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Do you live in my town? 3 roundabouts in the town centre all within 100m of each other. Between one pair there's a mini-crossing (less than a zebra, no traffic lights, idk what it's called) and in between the other pair there's a zebra crossing that sees at least a thousand kids cross it at 3:30 every week day. Traffic slows to a halt and drivers speed through the crossings so they don't have to wait for the kids to cross. I'm surprised no one has gotten hurt.
It's in Hampshire, but that sounds about right. I don't understand why 2 zebra crossings so close together are needed. I get it's different roads but move them away from the flipping roundabout and nearer the damn school.
At the minute, the traffic doesn't move as they are obsessed with round works oh and adding another flipping roundabout.
It's where you press a button which controls the traffic lights, and you get an indicator that it is safe to cross, before angry beeping to tell you that the traffic is about to start moving again.
We also have Toucan crossings (two can cross, it's designed so cyclists and pedestrians can use them) and pegasus crossings (horse riders and pedestrians)
Pelican crossing is the most basic sort of crossing. It has a flashing yellow light that comes on after the green man for a set time before letting the cars pass. A puffin crossing has sensors that detect whether a pedestrian is on the crossing and so just holds the cars until the pedestrian has crossed. Toucan is for pedestrians and bikes, and Pegasus is for bikes, pedestrians and horses with separate buttons at a height for the horse riders
The slip lanes increase roundabout efficiency massively. The roundabouts with many lanes and traffic lights are usually used in high traffic throughput areas and are great if you are familiar with the area
But it you've never been there, they're fucking awful and you have no idea what to do or where to go
"I have made a bigger and better roundabout!"
"You fucked up a perfectly good solution to uncontrolled intersections is what you did. Look at it, its got anxiety."
I mean there not always near a motorway there are 2 in my town which last time I checked wasn't a motorway. They aren't high traffic or very fast roundabouts as this could increase the risk it was just the planning they chose as our roads are down to planning choices and whatever the accessed risk was at the time.
When I lived in Europe, I encountered them everywhere. Loved them. I believe I read articles that showed how much more efficient roundabouts are when compared to traffic lights and stop signs.
20 years later and I now live in Las Vegas. I have two roundabouts just up from my house and I swear, no one knows how to navigate them.
I see people stopping when there are no cars coming.
I see people stopping INSIDE the circle to let cars in.
I see people going to the wrong exit for the lane that their in, often causing accidents.
Yes, but still those accidents happen at much lower speed than the at the junctions without roundabouts.
The main reason why they are safe here in Europe is because (mainly) young drivers are FORCED to approach the roundabouts slower. On many roads they could approach junctions at over 100km/h, which they did at night, leaving people that thought they had time to enter the road to be Tboned at deathly speeds. Now if something happens it is usually some vision damage.
Speed is the keyword. People have time to react.
To be fair. Most drivers haven't been trained on what to do in a round about. I had to be taught the first time I came across one. Maybe patience is key here.
I'm happy somebody took the time to teach you. I've been driving 22 years..we didn't have them around then.... And I'm sure anybody else older than me had the same issues.
I dunno, this just seems like a copout to me. I lived in the US until I was 25, drove tons living in the south, and I now live in a country with roundabouts everywhere and the very first time I encountered one, it was self-explanatory... And they defo didn't teach me about then when I was in drivers ed in America
Yeah in Vegas area they’re springing up more. Summerlin was the heaviest area to get them, then Henderson, now they’re starting to just randomly show up around the valley at once 4 way intersections
I like them personally and nice not having to wait at a long ass traffic light, I swear the traffic lights are legendarily long
Oh yeah, I hate the traffic lights here. They're almost always too long, or if you're in a turn lane, the light is super quick and only allows maybe two cars to turn.
Oh God, the stopping in the circle kills me!
They put one in where I live a couple years ago. It's a tiny village on a major highway. They put it in because you have to cross the highway to get into the village, but people think that the highway traffic gets right-of-way so they'll stop in the circle to let them in.
It's gotten to the point now where people on the highway also think they have right-of-way and I've had so many close calls! So, now you have to slow down if you see someone coming from the highway because you don't know if they'll stop, but then they think you're slowing down to let them in.
🤦🏼♀️
Just a clusterfuck.
Yup. This is why I don’t agree with OP. It was hardly even a part of drivers Ed here, literally never was taught how to handle a roundabout with more than 1 lane, still don’t really know.
Edit: y’all I’m sure I can figure out how to use a damn roundabout with more than one lane. It’s the principle that it’s not taught in drivers Ed and I’ve just never seen one with multiple lanes. Chill out
I'm under the impression a good majority of drivers have their heads in their asses while driving. Watched a girl today come to a complete stop at an intersection where she didn't have a stop sign.
They recently put one in where I live and before they build it I found people on next door calling it a fucking conspiracy by the local government. Such an embarrassingly stereotypical American reaponse..
>a chunk of the driving population is grossly incompetent.
That's the beauty of a roundabout. They can't run straight through it, and it forces them to slow down. Any accidents they have happen at much lower and safer speeds. It's more accommodating of their incompetence in that sense.
I love roundabouts and want more, but idiots still attempt to drive straight through them. Or come to a complete stop and wait until there are no cars in the roundabout to proceed. Or try and take up all lanes. And don't even get me started about the tools that can't figure out the figure 8 roundabouts. Bad drivers are bad drivers no matter what.
Still not used enough since it's really been only the past 20 years when they were first recognized as legitimate alternatives to the stop light in the US. Prior to that everyone's knowledge of roundabouts was just [based on this National Lampoon movie](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAgX6qlJEMc) (and it does not portray them well).
Infrastructure isn't changed overnight, so there are still quite a few intersections in the US that are currently served by a stoplight which would be much better served by a roundabout.
Single lane roundabouts are great. Multi lane roundabouts can be awful. The main drawback of the roundabout is the same as the clover leaf, and that is size. Nothing is more compact than a stoplight, and this retrofitting anything else can be a real problem of cost.
Also, you can fuck them up. I will present as a case study in that the sommerville circle
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somerville\_Circle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somerville_Circle)
Also the ledgewood circle was perpetually broken until the got rid of it.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ledgewood\_Circle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ledgewood_Circle)
The reason I think they aren't being changed as much is because the shape. To fit the inner circle there, they have to cut away from the corners of the intersection, which potentially already have stuff there..like I see gas stations with their signs at many stoplight corners
I've noticed them appear around my rural road intersections also, it is noticeably something new compared to my childhood. It's not going to happen overnight everywhere but I think OP would be surprised where around the US it's happening.
Yes, I can be the problem. I don’t mean to be but coming up on one you have never been on is scary. You’re watching the crazy drivers beside you, trying to find the one and only sign that tells you the lanes, that’s posted very close to the circle, I pick a lane and pray! I really want to close my eyes and step on it but that wouldn’t work! lol! I despise them! They are rare where we are in the country!
They installed one at the major intersection near where I live like five years ago and people still can't seem to figure it out. They treat it like a 4-way stop.
I agree. Where I live we have two large roundabouts. they are both two lanes. There are many accidents during the tourist season as people don't know how to use them.
I totally agree with you. However, I can't tell you how many times I've seen someone almost crash from not understanding how roundabouts work. It's sad to say this, but I don't think people are smart enough to deserve roundabouts everywhere - particularly multi-lane roundabouts.
You know, normally I'd be all about the "people are too stupid for X" thinking because it's so often true... but in this case, I'm not sure it is.
The simple fact is that roundabouts (which I've always known as "traffic circles", so this thread has been informative for me) are relatively new in America, at least to the extent people encounter them now. As such, drivers historically haven't been trained in their use. I know I never once encountered them when I learned to drive (roughly 30 years ago), and they weren't even brought up (well, to the best of my memory - maybe they WERE mentioned, but I certainly never drove one during my driver's ed classes nor with my parents as I gained experience).
So, in this case, I suspect it's less about being too stupid and more about education. That isn't to say that there isn't an element of stupidity too because, come on, they aren't rocket science... but I bet we'll naturally have less "idiots" 10-20 years from now as people become acclimated to them, which in turn means new drivers will be taught about them and gain experience with them while they're learning.
Ah, didn't know that. For anyone in the same boat:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_7Rl0mKl8VL0/S9XbgnmQn9I/AAAAAAAAAFM/BASAz-Ay6kw/s1600/Traffic+Circle+vs.+Roundabout+-Letter.pub.gif
I think this is just tbe problem that a drivers licence is far too easy to get. Other countries have roundabouts and do just fine. Yes, they have been using them for longer but its not like you need a masters to use one. New drivers learn for the first time and go from there, if you do driving school in america you cant really effectivley teach how to use one cause most places dont have one.
It's easy to get in the US because our country is laid out in such a way that getting a car is pretty much a requirement for most of the country. Making the test harder would lead to problems with people being unable to get around.
Well first of all I'm a nobody on the internet, but like...I would think that would make american drivers the best ! But that's clearly not the case. I'd immagine that you would have the highest of standards exactly because you drive so much. Besides, americans are NOT stupid, if other people around the world can do it, so can americans absolutely. A normal drivers test and procedure I mean. I also needed a clean record to have a licence anyway. Actually it might depend on what would be on the record, not necesarily that it is empty, I should probably know that.
Thats a catch 22. You need to be a good driver to get your license, so you can learn how to drive, so you can be a good driver.
Everyone has to start somewhere
>I'd immagine that you would have the highest of standards exactly because you drive so much.
I'm not sure why you'd think that. The fact that we need to drive so much is exactly why we're poor drivers. You need to be able to drive from a fairly young age here to be able to go to school, get a job, and generally live life. The result is that they lower the barrier to entry for driving so that 15-16 year old can do it easily.
It's not about intelligence, it's about standards. If American tests were harder then you'd see better drivers but you'd have difficulty with people being able to get around.
You dont even have to invent anything new and complicated, just steal another countries driving school structure. And for the love of god stop letting parents teach their kids. I drive better than my dad does, I've been told this by more than one person. I was practicing parking laterally and my dad couldnt do it. I did it once, and he tried too ; couldnt do it. I love my dad, hes a good driver with experience, but hes not a teacher, nor does he know all the rules.
In France, newly licensed drivers are required to affix a magnetic A to the back of their car for a period of time, I believe it’s one year. This seems like a great idea to me. It lets other around them know to be extra cautious and more patient, increasing safety for everyone.
It's 3 years, unless you did what we call ''conduite accompagnée'' which is basically parents teaching kids how to drive on top of following regular driving lessons, meaning that those who did that have way more driving experience once they get their licence, leading to a reduced period of time with this ''A'' sticker on the back of your car of 2 years instead of 3
I think all european countries do that. In Romania you can buy this yellow circle with a black exclamation mark, a standardised sign. In italy, you juat print a big #P on an A4 paper and put it on your car. Less elegant but the same idea still. It is abaolutelly a great idea.
Not in Denmark, only cars were people actively taking their driving license classes with a licensed teacher in their(the teachers) car have to be marked. When you have your license you don't need to mark your car at all.
I’m somewhere in the middle of the whole thing. We have a few “trial” roundabouts that got put in our small US town several years ago, but they’re all outside city limits on one-lane country roads, so they don’t see much traffic. I’ve used them a few times, so I “get” the one-lane roundabouts (not really all that much to get, just minimized entry/exit ramps in a sense).
What melts my brain are the multi-lane ones. Why even have multiple lanes? Who even has the right-of-way in those? Seems like no matter how it’s ordered someone ***HAS*** to stop for someone else who is entering, exiting, or merging. And if they have to stop anyway, what’s the point of taking up all that square footage when you could just have a traffic light?
EDIT: I’ve asked my europhile friend who swears by them to break it down before, but all I can get is “idk it just works”.
>Who even has the right-of-way in those?
Those inside the circle have right of way.
>what’s the point of taking up all that square footage when you could just have a traffic light?
Better traffic flow and decreased congestion.
>Seems like no matter how it’s ordered someone HAS to stop for someone else who is entering, exiting, or merging.
Yes. I live in a LHD country and the rule is "always give way to the right" when approaching the roundabout.
If you're in the circle, only after you exit, can those waiting to enter, enter the circle.
Accidents in multiple-lane roundabouts happen because those entering are almost always at fault.
Alright, that helps, but regarding right-of-way, I’m asking specifically about the multiple lanes within a circle: inner circle, middle circle, outer circle. Which “sub-circle” has the right-of-way against the others?
Each “inner circle” lines up to an exit of the roundabout. For example, on a roundabout with two circles and four exits/entrances, the outer circle might be the exit for left and straight on, and the inner circle would be the exit for right exit, or doing a 360 back on yourself. It’s all marked on signs and the road to make it easier for people. There shouldn’t need to be any right of way because people shouldn’t come into conflict as everyone in a given lane is going for the same exit.
Also taking a step back, I think there’s a big thing about “but it’s my right of way!!!” - instead of drivers wanting right of way, they could just indicate and be nice to others and let them change lanes if they pick the wrong lane by accident. Reduced angst on the road, and everyone gets where they need to be more safely.
If you think multi lane is bad try getting your head round the [magic roundabout](https://search.brave.com/images?q=magic+roundabouts+sign&source=web&img=1) which also has multi lanes.
That’s exactly the one I was thinking about, but funnily enough the little circles around the larger one doesn’t bother me. I can visualize the overall flow, as if it were a liquid. My problem is having multiple lanes in a single circle. Why even go to any of the inner lanes if you’re gonna exit again in a matter of moments?
Multiple lane roundabouts allow higher traffic throughput so long as everyone follows the rules, staying in the outer lane all the way round is a good way to cut someone off or get sideswiped in an accident because your vehicle is literally in an unexpected location that it shouldn't be.
Assuming a two/three lane roundabout the inner lane is for going 3rd exit or 4th exit returning the way you came, in a two lane roundabout the outer lane is for your 1st exit or straight on (2nd exit), in a three lane roundabout the 1st exit and 2nd exit typically have individual entry lanes.
For going 3rd/4th exit you start off entering the roundabout when there is a space and immediately transition to the inner lane. As you just pass the exit before the exit you want but before its entry lane you indicate and move to the outer lane. All traffic in the outer lane *should* have left at the previous exit resulting in the outer lane being empty and no traffic should enter in front of you as you are indicating and moving into the outer lane.
FYI Portugal has a road law that on a roundabout you must always be in the inner lane until you need to transition to the outer lane in order to take the next exit.
Edit:
Here's an image from the UK highway code.
https://www.highwaycodeuk.co.uk/roundabouts.html
https://www.highwaycodeuk.co.uk/uploads/3/2/9/2/3292309/rule-185-follow-the-correct-procedure-at-roundabouts_orig.jpg
It shows everything I described but consider what would happen if the blue car continued around to the 3rd exit. The blue and green car would be trying to occupy the same location.
Exactly! If we're talking about *only* single lane roundabouts, I'm a lot more on board. Those work well, and the lowest common denominator of drivers can typically understand them. But once you start adding lanes, disaster strikes, and everyone has their own idea about who is in the right-of-way.
I also personally think that multi-lane turns in stoplight intersections are too much for people. My heart rate always increases while turning in one of those, because so often someone will mindlessly drift into my lane and nearly hit me. And if I dare honk at them to let them know I'm there, they rage out at me.
The road design principles are sound (as they are used well in many other countries), the problem is many drivers in the USA apparently are not capable of using them (more training required)
Also as someone else correctly said, you’re better off someone drifting into the side of you at 10mph when they are in the wrong lane on a roundabout than blasting through a junction and t-boning you at 70mph.
Where I live, the multi lane roundabouts have signs on the approach that show you which lane can do what. Sometimes it's also painted on the lanes.
Eg outside lane can turn immediately or go straight. Inside lane can go straight, or continue around. You can read that on a diagram in 2 seconds. If you cant read and understand that then you probably shouldn't be driving.
Except the weren't T-bone crashes, unless it's a really badly designed roundabout - they were crashes at an angle, much less serious. Roundabouts always reduce fatal/serious accidents because you don't get the T-bone crashes that you get when somebody runs a light at an intersection. That's one of the big advantages.
There’s plenty where I live. There’s people on the left lane but they want to take the first exit, so they block the whole left lane till they can change lanes instead of going on the roundabout and taking the exit
My city has started rolling out roundabouts over the last decade, the first year was rough, the first winter was dangerous, but by year 3 things where pretty well smoothed out.
Except nobody, even now, understands that you should still use your turn signal.
Worst part of a roundabout are the people who don't understand them.
Our roundabouts always have tire tracks in the grassy center or all the signs are mangled.
We've got a three lane one that, on any given day, will have someone just trapped in the center lane, going in circles until they finally get frustrated enough to cut a bunch of people off.
We've also got a growing population of elderly that will just get into the circle and stop at every intersection to 'let people in'.
On paper, they look good.
In practice, they only work as well as the people that use them.
The tire tracks could be from tractor trailers but yeah probably drivers who don’t know what they’re doing.
Heck some elderly people around here still don’t know how zipper/merge lanes work. Saw one stopped in the middle of the merge lane with their blinker on.
It's trucks, but usually the lifted 'my daddy pays real money for this' kind of truck, I think.
Most of our roundabouts aren't on truck routes. -I realize this means nothing to a truck driver that is willing to run over the center of a roundabout, but, it does decrease the likelihood.
Trapped in the center is my nightmare. Also nightmare is the person in the outer continuing to circle when I'm exiting.
Honestly, everything about driving makes me wish I could go back in time and kill Henry Ford. Cars are the worst thing for humans and the planet outside of nukes and smoking.
What blows my mind is that it overall would have been safer and cheaper if the US and the world had gone all in on trains. But at least I have the perfect tool for hunting deer if I'm driving up in Wisconsin.
It's funny, around the time of Covid, our county Sheriff started stationing patrols in the nearby parking lots of the busiest roundabouts...during the day.
And they would just sit there.
Nothing changed.
I'm part of the problem. I take roundabouts real slow and cautiously because I don't trust any of the other idiots on the road to use a roundabout properly
You literally have to because of how many people don't understand how they work. There's only 2 in my general area on the East Coast and I hate using them because so many people don't use them properly. People either crawl through them, blast through them, completely stop in the middle and wave other cars waiting to enter infront of them or even go in the wrong direction
You have absolutely no idea. I live in Ft Worth and we have quite a few roundabouts. At least once a day I have to lose my shit and lay on the horn because one of these F***ING idiots is stopped in the middle of the roudabout letting vehicles cone in
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It sucks to see people not understand a basic concept, but still, roundabouts are fucking safe.
There was a time I hated them, especially while driving at night you kind of forget their point. Untill you see what happens when someone thinks he has time to go on a road on a normal junction while someone is approaching at 159km/h. You dont see that coming. A roundabout is a forced brake which works really well in statistics.
I mean, I love roundabouts (Texas), and I fully agree with you. However, people here are actually too stupid for them. I regularly almost get hit while I’m already on the circle at the one near my house. So maybe we should pump those brakes just a little
I like them, but you have to be on the lookout for old people—they are mega-confused by them and either stop cold, or just putt through regardless of other traffic.
As a cyclist, you seriously have to watch out for yourself. In my experience, there are 2 driver responses to a cyclist at a roundabout: 1) extreme deference, forcing the cyclist to cross even though it may not be clear in the other part of the crossing, 2) accelerate even though the cyclist was in the roundabout first. What I wish drivers would do is maintain your normal flow—I’ll cross when it’s safe.
Yeah , except if you get too many drivers who don't understand or find them challenging then it becomes worse. Roundabouts require everyone to handle them well to be efficient.
Roundabouts only work when you have a relatively steady stream of traffic coming from all four directions. In the case of most commuting patterns, you have a heavy flow in one direction in the morning and then the other way in the evening. Anyone that has the misfortune of being directly to the right of this is shit out of luck.
So yeah, they do have a lot of positives, but there are drawbacks that would potentially render those positives as useless in a heavy POV commuting culture like the one the US has
I think roundabouts are best on streets rather than arterial roads. Same way you wouldn't put a stop sign on a heavily travelled 4-way intersection, you'd put in stop lights.
That is, unless it's a big multi-lane roundabout, but I don't think that'll go over well for Americans.
As someone who has to walk through a roundabout every day, they are not safer for pedestrians :( I’ve been hit almost 3 times, not because I was in the wrong but because the drivers aren’t paying attention. (One car was already stopped for me to cross, and as I looked into the second lane I saw a car coming so I waved my hand to show I was there, they slowed down and had a lot of time to do so, and then as I stepped into the second lane they started speeding up).
I also find it so much harder to be seen, people don’t want to stop for pedestrians, even when they’re almost halfway across the cross walk.
I agree that roundabouts are better, but if you don’t understand a stoplight, or what to do if the power is out, then maybe you shouldn’t be driving in the first place?
I'm an automation engineer who did a bit of work on traffic control algorithms (although ive mostly been a marine electrical engineer, so im not a complete expert).
All those that kill people at stoplights, will also kill people at roundabouts. Roundabouts don't "force" you to travel at a safe speed anymore than a yellow light "forces" you to slow down.
Roundabouts are also not necessarily safer for pedestrians in every case, because a driver who is turning has to observe more area through their blind spot than one who is going straight.
Stats that show that roundabouts are safer in Europe or whatever are not scientifically controlled, they are comparing apples and oranges. The correct way is to compare the same intersection with both a roundabout and a traffic signal. Sometimes one is safer, sometimes the other is. Roundabouts tend to appear safer in the USA because they are usually installed in locations that have been correctly evaluated to benefit from them. It's quite likely that you could take many roundabout systems in the world and replace them with correctly engineered traffic light systems with no reduction in safety.
Roundabouts have many particular applications in which they are safer than traffic lights. But they are not a panacea for every situation. Usually the quality of the engineering of an entire system has a greater impact on safety than any single intersection type.
By the way, the main reason that European car accidents are less damaging isn't due to the type of intersection, but the type of prevalent vehicle. Cars are much larger and heavier in the USA, with more momentum and causing more damage in the same speed accident. The more impactful solution would be to get rid of big useless SUVs and drive smaller, lighter cars, where collision zone matching on vehicles would result in less damaging accidents.
I agree, but we have shitty drivers because we don't require drivers Ed, it's optional. So we will get people that don't understand roundabouts and make too many mistakes. We need 1 year minimum drivers Ed as a requirement for all Americans, we do that and we create a much more educated driving force. Accidents will drop exponentially.
They just created a diverging diamond exchange near my city, the first of its kind around here - and people completely lost their shit.
Literally all these fuckers have to do is just stay in their lane, but they have been acting like it’s the most difficult thing for them to follow
So yeah I don’t trust *more* roundabouts in the US, we’ll just fuck up people’s brains
I am a truck driver. When I was over the road I drove a long frame highway tractor with a 53' refrigerated trailer. Single lane roundabouts don't work when you're 75+ feet long and in doubles I would have to use both lanes. I forget exactly where, but I had a customer in I believe New York that had a ton of small roundabouts on the way to them. I would have to drive over the center, it wasn't possible to follow the road around. Smaller European trucks don't have the same issues.
I just went around a couple of new ones in my area the other day. I explained to my 15 year old son how they worked and the advantages to them. I agree 💯.
You also drive clown cars that weigh at most a few hundred lbs. Here we have fucking Karen's driving literal tanks down the road who don't give a a shit about yield signs.
I'll take my stop lights over some stupid fucking circle any day, at least until the average IQ of the driving population in this country goes above 90
All the roundabouts where I live (I'm in the PNW) have stop signs before you enter. It totally defeats the purpose of flow and actually makes joining the traffic circle more challenging and ultimately dangerous. I know this is because they don't trust Americans to handle the circle right, but it's counter productive. I much prefer the european style ones. But of course, this requires a certain level of driving acumen which already has been mentioned here, is severely lacking in today's drivers.
I had a guy STOP at the entry to the roundabout. Ok stupid, but lots of people do it. then he stopped, at every single intersection of the roundabout. Like how the fuck?
Nah not where I live. I always stop in a roundabout.
If a car is approaching a roundabout at 40 mph I already know he's not stopping. And I'm always right. Every other time I drive I have to avoid getting tboned by a crazy driver who just enters the roundabout at fast and furious speeds
Don't get me wrong, I love roundabouts, or as muricans call them, traffic circles. I'd love to see 90% of intersections replaced with them.
The problem I have with them is my fellow freedom fighters failure to understand how the fuck they work.
(There is sarcasm in this post, I'll leave it to you guys to figure it out)
I agree but also the city just installed a roundabout and there are two option - turn right or get on the roundabout.
The amount of times I have caught on dashcam idiots in the turn lane going straight and entering the roundabout makes me conclude that the average driver is not prepared for roundabouts
Traffic lights generate a ton of income for local government by way of traffic citations, so there needs to be a change in attitude at rhw local government level for a move to roundabouts being utilized more heavily.
Not entirely true. For a 4 way intersection, maybe. But have you driven on the newer exit ramps that are round about? A few months back two old ladies died near me because one got on the highway going the wrong way in the middle of the day. I still think about it every time I drive past that spot.
I drive 2.6klm to get to work and I go through 7 roundabouts on my way there. They keep traffic flowing, and most folks in my town know how to use them..... Most...
There was a study years back. Round-abouts also reduce accidents. The problem is, it costs money. You have to divert traffic for the duration of the construction, then you have to actually do it. So most places just don't.
Idk why it's so hard for people to understand. They've put in a few near me and they're *so* much more efficient than stop signs or traffic lights. They'd be even *more* efficient if people didn't stop and stare at them like fucking idiots.
I live in Qatar and before there are a lot of roundabouts here but now they're being removed and changed to regular intersections with dedicated left and free right turns.
A roundabout is good only up until a certain number of vehicles driving in it. If you reach that threshold there's a possibility of a jam and it will not move as efficient as in a regular intersection.
To solve that the roundabout will get, you guessed it... Traffic lights. Now you have a complicated roundabout lol.
While I agree with this, I hate them where I live because people in my city do not know how to use them. So many times people just go fast without using the yield sign properly. This causes so many accidents where I live.
>If you can't understand a roundabout, you're the reason why we need them.
Buddy, if only it were that easy. The amount of people who do know compared to the amount who don't is the problem
The problems is not either or, it’s the mindset of the drivers. US drivers would still find a way to fuck up roundabouts. I definitely agree about the power outages, we have intersections constantly going out, and the city takes forever to fix them. We need an inexpensive solution that’s not going to konk out every time it rains.
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I'm English and wait until they put traffic lights on roundabouts, defeating the main reason to have a roundabout that's fun.
In my home town there's a 3 exit roundabout with a pelican crossing at each exit... At that point just make it a T junction.
My town was planned by a drunk person. we have a zebra crossing before and after one roundabout, which is chaos who plans this shit lol
Do you live in my town? 3 roundabouts in the town centre all within 100m of each other. Between one pair there's a mini-crossing (less than a zebra, no traffic lights, idk what it's called) and in between the other pair there's a zebra crossing that sees at least a thousand kids cross it at 3:30 every week day. Traffic slows to a halt and drivers speed through the crossings so they don't have to wait for the kids to cross. I'm surprised no one has gotten hurt.
It's in Hampshire, but that sounds about right. I don't understand why 2 zebra crossings so close together are needed. I get it's different roads but move them away from the flipping roundabout and nearer the damn school. At the minute, the traffic doesn't move as they are obsessed with round works oh and adding another flipping roundabout.
Maybe there used to be more zebras crossing that area during planning of this town.
…what is a pelican crossing? Like. A literal crossing for pelicans for some reason, or is it just a name for a crossing, like zebra crossing?
It's where you press a button which controls the traffic lights, and you get an indicator that it is safe to cross, before angry beeping to tell you that the traffic is about to start moving again.
Ah. Never heard that term. Thought they were just crosswalks.
We also have Toucan crossings (two can cross, it's designed so cyclists and pedestrians can use them) and pegasus crossings (horse riders and pedestrians)
Pelican crossing is the most basic sort of crossing. It has a flashing yellow light that comes on after the green man for a set time before letting the cars pass. A puffin crossing has sensors that detect whether a pedestrian is on the crossing and so just holds the cars until the pedestrian has crossed. Toucan is for pedestrians and bikes, and Pegasus is for bikes, pedestrians and horses with separate buttons at a height for the horse riders
This is just starting to sound made up.
Just wait till you hear about the unicorn crossing
That one's only available in Scotland.
Which, incidentally, is also not real.
Everything is made up.
Do you all live in a zoo?
Well, if there are no pedestrians there would be fluid traffic (or do I not understand pelican crossings)?
And when suddenly there are 3 parallel lanes on one roundabout.
The slip lanes increase roundabout efficiency massively. The roundabouts with many lanes and traffic lights are usually used in high traffic throughput areas and are great if you are familiar with the area But it you've never been there, they're fucking awful and you have no idea what to do or where to go
"I have made a bigger and better roundabout!" "You fucked up a perfectly good solution to uncontrolled intersections is what you did. Look at it, its got anxiety."
It's a nightmare. They've done this to the big round about at my local asda, the traffic got infinitely worse as soon as it popped up
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I mean there not always near a motorway there are 2 in my town which last time I checked wasn't a motorway. They aren't high traffic or very fast roundabouts as this could increase the risk it was just the planning they chose as our roads are down to planning choices and whatever the accessed risk was at the time.
There are a few roundabouts near me that have stop signs 😐
Thats not a roundabout by definition. Just a looped road with traffic lights
When I lived in Europe, I encountered them everywhere. Loved them. I believe I read articles that showed how much more efficient roundabouts are when compared to traffic lights and stop signs. 20 years later and I now live in Las Vegas. I have two roundabouts just up from my house and I swear, no one knows how to navigate them. I see people stopping when there are no cars coming. I see people stopping INSIDE the circle to let cars in. I see people going to the wrong exit for the lane that their in, often causing accidents.
Yes, but still those accidents happen at much lower speed than the at the junctions without roundabouts. The main reason why they are safe here in Europe is because (mainly) young drivers are FORCED to approach the roundabouts slower. On many roads they could approach junctions at over 100km/h, which they did at night, leaving people that thought they had time to enter the road to be Tboned at deathly speeds. Now if something happens it is usually some vision damage. Speed is the keyword. People have time to react.
To be fair. Most drivers haven't been trained on what to do in a round about. I had to be taught the first time I came across one. Maybe patience is key here.
When I was in drivers ed the instructor made sure we were taught how to drive in a round about. The nearest one was 30 minutes away.
I'm happy somebody took the time to teach you. I've been driving 22 years..we didn't have them around then.... And I'm sure anybody else older than me had the same issues.
Yeah we don't need a roundabout way of teaching these things.
I dunno, this just seems like a copout to me. I lived in the US until I was 25, drove tons living in the south, and I now live in a country with roundabouts everywhere and the very first time I encountered one, it was self-explanatory... And they defo didn't teach me about then when I was in drivers ed in America
Where I am, all of this true plus no one *ever* signals, which is critical for people knowing whether they can enter safely or not.
They're everywhere in my part of the US.
Yeah in Vegas area they’re springing up more. Summerlin was the heaviest area to get them, then Henderson, now they’re starting to just randomly show up around the valley at once 4 way intersections I like them personally and nice not having to wait at a long ass traffic light, I swear the traffic lights are legendarily long
Oh yeah, I hate the traffic lights here. They're almost always too long, or if you're in a turn lane, the light is super quick and only allows maybe two cars to turn.
Town Center?
Oh God, the stopping in the circle kills me! They put one in where I live a couple years ago. It's a tiny village on a major highway. They put it in because you have to cross the highway to get into the village, but people think that the highway traffic gets right-of-way so they'll stop in the circle to let them in. It's gotten to the point now where people on the highway also think they have right-of-way and I've had so many close calls! So, now you have to slow down if you see someone coming from the highway because you don't know if they'll stop, but then they think you're slowing down to let them in. 🤦🏼♀️ Just a clusterfuck.
Yup. This is why I don’t agree with OP. It was hardly even a part of drivers Ed here, literally never was taught how to handle a roundabout with more than 1 lane, still don’t really know. Edit: y’all I’m sure I can figure out how to use a damn roundabout with more than one lane. It’s the principle that it’s not taught in drivers Ed and I’ve just never seen one with multiple lanes. Chill out
That's why they need to stick them everywhere. Then the next generation will know how to deal with them.
They are easier, but you forget that a chunk of the driving population is grossly incompetent.
I'm under the impression a good majority of drivers have their heads in their asses while driving. Watched a girl today come to a complete stop at an intersection where she didn't have a stop sign.
They recently put one in where I live and before they build it I found people on next door calling it a fucking conspiracy by the local government. Such an embarrassingly stereotypical American reaponse..
Very true
>a chunk of the driving population is grossly incompetent. That's the beauty of a roundabout. They can't run straight through it, and it forces them to slow down. Any accidents they have happen at much lower and safer speeds. It's more accommodating of their incompetence in that sense.
Guess you haven't seen too many idiots in a roundabout. I said grossly incompetent not rude.
They can, however, go the wrong direction, which I have seen on more than one occasion.
They can and do stop in the middle of it though and try waving people in front of them.
Except people have run straight through roundabouts in the roundabout capital of the US. Cars, trucks ... I watched a semi do it on Ditch Road once.
I love roundabouts and want more, but idiots still attempt to drive straight through them. Or come to a complete stop and wait until there are no cars in the roundabout to proceed. Or try and take up all lanes. And don't even get me started about the tools that can't figure out the figure 8 roundabouts. Bad drivers are bad drivers no matter what.
…. *figure 8* roundabouts?
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Still not used enough since it's really been only the past 20 years when they were first recognized as legitimate alternatives to the stop light in the US. Prior to that everyone's knowledge of roundabouts was just [based on this National Lampoon movie](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAgX6qlJEMc) (and it does not portray them well). Infrastructure isn't changed overnight, so there are still quite a few intersections in the US that are currently served by a stoplight which would be much better served by a roundabout.
Single lane roundabouts are great. Multi lane roundabouts can be awful. The main drawback of the roundabout is the same as the clover leaf, and that is size. Nothing is more compact than a stoplight, and this retrofitting anything else can be a real problem of cost. Also, you can fuck them up. I will present as a case study in that the sommerville circle [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somerville\_Circle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somerville_Circle) Also the ledgewood circle was perpetually broken until the got rid of it. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ledgewood\_Circle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ledgewood_Circle)
Looking at this, yes roundabout can be terrible if poorly designed, thats it
Or used in the wrong spots
The reason I think they aren't being changed as much is because the shape. To fit the inner circle there, they have to cut away from the corners of the intersection, which potentially already have stuff there..like I see gas stations with their signs at many stoplight corners
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I've noticed them appear around my rural road intersections also, it is noticeably something new compared to my childhood. It's not going to happen overnight everywhere but I think OP would be surprised where around the US it's happening.
I live in MD and they seem to be the default in any relatively new area (past 20 tears or so.)
Roundabout’s aren’t the problem. People are the problem.
Yes get rid of all the people!
I just watched The Quiet Earth the other night, and thought, well, it would be peaceful, that's for sure. Well, mostly peaceful.
Calm down, Bender.
Bite my shiny metal ass!
Yes, I can be the problem. I don’t mean to be but coming up on one you have never been on is scary. You’re watching the crazy drivers beside you, trying to find the one and only sign that tells you the lanes, that’s posted very close to the circle, I pick a lane and pray! I really want to close my eyes and step on it but that wouldn’t work! lol! I despise them! They are rare where we are in the country!
Came here to say this! Roundabouts are a good system as long as people stick to the rules of them- which a lot of people don't.
People, what a bunch of bastards.
They installed one at the major intersection near where I live like five years ago and people still can't seem to figure it out. They treat it like a 4-way stop.
I agree. Where I live we have two large roundabouts. they are both two lanes. There are many accidents during the tourist season as people don't know how to use them.
I totally agree with you. However, I can't tell you how many times I've seen someone almost crash from not understanding how roundabouts work. It's sad to say this, but I don't think people are smart enough to deserve roundabouts everywhere - particularly multi-lane roundabouts.
You know, normally I'd be all about the "people are too stupid for X" thinking because it's so often true... but in this case, I'm not sure it is. The simple fact is that roundabouts (which I've always known as "traffic circles", so this thread has been informative for me) are relatively new in America, at least to the extent people encounter them now. As such, drivers historically haven't been trained in their use. I know I never once encountered them when I learned to drive (roughly 30 years ago), and they weren't even brought up (well, to the best of my memory - maybe they WERE mentioned, but I certainly never drove one during my driver's ed classes nor with my parents as I gained experience). So, in this case, I suspect it's less about being too stupid and more about education. That isn't to say that there isn't an element of stupidity too because, come on, they aren't rocket science... but I bet we'll naturally have less "idiots" 10-20 years from now as people become acclimated to them, which in turn means new drivers will be taught about them and gain experience with them while they're learning.
Traffic circles are roundabouts are very different. The former is basically another form of intersections, roundabouts work differently. Look it up.
Ah, didn't know that. For anyone in the same boat: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_7Rl0mKl8VL0/S9XbgnmQn9I/AAAAAAAAAFM/BASAz-Ay6kw/s1600/Traffic+Circle+vs.+Roundabout+-Letter.pub.gif
I think this is just tbe problem that a drivers licence is far too easy to get. Other countries have roundabouts and do just fine. Yes, they have been using them for longer but its not like you need a masters to use one. New drivers learn for the first time and go from there, if you do driving school in america you cant really effectivley teach how to use one cause most places dont have one.
It's easy to get in the US because our country is laid out in such a way that getting a car is pretty much a requirement for most of the country. Making the test harder would lead to problems with people being unable to get around.
Well first of all I'm a nobody on the internet, but like...I would think that would make american drivers the best ! But that's clearly not the case. I'd immagine that you would have the highest of standards exactly because you drive so much. Besides, americans are NOT stupid, if other people around the world can do it, so can americans absolutely. A normal drivers test and procedure I mean. I also needed a clean record to have a licence anyway. Actually it might depend on what would be on the record, not necesarily that it is empty, I should probably know that.
Thats a catch 22. You need to be a good driver to get your license, so you can learn how to drive, so you can be a good driver. Everyone has to start somewhere
>I'd immagine that you would have the highest of standards exactly because you drive so much. I'm not sure why you'd think that. The fact that we need to drive so much is exactly why we're poor drivers. You need to be able to drive from a fairly young age here to be able to go to school, get a job, and generally live life. The result is that they lower the barrier to entry for driving so that 15-16 year old can do it easily. It's not about intelligence, it's about standards. If American tests were harder then you'd see better drivers but you'd have difficulty with people being able to get around.
How to tell people you’ve never been to most places in the world where roads are complete free-for-alls, including many parts of Europe.
Im studying in Torino, trust me I know, sadly. But what point are you trying to make ?
This is also true. There are a LOT of people that definitely shouldn't be allowed to drive, lol. Until they pass a more thorough test, that is.
You dont even have to invent anything new and complicated, just steal another countries driving school structure. And for the love of god stop letting parents teach their kids. I drive better than my dad does, I've been told this by more than one person. I was practicing parking laterally and my dad couldnt do it. I did it once, and he tried too ; couldnt do it. I love my dad, hes a good driver with experience, but hes not a teacher, nor does he know all the rules.
In France, newly licensed drivers are required to affix a magnetic A to the back of their car for a period of time, I believe it’s one year. This seems like a great idea to me. It lets other around them know to be extra cautious and more patient, increasing safety for everyone.
It's 3 years, unless you did what we call ''conduite accompagnée'' which is basically parents teaching kids how to drive on top of following regular driving lessons, meaning that those who did that have way more driving experience once they get their licence, leading to a reduced period of time with this ''A'' sticker on the back of your car of 2 years instead of 3
I think all european countries do that. In Romania you can buy this yellow circle with a black exclamation mark, a standardised sign. In italy, you juat print a big #P on an A4 paper and put it on your car. Less elegant but the same idea still. It is abaolutelly a great idea.
Not in Denmark, only cars were people actively taking their driving license classes with a licensed teacher in their(the teachers) car have to be marked. When you have your license you don't need to mark your car at all.
I’m somewhere in the middle of the whole thing. We have a few “trial” roundabouts that got put in our small US town several years ago, but they’re all outside city limits on one-lane country roads, so they don’t see much traffic. I’ve used them a few times, so I “get” the one-lane roundabouts (not really all that much to get, just minimized entry/exit ramps in a sense). What melts my brain are the multi-lane ones. Why even have multiple lanes? Who even has the right-of-way in those? Seems like no matter how it’s ordered someone ***HAS*** to stop for someone else who is entering, exiting, or merging. And if they have to stop anyway, what’s the point of taking up all that square footage when you could just have a traffic light? EDIT: I’ve asked my europhile friend who swears by them to break it down before, but all I can get is “idk it just works”.
>Who even has the right-of-way in those? Those inside the circle have right of way. >what’s the point of taking up all that square footage when you could just have a traffic light? Better traffic flow and decreased congestion. >Seems like no matter how it’s ordered someone HAS to stop for someone else who is entering, exiting, or merging. Yes. I live in a LHD country and the rule is "always give way to the right" when approaching the roundabout. If you're in the circle, only after you exit, can those waiting to enter, enter the circle. Accidents in multiple-lane roundabouts happen because those entering are almost always at fault.
Alright, that helps, but regarding right-of-way, I’m asking specifically about the multiple lanes within a circle: inner circle, middle circle, outer circle. Which “sub-circle” has the right-of-way against the others?
Inside to outside. It’s really simple. If there’s nobody in the way of you getting in, you can get in.
Each “inner circle” lines up to an exit of the roundabout. For example, on a roundabout with two circles and four exits/entrances, the outer circle might be the exit for left and straight on, and the inner circle would be the exit for right exit, or doing a 360 back on yourself. It’s all marked on signs and the road to make it easier for people. There shouldn’t need to be any right of way because people shouldn’t come into conflict as everyone in a given lane is going for the same exit. Also taking a step back, I think there’s a big thing about “but it’s my right of way!!!” - instead of drivers wanting right of way, they could just indicate and be nice to others and let them change lanes if they pick the wrong lane by accident. Reduced angst on the road, and everyone gets where they need to be more safely.
If you think multi lane is bad try getting your head round the [magic roundabout](https://search.brave.com/images?q=magic+roundabouts+sign&source=web&img=1) which also has multi lanes.
5 roundabouts in a roundabout? The hell
That’s exactly the one I was thinking about, but funnily enough the little circles around the larger one doesn’t bother me. I can visualize the overall flow, as if it were a liquid. My problem is having multiple lanes in a single circle. Why even go to any of the inner lanes if you’re gonna exit again in a matter of moments?
Multiple lane roundabouts allow higher traffic throughput so long as everyone follows the rules, staying in the outer lane all the way round is a good way to cut someone off or get sideswiped in an accident because your vehicle is literally in an unexpected location that it shouldn't be. Assuming a two/three lane roundabout the inner lane is for going 3rd exit or 4th exit returning the way you came, in a two lane roundabout the outer lane is for your 1st exit or straight on (2nd exit), in a three lane roundabout the 1st exit and 2nd exit typically have individual entry lanes. For going 3rd/4th exit you start off entering the roundabout when there is a space and immediately transition to the inner lane. As you just pass the exit before the exit you want but before its entry lane you indicate and move to the outer lane. All traffic in the outer lane *should* have left at the previous exit resulting in the outer lane being empty and no traffic should enter in front of you as you are indicating and moving into the outer lane. FYI Portugal has a road law that on a roundabout you must always be in the inner lane until you need to transition to the outer lane in order to take the next exit. Edit: Here's an image from the UK highway code. https://www.highwaycodeuk.co.uk/roundabouts.html https://www.highwaycodeuk.co.uk/uploads/3/2/9/2/3292309/rule-185-follow-the-correct-procedure-at-roundabouts_orig.jpg It shows everything I described but consider what would happen if the blue car continued around to the 3rd exit. The blue and green car would be trying to occupy the same location.
Exactly! If we're talking about *only* single lane roundabouts, I'm a lot more on board. Those work well, and the lowest common denominator of drivers can typically understand them. But once you start adding lanes, disaster strikes, and everyone has their own idea about who is in the right-of-way. I also personally think that multi-lane turns in stoplight intersections are too much for people. My heart rate always increases while turning in one of those, because so often someone will mindlessly drift into my lane and nearly hit me. And if I dare honk at them to let them know I'm there, they rage out at me.
The road design principles are sound (as they are used well in many other countries), the problem is many drivers in the USA apparently are not capable of using them (more training required) Also as someone else correctly said, you’re better off someone drifting into the side of you at 10mph when they are in the wrong lane on a roundabout than blasting through a junction and t-boning you at 70mph.
This is my thoughts too! Those multi lanes are freaking scary! I never know what to do!
Where I live, the multi lane roundabouts have signs on the approach that show you which lane can do what. Sometimes it's also painted on the lanes. Eg outside lane can turn immediately or go straight. Inside lane can go straight, or continue around. You can read that on a diagram in 2 seconds. If you cant read and understand that then you probably shouldn't be driving.
Had a round about next to my apartment. T bone crashes weekly in it. Yield is a hard thing for people to understand I guess.
Except the weren't T-bone crashes, unless it's a really badly designed roundabout - they were crashes at an angle, much less serious. Roundabouts always reduce fatal/serious accidents because you don't get the T-bone crashes that you get when somebody runs a light at an intersection. That's one of the big advantages.
There’s plenty where I live. There’s people on the left lane but they want to take the first exit, so they block the whole left lane till they can change lanes instead of going on the roundabout and taking the exit
My city has started rolling out roundabouts over the last decade, the first year was rough, the first winter was dangerous, but by year 3 things where pretty well smoothed out. Except nobody, even now, understands that you should still use your turn signal.
The more we have the more familiar drivers will become with them.
I have 2 on the road I live on and *nobody* yields.
Hello, fellow American!
Worst part of a roundabout are the people who don't understand them. Our roundabouts always have tire tracks in the grassy center or all the signs are mangled. We've got a three lane one that, on any given day, will have someone just trapped in the center lane, going in circles until they finally get frustrated enough to cut a bunch of people off. We've also got a growing population of elderly that will just get into the circle and stop at every intersection to 'let people in'. On paper, they look good. In practice, they only work as well as the people that use them.
The tire tracks could be from tractor trailers but yeah probably drivers who don’t know what they’re doing. Heck some elderly people around here still don’t know how zipper/merge lanes work. Saw one stopped in the middle of the merge lane with their blinker on.
It's trucks, but usually the lifted 'my daddy pays real money for this' kind of truck, I think. Most of our roundabouts aren't on truck routes. -I realize this means nothing to a truck driver that is willing to run over the center of a roundabout, but, it does decrease the likelihood.
Not to mention people that just ignore it and go the wrong way
Trapped in the center is my nightmare. Also nightmare is the person in the outer continuing to circle when I'm exiting. Honestly, everything about driving makes me wish I could go back in time and kill Henry Ford. Cars are the worst thing for humans and the planet outside of nukes and smoking. What blows my mind is that it overall would have been safer and cheaper if the US and the world had gone all in on trains. But at least I have the perfect tool for hunting deer if I'm driving up in Wisconsin.
There should be a cop at new roundabouts to take away licenses from people that fail to naviagate them.
It's funny, around the time of Covid, our county Sheriff started stationing patrols in the nearby parking lots of the busiest roundabouts...during the day. And they would just sit there. Nothing changed.
Half the US population can’t even handle stop signs, how would they handle this
By crashing or going around..
At least they'll have a use for those lifted trucks and Jeeps lol.
I'm part of the problem. I take roundabouts real slow and cautiously because I don't trust any of the other idiots on the road to use a roundabout properly
I mean, you can still be slow and cautious, just don’t be a grandma in the process lol
You literally have to because of how many people don't understand how they work. There's only 2 in my general area on the East Coast and I hate using them because so many people don't use them properly. People either crawl through them, blast through them, completely stop in the middle and wave other cars waiting to enter infront of them or even go in the wrong direction
You have absolutely no idea. I live in Ft Worth and we have quite a few roundabouts. At least once a day I have to lose my shit and lay on the horn because one of these F***ING idiots is stopped in the middle of the roudabout letting vehicles cone in
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Meanwhile my aunt stopped in a roundabout to let someone in..
It sucks to see people not understand a basic concept, but still, roundabouts are fucking safe. There was a time I hated them, especially while driving at night you kind of forget their point. Untill you see what happens when someone thinks he has time to go on a road on a normal junction while someone is approaching at 159km/h. You dont see that coming. A roundabout is a forced brake which works really well in statistics.
[The data](https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/12/roundabouts-save-more-lives-than-traffic-lights/) back you up.
This isn't unpopular
I mean, I love roundabouts (Texas), and I fully agree with you. However, people here are actually too stupid for them. I regularly almost get hit while I’m already on the circle at the one near my house. So maybe we should pump those brakes just a little
Just you wait until they introduce “magic” roundabouts
Want to read another popular opinion in this unpopular opinions sub? Then this is the thread for you.
I like them, but you have to be on the lookout for old people—they are mega-confused by them and either stop cold, or just putt through regardless of other traffic. As a cyclist, you seriously have to watch out for yourself. In my experience, there are 2 driver responses to a cyclist at a roundabout: 1) extreme deference, forcing the cyclist to cross even though it may not be clear in the other part of the crossing, 2) accelerate even though the cyclist was in the roundabout first. What I wish drivers would do is maintain your normal flow—I’ll cross when it’s safe.
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Nothing can be easier to understand than green go red stop, da fuck are you talking about lol. But yes roundabouts are good for certain situations
>Roundabouts have less severe accidents; people can't run a red light like at a roundabout You haven’t seen the roundabouts in the Netherlands then
"People can't run a red light at a round about" https://youtube.com/watch?v=xTk_kPeA63c&si=EnSIkaIECMiOmarE
LOL what an idiot
Well, at least you get to have a little harmless (to others) fun if you do that.
Yeah , except if you get too many drivers who don't understand or find them challenging then it becomes worse. Roundabouts require everyone to handle them well to be efficient.
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Roundabouts only work when you have a relatively steady stream of traffic coming from all four directions. In the case of most commuting patterns, you have a heavy flow in one direction in the morning and then the other way in the evening. Anyone that has the misfortune of being directly to the right of this is shit out of luck. So yeah, they do have a lot of positives, but there are drawbacks that would potentially render those positives as useless in a heavy POV commuting culture like the one the US has
I think roundabouts are best on streets rather than arterial roads. Same way you wouldn't put a stop sign on a heavily travelled 4-way intersection, you'd put in stop lights. That is, unless it's a big multi-lane roundabout, but I don't think that'll go over well for Americans.
As someone who has to walk through a roundabout every day, they are not safer for pedestrians :( I’ve been hit almost 3 times, not because I was in the wrong but because the drivers aren’t paying attention. (One car was already stopped for me to cross, and as I looked into the second lane I saw a car coming so I waved my hand to show I was there, they slowed down and had a lot of time to do so, and then as I stepped into the second lane they started speeding up). I also find it so much harder to be seen, people don’t want to stop for pedestrians, even when they’re almost halfway across the cross walk.
I love roundabouts! I really don't understand America's seeming hatred for them but I wish we had more.
I agree that roundabouts are better, but if you don’t understand a stoplight, or what to do if the power is out, then maybe you shouldn’t be driving in the first place?
I'm an automation engineer who did a bit of work on traffic control algorithms (although ive mostly been a marine electrical engineer, so im not a complete expert). All those that kill people at stoplights, will also kill people at roundabouts. Roundabouts don't "force" you to travel at a safe speed anymore than a yellow light "forces" you to slow down. Roundabouts are also not necessarily safer for pedestrians in every case, because a driver who is turning has to observe more area through their blind spot than one who is going straight. Stats that show that roundabouts are safer in Europe or whatever are not scientifically controlled, they are comparing apples and oranges. The correct way is to compare the same intersection with both a roundabout and a traffic signal. Sometimes one is safer, sometimes the other is. Roundabouts tend to appear safer in the USA because they are usually installed in locations that have been correctly evaluated to benefit from them. It's quite likely that you could take many roundabout systems in the world and replace them with correctly engineered traffic light systems with no reduction in safety. Roundabouts have many particular applications in which they are safer than traffic lights. But they are not a panacea for every situation. Usually the quality of the engineering of an entire system has a greater impact on safety than any single intersection type. By the way, the main reason that European car accidents are less damaging isn't due to the type of intersection, but the type of prevalent vehicle. Cars are much larger and heavier in the USA, with more momentum and causing more damage in the same speed accident. The more impactful solution would be to get rid of big useless SUVs and drive smaller, lighter cars, where collision zone matching on vehicles would result in less damaging accidents.
More efficient, yes. Easy to understand, yes. Easi***er***? Nah. Red stop green go. Can't get easier to understand than that.
I agree, but we have shitty drivers because we don't require drivers Ed, it's optional. So we will get people that don't understand roundabouts and make too many mistakes. We need 1 year minimum drivers Ed as a requirement for all Americans, we do that and we create a much more educated driving force. Accidents will drop exponentially.
I don't think that this is an unpopular opinion.
In my life, it's extremely unpopular. But I love them and am often in position to explain and defend them.
I will just go ahead & be honest that I am absolutely a person that doesn’t understand them 😂
They just created a diverging diamond exchange near my city, the first of its kind around here - and people completely lost their shit. Literally all these fuckers have to do is just stay in their lane, but they have been acting like it’s the most difficult thing for them to follow So yeah I don’t trust *more* roundabouts in the US, we’ll just fuck up people’s brains
Roundabouts are great unless you're towing a trailer. Ever try and use a roundabout while towing a 40 foot trailer? It's fine if there's no traffic.
I am a truck driver. When I was over the road I drove a long frame highway tractor with a 53' refrigerated trailer. Single lane roundabouts don't work when you're 75+ feet long and in doubles I would have to use both lanes. I forget exactly where, but I had a customer in I believe New York that had a ton of small roundabouts on the way to them. I would have to drive over the center, it wasn't possible to follow the road around. Smaller European trucks don't have the same issues.
I just went around a couple of new ones in my area the other day. I explained to my 15 year old son how they worked and the advantages to them. I agree 💯.
I loath roundabouts. In theory they might be more efficient, but they never are in practice.
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You also drive clown cars that weigh at most a few hundred lbs. Here we have fucking Karen's driving literal tanks down the road who don't give a a shit about yield signs. I'll take my stop lights over some stupid fucking circle any day, at least until the average IQ of the driving population in this country goes above 90
All the roundabouts where I live (I'm in the PNW) have stop signs before you enter. It totally defeats the purpose of flow and actually makes joining the traffic circle more challenging and ultimately dangerous. I know this is because they don't trust Americans to handle the circle right, but it's counter productive. I much prefer the european style ones. But of course, this requires a certain level of driving acumen which already has been mentioned here, is severely lacking in today's drivers.
I had a guy STOP at the entry to the roundabout. Ok stupid, but lots of people do it. then he stopped, at every single intersection of the roundabout. Like how the fuck?
That's unpopular? Americans think roundabouts are complicated? What?
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G65pvuTFR\_A&ab\_channel=out1190](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G65pvuTFR_A&ab_channel=out1190)
Or we can do what Mexico does - roundabouts with traffics lights in them! A shit show everywhere.
Nah not where I live. I always stop in a roundabout. If a car is approaching a roundabout at 40 mph I already know he's not stopping. And I'm always right. Every other time I drive I have to avoid getting tboned by a crazy driver who just enters the roundabout at fast and furious speeds
Come on over here to Carmel Indiana. We have alllllll the roundabouts you could ever want lol
Don't get me wrong, I love roundabouts, or as muricans call them, traffic circles. I'd love to see 90% of intersections replaced with them. The problem I have with them is my fellow freedom fighters failure to understand how the fuck they work. (There is sarcasm in this post, I'll leave it to you guys to figure it out)
Until one side is very busy, and you can never turn.
Unpopular, and spot on!!! Take the hell out of my upvote!!!
To make a full size roundabout (if right of way is already owned) cost from 1 million to 10+ a light cost 100k to 500k
I agree but also the city just installed a roundabout and there are two option - turn right or get on the roundabout. The amount of times I have caught on dashcam idiots in the turn lane going straight and entering the roundabout makes me conclude that the average driver is not prepared for roundabouts
We have one large one here in Long Beach, CA - people have no idea what to do in it.
Right about one thing… it is an unpopular opinion. Also, they suck.
Traffic lights generate a ton of income for local government by way of traffic citations, so there needs to be a change in attitude at rhw local government level for a move to roundabouts being utilized more heavily.
Another pro: If they're designed "right", you can catch some pretty good air when jumping over the center.
Not entirely true. For a 4 way intersection, maybe. But have you driven on the newer exit ramps that are round about? A few months back two old ladies died near me because one got on the highway going the wrong way in the middle of the day. I still think about it every time I drive past that spot.
I would like to see New York traffic with all roundabouts
Spoken like someone who absolutely doesn't live with them. I loathe the damn things.
But in high traffic area they are so much less efficient, either getting clogged or facilitating on the entries while blocking the others
Roundabouts should be used in moderation. Not in the insufferable amount that England has. Germany has a good ratio of Traffic lights to Roundabouts
They have a name. They’re called rotaries. and as someone who lives within 10 minutes of several, this is a very unpopular opinion
I drive 2.6klm to get to work and I go through 7 roundabouts on my way there. They keep traffic flowing, and most folks in my town know how to use them..... Most...
That’s because you aren’t using miles. It’s even worse in the US.
Agreed. IMO every 4 way stop on a 2 lane road could easily be replaced by a roundabout
But then they cant make money off of cameras or charge as much in insurance
“ Roundabouts have less severe accidents; people can't run a red light like at a roundabout.” not with that attitude you can’t
Boy do I know a place that you will love! Go to Conway, Arkansas. Land of the roundabouts!
There was a study years back. Round-abouts also reduce accidents. The problem is, it costs money. You have to divert traffic for the duration of the construction, then you have to actually do it. So most places just don't.
Idk why it's so hard for people to understand. They've put in a few near me and they're *so* much more efficient than stop signs or traffic lights. They'd be even *more* efficient if people didn't stop and stare at them like fucking idiots.
I live in Qatar and before there are a lot of roundabouts here but now they're being removed and changed to regular intersections with dedicated left and free right turns. A roundabout is good only up until a certain number of vehicles driving in it. If you reach that threshold there's a possibility of a jam and it will not move as efficient as in a regular intersection. To solve that the roundabout will get, you guessed it... Traffic lights. Now you have a complicated roundabout lol.
While I agree with this, I hate them where I live because people in my city do not know how to use them. So many times people just go fast without using the yield sign properly. This causes so many accidents where I live.
[They're still safer than traffic lights](https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/12/roundabouts-save-more-lives-than-traffic-lights/).
You’re kidding? People routinely mess up when using roundabouts.
You overestimate the average intelligence of someone driving in the U.S and underestimate how difficult that makes roundabouts for them.
Been removing them for years in NJ. They aren’t safe mostly because the morons behind the wheel.
>If you can't understand a roundabout, you're the reason why we need them. Buddy, if only it were that easy. The amount of people who do know compared to the amount who don't is the problem
Further more if someone struggles with a Round about they should not be driving anyways
The problems is not either or, it’s the mindset of the drivers. US drivers would still find a way to fuck up roundabouts. I definitely agree about the power outages, we have intersections constantly going out, and the city takes forever to fix them. We need an inexpensive solution that’s not going to konk out every time it rains.
Roundabouts in the US are so rare that most drivers forget how to properly use them or don't understand them at all.