Yes. Everyone knows this.
Clearly, not enough of the ‘right people’ know this in the US.
The problem with roundabouts in the US is they’re often implemented way too small.
I’ve driven “around” one that was merely painted on the road, a circle maybe 12’ across. 🤦🏼
The title does go against betteridge’s law tho.
Roundabouts can work great in some areas. A large downside to them is their large footprint, you need a lot of space to fit one in. Because of that you find them more in rural/city outskirt areas with lower volume traffic, just because there is more area to fit them in. There are 2 or 3 intersections in my town that desperately need them, but the rest of the lights are just fine. You can’t really put roundabouts in a lot of downtown areas. One thing I really like about them is that they deter speeding. Putting them near school areas close to each other will make the drivers slow down in a way that green lights just don’t.
That’s cool and all, but a roundabout requires that the carbrain has at least 1 working braincell and, in my town? Yeah, you don’t see many.
A roundabout needs the people using it to know what’s a turning light, when and how to leave them, when and how to enter them… A roundabout is too complex for a carbrain that rarely matches a 5 years old kid brain.
These are the kinds of things people said to block roundabouts from replacing traffic lights in my town, and now that they have been installed, people figured it out and everything works better than before.
I arrived in this town 9 years ago. The roundabouts were already here. People will still fail to understand the basics of a roundabout, like: I can’t know you want to exit it if you don’t use your turning lights. They still pretend that the ones inside the roundabout stop so they let them enter it instead of just waiting for a gap and enter it. And, of course, they will always want to leave the roundabout from the inner lane (without turning lights obviously) and will get angry if you don’t stop to let them leave even tho you are in the outer lane.
Believe me, carbrains here are not very intelligent.
It’s super easy to see when someone is exiting the roundabout, lights aren’t necessary. When someone isn’t exiting the roundabout the turn is much sharper. When they start to pull away from the center Island, that’s the cue to know their exiting and it’s your turn to go.
Also the outer lane should be exiting at the same time as the inner if not before. If you’re blocking someone in, you failed to yield when entering or you’re trying to go around further than the outer lane is supposed to (you shouldn’t make a left from the outer lane, only right or straight).
You have to understand that the average italian driver is a self-centered prick whose awareness never goes beyond their own vehicle (sometimes beyond their seat).
They simply don’t consider the possibility of other vehicles sharing the same road and that’s how they drive.
I’ve seen cars here taking a roundabout clockwise just because the exit they wanted to take was closer that way.
My personal experience in the Netherlands says that despite ~60% of people not knowing how turn signals work, roundabouts still function just fine.
I hate them. Sitting around waiting for a space I can fit into without being hit while a steady flood of cars blasts by. Feels like it takes forever. At least with a light, I know that eventually I’m going to get a chance to go.
If it’s not a skills issue, man, I bet the roundabout is too small. I’ve seen some nice spacious ones and they seem to totally flow.
An airport near my old place replaced one of those ‘H’-style on-ramp traffic islands with a circle one each end; then one more very quickly to control a 5-corners to the airport. It was f’n mayhem on day one, but day 30 it was totally smooth sailing. Bam-bam-bam.
The number 1 complaint at an airport in the US was long wait times for baggage, often 15 minutes or more of standing around waiting.
So they moved flights further away from the baggage carousel. Roughly 15-20 minutes of walking away.
The complaints magically disappeared…
This feels like the same thing to me. Plus the traffic flying by without room for you is more often than not you in the future. At some point you benefit from that, although I certainly empathize with your frustration.
Yeah, it’s me in a future where I didn’t get killed by one of them hitting me. That future isn’t the one I worry about. :p
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They’re very common where I live. There shouldn’t be any lane switching so I’m not sure I understand. If you enter on the right lane because you’re turning right (reverse all this if you drive on the right) then you exit onto the right lane of a two lane road.
There should be lane switching if you enter from the left lane, at one point you have to go onto the other lane to exit. It’s expected if you exit after going around more than half the roundabout.
You’re crossing a lane but if you enter in the left lane you should exit in the left lane. If you want to move to the right lane you do it after the junction, allowing others to join and exit without interfering with you / you interfering with them.
At least that’s the rule here (again everything’s reversed here because we drive on the left but as I say those two lane roundabouts are very popular here. I’d pass through 8 of them on my way to work).
Edit: there are some that are two lane on entry but only one on exit. The left lane in that instance is only for the first exit and / or straight ahead depending on configuration.
But yeah you’re crossing one lane briefly but not changing lanes. I think we may be talking about the same thing. That lane cross should be perfectly safe though as long as everyone’s indicating properly.
The roundabouts I’m used to have two lanes all around, you can’t exit from the left lane as it is the one in the center. And Yes it is safe as long as you indicate and check around.
Yeah I think we’re on the same page.
I mean not really. If you have to switch to the outer lane, and you are late or traffic or whatever, you just do another round.
What about roundabouts with traffic lights
Fuck these, like seriously horrible. I don’t know who came up with this idea but it was total misery when I saw them in Sweden
The worst ones are those with traffic lights just prior to the roundabout - sometimes it’s not always clear if those lights are part of the roundabout, or entirely separate (so you still need to give way when you reach the roundabout)
Also traffic lights when exiting roundabout
Depends. A few places need them where the traffic is more dense on one road like near my work. A 4 way row about that everyone is coming from one direction to the opposite as that is where the town is. But I need to exit the way they’re coming from as my town is the other way. You sit there for ages waiting for a gap.
A simple traffic light letting x out per road would be ideal there.
I bet you haven’t had the displeasure of using Spanish roundabout, or a roundabout with a crossing in the middle and traffic lights everywhere.
W. T. FUCK?
They have those in Paris without the red light. It’s a nightmare.
Have you tried traffic lights 30m AFTER the exit of a roundabout, with a red time long enough to block the whole roundabout?
Awful design. Few places round here do that and just cause a backup on the roundabout itself
