Dec 6th, 2016: Roundabouts

[xoxoxoBruce]

Roundabouts are common in England, some of them mind boggling. Here not so much. I know of a couple in PA and
some in Jersey, but many were eliminated by road improvements. They are making a comeback, I saw a bunch of
new ones in MA, and read PA is recommending them.

I hate them. The theory is good, but in the real world they suck because... people. Half the fools stop and look left
like it's a stop sign, then wait until they can't see anyone coming, instead of yield and merge.

Is confusion a good way to encourage safer driving? That seems to be the idea behind a new traffic calming ploy
in Cambridge, England. The city reopened a remodeled street last week featuring what appears, at first, to be
a roundabout. Look carefully, however, and you’ll notice that it isn’t a roundabout at all. It’s simply a circle of bricks
laid into the street and adjoining sidewalk. It’s practical function is essentially nothing.

Or is it? The city’s thinking is that drivers will instinctively slow down when they approach this ghost roundabout.
When they get closer, they will realize they’re actually on a normal street, and accelerate—but in the meantime
they will have slowed down and watched the road more carefully on what could be a potentially dangerous corner.

What about after they've driven through it a couple times?

link

[Pamela]

For me, roundabouts are always too small. I have to negotiate two of them in quick succession to get to a regular customer in southern Indiana and always manage to run my trailer into the middle part and crush the bricks. It is impossible to NOT do this; the circle is simply too small and tight for big trucks.

[monster]

There are lots of roundabouts here -popping up all over the place. the problem is the road constructors don't get it and they are way too small. And have ridiculous lane systems. Plus people have no idea how to used them and insist on stopping even if there's no other car in sight.

[elSicomoro]

Originally Posted by monster

There are lots of roundabouts here -popping up all over the place. the problem is the road constructors don't get it and they are way too small. And have ridiculous lane systems. Plus people have no idea how to used them and insist on stopping even if there's no other car in sight.

In the state known for its fantastic process for turning left ;-)

[monster]

yes, not only should they be big enough to easily accommodate trucks, but there needs to be a decent distance between entries/exits. A roundabout is NOT a cute centerpiece for a four-way stop/crossroads.

And if you and I reach the roundabout at the same time and you are to my left, GO! ffs! And if there's room for me to also go in front of you, I will. And it won't inconvenience you, so get your damn hand off the horn. And if you stop before you enter the roundabout, I'm long gone. I don't care if you think it should be a 4-way stop, it isn't. Oh am I ranting? sorry -you shoulda seen the wazzocks on the roundabout on the way home tonight

[fargon]

They're all the rage here. They put a couple of them in Onalaska that have a hill in the middle, somebody has already pulled a Dukes of Hazzard on one. The hill makes for pretty landscaping but you can't see the other side. Whoever designed them is a bonehead.

[Griff]

They were all over NZ and seemed to work fine even for first-time right hand drivers.

[glatt]

It may be annoying when a car stops at one instead of yielding, but even that behavior is better than the alternative. If it wasn't a roundabout, they would put a traffic light there instead, and all traffic lights have red lights that last longer than the green lights, so the odds are greater that you would have to stop with one of those.

It's the increase in intersections with traffic lights that drives me nuts. I'd welcome roundabouts if it meant no red light to wait for.

[Snakeadelic]

Throw in traffic-induced panic attacks and THIS is why I no longer drive! I keep my license legal, but I tell all my nearest & dearest that if I'm driving someone better need to go to the hospital, cuz that's where we're gonna end up regardless. Thankfully, I have the help of a driver who works for the local mental health care center (where they keep my adult case file open exactly for sh*t like this) as well as my downstairs neighbor, and I live in a town too small for roundabouts. Everyone bitches how bad traffic is on the local 5-lane highway (that's 2 each way with a left turn lane, no median) and how bad it'll get if the super box store actually gets built on the south end of town (last time they tried that W-M got kicked north all the way to Ronan, like 2.5 hours driving time), so if the store does get built hopefully nobody gets the brilliant idea to stick a roundabout in front of it!

[Snakeadelic]

The one place in this town that actually needs better traffic control is the biggest grocery store, which I refer to as Stupid One. That place needs lights, roundabouts, hazard warnings, and traffic cops INDOORS. Their parking lot was a nightmare so they decided to have some work done...made all the spaces shorter and thinner to weasel in another row, thinking that extra parking spaces where you can't get your door open and are 100,000% more likely to back any vehicle bigger than a sedan into the row behind you would help.

I try not to shop there.

[Carruthers]

Originally Posted by Snakeadelic

Their parking lot was a nightmare so they decided to have some work done...made all the spaces shorter and thinner to weasel in another row, thinking that extra parking spaces where you can't get your door open and are 100,000% more likely to back any vehicle bigger than a sedan into the row behind you would help.

Meanwhile, in the UK....

Cars are getting too big for Britain's parking bays - amid a growing number of accidents and calls for larger parking spaces.

According to a new study, the average parking space is 4.8m long and 2.4m wide, but popular larger vehicles such as the Audi Q7 and the Mercedes-Benz GL-Class measure in at more than 5m long and just under 2m wide.

Even many smaller cars are larger than they used to be, with the latest Vauxhall Corsa now 16% bigger than it was 15 years ago, for example.

Scott Hamilton-Cooper, director of operations at Accident Exchange, which produced the study, said:
"Drivers are having to squeeze increasingly large cars into spaces that generally haven't got any larger for a very long time.

"This could be contributing to the rise in car parking incidents we are seeing."

Mr Hamilton-Cooper noted that the SUVs have become very popular, outselling smaller hatchbacks, while older smaller cars are being taken off the streets.

Car-parking accidents have increased by an estimated 35% since 2014, now accounting for more than 30% of all accidents, the company said.

This means that there are around 1,859 car parking accidents every day.

They calculated that these result in an average repair bill of £2,050, meaning that parking prangs are costing Britons around £1.4bn a year.

LINK

[Diaphone Jim]

I was surprised how easy they were to negotiate on a visit to England, even on the wrong side of the road.
There have been a few popping up in Northern California, and I have to say that the idea is a good one except that the driving ability of many, many people does not seem to be compatible.
Last weekend two local teenagers were killed when the one driving decided to go right through the middle and launched 100 feet into a walnut grove.
They must have driven around it dozens or more times.
Going out on a limb, the CHP speculated that speed or alcohol might have been a factor.

[xoxoxoBruce]

But why would you want a confusing roundabout when you could have a simple interchange?

[burns334]

There is a roundabout NW of London, South of Aylesbury that lets you go clockwise or counter clockwise. The inner circle is ccw and the outer is cw and for someone from the US it is frightening to say the least, google finds it easily

[Carruthers]

Originally Posted by burns334

There is a roundabout NW of London, South of Aylesbury that lets you go clockwise or counter clockwise. The inner circle is ccw and the outer is cw and for someone from the US it is frightening to say the least, google finds it easily

Sounds like the Magic Roundabout at Hemel Hempstead.



It's easy enough to navigate if you know which exit you need and you're not a complete novice at the thing. It's easy to spot the first timers.

It's pretty straightforward to use as long as you tackle each of the small roundabouts in isolation.

That's only my view and there's probably as many opinions as there are drivers who use it.

For a ground level view click here: HH Magic Roundabout