Posted on 07/01/2011 9:59:00 AM PDT by the scotsman
'A roundabout revolution is slowly sweeping the US. The land of the car, where the stop sign and traffic light have ruled for decades, has started to embrace the free-flowing British circular.
A few moments after entering Carmel, it's clear why the city has been described as the Milton Keynes of the US.
As the sat-nav loudly and regularly points out, there's often a roundabout up ahead.
But unlike in the English town famous for them, driving into this pretty city on the outskirts of Indianapolis also involves passing several more under construction.
The city is at the forefront of a dizzying expansion, across several American states, of the circular traffic intersection redesigned in 1960s Britain and then exported globally. About 3,000 have been built in the US in the last 20 years.'
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
I have encountered roundabouts in many places in the US and in some locations they are surely better than lights and stop signs but they rarely serve 5-points intersections and American towns have very few locations where a larger number of roads all come together. The roundabout in most areas in this country is just an attempt for towns to be trendy and European and to pay off local contractors who are friends of the pols. Many of them are tiny and difficult to navigate safely. They are just there so local pols can say,"We have a roundabout."
Around here they are working well. Practice makes perfect I guess.
Don’t know if you remember the Hawthorne Circle, in Westchester County, NY..there until the late 60’s, you had TWO PARKWAYS, the Saw Mill and the Taconic, intersecting in a BIG roundabout...long gone now, but there were some spectacular accidents..There used to be a Westchester County Parkway police force ( somwhat akin to a sherriff’s dept) and the main HQ barracks was located right next to the circle. On all but the coldest days, they’d leave the doors and windows open...when they heard breaks squealing and cras smashing up..they’d dispatch cars..
C, the one in your #89 looks like an absolute CF .. T bone territory !
/.02
Wowsers. That is starting to look less like a roundabout/circle/rotary and more like a hairpin/pretzel. Not to say it doesn’t work, but like everything it would take getting used to.
They were all over the area of Ireland we stayed in. The guy who owned our cottage said the rules for them were simple - “if you’re in it you own it”.
There's a fix for that....
Well that is just a schematic. What was actually built looks and drives much better than that shows.
I think the theory was that the jug would get the turning traffic off the mainline and onto a side road “holding area” and wait until the traffic signal lets you cross. True, you’ve got both lanes stopped while cross traffic moves perpendicular to the mainline, but it avoids cutting across oncoming traffic in a left turn. That always spooks me if I can’t see the entry point after the turn very well. With the jug, it’s right in front of you, just go straight through. Less efficient in that you’ve got two lanes of the mainline stopped for the “turning” traffic, as well as the backup problem if the jughandle itself is jammed up. That problem is really bad on some of the Route 1 jughandles around East Brunswick/New Brunswick and Princeton.
did they have stimulus signs proclaming the roundabout provided 1,000 shovel ready jobs?
That still doesn't stop me from having nightmares about turning into Clark Griswold and getting trapped on the Lambeth Bridge roundabout.:-)
“Calming” traffic is part of the UN Agenda 21. They are putting traffic circles in everywhere in my county. Part of the plan is that the circles limit the access to properties on one side of the street. You can’t make a turn across traffic, you have to go down to the circle and essentially do a U turn. The lefties like this because it’s bad for businesses.
The state of NJ had lots of traffic circles, which in no way “calmed” traffic, they were free-for-alls. A new driver could end up like the “Man who never returned” in that old Kingston trio song. So, the state of NJ is eliminating the circles as fast as they are building them on the west coast.
Post 112 is in reply to this (had the wrong post loaded as “reply”)...:-(
Post 112 is in reply to this (had the wrong post loaded as “reply”)...:-(
And a duplicate post to boot! Man, I’m messed up on this thread...
I wish there were. It takes a certain amount of extra discipline and courtesy to negotiate a "roundabout". Not traits found in abundance on the roads I travel. I grew up driving the Flemington & Sommerville circles (NJ) and later on frequently drove through the little hamlets along US 30 in Pennsylvania. Each one had its own little circle. Enough people don't know how to drive 'em to make it... ah... interesting!
Roundabouts save so much time and streamline traffic to such an extent that it’s not even worth debating the issue. Sometimes, every now and then, Europe may have a better solution. This is one of them.
Exactly.
You’re right about the theory. The problem comes when they undersize the holding lane turnoff got the jughandle.
I know of the Rt. 1 ones you spek of.
I’m more familiar with those on Rt. 37 in Toms River. The jughandle completley fills up and then blocks the cross traffic lanes.
On the worst ones, I would just go down the highway to the next one,and turn there. Hardly any cars. We have a lot of NJ drivers, not many of them smart drivers.
Now I’m here in southern DE and it is a very pleasant place to drive. Sometimes I’m crossing across highway and there is no one on the road in either direction. So I ask my wife “Think we can make it?” and we both laugh, knowing that diving across a busy highway was a necessary skillset in the Garden State.
One other benefit here—unless you are going to commit an error that will kill or maim you, no one beeps their horn at you. That is considered “bad form”.
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