Safer roundabouts are replacing traffic signals (2023) • Hacker News Board

Re: Safer roundabouts are replacing traffic signals (2023)

#41

Post by Tade0 » Sat, Jul 13, 2024, 8:13 PM UTC

jchw wrote: post #3

Trying to explain how roundabouts work to someone who doesn't get them is extremely frustrating. The rules are simple, but for some reason a lot of folks are vastly overthinking it. The thing is, I like roundabouts, but I'm somehow not surprised that the metrics focus on accidents involving death or injury. I think that because people have to slow down, it must improve those metrics. But there's a particular glut of…

> I would legitimately not be surprised if there were actually more accidents overall.

That's possible, but people causing frequent fender-benders pay dearly for the privilege, so there's at least non-lethal feedback forcing them to improve.

Re: Safer roundabouts are replacing traffic signals (2023)

#42

Post by NegativeLatency » Sat, Jul 13, 2024, 8:14 PM UTC

DidYaWipe wrote: post #32

o11c wrote: post #18

Anecdotally, I also think the way roundabouts get built in the US is better now than a decade or two ago. It used to be that roundabouts (being unfamiliar) were just treated as a cookie-cutter object to plunk into the roadspace blindly. Nowadays I often see the designers making conscious decisions like: * what radius? * what angle do we need so it doesn't even make sense to try to turn left? * hard curb or drivable c…

Americans still can't understand the passing lane. I'm skeptical that they're going to make effective use of roundabouts (although I do believe in their merits).

Single lane yield controlled roundabouts work pretty well, much better than an uncontrolled intersection in suburbia or out in the country

Re: Safer roundabouts are replacing traffic signals (2023)

#43

Post by numbsafari » Sat, Jul 13, 2024, 8:14 PM UTC

hypeatei wrote: post #23

In rural America, there are super dangerous 4-way intersections with stop signs. We're talking highways with 55+ MPH (~88 KPH) speed limits that are relying on everyone to see the sign and stop. Roundabouts would be much safer and better for traffic flow. There was a recent event where the interstate was closed (accident or something) and everyone had to re-route on those highways resulting in chaos at those intersec…

They are making these conversions at high fatality/injury intersections on rural highways here in Northern MN (our county is the size of the state of Delaware with a population of only 40k) and they are doing a great job at improving safety.

Re: Safer roundabouts are replacing traffic signals (2023)

#44

Post by pornel » Sat, Jul 13, 2024, 8:15 PM UTC

paulette449 wrote: post #5

I spend a lot of time near Manchester, VT where there are a handful of roundabouts including two in quick succession, one of which is as small as it is busy. The problem, based on my observations, is that many Americans have no idea how to use roundabout, nor how to signal through them. I feel unsafe every time I'm in the roundabout and have nearly been T-boned multiple times by people feeling they have the right to…

In the UK, roads entering the roundabout are often curved sharply towards direction of the traffic on the roundabout, so that it's more like merging lanes than entering a junction, so collisions are more likely to be sides hitting sides than a t-bone.

Re: Safer roundabouts are replacing traffic signals (2023)

#45

Post by orwin » Sat, Jul 13, 2024, 8:16 PM UTC

TacticalCoder wrote: post #29

melbourne_mat wrote: post #8

I live in a country where roundabouts are common. They're great for relatively low traffic intersections as you can often get through much faster than lights. They are a liability when traffic levels are high enough - say during peak times - when one inbound direction is blocked by another. Wondering why Americans loathe them?

> They are a liability when traffic levels are high enough - say during peak times - when one inbound direction is blocked by another. The rule should be that when traffic is bumper to bumper, the "zip" is made mandatory. That rule already supersedes the normal rule on, say, many (all?) european highways when the highway goes from, say, 3 lanes to 2 lanes and in case that creates a traffic jam: people in "their" lane…

I'm in France and we do Zip in my area (which is quite touristic and see huge traffic right now, so I do that quite often when I drive in summer). But it is true that around Paris and in southeast France, people usually misbehave and act like entitled pricks.

Re: Safer roundabouts are replacing traffic signals (2023)

#46

Post by yjftsjthsd-h » Sat, Jul 13, 2024, 8:17 PM UTC

lnxg33k1 wrote: post #17

jchw wrote: post #3

Trying to explain how roundabouts work to someone who doesn't get them is extremely frustrating. The rules are simple, but for some reason a lot of folks are vastly overthinking it. The thing is, I like roundabouts, but I'm somehow not surprised that the metrics focus on accidents involving death or injury. I think that because people have to slow down, it must improve those metrics. But there's a particular glut of…

But do you have to explain? Isn’t it part of the studies one do in order to obtain a driving license in us?

I don't know if it is or isn't part of the exam to get a license, but even if it is licenses are more or less good for life once you have them, so you're looking at decades before everyone on the road would have to have passed that portion of the exam.

Re: Safer roundabouts are replacing traffic signals (2023)

#47

Post by londons_explore » Sat, Jul 13, 2024, 8:18 PM UTC

Exactly the same was true in 1970. Yet 50 years on, and nobody really cares.

It's always someone else's daughter who will be killed in a car accident.

Re: Safer roundabouts are replacing traffic signals (2023)

#48

Post by hinkley » Sat, Jul 13, 2024, 8:21 PM UTC

DidYaWipe wrote: post #32

o11c wrote: post #18

Anecdotally, I also think the way roundabouts get built in the US is better now than a decade or two ago. It used to be that roundabouts (being unfamiliar) were just treated as a cookie-cutter object to plunk into the roadspace blindly. Nowadays I often see the designers making conscious decisions like: * what radius? * what angle do we need so it doesn't even make sense to try to turn left? * hard curb or drivable c…

Americans still can't understand the passing lane. I'm skeptical that they're going to make effective use of roundabouts (although I do believe in their merits).

I fully believe that roundabouts work because they look dangerous and they force people to pay attention. There are other traffic management techniques that are overt about this inequality; you can design highways so it looks like you'll run into things you couldn't possibly hit and thus you slow down.

If left to voting instead of public policy, we will pick "feels safe but isn't" over "doesn't feel safe but is" which is why someone has to put their big boy pants on and build them anyway.

Re: Safer roundabouts are replacing traffic signals (2023)

#49

Post by leapingdog » Sat, Jul 13, 2024, 8:28 PM UTC

melbourne_mat wrote: post #8

I live in a country where roundabouts are common. They're great for relatively low traffic intersections as you can often get through much faster than lights. They are a liability when traffic levels are high enough - say during peak times - when one inbound direction is blocked by another. Wondering why Americans loathe them?

Peak time congestion requires a local form of driver etiquette. My city would grind to a halt without it.

Re: Safer roundabouts are replacing traffic signals (2023)

#50

Post by Aloisius » Sat, Jul 13, 2024, 8:32 PM UTC

I like single lane roundabouts.

Multi-lane roundabouts, though, freak me out when they're really tight, have a lot of lanes or don't have lane markers (e.g. Place Charles de Gaulle in Paris).