What do you think of traffic "Roundabouts"?

[Ivan the Butcher]

They put in a 2 lane "Roundabout" at route 62 and Morse Rd. in Columbus, Ohio. The increased congestion and confusion caused by this fiasco, was eminence. They ended up turning the outer lane into right turn only. On several, I have noticed the small diameter causes panic in many drivers, as there is no room to merge for a lane change. This is another page from some play book that is suppose usher us into the utopia of the future! Ivan

 

[HOUSTON RICK]

I think we only have one in Houston right by Rice University. It works, but it is a lot wider than the ones in Boston.

 

[yaktamer]

They are too Limey for my taste.

I hear you. My car broke down the other day right in the middle of one. I opened the bonnet to see if I could fix the problem. Looked like maybe the cables to the accumulator were loose, so I retrieved a spanner out of the boot. That didn't work, so I tried to ring up me mates, but got no answer.
Eventually a friendly bloke in a lorry came along and stopped to help. We pushed the car onto the central reservation and hooked up my set of jumper leads. That did the trick and I was on my way. A few miles later, as I was listening to my favorite tune on the wireless, I realized that the lorry driver had nicked my jumper leads. The bloody sod.

 

[LVSteve]

Even in England we often abandoned roundabouts for three lane roads and put lights in. The main issue I find here in the US is that too many drivers have been trained to drive sequentially. Now we get to the junction; now we look; now we go. There is little emphasis on anticipation and it shows in a number of other driving habits I see here that I consider bizarre.

The key to roundabouts is to be looking at the other traffic as far ahead as sightlines allow. That is beyond many drivers in both countries, but more so here. My sister-in-law covers her eyes if she is a passenger with me and we come to a roundabout. The idea of not stopping causes her "does not compute" light to glow very brightly. As for "forcing the right of way", if the guy pulling out causes you to brake then yes, he failed to yield. If you did not have to brake and you have reasonable clearance, it is just like a merge on the freeway.

 

[LVSteve]

On several, I have noticed the small diameter causes panic in many drivers, as there is no room to merge for a lane change.

Many drivers consider it an infringement of their rights to have to turn the wheel more than 45°, so no surprise there. Watch at a light where two multi-lane roads meet and tell me the percentage of those that make a lane1 to lane 1 left turn as they should. If you see better than 15-20% I would be surprised. This afflicts drivers all over the world in my experience.

 

[Waywatcher]

I love em, but there are a fair amount of people who don't know how to navigate them. Still great though.

 

[MaximumLawman]

They're great. Any time you can get rid of a stop sign or signal light and still move traffic relatively safely and efficiently, it's a good thing. They are generally safer than red lights and stop signs and experience fewer fatal and serious crashes.

 

[sipowicz]

We have lots of them going in around here..started round about 5 years ago...

 

[rwsmith]

2 things

1) They are nice IN THE RIGHT PLACE. We had large one in the neighborhood I grew up in and I still drive around it going to church.

2) They SHOULD BE MARKED PROPERLY - There is one in an office development that I have to drive through and the thing is not marked as a roundabout. At first I was turning left on it and almost hit a car once. It's all at street level so you can't tell by driving up to it that it's a roundabout at all.

 

[old bear]

my opinion of roundabouts was that they were there to prevent the French from successfully invading England. So far, they are working.

Have the French ever had an successful invasion of anything, in the last 100 years

 

[yaktamer]

LV Steve is right about American drivers driving sequentially and not anticipating. Here, when a light turns green each car waits for the car in front to pull forward some distance before letting off the brake and moving forward. When I was stationed in Germany, everybody in line would let off the brake and accelerate simultaneously when the light changed, almost as if they were railroad cars connected together.

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

They have been steadily eliminating them here in NJ. When they were first introduced they were very efficient in handling 1920s-1950s traffic and vehicles but now they're seen as inefficient and often unsafe.

 

[Robotech]

I've seen two main problems as they've been putting them in here in Michigan recently.

First is that most folks here aren't familiar with them, and don't know the proper way to enter and exit. As someone mentioned, you have to actually look ahead at the traffic and AND PLAN!

The second problem is that the idiot design engineers didn't bother looking at proper designs for the given locations, roads, and approach speeds for the first ones they put in. The diameters were way too small for heavily traveled roads, and they were forcing speeds to drop from 45 - 55 mph to 10 - 15 mph.

The most recent example I've seen put in near me is much better, larger, and you can easily see the oncoming traffic. They also put in a dedicated right-turn lane, so those making the immediate turn don't actually have to merge in the circle. This matched more closely the better ones I saw when visiting Europe.

 

[Yarddog1]

We've got them where I live. Don't see much problem with the roundabouts themselves, as they are on surface streets. The problems arrise with driver's doing what many do, NOT paying attention to driving.

 

[Rock185]

I used to be very anti-roundabout. Within the last 10 years though, two have been built on the state highway as it enters our town. Signage advises drivers as to the reduction in speed limit, the approaching roundabout, the correct way to enter, etc. They actually work very well, and I have no doubt that they flow more traffic, safely, than would conventional signalized intersections. I can't speak for other locations, but they seem to work quite well here....ymmv

 

[O2Guy]

It wouldn't surprise me to hear there are a lot of accidents involving older drivers or those that have had a few too many drinks.

Yeah, those things are dangerous. They need to come up with something safer for those drunk drivers.

 

[ralph7]

I think we only have one in Houston right by Rice University. It works, but it is a lot wider than the ones in Boston.

Another one at Washington/Westcott.
The one you referred to is by far the oldest.

 

[NCTexan]

I lived in France for four years on a work assignment which also required that I travel to Scotland several times a month. Both France and the UK have lots of roundabouts.

Taking the Scotish roundabouts was a challenge at first driving on the "wrong side". The rule of the road there was that the cars on the roundabout had right of way and the incoming vehicles had to yield.

However, in France while you drive on the proper side of the road, the rules were just the opposite. The incoming vehicles have the right of way and those on the roundabout have to yield. The merging cars would fly onto the roundabout at full speed expecting the other cars to yield.

This was difficult for me at first but I soon learned to fling myself into the frey. The most difficult was around the Arc de Triomphe which had six lanes in the roundabout and twelve merging streets. It was always vehicular chaos but surprisingly had few wrecks.

 

[RussellD]

They are an evil intersection for sure. maybe only one click above an intersection with a camera

 

[BJoe]

I read that accidents are UP 80% when these are put in.