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Safety benefits of roundabouts

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Re: Safety benefits of roundabouts

#331

Post by Moru »

dfxm12 wrote: post #33
hristov wrote: post #20

The greatest thing about roundabouts is that they protect against the idiot that goes through an intersection at full speed. He does that either because he is passed out behind the wheel or because he did not notice a stop sign and thought he had the right of way, or maybe because he just does not care. Well with a roundabout if you just go straight ahead you hit the center circle. Good roundabouts always have a slig…

Good roundabouts always have a slight hill and some kind of barrier (a tree or some kind of statue) in the center Interestingly enough, a new roundabout was installed in my neighborhood. We considered something pretty to look at in the middle, but the city said no way. "Emergency vehicles need to be able to go through the middle at full speed". Meanwhile, busses have zero issues negotiating the circle at normal drivi…

That's more like a trafic circle or whatever to call it. Used where there isn't enough space for a full roundabout. We had them close to school but they took them away again 20 years later. Since this was close to the fire station, emergency vehicles need to be able to go over them. Also busses because no space for them to drive around.

Re: Safety benefits of roundabouts

#332

Post by mcv »

saiya-jin wrote: post #319
CalRobert wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Choice stress is what makes it safe, though. The driver _should_ be a bit stressed. And removing the possibility to change your mind in the roundabout reserves more mental capacity for looking for pedestrians (like me! Hi from Hilversum, which is pretty crappy by Dutch standards but a dream compared to anywhere else I've lived)

A person more stressed has less mental capacity for everything else including pedestrians, why the heck do I have to explain this to adults? Stress leads to mistakes, every single time, in any activity. Whole sports and strategies are based solely on making competitor more stressed to induce mistakes and lose.

And yet they're safer. All data so far seems to show that turbo roundabouts are very safe.

Re: Safety benefits of roundabouts

#333

Post by HPsquared »

ace32229 wrote: post #285
meheleventyone wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you know the origin of the UK use because that always confused me as it’s obviously wrong from the drivers perspective of the road! My wild guess would be that from the drivers seat you look outside to the fast lane and look across the inside of the car to look to the slow lanes.

The fast lane is the furthest lane away from where you'd enter the motorway, therefore it's the outside lane (or so the logic goes!)

But... aren't entrances/exits usually on the "outside" of something?

Re: Safety benefits of roundabouts

#334

Post by HPsquared »

saiya-jin wrote: post #319
CalRobert wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Choice stress is what makes it safe, though. The driver _should_ be a bit stressed. And removing the possibility to change your mind in the roundabout reserves more mental capacity for looking for pedestrians (like me! Hi from Hilversum, which is pretty crappy by Dutch standards but a dream compared to anywhere else I've lived)

A person more stressed has less mental capacity for everything else including pedestrians, why the heck do I have to explain this to adults? Stress leads to mistakes, every single time, in any activity. Whole sports and strategies are based solely on making competitor more stressed to induce mistakes and lose.

There's a sweet spot. "Eustress"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eustress

Re: Safety benefits of roundabouts

#335

Post by HPsquared »

CalRobert wrote: post #317
rcpt wrote: post #180

Ctrl+f "pedestrian" Only one result and it's not even about roundabouts. This is how American traffic engineering is done.

Not sure you can call it "engineering" if you're not liable when your failures kill people.

Interesting. "Taking liability for failures" does seem to be a key function of engineers, going back to the Code of Hammurabi.

https://fs.blog/hammurabis-code/

Re: Safety benefits of roundabouts

#336

Post by baz00 »

pbmonster wrote: post #307
buro9 wrote: post #266

Swindon, UK would like to remind the World that recursive roundabouts are a thing too. https://i.imgur.com/4pMhdMl.gif

How is that a thing? Why not just have a two-lane roundabout with the third lane skipping the roundabout and going to the next exit directly?

We have another one which is just as cool. https://imgur.com/WfFXmBg https://imgur.com/IFIZI2q

They actually work really well.

I'd love to see some of the things that generative ML could do in this space :)

Re: Safety benefits of roundabouts

#337

Post by datavirtue »

smeej wrote: post #135
Enginerrrd wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Transportation engineer here: Multi-lane roundabouts don't typically have any safety benefits. Single lane roundabouts do. Also, on the small side where you have traffic circles rather than roundabouts, those also suck.

I think you're right about single vs. 2+ lanes. It doesn't matter how many diagram signs they put up before the roundabout entry, people will NOT understand a roundabout with more than one lane, and under no circumstance will people going straight through realize they have to yield to someone coming from the opposite side who's going 270° around the circle and exiting from the inner lane. Roundabouts are fine if the…

This. My community built training facilities. Didn't help much. Also, for new drivers these just induce anxiety and give them new opportunities to halt traffic and get horns blasted at them.

Re: Safety benefits of roundabouts

#338

Post by Garvi »

TedHerman wrote: post #326

Allow me to explain why at least one of them is so annoying. The roundabout is atop a hill; there is little visibility of what traffic is approaching from other directions because the hill is steep. Motorists don't bother signaling how far around they will go. I, riding a bicycle on a sidewalk, wish to go straight across the road. However I can't always see that someone is entering the circle. And even if I do see so…

I see your one roundabout with poor visibility and raise you two regular intersections with one fatal crash each year each. Both in the radius of one kilometer (of my current position).

Checkmate atheists. Also my spellchecker is pointing out that kilometer is not a real word.

Re: Safety benefits of roundabouts

#339

Post by yreg »

dagw wrote: post #310
yreg wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> people will NOT understand a roundabout with more than one lane We have tons of 2-lane ones and everyone understands them…

Where are you? We have tons of 2-lane roundabouts in Sweden as well, and I can assure you that far from everyone understands them. And even if they understand them in the sense that they got the theory question about them correct on their driving test, everybody certainly doesn't implement that knowledge consistently and correctly when faced with a 2-lane roundabout.

Bratislava, Slovakia. I don’t recall anyone I know having an accident on a roundabout.

Newbie drivers I talk to/drive with are much more worried/unsure about crossings (both the ones without traffic lights and the big ones with many lanes) and of course about parking.

Of course, there will be SOME people who are clueless on roundabouts, similar to how there are always some people who will stop on a highway after missing an exit and pull back. But let's not argue about the long tails.

IMO if you learn to drive at a time when roundabouts are already ubiquitous, they are trivial. At least I found other aspects of driving more difficult.

Re: Safety benefits of roundabouts

#340

Post by bheadmaster »

datavirtue wrote: post #330
bheadmaster wrote: post #323

One thing I love about roundabouts is the efficiency of the algorithm, compared to the classic semaphore-controlled crossroads. Since the inbound cars are required to yield to cars that are already inside the roundabout, the cars inside the roundabout are always guaranteed to exit the roundabout in a reasonable amount of time (assuming the exit lanes are not blocked), which means that there will always be new empty s…

Adorable. Where I live people stop in the roundabout when they see other cars coming or they stop at the roundabout if they see any car approaching. People just don't get it.

Well, I don't know where you live, but where I live, if you're entering the roundabout, and cause an accident by not yielding to the person who's already inside the roundabout, it's entirely your fault and you (or your insurance) pay the damages. So anyone who's inside the roundabout can be pretty sure that nobody will slide in in front of them.
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