I generally find roundabouts pretty easy to navigate but the circle in the heart of Gettysburg, one of the older ones around, can be really difficult because of the volume of traffic.
Now that I think about it, several southern Pennsylvania towns have had them in the center of town for many years. I wonder how that evolved?
It’s hard to believe roundabouts are more effective than green lights or rolling a stop sign. I assumed they’re popular with cities because they’re cheaper.
I was going to say the same thing- I’ve never understood why they are so hard for some people.
But then, I’m pretty sure 44% of all people who currently drive shouldn’t.
One thing that I took for granted is that most folks recognize the rule that traffic already in the traffic circle have right of way, even if that isn’t always observed in practice.
It was a bit of a shock to me that in France that isn’t always the case, and depending on signage traffic entering the traffic circle has right of way over cars already inside. It was completely counter-intuitive to me when driving in France. And Paris has some killer roundabouts.
Bingo!
As a transitional matter, all roundabouts in the USA ought to have yield signs at the entrances. That would solve most of the “Who’s got priority?” confusion.
In 20 years there will be enough roundabouts nearly everywhere in the country that most drivers will have encountered them somewhere sometime.
Except of course for the folks who live their whole lives within a 5-mile radius of home, or live waay out in the boonies. And those folks will be baffled when they finally fly to some other part of the country and try to drive. They’d be baffled about everything, traffic density included. But they’ll mostly single out any roundabout they find as a special cause for fear and hate.
We have them around here, mostly on medium-sized through streets in residential areas. They work well enough. One mistake I have seen, and done, is assuming an oncoming car is taking the typical path through the circle. Which in most cases is continuing straight out on the same road they came in on. So you (me really), assume they will exit at the exit before you and you can safely pull into the circle as they exit it behind you. But then they don’t exit as expected and suddenly they’re right up your (my) ass because you (me) stupidly pulled out right in front of them.
It’d be nice if all people used their turn signals in roundabouts: Once in the circle, signal in the direction of rotation (left in drive-on-right countries) until passing the exit before your target exit, then signal right as you approach your exit and turn out of the circle. That way cars wanting to enter could know your intent. No way in hell will that Utopian state ever happen, but a guy can dream.
Depends. A complicated 5+ radial will. But a simple 90 degree crossing between two roads of similar caliber (the 90%+ case where I’ve lived) will just have our typical approach signage identifying the name of the upcoming cross-street. It’s assumed the driver is bright enough to translate that into going 90, 180, or 270 around the circle then turning out where appropriate.
Nonsense.
They’re far more effective at moving traffic than are red lights. Making everyone stop every couple blocks for 2-3 minutes at a crack is a huge waste of time and fuel that roundabouts comprehensively eliminate. Just keep everyone moving.
I’m sure.
I’m going to be picking up a bike today. Really just for recreation, but roundabouts would terrify me on a bike. They are everywhere here, and people go way to fast in them, and they don’t seem to have proper crosswalks (not that anyone pays attention to crosswalks)
I’ve been looking at alternatives to exit this subdivision. I’ll get used to it I’m sure, but I haven’t really ridden a bicycle since Jr. High school.
I liked the one around la Place de la Concorde: great to watch the chaos surrounding you while you’re a pedestrian, but for no amount of money would I drive it. And I like normal roundabouts just fine, they are easy to handle, and really more effective than crossings with traffic lights and/or signage.
I’ve driven through this one a few times. It seems more of a square than a circle but it’s the same concept. When traffic is heavy it can be frustrating.
There’s also one in Ligonier, PA which is milder and more manageable.
I recall some of them being referred to as Diamonds.
Most of these seem to be located in historic town centers so perhaps they evolved from whatever traffic patterns existed in the distant past?
I really have no idea.
This is not correct. A 4-way stop three blocks from my house was recently converted to a roundabout (at considerable expense to the city). I go through it 2-3 times a day. It is demonstrably quicker and more efficient than the previous stop signs.
I don’t doubt that they may be less expensive than building a full traffic light intersection, but it’s probably pretty close in price, especially considering that roundabouts take up more room, and land costs money. But traffic light intersections are being converted over fairly regularly around here - a not insignificant expenditure.
In general I don’t mind roundabouts where they serve a useful purpose. But several years ago our city started putting roundabouts in neighborhood intersections, where not only are they completely unnecessary (stop or yield signs would be sufficient) but the intersection is not even big enough. I frequently see drivers making a left turn through the short side of the circle rather than a right three-quarters of the way around. Which to me makes them even more dangerous than a normal intersection.
I have. In fact I was the first car to meet the wrong-way driver. It was a mess. But usually that roundabout is easy and efficient.
What threw me was a figure 8 traffic circle. I’d just freeze up. Thankfully, they’ve removed the center part, so now it’s just an elongated regular traffic circle.
That’s if you arrive at the intersection at the same time. For every other occasion, it’s the car that’s already in the intersection that has the right of way, and that’s exactly the same for a roundabout. And if you arrive at the roundabout at the same time, most of them are large enough that you can both go at the same time, usually.
My part of Massachusetts has been adding traffic circles left and right, and the public reaction cycle has been massive local complaining, followed by local grumbling, followed by many people really liking it. It has absolutely sped up the intersections I go through. Frankly, OP, I love traffic circles.
Just like an onramp to a highway. Entrances to roundabouts are the same. The car on the highway or in the roundabout has right of way.
Except some roundabouts in France, as I mentioned above.
Is it fine to mentally castigate them to myself when they’ve almost caused an accident with me?
We’ve had roundabouts in my area installed more and more over the past, ohh, 20 years maybe. I don’t drive nearly as much since I’ve WAH for the past 6 years, but when I drove into an office, I negotiated 4 or 5 roundabouts on the way to work. I personally are fine with them in principle-- in principle, but, boy howdy, do some people NOT know how to negotiate even the simplest roundabouts.
Let’s take a simple example-- a perpendicular 2 crossroad roundabout, like a ‘+’ sign. Two lanes-- the inner lane is straight or left (‘left’ in this context is, if headed North, you take the roundabout to the West on the crossroad); the outer lane is straight or right. I don’t know how many times I’ve been in the inner lane intending to go straight, and someone on my right decided to take the roundabout left, turning directly in front of me and forcing me to jam my brakes so I don’t T-bone them. I got to where I’d just stay in the outer lane if I intended to go straight, since people didn’t try right turns in the inner lane, or at least a lot less often than the opposite. Not to mention all the people who can’t understand yielding before they enter, or just thinking they can beat the oncoming traffic. I’ve also, at least once, seen someone so mixed around they were going the wrong direction in the RA.
One RA in our area that gets a lot of traffic was getting so many accidents that they put up visibility-blocking fences. The thinking was, people were overestimating how much time they had to jump into the RA, so the fencing was meant to make drivers more cautious, so they inched up to the RA instead of trying to beat the traffic. Think about that-- trying to lessen accidents by reducing traffic visibility 
The area where I grew up (northeastern Wisconsin) went all-in on roundabouts, starting about 20 years ago. I don’t live up there anymore, but I go back up there regularly, to visit my parents.
The biggest issue, IMO, is that the area suddenly went from no roundabouts, to a lot of them. And most drivers had no idea how roundabouts worked, and the traffic rules regarding their use. I saw a lot of confusion and frustration (both in watching other drivers, and reading the local newspapers) about how to navigate them: again, because they had zero familiarity with them.
I will say that it’s gotten better up there, as people have, generally, gotten used to them now, though I still see people who simply don’t understand (or care to understand) that, if you are wanting to enter a roundabout, and there is traffic in it, you need to wait, and keep waiting, until traffic clears. Functionally, it is supposed to work like a yield sign, but I still see people diving into roundabouts, and forcing oncoming traffic that is already in the roundabout, to slow down or stop due to them.
The area has another roundabout issue/frustration, in that there are several spots near my parents’ house, near highway interchanges, where a driver has to go through three roundabouts in rapid succession. I’m sure that there is some reason for that (probably because the roundabouts were retrofit into existing intersections), but it just adds more confusion to how to navigate the things.
I see that sometimes, too. “But I want to go LEFT!”
I wonder how much uproar there would be if a replica of the Swindon roundabout was put in an American city.
I’ve cycled round it, FWIW, but then I’m used to roundabouts, I knew where I needed to come off the roundabout before I entered it, and I’d adapted to “priorité à droite”. I don’t find it chaotic, but you need to keep checking the traffic flows around you.
It’s been 39 years since I’ve been to Paris, probably it’s better regulated these days. When I was there in 1987, you couldn’t even tell how much lanes the roundabout was supposed to have, it all was just a swirling mess/mass of cars and motorbikes. In the 15 minutes I watched the traffic, I saw a motor scooter crash into the door of a car at low speed, but there was a visible dent in the door. The driver shortly got out, looked at the door, looked at the biker, they both shrugged, and went on their way. Every car in Paris, even the luxury cars, had dents.
Which is why, at least in the UK, there are “Give way” road markings, plus it’s all part of the initial learning stages and the driving test. Just dumping them on people without preparation and explanation - yes, that must be infuriating.