Americans don't do well in roundabouts. Yes or no? Do you like 'em?

fuzzybuddy

fuzzybuddy

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The Sticks, Northeast PA.
There is an three road intersection near me. It used to have stop light, but now it has a round about. I might have carped about this before. But Americans don't do well in roundabouts. Everybody I talked to hates the roundabout. We're just not used to them. They haven't finish building it, and we've already had someone smash into it. Europe has lots of roundabouts and their drivers are used to them. What's your opinion of roundabouts?
 

fuzzybuddy said:
There is a three road intersection near me. It used to have stop light, but now it has a round about. I might have carped about this before. But Americans don't do well in roundabouts. Everybody I talked to hates the roundabout. We're just not used to them. They haven't finish building it, and we've already had someone smash into it. Europe has lots of roundabouts and their drivers are used to them. What's your opinion of roundabouts?
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I like round abouts. The car to the left always has the right of way; the car in the round about. I find them easier to deal with than traffic lights. With a traffic light, even if someone Has their signal light on accidentally, they STILL have the right of way. If they are in the intersection with their left signal light on and they don’t turn left , if you get into an accident CAN still be your fault.
 

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I don’t use them enough to be comfortable with them.

They are adding several in this area as part of the interstate 81 redesign project.

This year the Department of Transportation had a display at the New York State Fair that people could walk through to get a better understanding of the etiquette involved, it was kind of funny to watch and very fortunate that they were not going 60 miles an hour. 😉🤭😂
 
CarolfromTX said:
Once you get used to the, they work very well. I’m kind of a fan.
For one thing, if you miss your street you can just go round again.
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That sounds like something from a Chevy Chase Vacation movie.

I think these things get built inappropriately. Some intersections are too small for them, and even then often end up taking up more land than the original intersection. We don't drive Mr. Bean cars so they don't scale well here.

Conduire-mr-bean-mini.jpg
 
I purely hate them with a pure burning Satanic loathing.
There's one in the next town over that has a space of ONE STINKING BLOCK between the abominations.

My theory is that there is a lot of corruption between city planners and the construction companies that put them in.

:poop: :mad::devilish::poop:
 

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If it’s a single lane roundabout, I’m totally in support. I’m not so fond of the two lane ones that merge into more roundabouts.

Roundabouts keep the traffic flowing, when used properly. Some people are stupid.

Merge in when you are able, signal when you’re going to leave.
 
fuzzybuddy said:
There is an three road intersection near me. It used to have stop light, but now it has a round about. I might have carped about this before. But Americans don't do well in roundabouts. Everybody I talked to hates the roundabout. We're just not used to them. They haven't finish building it, and we've already had someone smash into it. Europe has lots of roundabouts and their drivers are used to them. What's your opinion of roundabouts?
Click to expand...
I came across a couple of roundabouts whilst driving in the US. My wife and I used to cross The Pond quite regularly, there was an old schoolfriend, who was married and settled in Savannah, Georgia whom we would visit. Her husband didn't like roundabouts and he said that they were better known as traffic circles, not a term that I have ever heard of. Was he winding me up?

Roundabouts are not difficult, it's just a matter of getting used to them. But I do have an empathy and although it's not about roundabouts it is about change. In the UK we are fed a diet of metric, from distances to weights and measures to weather temperatures. Metric is so easy, it's simply multiples of ten, yet I grew up learning feet and inches & pounds and ounces. Convoluted, or what? Yet I insist on using the imperial system.
 
I'm not sure why some people are saying Americans don't do well in roundabouts. I do just fine. I like them because they get rid of a huge pet peeve for me, and something that happens a lot in North Dakota: People who refuse, or don't know how, to learn who has the right of way at an intersection. I've lived in six different states and never seen so many people who don't know what to do at a four-way stop. So, I like roundabouts.
 
In America we call them rotaries. I don't love them because drivers try to nose their way in and can hit others in the process. They're a bit more dangerous and any advantages don't outweigh the risks.
 
horseless carriage said:
I came across a couple of roundabouts whilst driving in the US. My wife and I used to cross The Pond quite regularly, there was an old schoolfriend, who was married and settled in Savannah, Georgia whom we would visit. Her husband didn't like roundabouts and he said that they were better known as traffic circles, not a term that I have ever heard of. Was he winding me up?

Roundabouts are not difficult, it's just a matter of getting used to them. But I do have an empathy and although it's not about roundabouts it is about change. In the UK we are fed a diet of metric, from distances to weights and measures to weather temperatures. Metric is so easy, it's simply multiples of ten, yet I grew up learning feet and inches & pounds and ounces. Convoluted, or what? Yet I insist on using the imperial system.
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so do I ..I continue to use the Imperial system .. who cares..?... except of course the money... but I often think back to when we changed to decimal and some poor sellers, particulalrly greengrocers, were actually jailed for continuing to sell produce in imperial weight instead of metoic.. pound of bananas instead of a 1/2 kilo.. .. etc.. and now it doesn't matter to anyone... but what about these people.. I bet they didn't get those prison sentences wiped clear from their records..
 
They aren't exactly new here anyway. We had traffic circles on campus (4 of them) when I started school in 1974. But these were also large enough to be viable and few had trouble with them.

Studies were done on converting these to UK-style roundabouts. It just wasn't viable, and all 4 have long been removed and replaced with conventional intersections. Increasing volume of vehicular, bicycle, and pedestrian traffic argued strongly against both the old circles and proposed roundabouts, which also consumed real estate more desperately needed for buildings, sports fields, etc. over time.

There were also ADA issues with wheelchairs, the blind, etc.
 

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