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Magic Roundabout (Swindon)

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Re: Magic Roundabout (Swindon)

#71

Post by cblades »

dghughes wrote: post #55
mcv wrote: post #43

A better solution for high traffic flow is the turbo roundabout[0] which is getting increasingly popular in Netherland. Before you enter the roundabout, you select the lane for the direction you want to go. You only cross traffic when entering the roundabout for the first time. After that, you simply follow your lane and it delivery you where you want to go. It looks complicated from above, but it's very simple once…

I don't understand how the turbo roundabout is any different than a typical two-lane roundabout. It looks like a regular two-lane roundabout from that picture in your link.

Follow a lane around and you'll find that the inside lane becomes the outside and the outside lane exits.

Re: Magic Roundabout (Swindon)

#72

Post by LoSboccacc »

mcv wrote: post #43

A better solution for high traffic flow is the turbo roundabout[0] which is getting increasingly popular in Netherland. Before you enter the roundabout, you select the lane for the direction you want to go. You only cross traffic when entering the roundabout for the first time. After that, you simply follow your lane and it delivery you where you want to go. It looks complicated from above, but it's very simple once…

there's one channeled roundabout here, it might be great for residents but if you happen to be channeled in the wrong lane it's a 3km detour before you can get back where you wanted to go.

Re: Magic Roundabout (Swindon)

#73

Post by mcv »

LoSboccacc wrote: post #72
mcv wrote: post #43

A better solution for high traffic flow is the turbo roundabout[0] which is getting increasingly popular in Netherland. Before you enter the roundabout, you select the lane for the direction you want to go. You only cross traffic when entering the roundabout for the first time. After that, you simply follow your lane and it delivery you where you want to go. It looks complicated from above, but it's very simple once…

there's one channeled roundabout here, it might be great for residents but if you happen to be channeled in the wrong lane it's a 3km detour before you can get back where you wanted to go.

Another potential problem is that it's not always possible to make a U-turn at a roundabout like this. Sometimes you can, but not always.

Re: Magic Roundabout (Swindon)

#74

Post by zamadatix »

DanTheManPR wrote: post #64
dghughes wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand how the turbo roundabout is any different than a typical two-lane roundabout. It looks like a regular two-lane roundabout from that picture in your link.

I'm not seeing the difference between this and two lane roundabouts. We have a bunch of these in the southern suburbs of Minneapolis/St Paul, and they work well even on roads with moderately high traffic. My only issue with them is that I find them somewhat scary as a pedestrian during winter. The first few times I encountered a two lane roundabout, I had some concerns about whether you had to cut across lanes to exi…

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.9561738,-86.1623079,150a,35y... is a "standard" two lane roundabout. Roundabouts like https://www.google.com/maps/place/Minneapolis,+MN/@44.883386... are more similar to a turbo roundabout but does not force traffic out after 3 exits or less, the inner lane could be followed indefinitely.

Re: Magic Roundabout (Swindon)

#75

Post by Hamuko »

Nr7 wrote: post #70
rwmj wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's one of these on the junction of the A3 at New Malden. https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/A3,+New+Malden,+UK/@51.3...

Here's one in Helsinki, Finland: https://goo.gl/maps/NoWE44KLKukEeq4d9 I also disagree that it is simple while you're on it although I have to admit that I'm not a very confident driver at the best of times so maybe that's just me.

There's one in Espoo, Finland (Suomenoja). It's apparently the "roundabout from hell", although I don't personally get it. https://www.hs.fi/kaupunki/espoo/art-2000005975273.html

Re: Magic Roundabout (Swindon)

#76

Post by systemtest »

dghughes wrote: post #55
mcv wrote: post #43

A better solution for high traffic flow is the turbo roundabout[0] which is getting increasingly popular in Netherland. Before you enter the roundabout, you select the lane for the direction you want to go. You only cross traffic when entering the roundabout for the first time. After that, you simply follow your lane and it delivery you where you want to go. It looks complicated from above, but it's very simple once…

I don't understand how the turbo roundabout is any different than a typical two-lane roundabout. It looks like a regular two-lane roundabout from that picture in your link.

On a regular two-lane roundabout some people don't use the inner lane when they want to go left, as they are afraid of not being able to merge to the outer lane. This design makes it easier to use the inner lane to go left.

Re: Magic Roundabout (Swindon)

#77

Post by seanalltogether »

dghughes wrote: post #55
mcv wrote: post #43

A better solution for high traffic flow is the turbo roundabout[0] which is getting increasingly popular in Netherland. Before you enter the roundabout, you select the lane for the direction you want to go. You only cross traffic when entering the roundabout for the first time. After that, you simply follow your lane and it delivery you where you want to go. It looks complicated from above, but it's very simple once…

I don't understand how the turbo roundabout is any different than a typical two-lane roundabout. It looks like a regular two-lane roundabout from that picture in your link.

We have one of these close to where I live. The idea is that the inside lane automatically becomes the outside lane after half way around, and when you are on the outside lane you are automatically forced to exit soon after.

Re: Magic Roundabout (Swindon)

#78

Post by ken »

snowwrestler wrote: post #61

> however, the roundabout provides a better throughput of traffic than other designs and has an excellent safety record, since traffic moves too slowly to do serious damage in the event of a collision. In 2010, the National Cooperative Highway Research Program concluded that the roundabout reduces injurious crashes by three quarters. One of the hardest things in local democracy is that the best traffic patterns are o…

The problem, as always, is that parties disagree on what "best" means.

Governments and safety organizations are pushing for "Vision Zero", i.e., safety at any cost. (My economics professor once pointed out that if you really want zero traffic deaths, just limit all cars to 5 mph everywhere.) For people driving on the road, the current level of risk (roughly 1 death per 100M miles) is acceptable, and arriving quickly is desirable.

Once you get to the point where the numbers are really tiny, safety is hard. It's tough to make people follow procedures when they've never seen any problems from violating them.

I see this effect happen with software, too.

Re: Magic Roundabout (Swindon)

#79

Post by mcv »

dghughes wrote: post #55
mcv wrote: post #43

A better solution for high traffic flow is the turbo roundabout[0] which is getting increasingly popular in Netherland. Before you enter the roundabout, you select the lane for the direction you want to go. You only cross traffic when entering the roundabout for the first time. After that, you simply follow your lane and it delivery you where you want to go. It looks complicated from above, but it's very simple once…

I don't understand how the turbo roundabout is any different than a typical two-lane roundabout. It looks like a regular two-lane roundabout from that picture in your link.

Isn't a two-lane roundabout one that simply has two lanes going round? The thing about the turbo-roundabout is that there are actually no lanes going round. Each lane just takes you to your exit. There's no option to stay on the roundabout at that point: you're forced off. It's very restrictive in that sense, but that also means that traffic flows smoothly: other drivers also have no option to merge wrong or try anything weird.

Re: Magic Roundabout (Swindon)

#80

Post by skrebbel »

Little detail, I love that they actually call it the Magic Roundabout in eg the traffic signs. I mean, it's a children's TV reference. Super nice, not everything official must be boring and dull.
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