Brit Dopers: explain the roundabout

[GorillaMan]

@Longgrain

Ah, finally, agreed!

I give to you the Concord Rotary, Route 2 Massachusetts.

http://www.air.org/usability/images/map_route2.gif

Sorry, best pic I could find.

How do the rights-of-way work on that one? Is it a ‘true roundabout’, or does entering traffic have right-of-way?

[Longgrain]

@GorillaMan

Google Maps
How do the rights-of-way work on that one? Is it a ‘true roundabout’, or does entering traffic have right-of-way?

No, entering traffic does not have the right-of-way, they only think they do. :mad:

[GorillaMan]

@Longgrain

No, entering traffic does not have the right-of-way, they only think they do. :mad:

Heh heh…in that case, the layout is identical to what you’ll find on trunk routes in Britain

[Balthisar]

Here’s a PDF I remember describing roundabouts and how they different from traffic circles. I’ve now used a couple of these back home, and they seem okay.

Some experiences:
Had traffic circles all the time in Germany. From Frankfurt to Hanau on the freeway they sucked, because it was the damn freeway, not just a surface road. What the hell kind of German engineering was that?

Got pulled over on Michigan State U campus by a cop for not using a traffic circle correctly. We both arrived at the yield sign from a two lane road – he arrived a little sooner. I went while he was still yielding. He didn’t give me a ticket, but apparently a two lane lane road doen’t meet a two lane traffic circle. Stupid.

Lots of traffic circles in central Mexico, but very few where I’m at now. Kind of dangerous because no one knows which lane is which, and in same cases you have four lanes coming into them with only room for two lanes in the circle. Lots of them are good and okay, though. I hate the circles in Guadalajara; I never know where I’m going to come out. Okay, I’ve never gotten out at the wrong place, but I credit that to luck more than driving talent.

Honestly? I think the new “roundabouts” in Michigan are far superior to any of the traffic circles I’ve every used. On the other hand, we do lots of smart things in Michigan, like Michigan lefts. I can’t believe the amount of time I spend in other areas just waiting for the damn traffic lights to cycle through all of their left turn signals.

[Waterman]

@CalMeacham

They used to have traffic circles in New Jersey, where I grew up. They’ve mostly replaced them with more conventional intersections. In DC they’ve tamed the traffic circles by putting lights all around them, putting in inner and outer rings, and diverting some traffic under them.

But New England has a lot of real, anarchic ones, which (as noted above) they call “rotaries”. I think they’re the only place that does. They’ve gotten rid of a few (like the infamous Howard Johnson’s Rotary on Route 1 in Saugus), but there are plenty of others.

The rukle is supposed to be that traffic goes around counter-clockwise, that you’re supposed to stop at a circle, then enter, with folks in the circle having the right of way. But some circles – especially the small ones (and Boston and environs have some unbelievably tiny rotaries) – in which a major route goes through are treated as if the major route always has the Right of Way, and anyone trying to get onto that major thoroughfare, even if on the Rotary, has to yield. There are a couple on the Fellsway in Malden like this.

Other people dimly recall their driving instructors saying that the person on the right at an intyersection has the Right of Way, and figure that anyone entering a rotary is always on the right, and therefore has the Right of Way.

In truth, driving on Rotaries in New England is darwinian struggle at its most raw. Survival of the Fittest.
I was delighted when I drove on the roadways in the UK and Ireland. Even though I was driving on (what was to me) the Wrong Side of the Road, and the traffic went the “wrong” way ariound the circles, at least people really did obey the traffic laws at those circles.

I lived in the Boston area for some 7 years in the 70’s and the one I remember the most was (is) the one in Dedham on Route 1. If I remember correctly that was one of the ones you speak of where the traffic on Route 1 had the right-of-way and it was sheer chaos if you happened to be trying to enter from one of the other streets.

Actually round-abouts have become quite popular in the Tri-Cities area in Eastern Washington has they have built several dozen in the last several years with more planned. Fortunately they are single lane and most Washington drivers are pretty laid back. If you put one of these on the expressways (I almost wrote freeway - guess I’m becoming like a native Washingtonian) around Chicago (where I moved from) absolute pandemonium would exist with mega accidents all the time.

[GorillaMan]

@Balthisar

Honestly? I think the new “roundabouts” in Michigan are far superior to any of the traffic circles I’ve every used. On the other hand, we do lots of smart things in Michigan, like Michigan lefts.

Interestingly, Michigan Lefts are made possible when roundabouts are used. There’s two places on my drive to work where I have to turn left onto a main road (i.e. a Brit right ), go up to a roundabout and double back. All it takes to enforce this is a ‘no right turn’ sign at the junction, and even where these aren’t present, people will use this route rather than waiting for ages for a gap both ways.