Roundabout opinion

just outside of Branson, MO. It appeared to be working very well and I had no problem with it. That being said ....... I was in a rental car and not pulling the 5th wheel...... that would probably have changed my opinion!

Lovely

The only way drivers will get better using roundabouts is if there's no "but here" special yielding rule. That's also the only way they will help traffic too.

I like them because it makes people think while they drive....

I think its best to stick with red lights on inter sections you don't have to make split second decisions because someone didn't yield or was impatient .

This one, in fact it's two, is bad because my wife won't let me use it. Really if you know how it works, it's not bad. I think the ones in some of the small towns in WI are kind of silly. Mt Horeb has a bunch in a row and I fail to see what they accomplish.

A Delaware area I used to travel through has a bunch of circles in small neighborhoods. They were put there to slow traffic down (ie speeders) not for the normal reason circles are put in place.

Here's an example (not sure where this is but it illistrates what I'm talking about):

http://www.internetigloo.com/wildwood/images/funky%20roundab...

A new roundabout was recently opened near Scranton PA which was designed to provide an easy exit off I-81 for trucks to get to a nearby truck stop. It appears the highway engineers made an error in their design since the roundabout seems to be too small for many large trucks.

http://www.pahomepage.com/news/newly-opened-roundabout-raise...

My personal opinion is roundabouts or traffic circles as they used to be called, are hazardous. The trend in highway design over the last 50 years had been to eliminate traffic circles for safety reasons. Now, for some unknown reason, they are returning. How did they suddenly become safe again?

In Safety Harbor, Florida some streets now have very small roundabouts that serve as speed reduction controls. They are so small that large vehicles have to drive over the brick curb area just to get through. I'm not sure if they are any better than speed bumps...

That's what I was saying Delaware has a couple posts prior to this one, it's called traffic calming, has no other purpose than to slow traffic down.

This is a link to a photo of what I am referring to:

http://www.internetigloo.com/wildwood/images/funky%20roundab...

I think the return of the roundabout, or traffic circle as they used to be called, would be easier to sell to the public if they would design them right the first time.

A roundabout here in Northeastern PA, opened just 2 weeks ago, proved to be too small for trucks and will have to be redesigned.

http://wnep.com/2015/11/13/changes-coming-to-luzerne-county-...

It's not the large traffic circles I worry about. People seem to eventually get the point about how to drive them. Here, we also have the "mini" roundabouts, and these things are DEADLY.

They have been here for a few years and there are still hundreds of people every day who don't know how to handle them. They were basically just plunked down in the middle of an existing intersection. The road was not widened to accommodate them; they just dropped them in the middle of the road. The ones that used to be four-way-stops aren't too bad because local drivers treat them the way they always did, only slowing down and not stopping unless necessary.

The SCARY ones - and the ones that will get someone killed one of these days - are the ones that were dropped on previous through roads, replacing the side street stop signs. Local drivers on the main road just buzz right through, rarely even slowing. Even if another vehicle is on the cross-street at the yield, they seem to feel that the main road has the right of way and whip on through. I have seen some near accidents.

To me, these mini-roundabouts are the stupidest design they could possibly come up with. Someone is going to get killed. In full-size roundabouts, collisions rarely result in injuries because collisions are at an angle and speeds are low. In the mini-roundabouts, collisions will be 90 degrees and if the driver on the main road wrongly thinks they have the right of way, collisions speeds will be high.

http://media.winnipegfreepress.com/images/100928-traffic_cal...

What do you think of those?

Those are supposedly for "traffic calming", obstacles designed to slow traffic down. Nearby, the state of Delaware has a lot of them off the main roads back in neighborhoods.

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

Makes you wonder who has family that owns car repair businesses...

Roundabouts are very much a mixed bag. For some intersections, they are great. For some other intersections, roundabouts are installed which are too small for the situation.

Good

Some are not so good

some are good and others just plain suck!

Apparently you are just not considered old.

The mini roundabouts should have a 20mph limit. Some drivers, especially 4x4 (SUV) just drive as fast as they can, glance to see if there's anything coming, and even if there is, just drive over them, not around them.

I don't like them especially if I am driving a motorcoach. However, they are better than a diverging diamond. They just put one of those at an interstate overpass near me and that is only confusing many people.

Near Charlottesville, VA, we have another one that will be installed at a moderately busy intersection governed by stop signs now. The last one they put in about 2 miles from my house is working great. There is one other intersection that I wish they would install one near me but they opted to add left and right turn lanes instead of the circle.

Seems like central Virginia is trying to be a leader in these innovative traffic solutions. a little over a year ago VDOT installed a double diamond diverging interchange at I-64 and Route 15. Much griping by the public until they realized how well it worked to alleviate traffic and left turns across oncoming traffic.

my home town has them on every second corner, literally every second corner, to control hooning.
but there is no snow ever, so there is no size limitation

https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-37.878083,144.7792398,16.47...

... in your area is all those zig-zagging streets that don't go through in real life but look like they do on a map. I've run into those in Delaware (USA) sucks when you're driving a truck.

Hooning?

https://www.qld.gov.au/law/crime-and-police/types-of-crime/h...

"Hooning is the common word we use for any anti-social behaviour conducted in a motor vehicle ... a car, van or motorbike ... such as speeding, street racing, burnouts and playing loud music from a car stereo."

Caymen Islands only has 4 traffic lights - everything else is roundabout. It works incredibly well. I am 73 and love them.

they all go through, hit the satellite view,

Already did.

They are double cul de sacs, some with a small narrow driveway connecting them, not really a thoroughfare for a delivery truck. The ones in Delaware have a pedestrian walkway connecting them.

Here in the USA it's called "traffic calming."

the paved areas are solid concrete, 14inches thick, just made to look fragile; slows them down, not make it impassable.
I drive doubles through them often, excavators
even the garbage trucks use them

one nearby us for 31 years. The problem with roundabouts is that not everyone obeys the rule that those in the roundabout have right of way rather than those entering it. Our is at the intersection of Maryland & DC & you never know whether the ones entering it will stop as you go about driving to your exit.

Fred

Thank you, I learned something new. Not sure when I might get to use it.

why should circles be any different, the same rule applies to limited access highways, how many people follow it.

Interesting. They actually work very well when folks understand driving rules and drive properly, assuming the roundabout is designed in accordance to traffic engineering guidelines. Many European countries have roundabouts all over the place, and traffic flows extremely well, certainly an improvement over the stop signs and traffic signals they replaced.

One place they don't work well is when there is a busy highway with a side road on the same roundabout (asymmetric traffic entering roundabout).

One of my favorite songs on one of my favorite albums.

Just my opinion.

I think the smaller ones are ok in slow lite traffic, but in heavy traffic red lights work better and would work even better if they would sync the lights with the speed limit.

to the thought that heavy traffic intersections are better off with lights or 4 way stops. Traffic circles flow more traffic and if there is an accident it is at a significantly reduced speed with less injuries.

Where the don't work well is in cities with multiple lanes in each direction but your average single lane each direction 4 way stop is ideal for a traffic circle.