Yet the most dangerous intersection in the county was the only one with roundabouts.
Safety benefits of roundabouts
401–409 of 409 posts
Re: Safety benefits of roundabouts
#402Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is your argument that roundabouts are bad for pedestrians? If so why?
Have you ever tried to cross one? In the UK pedestrians technically have priority at roundabouts now but this doesn't change anything with basically no drivers giving way (and no enforcement). The best compromise is an underpass for pedestrians but this creates a really confusing layout (you always go the wrong way the first time) and the usual dark/dingy/scary problems with underpasses.
I'm surprised more people don't talk about this. Roundabouts are murder for pedestrians. I have to say many stoplight crossings aren't much better, when they simultaneously allow for pedestrian traffic and vehicle traffic, which you do see.
Re: Safety benefits of roundabouts
#403Simple roundabouts are definitely good but in UK I have found spiral roundabouts error prone if you have not driven on it before Example: [1] When visiting for the first time on a specific spiral roundabout: 1. Lane markings are faded 2. You do not know the specific lane unless you come very close to it and have to make a quick decision 3. Often due to queued traffic you cannot even see the lane marking until its too…
If youre going more than half way around you want to go on the inner
Re: Safety benefits of roundabouts
#404Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The part you're missing is you have to yield when changing lanes, just like in any other road. This is not true with most roundabouts in North America at least. If you look at the diagram GP posted, you do not change to the outer lane to exit. You exit directly from the inner lane. In fact, you NEVER change lanes in a roundabout. The reason this works (where the inside lane crosses the outside) is because the round…
That doesn't work. If I enter a 4-way roundabout going left, I will start off in the left lane. I will pass two exits and leave through the third. When I exit, someone from the second exit could be in the lane next to me, going to the road I came from. I have to yield. When you exit from the inner lane you necessarily have to change lanes because the inner lane is completely inside the outer lane. You may not think o…
> I will pass two exits and leave through the third. When I exit, someone from the second exit could be in the lane next to me, going to the road I came from. I have to yield.
No, they have to yield to YOU because you're already in the roundabout. It's hard to believe, but trust me, this is just how it works and all of the links I've posted agree. The reason why it works is because when you're in the situation you describe, for the person entering at the second exit to be a factor, they would have to be entering as you're already alongside the second exit and in the process of exiting at the third. So they need to be yielding to you as they will be crossing your lane. Part of waiting for the gap is waiting for the exiting traffic to clear. Not for only YOUR lane to be empty.
Re: Safety benefits of roundabouts
#405Earlier quoted context omitted.
That doesn't work. If I enter a 4-way roundabout going left, I will start off in the left lane. I will pass two exits and leave through the third. When I exit, someone from the second exit could be in the lane next to me, going to the road I came from. I have to yield. When you exit from the inner lane you necessarily have to change lanes because the inner lane is completely inside the outer lane. You may not think o…
> I will pass two exits and leave through the third. When I exit, someone from the second exit could be in the lane next to me, going to the road I came from. I have to yield. No, they have to yield to YOU because you're already in the roundabout. It's hard to believe, but trust me, this is just how it works and all of the links I've posted agree. The reason why it works is because when you're in the situation you de…
I can't see any links you've posted that agree with what you're saying. I only checked a couple, you said all of them so I figure thats good enough.
Re: Safety benefits of roundabouts
#406Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I will pass two exits and leave through the third. When I exit, someone from the second exit could be in the lane next to me, going to the road I came from. I have to yield. No, they have to yield to YOU because you're already in the roundabout. It's hard to believe, but trust me, this is just how it works and all of the links I've posted agree. The reason why it works is because when you're in the situation you de…
I can't see any links you've posted that agree with what you're saying. I only checked a couple, you said all of them so I figure thats good enough.
Apologies, I mistook some of the ones I responded to with being ones I posted.
Here's a video from Minnesota timestamped to them talking about exactly this scenario in detail. Namely, yielding to all lanes of cross traffic: https://youtu.be/CEhNboz5GPk?si=LxdVQZx0MHrYhl8w&t=196
> With multi-lane roundabouts, it is important to stop for vehicles in all lanes of traffic. Wait until there is a gap in all lanes of traffic and then enter slowly. Never try to enter alongside cross traffic or assume any driver's intended path. One of of the most common mistakes people make when entering a roundabout is failing to yield to all lanes of traffic. Yield doesn't mean just slow down or merge. Yield means that you must wait until all traffic in the roundabout has cleared before proceeding. Make sure that no one is in either lane of the roundabout and then proceed.
The video also has a good overhead view that is better than most at showing the scale of the roundabout. The important thing to note here is that to enter the roundabout, you have to cross the lanes that are exiting, not merge into them. So you are yielding to all exiting lanes.
Re: Safety benefits of roundabouts
#407Earlier quoted context omitted.
The protection is just by hiding half of the traffic beyond an obstacle, you can still get t-boned on the roundabout, but only by the cars from your right and not from both directions like on an intersection. I guess it's a plus but with the added danger of a head-on collision from people traversing the roundabout in the wrong way I won't say if it's net-positive safety-wise with any degree of confidence.
I have never seen anyone go the wrong way around a roundabout, and I've never heard anyone tell me they've seen it. It's so rare you can ignore it.
It can happen to foreigners in a left-side-traffic country when they are used to right-side traffic. Or vice versa.
Re: Safety benefits of roundabouts
#408Earlier quoted context omitted.
It also greatly reduces the impact of being t-boned by cars coming from the right. The car coming from the right has to slow down in order to take the roundabout. This means you are now getting t-boned by a car going 30mph rather than 60mph, which is the difference a fatal accident and walking away with barely a scratch. Cars going the wrong way is a non-issue. It is clearly signed how you're supposed to drive, and i…
> The car coming from the right has to slow down in order to take the roundabout. Why? We are talking about people, who don't pay attention and drive through an intersection, the same people won't pay attention and won't slow down, let pedestrians to cross and do other silly things in the video. > It is clearly signed how you're supposed to drive I don't know where you live, but roundabouts near me have no signage of…
Why? Well, because it should be physically impossible not to. A roundabout forces you to take a sharp right turn, with a small turning radius.
It's like turning right at a T junction. You simply can't do that at high speeds because you will flip your car. Most drivers have enough self-preservation to prefer slowing down over crashing their car.
Re: Safety benefits of roundabouts
#409Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The car coming from the right has to slow down in order to take the roundabout. Why? We are talking about people, who don't pay attention and drive through an intersection, the same people won't pay attention and won't slow down, let pedestrians to cross and do other silly things in the video. > It is clearly signed how you're supposed to drive I don't know where you live, but roundabouts near me have no signage of…
Why? Well, because it should be physically impossible not to . A roundabout forces you to take a sharp right turn, with a small turning radius. It's like turning right at a T junction. You simply can't do that at high speeds because you will flip your car. Most drivers have enough self-preservation to prefer slowing down over crashing their car.
I have a $6000 bill to show you for a physically impossible Toyota driving into my passenger door on a roundabout. A roundabout is just collection of T-intersections, nothing forces you to take right turn, you can drive straight, right, or left, physically.
And as for the self-preservation, running a red light on a normal intersection is doubly dangerous as you are risking both frontal and side collisions from both sides, if self-preservation is how roundabouts are safer then a normal intersection is doubly so (it is not, people who cause accidents are not guided by self-preservation).