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

dilettante said:
They aren't exactly new here anyway. We had traffic circles on campus (3 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 3 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.
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what's the difference between Uk and US roundabouts...?
 

these are just a few of ours.... 1727391256293.jpeg


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My county in the town just 20 miles from here was the first place to have the first roundabout in the UK in 1905 the one above ^^
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I think the main difference is that a circle normally is larger, allows traffic to pass without slowing down, and has no curbs or berms in the middle.


I'm not so sure that the curbing/berming in the middle is really a distinction though.
 
Yea I have one within 2 miles of me Infront of a Hospital, sure its
nearly beautiful, it should be for the crazy cost.

The 4 ways stop sign for $400 an intersection far is better than the
$200,000 minimum cost of a roundabout a construction crew
working for at least a month, cost bs taxpayers losing the list again added.

The price of nighttime accidents keep climbing.

Does anyone get driving in a circle and what it actually intends. Sure, I have no bucket list note to drive on a British street also.
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dilettante said:
I think the main difference is that a circle normally is larger, allows traffic to pass without slowing down, and has no curbs or berms in the middle.


I'm not so sure that the curbing/berming in the middle is really a distinction though.
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so no difference ..except ours has trees or some kind of barrier to stop people driving over them
 
they keep putting them in my area mostly in places where intersections had a history of accidents but i do not think they have helped for same reason if people are wrong about who has the right of way.

The ones we have are much smaller and tends slow every one down to use them.
 
You have to pay attention when you go from driving on the right to driving on the left. We experienced this when we went to Bermuda.

Tourists are not permitted to drive cars in Bermuda, only scooters.
 
What drives me nuts about roundabouts (especially when we first got them) is that the driver to the left has the right-of-way. Welp, here in the U.S, it's been forever if 2 drivers approach an intersection without traffic lights at the same time, the driver to the right has the right of way. The driver to the right. So now all of a sudden we've got these driving areas where the driver to the darn left has the right of way. Why didn't they make the roundabouts where the driver to the right has it; why make it the opposite of all the intersections in the country?!

That's why I think some have trouble--I know I do--with the darn roundabouts is because we're having to give the right of way to those coming from the opposite direction of what we've always done (and still do at non-roundabout intersections).
 
I like them. They are a much better system than traffic signals. However many Americans are resistant to them just like they are resistant to the metric system which is also a much better system.
 
DebraMae said:
At least if you don't do it right the first time you can try again. ;)
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The first time I encountered a traffic circle I was a teenager and it was Carrier Circle in Syracuse, NY (where I grew up), which is ENORMOUS: about six lanes of traffic whizzing by at 60 mph. I think I drove around it three times and then got halfway to Baldwinsville before I finally got off at the proper exit. 😁
 
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?
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Kinda depends on where you are. New England is full of them. Curiously, Arkansas is also adopting them, especially in Conway, which is located NW of Little Rock. Research has shown that roundabouts (or rotaries as they're called in New England) are much more efficient in managing traffic than are typical intersections.

One you get used to them, traffic flows mo betta.
 
Eupher said:
One you get used to them, traffic flows mo betta.
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That's the catch, though, getting used to them since, as I mentioned above, here in the U.S we've for years been used to the car on the right always having the right of way, and now with these darn roundabouts, it's the car on the darned left. :confused:
 
Am seeing increasing numbers of roundabouts here in California that is dependent on newer areas since they don't retrofit on older urban intersections without space to widen intersections. They work well given time for locals to use them and only a few people seem to have trouble using them. I'd expect most drivers that dislike them also are impatient speeders that see them as slowing impediments. Traffic lights are better solutions for many busy intersections even when there is space for a roundabout thus highway engineers need to understand the nature of when they are an advantage.

The most effective one I've used is at the intersections of US50 and SR89 in Myers of Lake Tahoe. Constant US50 traffic at times like on Friday afternoons with weekend Nevada casino traffic, made cross SR89 traffic difficult to merge into resulting in long lines behind merge in points from skiers returning from ski resorts on SR89. Some people are particularly hesitant merging in so may cause such backups to become ridiculous.

Like if they see another vehicle approaching on the main highway even if it is far enough down a road to otherwise allow several vehicles to merge in, they may balk just idling as though they cannot gauge how far away it is or how long it may take for main highway vehicles to arrive. Even if I'm a few vehicles back, I may start using my horn and that usually gets their attention that they are being publicly annoying.

Kaiser Permanente put one just behind the main entrance to the largest new hospital in the region a slow speed mix of incoming cars and it is greatly effective. Yes there are a few drivers that are mesmerized and perplexed by roundabouts probably every time they use one that is rather evident by the way some will just wait and wait and wait at the circle entrance as though they are uncertain what to do and then when they actually get in the circle move like slugs.
 
officerripley said:
That's the catch, though, getting used to them since, as I mentioned above, here in the U.S we've for years been used to the car on the right always having the right of way, and now with these darn roundabouts, it's the car on the darned left. :confused:
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I'm really not sure what you're getting at here in the U.S. regarding the "car on the right always has the right of way". In an unregulated intersection (as odd as that is these days, save in the bush in Alaska, perhaps), the "right has the right of way" may be true -- but I just don't see that. Even in my small enclave of Gibson, Arkansas, there is a 4-way stop sign, which everybody recognizes as "the first one there gets to go first". That works well, especially when it's busy during morning and late afternoon peak traffic times.

In Germany, and in the rest of Europe, the "Priority Road" system rules. In that system, where so marked, the priority road has the right-of-way. Matters not whether left or right. Priority road has the right of way. Where NOT marked, the "right before left" rule comes into play. That doesn't take into account roundabouts or anything else -- it's a sacrosanct rule that drivers are embedded with. I have a German driver's license and have driven in Germany and in Europe for some 15 years. Never had a problem with right-of-way.
 
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chic said:
In my part of the country they've always been called rotaries
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I've never heard them called rotaries (I've lived in mostly mid-atlantic and mid-western states, tho also in Colorado, not sure what that part of the country is called), but I googled it and apparently (per Google) rotaries are higher speed (it said 40 mph) than traffic circles and roundabouts, and it also said people in the New England states call all of them rotaries.

My opinion of them is I like the little 20 mph single lane ones, but busier faster multi-lanes stress me and I wind up in a lane that has to branch off sooner than I'm ready (mostly I'm thinking of one in Buffalo, NY).
 
David777 said:
Kaiser Permanente put one just behind the main entrance to the largest new hospital in the region a slow speed mix of incoming cars and it is greatly effective. Yes there are a few drivers that are mesmerized and perplexed by roundabouts probably every time they use one that is rather evident by the way some will just wait and wait and wait at the circle entrance as though they are uncertain what to do and then when they actually get in the circle move like slugs.
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That would drive me batty. Those must be the kind of people who slow to a crawl on interstate onramps and then try to speed up from 15 mph to merge with 65-mph traffic.
 
We have them in several towns in the area that have been there for years & call them traffic circles. I don't have a problem with them & don't even give them a second thought.
 
officerripley said:
What drives me nuts about roundabouts (especially when we first got them) is that the driver to the left has the right-of-way. Welp, here in the U.S, it's been forever if 2 drivers approach an intersection without traffic lights at the same time, the driver to the right has the right of way. The driver to the right. So now all of a sudden we've got these driving areas where the driver to the darn left has the right of way. Why didn't they make the roundabouts where the driver to the right has it; why make it the opposite of all the intersections in the country?!

That's why I think some have trouble--I know I do--with the darn roundabouts is because we're having to give the right of way to those coming from the opposite direction of what we've always done (and still do at non-roundabout intersections).
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yes that would be very confusing whereas here the driver to the right regardless has always had the right of way... that's any driver whether it's a cyclist or a bus....
 
Eupher said:
everybody recognizes as "the first one there gets to go first"
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Ah, but if the cars arrive at the same time or close to the same time, then it's the one on the right has the right-of-way. That's the way it's here in Calif. anyway. And we have many unregulated intersections, many. (We are out in the middle of nowhere, I admit.)
 
officerripley said:
Ah, but if the cars arrive at the same time or close to the same time, then it's the one on the right has the right-of-way. That's the way it's here in Calif. anyway. And we have many unregulated intersections, many. (We are out in the middle of nowhere, I admit.)
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Good point, but here - from what I've seen - there is usually a gesture of one type or another for one or the other to go. Flick on high beams or even a hand gesture. It's really quite respectful and not predicated on some arbitrary rule. Seems to work fine, but then again we're not inundated with motor vehicles like much of urban California is.
 

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