271–280 of 316 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wait until you find one of the distressingly common places where they build a roundabout and put stop signs on some or all of the entrances.
What does the stop provide that a yield does not? I am confused
Having driven this roundabout, it's a disaster. Way too cramped and narrow with sharp angles. The multitude of islands is confusing.
like in a normal roundabout you always yield to the people in the roundabout basically assuring things won't get "stuck" if one road has much more traffic then another
but on the picture it looks (through the lines) as if the people in roundabout have to yield
in which case it wouldn't technically be a roundabout but just a 3 way intersection which separated and lanes to archive some traffic flow optimizations and calming as necessary (as such the sharp edges might angels might be very much intentional)
and I agree it looks confusing but it also looks like it will slow down traffic in all but one of the directions
EDIT: Photos on google maps have much more sane lane markings and it resolves the question if you have to yield when entering it (yes you have). It generally looks much less confusing there.
I live in the US now, but originally from Ireland. My least favourite part of US road infrastructure is the 4 way stop. They are just not good compared to a roundabout. Half the time the only way you can tell it’s an all way stop is by looking for the back of the stop signs on the perpendicular road. With a roundabout, you only have to look in one direction, and if it’s clear, you don’t even have to stop.
Online I see this mentality that roundabouts are great no matter what and it seems really strange to me. It really depends on the design of the roundabout and the traffic conditions. Where I grew up there are a lot of roundabouts, but many of them are so dangerously designed I started actively avoiding them. It’s not that you can’t poorly design a four way stop, but it seems to be much less common, for whatever reaso…
No matter how terribly designed, it's hard to entirely miss a roundabout. You basically need to be incoherent.
Roundabouts get a lot of praise whenever they're mentioned, and from a traffic flow perspective that's understandable - if by traffic you mean motorised traffic. For pedestrians and cyclists they are worse than the alternative (lights - or even a simple intersection) in my opinion. > Making a roundabout for everyone ctrl-f "walk", "cycl", pedes". Nothing.
The roundabout forces drivers to slow down in any case, so they are already reducing speed.
Social norms is another thing, but if every driver is in asshat mode you are going to have traffic problems regardless of infrastructure.
Want to see it work? Visit Carmel, Indiana.
Seattle Department of Transportation and Washington State DOT have honestly gotten way too creative. It's like every city, every locale, and sometimes every street has a new collection of obstacles and rules to circumnavigate. Roundabouts are great, but they should probably be round. In this case, it seems that it'd be easy to navigate if the two roads were brought into a single, simple roundabout intersection like y…
It is intentional. The idea is to force drivers to reduce speed, and the mechanism is because it isn't familiar to the drivers. The claim is it forces them to be thoughtful. Whether or not it works or is a good idea is not something on which I'm opining.
This is oddly timely. I'm travelling in Europe at the moment and have been covering a lot of area with a lot of roundabouts where they would be signaled or signed intersections in the US. They definitely make traffic flow smoothly and I've noticed a few areas where they are used to eliminate dangerous left turns at places like parking lots, you leave turning right, hit the next roundabout to "uturn" then head back th…
The preference for 4 way stops in a country that otherwise prioritises traffic flow so much is really jarring. Traffic lights too to some extent. About 5 years ago my wife an I were doing a California road trip. At one point on a relatively rural road -- I think it might have been Dry Creek road heading into Napa but cannae mind exactly -- we got stuck in traffic for around 45 minutes. We thought there must have been…
Roundabouts are a nuisance, while they offer some merits, the sheer lack of education around how to navigate one makes for a very unpleasant experience in most cases.
I think the same is true of roundabouts. One part of the experience that seems almost never to be mentioned is the experience for a passenger when encountering a series of roundabouts. Let’s say you had some bad oysters and are resting your head in the back of the car on a pillow and praying you can make it home before you upchuck your dinner. Perhaps some road engineer decided to put 5 or so roundabouts consecutively to “optimize traffic flow” then somewhere around spin number 3 you lose your stomach on the backseat. Perhaps the trip was not “optimal” for you.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The preference for 4 way stops in a country that otherwise prioritises traffic flow so much is really jarring. Traffic lights too to some extent. About 5 years ago my wife an I were doing a California road trip. At one point on a relatively rural road -- I think it might have been Dry Creek road heading into Napa but cannae mind exactly -- we got stuck in traffic for around 45 minutes. We thought there must have been…
I like 4-way stops as a pedestrian because I can actually cross the road there. With roundabouts it's impossible to cross without asking really nicely or risking my life. US drivers do not stop for pedestrians so crossing that kind of infrastructure is often taking your life into your hands.
That said, if there's a huge bias towards cars coming from one direction (or out one direction), that can be very difficult to cross. And it has impacts on the roundabout's throughput too, and means that a roundabout might not be the most ideal. Similarly to how a roundabout that gets backedup into can fail catastrophically (you have to make sure there's negative pressure!)
I live in the US now, but originally from Ireland. My least favourite part of US road infrastructure is the 4 way stop. They are just not good compared to a roundabout. Half the time the only way you can tell it’s an all way stop is by looking for the back of the stop signs on the perpendicular road. With a roundabout, you only have to look in one direction, and if it’s clear, you don’t even have to stop.
The other side may have a stop sign, but are they stopping?
Its sort of useless to know if you have the right of way or not when you drive defensively. Just assume you don't and only go if you actually see someone yielding/preparing to yield to you.