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 ...
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.
I went through it a couple of weeks ago on a sunny afternoon and I still hated the damned thing. In Payson, of all places!
Friend of mine made a call on Interstate 35 where a driver had broken down on the inside lane. Some woman pulled over and waved for him to come over, as she had a cell phone. The guy stepped right in front of an eighteen wheeler. You know how far people get knocked in accidents sometimes? My buddy said this guy was stuck to the front grille like a bug.
I've seen several accidents where people waved someone through and they pulled out in front of another vehicle. In relation to your original post, a lot of people do not realize that just because they're willing to let another car through, that does NOT mean that everyone else who has the right of way is willing to give it up.
Dittos! For Yes classics and against roundabouts! I was on a new one that’s still in construction tonight - there’s another intersection to avoid...
I agree. They are a fixture in New England, where I grew up. They’re now being introduced in Central Ohio, where I’ve lived for 18 years, and the folks here are clueless.
Everytime I see one of the things I see some blue-nosed nitwit nanny shaking her finger at me. "We know what's good for you." No thanks.
I think a couple ADOT engineers got a free shopping trip to London to study them.
Anyone on here remember the monster of a traffic circle in Long Beach, CA, where 101 (now state 1) met Lakewood Blvd. and Los Coyotes Blvd? That baby was a killer (literally). Is that thing still in operation?
Here where I now live (eastern WA) they are building roundabouts all over the place. One, at a freeway off ramp, had its very 1st accident the day it opened. It was my wife. No joke. Not to worry, she wasn’t hurt and the other guy was at fault. Well, no one told him the driver on the roundabout has right of way over entering traffic, doggoneit. He argued and argued but still got the ticket.
I go thru them all the time, near Muirfield. They work.
You gotta love the multi lane roundabout! Yeah, life will never be so meaningful until you learn to navigate these!
Yup, in Ma they’re called Rotaries and they’re quite efficient in blending traffic flow.
All this hoopla is crazy
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