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Remove left turns for less dangerous city traffic

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101–110 of 174 posts

Re: Remove left turns for less dangerous city traffic

#101

One of the best ways to eliminate left turns is to replace four way intersections with roundabouts. This has the advantage of working even where there isn’t a grid to facilitate the “3 right turns” strategy. For a great description of why this is so effective, see the recent freakonomics podcast: https://freakonomics.com/podcast/roundabouts/

Swindon's 7 rings of fiery death doesn't need right turns or stop lights.

Re: Remove left turns for less dangerous city traffic

#102
post #3

Google maps, and other similar routing apps, should offer a no left turn option!

Heck, I'd be thrilled by a "avoid intersections where the bottom 20% of drivers get stuck waiting for several minutes trying to make the turn" option. 99% of the time I wouldn't use it. But the 1% of the time that I'm doing something stupid the last thing I need is a extraneous hard intersections. It's not like Google doesn't have the location data to figure out the difference between intersections where traffic is s…

I use the “alternate route” hints for this - if the left turn looks dicey (not protected, busy) I’ll keep going and let it reroute. Usually finds a stop light.

Re: Remove left turns for less dangerous city traffic

#103
There's a lot of really idiotic left turns across multiple lanes of traffic which are allowed outside of traffic light controlled intersections. Those lead directly to the "wave of death" situation where people (if they've been explicitly given such a wave or not) tend to try to bolt across traffic that they can't see coming.

A traffic safety solution would be to just eliminate those left turns and run the lane divider bumps down the middle of those roads. Businesses would probably scream quite a bit since left turns into their parking lots would no longer be possible, but you'd cut out a ton of accidents. Suicide lanes turning across multiple lane would also similarly need to be removed.

There are a ton of drivers who try to push through deeply stupid left turns in the middle of heavy traffic, because they're technically legal. Even making them do a U-turn at the next light would be safer (or yes, roundabouts, please).

Re: Remove left turns for less dangerous city traffic

#104
post #88

One of the best ways to eliminate left turns is to replace four way intersections with roundabouts. This has the advantage of working even where there isn’t a grid to facilitate the “3 right turns” strategy. For a great description of why this is so effective, see the recent freakonomics podcast: https://freakonomics.com/podcast/roundabouts/

As a French, it's really surprising to see how other people from other countries aren't used to roundabouts. I really like how diverse roundabouts are here. Some are arranged like gardens, some have flowers, some have sculptures, some have decorations made by the local school. A funny anecdote: we used to go to Pontarlier from time to time because our grandparents had a house here. Every time we went, we saw that [1]…

The French are not very good at using roundabouts IME, they don't indicate which exit they intend to use.

Re: Remove left turns for less dangerous city traffic

#105
post #93
post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a French, it's really surprising to see how other people from other countries aren't used to roundabouts. I really like how diverse roundabouts are here. Some are arranged like gardens, some have flowers, some have sculptures, some have decorations made by the local school. A funny anecdote: we used to go to Pontarlier from time to time because our grandparents had a house here. Every time we went, we saw that [1]…

Is that a thumb?!

Sorry, this was the wrong link but yes this one is a thumb.

Re: Remove left turns for less dangerous city traffic

#106
post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Two wrongs don't make a left, but 3 rights do.

Try that in this city :) http://szczecinblog.pl/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/historyczn... I've visited it a few years ago and I found myself accidently going in circles constantly :)

Round and round we go... You just wanted to take the very scenic route to make sure you didn't miss anything. ;-)

Re: Remove left turns for less dangerous city traffic

#107
post #80

One of the best ways to eliminate left turns is to replace four way intersections with roundabouts. This has the advantage of working even where there isn’t a grid to facilitate the “3 right turns” strategy. For a great description of why this is so effective, see the recent freakonomics podcast: https://freakonomics.com/podcast/roundabouts/

Roundabouts in the busy city center would be terrible. Where roundabouts fit best is in intersections with low demand, because they have low capacity, and there's no reasonable way to increase capacity. If it's the urban core busy city center where there are skyscrapers right up to the lot line, there's no room for a roundabout unless you're willing to make 'round a bumps' or carve some footprint out of the buildings…

There shouldn't be cars at all in busy city centers.

Re: Remove left turns for less dangerous city traffic

#108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But people don’t know how to use them and just make it a free for all. Look no further than the Boston metro area for how this actually shakes out.

This is a self-fulfilling prophecy. People don't know how to use them because they never encounter them. Once they've been around for a while, people will encounter them and learn how to use them.

If Americans can put down their mobile phones and concentrate on the driving.

Re: Remove left turns for less dangerous city traffic

#109

One of the best ways to eliminate left turns is to replace four way intersections with roundabouts. This has the advantage of working even where there isn’t a grid to facilitate the “3 right turns” strategy. For a great description of why this is so effective, see the recent freakonomics podcast: https://freakonomics.com/podcast/roundabouts/

[deleted]

Re: Remove left turns for less dangerous city traffic

#110
post #5

While I don't know of the safety impact of removing left turns, the actual trip time impact in a busy city is severely understated. In my city (700k people), an old European town, city center has seen the removal of a few key left turns in the past few years. Consequences for traffic outside city center: probably none. Consequences if you want to drive from within the city center to the outside (e.g. go back from a s…

> almost as bad as walking What's bad about walking? It's good for your health, good for the economy, good for the environment.

If you are in a car, chances are the goal was to get there more quickly than you could by walking. If you are getting there more slowly by taking a car then it was "worse than walking" by this metric. No one is criticizing walking as a general means of transportation.
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