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Roundabouts reduced accidents and are environmentally friendly

carmel.in.gov

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Re: Roundabouts reduced accidents and are environmentally friendly

#31

Post by speedbird »

nameisname wrote: post #4

I've driven through an intersection almost daily my entire life. It was switched to a roundabout a few years ago. I have had more near misses in that roundabout from people not yielding or people continuing around in the outside lane than my entire life driving and never had a single issue with the intersection prior to it being a roundabout. I like roundabouts. I would like to see a study on how many near misses hap…

Brit here. Roundabouts are pretty easy once you get used to them, extensive discussion of associated signage etc from another respondent here as to the need for ancillary features. This, however https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Roundabout_(Swindon)

Re: Roundabouts reduced accidents and are environmentally friendly

#32

Post by xamolxix »

cinntaile wrote: post #30
Symbiote wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[1] is a typical sign in Britain. The green sign (hopefully in my link) shows the main destinations, e.g. Warwick, since this is a long distance road. The white sign 200m further along the road shows more local destinations. There are then large signs at every exit on the roundabout. Sometimes (not here) the approach lanes have giant letters/numbers painted in each lane, even if it's crushed so Warwick is written "Wa…

> you can just go around again if you aren't sure which exit you need; you are forced into taking an exit, right or wrong > ...doesn't make sense? It's supposed to be "you can't just...", it also means your solution of slowing down and going around again doesn't work.

> It's supposed to be "you can't just..."

Honest question, why can't you? Is it disallowed by law?

Re: Roundabouts reduced accidents and are environmentally friendly

#33

Post by foxyv »

Symbiote wrote: post #29
prirun wrote: post #10

They put two roundabouts in here on a state highway. I've never talked to anyone who had good things to say about them. The main problems IMO are: - you can just go around again if you aren't sure which exit you need; you are forced into taking an exit, right or wrong - the radius is too small so there is not much time to make a complex decision, especially if you aren't already familiar with the exits - it's hard to…

[1] is a typical sign in Britain. The green sign (hopefully in my link) shows the main destinations, e.g. Warwick, since this is a long distance road. The white sign 200m further along the road shows more local destinations. There are then large signs at every exit on the roundabout. Sometimes (not here) the approach lanes have giant letters/numbers painted in each lane, even if it's crushed so Warwick is written "Wa…

> It sounds like you are approaching the roundabout too fast.

This is a common problem with USA roundabouts. People think of them like a freeway on-ramp and traffic engineers do nothing to calm the traffic entering. So people go through them as fast as possible. Slowing down in a roundabout tends to piss off a lot of folks who think they should be doing highway speeds.

Re: Roundabouts reduced accidents and are environmentally friendly

#34

Post by foxyv »

xamolxix wrote: post #32
cinntaile wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you can just go around again if you aren't sure which exit you need; you are forced into taking an exit, right or wrong > ...doesn't make sense? It's supposed to be "you can't just...", it also means your solution of slowing down and going around again doesn't work.

> It's supposed to be "you can't just..." Honest question, why can't you? Is it disallowed by law?

You will see a lot of "Shepard's Hook" roundabouts in the USA to prevent people from going around again. I personally don't know why.

Re: Roundabouts reduced accidents and are environmentally friendly

#35

Post by fatnoah »

I live in Massachusetts, the land of the rotary. Rotaries here are amazing with multiple lanes of crossing traffic, traffic lights, and occasionally making traffic IN the rotary yield to entering traffic.

My favorite is Newton Corner, 3-4 lanes of chaos in a 1/2 mile circumference featuring 200+ street signs, 23 crosswalks, 12 traffic lights, intersecting 6 local roads, and a highway interchange. Oh, there's also a couple bus stops for the 10 or so bus routes. One is generally required to cross several lanes of traffic to exit the rotary at the desired location.

The roundabouts that have popped up are downright relaxing in comparison.

Re: Roundabouts reduced accidents and are environmentally friendly

#36

Post by cinntaile »

xamolxix wrote: post #32
cinntaile wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you can just go around again if you aren't sure which exit you need; you are forced into taking an exit, right or wrong > ...doesn't make sense? It's supposed to be "you can't just...", it also means your solution of slowing down and going around again doesn't work.

> It's supposed to be "you can't just..." Honest question, why can't you? Is it disallowed by law?

I don't know anything about this field so I can't answer that unfortunately. If I were to take a guess, I'd guess it's for (real or imagined) safety reasons? Roundabouts where you can't go around again aren't that common here though.

Re: Roundabouts reduced accidents and are environmentally friendly

#39

Post by nuvious »

For sure, though "it depends" comes into play. Roundabouts down scale well beyond 3 lanes and if one gets clogged up it can have a butterfly effect that causes clog ups at other intersections

At least with a standard crossing intersection of say the E->W road is hosed up because of a traffic accident the other flows of traffic are unaffected as long as the intersection remains clear. Even if some jerk gets stuck in the middle they have the ability to U turn out to unblock the intersection.

With a roundabout when it's not clogged its very nice and I do enjoy them. But I've also been stuck at an intersection for more than an hour because of a fender bender in a roundabout causing a full traffic stoppage with no way out.

Re: Roundabouts reduced accidents and are environmentally friendly

#40

Post by Symbiote »

throwaway0a5e wrote: post #7
UncleEntity wrote: post #5

Phoenix area added a bunch of roundabouts a while ago and last I heard they were in the process of taking them out. Problem is if people are used to them they work well but if you rarely see them people don’t really understand the concept and just kind of blast through them without yielding. Almost got taken out a few times when I was a cabbie, people just go full speed into them without looking. The new hotness seem…

>Problem is if people are used to them they work well but (un)friendly reminder that this goes for the people in the city plannign department first and foremost. You can't just dump one in at every intersection and expect them to work out. It only works out when there's similiar traffic volumes on the intersecting streets. Of course people just drive on through when the volumes are such that that's the prevailing flo…

Britain has mini-roundabouts, which are a good alternative to many smaller junctions. It's just a painted white dot, about the size of a small car, in the middle of the junction.

Since the "circle" is so small, you yield to approaching vehicles on the junction, but also to a vehicle waiting at the entrance to your right¹, i.e. the vehicle that is waiting in the direction you're looking in anyway for traffic on the "circle".

If there are no other cars, you barely need to slow down.

In most cases, even if the junction is busy, a car trying to enter from an uncommon direction will quickly be able to go as someone in the main direction will need to yield.

¹ Driving on the left in Britain, of course.

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