New Jersey removed a bunch of circles in their Philadelphia region over 15 years ago. The logic was straightforward. Most accidents happened in them. This was partly due to the circles being relics of an age when traffic volume was much lower. It didn’t help that right of way in a circle was badly defined that state. They have kept the circles that aren’t as overwhelmed.
By Spanish traffic laws, she did, but it will vary by location. She should either not have moved to the inside lane or have slowed down enough that you could continue your turn or have gone a full turn, placing herself in the external lane before exiting. If a Guardia Civil had seen her she’d have a date with a judge.
If there is an exit to the right on a highway, are people supposed to zoom off there from the left lane? Same logic. People who are turning more than “take the next exit” have the inner lanes available to “ease incorporation and traffic flow”, but the exit lane is the one which physically touches the exits.
Here in the UK it is not wrong to stay in the outside lane, but it is not best practice. Note that a large lorry will often stay in the outside lane.
Most of our major intersections are roundabouts here in the Cayman Islands. So much so that we are down to seven traffic light controlled intersections in the entire country (population 61,000). They have reconstructed several intersections as mini-roundabouts and favor setting up new intersections this way.
We do get a lot of accidents at roundabouts but they tend to be relatively minor and often a result of not understanding how to use the roundabout. Enter in the outside lane if you are taking the first or second exit from the roundabout. Otherwise enter to the inside lane. Don’t enter the outside lane beside a vehicle that is already in the inside lane for second or third (or beyond such as a 180 turn) exit. Simple. And it just works if everyone does that.
This was a problem when my area got its first two-lane roundabout. The only explanation of what to do was a plain yield sign, so people were following the normal rules for turning onto a road and causing accidents. Eventually the city in question had to add signs saying to yield to all traffic in the roundabout.
Edit: I just looked at it on Google Earth and evidently that wasn’t enough. They recently removed the outside lane.
Yes, five or six have been created in my area. I don’t like them, but the statistics don’t back me up. They’re faster and safer AFAICT. I sometimes wonder if they are safer because of people like me, who aren’t used to them and therefore treat them as I would a minefield.
Regards,
Shodan
We had one installed at a very busy intersection near where I live. It is a small town, but every day in the AM and PM during rush hour the traffic would be backed up and it would easily take over 10 minutes to make it through the intersection. After the Roundabout was constructed, there have been NO traffic back-ups whatsoever, even during rush hour.
I’ve been seeing them pop up around my county as well. They do the job and do it well.
They are safer because you don’t have oncoming traffic crossing in front of you to make (their) left-hand turns or intersecting perpendicular traffic flow…
I’m surprised to see a few new ones popping up in my neck of the woods, and I live in New England (we have lots of them). I thought they were universally accepted as unreasonably difficult to navigate and too dangerous to build new ones.
There has been a lot of push from the county DOT to get these down here in SW FLA. A lot of folks have complained about the prospect but not more than complain about anything and everything. I know one opened at the start of the week in a relatively low-volume intersection.
Only for people who are too frightened to learn anything new. they’re very simple:
- follow the signs to make sure you’re in the proper lane as you approach,
- yield to traffic already in the circle,
- when clear, pass through the roundabout and exit in the direction desired.
- DO NOT change lanes inside the circle.
That’s it. the only real problem I’ve encountered is assholes who ignore #2.
They’ve been popping up more and more around metro Detroit over the past decade. a couple of big ones (18-1/2 Mile & Van Dyke) have really unsnarled what used to be hellacious signaled intersections. and IMO, roundabouts should universally replace idiotic 4-way stop sign intersections. But they do take up more room, so existing intersections with nearby buildings usually can’t accommodate them.
So far nobody has addressed the pedestrian / bicyclist benefits. I’ll give you my own personal experience.
I’ve lived in my home for 21 years now. There was a major North/South road… two lanes in each direction plus turn lanes. To the East is all residential, and to the West is commercial with stores, restaurants, etc. One of my kids favorite things to do was to ride their bikes to Steak 'n Shake and sit on the red spinning stools and get lunch and a milkshake. It is in a very easy bike ride or walk even for small kids.
In the past there was a stop light, and it was really scary as a parent to take your little kids on bikes (some with training wheels) and try to get them across the lanes and into the medium and wait until we can rush across to finally cross the road. And then we had to do it all over again to get back. Our mayor referred to it as the “Great Wall” that separated the East and West sides.
I may have to explain more in another post (if anyone is interested) but the intersections have now been replaced by “Elevated Roundabouts” (the main North/South traffic goes under the roundabout and never has to slow down) so now to get from my house to the area with shops, restaurants, cinema/brew pub, etc. it is simple to walk or ride to get to. You come to the roundabout, look one way and cross one lane when it is clear. Walk around the “circle” and look the other way when you get to the other lane… cross it when it is clear. Done… you are on the other side.
I now walk to lots of things I used to drive my car to. Someday (I’m in no hurry) I can imagine taking my grand kids to those spinning stools at Steak 'n Shake. They are also the same ones I remember from when I was a kid (although we used to have to drive an hour to get there… but it is the same location).
I love the roundabout
The roads will make you out ‘n’ out
I spend the day your way
Call it morning driving through the sound and
In and out the valley
There’s only a few in my city, with most being in residential neighborhoods so they only have one lane. The one in our downtown area gets a pretty good amount of traffic and everything seems to go smoothly. In a neighboring city they didn’t have as much success. There were a lot of accidents and confusion and I think they had to redesign it somehow to make it “easier” to navigate.
Also, am I the only one that says" hey look kids, there’s Big Ben! And there’s Parliament!" every time I go through one?
As I said… I go through 11 one way to my work. 22 round trip. Assuming I go anywhere else that day I could easily add 5 to 10 more.
Even the best “Dad Jokes” wouldn’t hold up to that frequency.
I’m seeing them more often in Maryland. They’re very helpful.
one modification I’ve seen on the newer ones in my area is if you’re making a right turn onto a multi-lane road, you just bypass the circle entirely. like so.
although they really screwed up on this one. if you go through the roundabout northward on Orchard Lake Rd., there’s a signaled intersection a couple hundred feet ahead. when traffic gets heavy here (as it does every day) stopped traffic can back up into the roundabout. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
We just had two roundabouts built on the state highway near me, and they are the only ones for 50 miles in any direction. It’s too soon to tell if they will work, as they just opened up less than a month ago. Most of the local residents said, in a pre-opening meeting, that they don’t like them, but the traffic engineer said to give it a year. He said that two-thirds will have changed their minds by then.
He also said he expected the total number of traffic accidents to increase, partly due to the unfamiliarity and confusion, but the number of serious or fatal accidents to decrease. Since there is no cross-traffic unless someone goes the wrong way, most accidents are merely fender-benders. To illustrate his point, he played a video of a signaled intersection where a pickup ran a red light at full speed and tossed another car. Kinda of a jarring sight. “And this, friends, is what you will not be seeing.”
If you can’t reason with 'em, scare 'em to death.
So far, I haven’t seen any accidents. I have noted that it now takes me 3 miles longer to get home from the office since they closed off the intersection I always used. Not that it was required due to the roundabout, but it was in keeping with the DOT’s desire to reduce highway cross-traffic where possible.
You really need to run Scheuring road in DePere next time you are home. 4 circle jerks in half a mile by I-41. Two freeway ramps and two frontage roads. Spend some time in Depere around 4:30 - 5:30. Putting one on the east end of the bridge backs up traffic coming from the south and coming off the bridge about 2/3 mile every day.
Personally I just try to see how fast I can take them. I get three small village ones each way to work.
Just for the reference. In my hometown of 280000 souls (Ljubljana, Europe) I counted 11 one lane, 6 two lane, one three lane and one four lane rotary (we call it mega roundabout). They started popping up in mid eighties and are more or less limited to new roads on the outskirts.