At an intersection- which is better a round about or stop light?

I've experienced a couple of R/As, and while I was okay with them, I found other drivers tended to be unsure of what they were doing or where they were going. So because of that, I much prefer stoplights.

However, it seems like "red light running" has become a sport here in Texas, and its darn scary.
 
Tommy said:
Wow! I lived in different parts of Michigan for over forty years and that's the only place I recall ever seeing them! o_O Maybe I just didn't drive in the right places.
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Back in the 70's, if you were going west on 9 Mile Road and wanted to turn left on Southfield Blvd., you had to turn RIGHT on Southfield, go about a block, get in a left-hand lane and the make a u-turn to go south, passing 9 Mile Road.

It did absolutely NOTHING for the congestion.
 

Where I live there are so many stop lights and stop signs that a traffic circle is a rare and wonderful treat. I'm only aware of one along the routes I usually travel.
 
Stop lights on county intersections seem really dumb!

a stop sigh on a lightly traveled roads intersections seem OK>.

Roundabouts are mostly about the Neighborhoods b.s., or Hospital, whatever.
It’s mostly a PITA. 18 wheelers and straight trucks have a heck of a time with the circle.

quadruple the size of the tiny thing and it would seem cool to go thru.


The first one I ever experienced was near a Bass Pro. I didn’t like it. Nuff!
 
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hollydolly said:
We have both... and by far the easiest is the Roundabout. The deal is you just give way to the right... nothing more than that. In your case give way to the left...

if there's something coming from your left, you stop at the junction before proceeding.. simple as that.

here in the Uk we have all sorts of roundabouts, which oftne have traffic lights all the way around as well....

..or this one near where I live

this has 6 roundabouts within One roundabout.. and as you can see traffic is going in opposite directions..

It's terrifying the first time you use it.. but you get used to it.. and just have to watch out for drivers who can't negotiate it very well..

magic-roundabout-hemel-hempstead-ba1a2f1e-09f3-485a-9447-e44bd5b0711-resize-750.jpeg

Then there's another one down west...in Swindon
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Hollydolly: I like using the roundabouts, but I find the multi-laned was a little confusing, I usually stay far away from them.
 
Traffic lights are the simpilist way for sure, everyone knows how they work, but lights don't always work well to keep traffic flowing. I love a well designed roundabout, I think it's the better option. The problem is some roundabouts are poorly designed and can be confusing the first few times you use them. There's a couple in my area that are so poorly designed everytime I drive thru them I wonder what the hell the engineers were thinking.
 
squatting dog said:
Single lane Round about's are miserable if you happen to have a 38 foot motor home with a 24 foot trailer. Ask me how I know. ;)
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Seriously ? A 62 foot long combination of 2 vehicles ? Here in Ontario, you would not be allowed to drive that without a commercial truck license.
 
Don M. said:
Roundabouts are better in light traffic areas.....IMO. Where/when traffic is heavy, traffic lights are better.
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Our roundabouts are put to much better use in high traffic areas like the cities, and large towns to keep the heavy traffic flowing .... in rural areas roundabouts are much more rare
 
We have simple roundabouts here. I do like them. I had one jerk honk his horn at me once when it clearly was not safe to proceed.

That first one Holly posted, OMG, that would scare me. Complicated.
 
Remy said:
We have simple roundabouts here. I do like them. I had one jerk honk his horn at me once when it clearly was not safe to proceed.

That first one Holly posted, OMG, that would scare me. Complicated.
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I'm fine with it... I've driven around it, more times than I an count.. but it does scare a lot people who go out of their way to avoid it...
 
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hollydolly said:
WoW...that would be 4 feet too long to be legal on our roads. The law changed in 2023 to allow vehicles a little longer ..to be driven on our roads, but even with that the maximum length a vehicle drawing a trailer could be is 61 feet...


Look here Maximum length of vehicles used in Great Britain
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Ha, it gets worse. I just remembered that our 24 foot trailer had a V nose. That added 2 more feet to the overall length.
38'+24'+ the added 2'+the 3 foot hitch= 67'. 😮 I'm beginning to realize why those round about's gave me so much grief.
 
hollydolly said:
magic-roundabout-hemel-hempstead-ba1a2f1e-09f3-485a-9447-e44bd5b0711-resize-750.jpeg
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Holy moly! Looks like you’ve even got designated areas for hoodlums to conduct their sideshows. And I thought there were parking spots marked off in there too. I wouldn’t be fond of this one but simple circle with multiple entryways is much more efficient.

What I did not like when driving in the UK were the high clipped hedgerows growing right up to and in some cases over the nearest lane of traffic. Bloody “L”, mates?!
 
Every morning there's a back up at a stop light, people going to NYC to work.
They put in a roundabout. But there are business, whose driveways are attached to the roundabout. So, you can turn left in the roundabout to keep going on your road, or turn right to get into a Rite Aid and a bank. I think its badly designed. I feel it going to be crash city until they come up with a workable option.
 

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