lands where inbound roads all led to central points in cities so that the main intersection might have 7 or even a dozen streets converging on a point. In the modern context such an intersection with lights would be nonsense and one would wait half a day for for a green light. In an American city laid out on a grid a roundabout just confuses things. In my little town the city put in several of these things in order to be "up to date" and "modern" and truth to tell- fashionably European. None of them is more than 100 feet in diameter.

Tulsa OK has a very well designed circle on the north side that keeps traffic running smoothly and does not slow it down. It is two lanes with the outside lane for entering and turning out or for going just to the next exit. It is the only American one of these things I have seen that seems to work well and as intended. Actually I suppose the circles here do what is intended namely they are badges of fashionability and payoffs to the road construction company that donated lots of money to the mayor's election campaign.

23 posted on 05/23/2013 5:33:09 AM PDT by arthurus (Read Hazlitt's Economics In One Lesson ONLINE http://steshaw.org/econohttp://www.fee.org/library/det)
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To: Notary Sojac

Funny stuff!


24 posted on 05/23/2013 5:35:45 AM PDT by informavoracious (We're being "punished" with Stanley Ann's baby. Obamacare: shovel-ready healthcare.)
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To: Notary Sojac
Tip #3: Don’t yield to traffic outside the roundabout. Once our NPR-loving friend in the 240DL gets into the roundabout, the real fun begins. As he approaches each entrance, he sees a waiting car and thinks: That used to be me! So he stops to let the other driver go, disrupting the flow of traffic. The sole exception is if the other driver is in a Scion tC, in which case he’s already forced his way into the roundabout and may be rolled over on the other side with techno music blaring.

LOL.....a most excellent skewer.

25 posted on 05/23/2013 5:38:28 AM PDT by liberalh8ter (The only difference between flash mob 'urban yutes' and U.S. politicians is the hoodies.)
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To: Notary Sojac

Many years ago in Connecticut there was a rotary with stop signs ON the circle. Drivers on the circle had to stop for entering traffic. Makes you wonder what special kind of stupid ran the highway department.


26 posted on 05/23/2013 5:39:17 AM PDT by CPOSharky (zero slogan: Expect less, pay more. (apologies to Target))
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To: Notary Sojac

Our local roundabouts have a straight/left arrow as one approaches. My daughter, when learning to drive, mistook this for the option to go left or right when entering. She had an interesting experience when she took a left, and so did her mother.


30 posted on 05/23/2013 5:47:53 AM PDT by Fester Chugabrew
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To: Notary Sojac
I've dealt with a few old roundabouts in my husband's home town of Alton, IL and neighboring St. Louis. They were not particularly busy, but I wasn't always sure where I was supposed to get off.
A few years ago, they started popping up in SE Michigan. My husband and I were heading up north to Mackinac Island and our first stay at the Grand Hotel when we encountered a triple one when we stopped for lunch early in our trip. I was sporting a broken leg and had spent the last two months in a wheel chair so I was really looking forward to this trip. Here was this impediment that had us both thinking we might be stuck in Brighton for the rest of our lives. So, while my husband went in to McBathooms to fetch our lunch, I figured out a plan of attack. I would navigate while he drove slowly through with his hazard lights on. We made it through successfully. I have since gotten more used to them. There are several in the Ann Arbor area which keep traffic moving in the land of interminable traffic lights. My daughter travels through a couple on her way home from work and has seen frustrated drivers drive right across the circle! (Hey, it IS Ann Arbor!)
31 posted on 05/23/2013 5:49:55 AM PDT by stayathomemom (Beware of kittens modifying your posts.)
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To: Notary Sojac

Sài Gòn and Nha Trang have a number of rotaries/roundabouts that are a heritage of the French colonials. They occur where several very broad avenues come together and are themselves quite large. It is one circumstance that slows down and seems to confuse the thousands of motorbikers that constitute most of the traffic. This is in cities where dense traffic does not stop at X intersections. The streams there just flow through each other somehow.


34 posted on 05/23/2013 5:55:02 AM PDT by ThanhPhero (Khach hanh huong den La Vang)
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