Everything You Might Want to KNow About Roundabouts

 

The Region of Waterloo, in Southern Ontario is home to about 600,000 people and has become the Roundabout capital of North America.

The Region consists of three major cities, Kitchener, Waterloo, and Cambridge, plus a number of smaller rural townships.

At the present time, we have 35 existing Roundabouts, with 2 more to be built this year. There are an additional 19 planned for in the next few years.

Many of these are simple two lane roundabouts, but we also have some very busy 2 lane roundabouts also.

There have been many trials and tribulations, but if you want to know almost all there is to know, go to this website. The local newspaper just completed a very significant series of articles on the Region's experience.

http://www.therecord.com/topic/rec_drivingincircles

The article from today, June 25 shows our the detailed statistics of roundabouts compared to traffic lights.

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DriveSmart 65, NUVI2555LMT, (NUVI350 is Now Retired)
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Thanks for the Laugh

My 1st encounter with a roundabout was Dupont Circle, in Washington, D.C., 1994.

About a year later it was dramatized in the movie The American President "You didn't get stuck on Dupont Circle again..."

Last one was just 10 days ago in Viera, Fla. A small town in Brevard County, 45 SE of Orlando. Why that quaint little place needs a traffic circle is beyond me ha-ha.

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Nuvi 2598LMTHD

Different animals

Box Car wrote:

Rotaries and roundabouts are different animals from the traffic engineering standpoint.

That's a good point. I've seen both uses in Oregon, though the nomenclature varies. The larger ones have been used to replace 4-way stops on country highways and a few significant intersections within cities and seem to help keep things flowing. In neighborhoods with lots of speeding complaints, the little roundabouts are less annoying than frequent speed bumps, but are still a complex response to a behavioral problem.

No Point

I don't get the point of traffic circles or roundabouts.

Get it?

ndabout

I know you know this but for some who don't:
Rule 1: Those IN the roundabout have the right of way - yield to them.
Rule 2: Once clear you enter the roundabout and you don't stop on the roundabout! Unless of course somebody violated rule #1.

We have several where I live and they work well, but people who live in the town South of us have a large roundabout and it's almost local custom to treat it like a 4-way stop. Very frustrating. So also when in a roundabout a good idea to:
- hit your horn
- hit your brakes
- insist on your right of way

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Garmin Drive Smart 61 NA LMT-S
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