# Are Roundabouts Better Than Stoplights?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-roundabouts-better-than-stoplights/251129
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [June 18, 2004, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-roundabouts-better-than-stoplights/251129 "2004-06-18T23:36:07Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 4
### Author:  [@Small\_Clanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Clanger)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2004, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-roundabouts-better-than-stoplights/251129/61 "2004-06-22T15:32:11Z")
> [@tpayne](#):
>
> OK… I just returned to the US from 10 days in the UK. . . and have decided that the roundabout system may be superior to the American stop light system. Or at least more efficient. . .
I don’t suppose you chose to pass through Milton Keynes (not exactly a tourist destination) 🙂
Roundaboutaphobes would be in _purgatory_ here. Instructions for navigating around here tend to go like: _‘cross seven roundabouts take a left - cross five roundabouts’_ my last car wore out a wheelbearing from driving round them all the time. There are hundreds, possibly thousands. However, although I have to cross 12+ roundabouts in five miles to get to the main motorway from my house, on a quiet day I won’t have to stop, or even slow down much. That absolutely would not happen with a traffic light system.
Anyhoo with the number of junctions we have here if they were all lights they’d have to build a power station to run them.
Oh, and you can sponsor a roundabout if you like (they stick little ad’ notices around it). A couple close by are sponsored by an Indian restaurant and the local Kart track.
---
### Author:  [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2004, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-roundabouts-better-than-stoplights/251129/62 "2004-06-22T19:27:42Z")
There’s a large roundabout in Perth, Western Australia, complete with stoplights. That was tricky. Otherwise, I like roundabouts - they’re easy. However, don’t see many in Minneapolis.
Snicks
---
### Author:  [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2004, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-roundabouts-better-than-stoplights/251129/63 "2004-06-22T22:23:37Z")
Driving in Munich with traffic circles is smooth and pleasant. But we have one here in Maryland just down the road from my office, and I’m always scared using it multiple times a day. Several times I’ve had to stop for someone entering the circle without yielding. They usually look startled and confused. Judging from all the broken glass, I’m not the only one who should be scared. The only other one in the region has stop signs all the way around, which I guess is less scary - but hardly smooth and pleasant.
I lived in New England for three different spells, Massachusetts in fact, and I don’t remember many - is this new?
\>Americans don’t know how to deal with multiple yield signs. It is a fact.
OK, I’m an American and I have no idea what a “multiple yield” sign is. Clue me in. Unless, of course, you mean multiples of ordinary “yield signs”, in which case I always figured you dealt with each one separately - so clue me in on that one too!
My conclusion: having just a few traffic circles in the USA is a bad idea. Unless we’re going to have enough of them that people get used to them, we shouldn’t have any. And we’ve had just a few for a long time - at least 40 years in Washington, DC, that I can remember.
---
### Author:  [@Kilvert\_s\_Pagan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilvert_s_Pagan)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2004, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-roundabouts-better-than-stoplights/251129/64 "2004-06-23T01:33:03Z")
> [@Small Clanger](#):
>
> I don’t suppose you chose to pass through Milton Keynes (not exactly a tourist destination) 🙂
Nope, but I spent my first night in beautiful downtown Reading, which isn’t on most tourism short lists either. 🙂 I did run into a few instances of daisy-chained roundabouts over there - I thought this was a little bizarre, but decided that the alternative would be to have one large 5-way or 6-way roundabout instead. Overall, even these didn’t really bother me.
I guess that overall what impressed me the most was that in over a week of driving, I almost never came to a full stop. Now that I’m back here in the States, waiting 3-4 minutes for the light to change really irks me.
**DrScarlett** , welcome!!!
**don’t ask** , I’m assuming that Canberra has lots of them because it was a newer city, designed from scratch as the capitol? [self-important hijack]Jack Waterford, editor in chief of _The Canberra Times_, is a distant cousin of mine… but I’ve never visited Canberra[/self-important hijack]
So whaddaya think folks, should we discuss Michigan left turns next? 😃
---
### Author:  [@Go\_You\_Big\_Red\_Fire\_Engine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Go_You_Big_Red_Fire_Engine)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2004, 10:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-roundabouts-better-than-stoplights/251129/65 "2004-06-23T10:33:00Z")
> [@scr4](#):
>
> Actually in most parts of the US, that’s the default rule. It’s allowed unless marked by a “no turn on red” sign.
Nah, I’m talking about a separate lane that bypasses the intersection entirely. They’re marked with those signs.
---
### Author:  [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2004, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-roundabouts-better-than-stoplights/251129/66 "2004-06-23T11:18:51Z")
Can somebody please tell me why they put two lanes in a roundabout? It seems they would have a lot less confussion if they stuck to only one lane. If I were in one of those things I’d be paranoid as to what the guy on the left of me was going to do.
---
### Author:  [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2004, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-roundabouts-better-than-stoplights/251129/67 "2004-06-23T12:02:41Z")
> [@SHAKES](#):
>
> Can somebody please tell me why they put two lanes in a roundabout? It seems they would have a lot less confussion if they stuck to only one lane. If I were in one of those things I’d be paranoid as to what the guy on the left of me was going to do.
Left lane = turn left or straight on
Right lane = straight on or turn right
[http://www.highwaycode.gov.uk/17.shtml](http://www.highwaycode.gov.uk/17.shtml)
(Of course, this is the mirror image of what you want 😛 )
Basically, if you’re entering in the right (=left) lane, or already on the roundabout in that lane, there’s no reason for you and the guy to your left (=right) to cross paths. So you can ignore him. In fact, that’s the trick to driving roundabouts - knowing what to ignore.
---
### Author:  [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2004, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-roundabouts-better-than-stoplights/251129/68 "2004-06-23T12:10:06Z")
In fairness, here’s a good page of (mostly roundabout-based) junctions in Britain which are appallingly designed.
---
### Author:  [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2004, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-roundabouts-better-than-stoplights/251129/69 "2004-06-23T12:10:14Z")
In fairness, here’s a good page of (mostly roundabout-based) junctions in Britain which are appallingly designed. [http://www.cbrd.co.uk/mistakes/badjunctions/](http://www.cbrd.co.uk/mistakes/badjunctions/)
---
### Author:  [@Jurph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jurph)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2004, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-roundabouts-better-than-stoplights/251129/70 "2004-06-23T12:21:15Z")
> [@Go You Big Red Fire Engine](#):
>
> Nah, I’m talking about a separate lane that bypasses the intersection entirely. They’re marked with those signs.
We have those, too. It’s the right-turn-only lane with a Yield sign. The Yield sign indicates that you should slow down, appraise the situation, and after yielding to crossing traffic, complete your turn and merge with the crossing lane.
I don’t blame you for preferring this kind; our alternative here in D.C. is usually a right-turn-only lane marked “NO TURN ON RED” (because there will almost always be crossing traffic, and if you tell people in D.C. to Yield, they’ll laugh and jump the line). In the absence of obvious police officers, many commuters will turn right on red regardless.
---
### Author:  [@cantara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cantara)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2004, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-roundabouts-better-than-stoplights/251129/71 "2004-06-23T17:19:21Z")
Having driven in the UK a couple of different times, I can say I love the roundabouts. Especially the ones over the motorways. It seems so much easier to get off the highway and not have to stop (unless it’s a busy intersection and has lights) and continue on your way. It is also easier to go back an exit if you miss your cutoff.
We found a few in Florida this winter and while the setup felt right, the execution (by other drivers) left something to be desired. The drivers wouldn’t enter the roundabout unless there was NO traffic approaching…even if they were turning right! Merging seems to be a lost art, but that seems like a pit thread…
[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-roundabouts-better-than-stoplights/251129.md?page=3)