Roundabouts

[CoastalMaineiac]

@lost4life

I saw a roundabout that had me wondering, here.
The southeast and northwest feeder roads have 2 lanes entering and 2 lanes exiting. According to the arrows on the road, if you enter from the southeast and hit the northwest side, both lanes in the roundabout have the option of either exiting, or continuing on the roundabout. The issue is if the outside lane decides to continue around, and the inside lane decides to exit (both allowed by the arrows) you will have a collision. Does this make sense or am I missing something? I think the arrows are incorrect.

I too don’t see them on street view, but it looks like part of some new subdivision or something going in. In other words, it looks like their work is incomplete in that area. The arrows on the overhead view are definitely wrong and could lead to an accident.

As far as what to do in the general situation, though. I was taught that, if the exit has multiple lanes, you have to expect multiple lanes exiting side by side. Fortunately for us here in Maine, however, they repainted the few two-lane rotaries we have to be similar in fashion to this, so there is no doubt that the inner lane may exit, and that the outer lane must exit.

ETA: If you report the roundabout to the authorities of your city, you may want to direct them to this MUTCD page so they can see how it should be.

[lost4life]

@CoastalMaineiac

I too don’t see them on street view, but it looks like part of some new subdivision or something going in. In other words, it looks like their work is incomplete in that area. The arrows on the overhead view are definitely wrong and could lead to an accident.

As far as what to do in the general situation, though. I was taught that, if the exit has multiple lanes, you have to expect multiple lanes exiting side by side. Fortunately for us here in Maine, however, they repainted the few two-lane rotaries we have to be similar in fashion to this, so there is no doubt that the inner lane may exit, and that the outer lane must exit.

ETA: If you report the roundabout to the authorities of your city, you may want to direct them to this MUTCD page so they can see how it should be.

As I said, it’s not on street view, but they are there. Street view and Earth are done at separate times so they don’t reflect the same data. It’s a newer industrial park, with only one building at this time, but the roundabout also feeds a neighborhood.

[PaperBlob]

@Spiderman

…& then there’s Fucking New Jersey; had 'em for years; actively removing them. :smack:

If you could go back in time and experience some of the circles NJ has removed, you’d be cheering at their demise, instead of going :smack: ! In South Jersey, the Airport, Racetrack, Ellisburg and Marlton Circles were horrible, and the sites of many accidents and traffic jams. Route 70 still sucks, but getting rid of those circles was a big improvement.

We do call them “circles” around here. I’ve encountered a few new ones, but they are for the intersection of smaller, less used roads, and they work just fine. These, I think, are what many would call “roundabouts.”

[Teuton]

Everyone mentions the Magic Roundabout in Swindon, but there’s a bigger one in Hemel Hempstead.

[TBG]

I hate the stupid things and will go well out of my way to avoid them. Fortunately there aren’t very many in the area.

[Ignatz]

@CalMeacham

I thought that they were getting rid of them in NJ (some of the bigger ones I was familiar with got turned into standard intersections), but an internet check shows that there are still plenty of them.

In Massachusetts they’re called “rotaries”, but they still don’t know how to drive in them, and some are too damned small. In some places tradition lets the driver on the main route going through the circle continue on without yielding. That may be against the law (you’re always supposed to yield to traffic in the rotary, and to stop before entering), but if you drive that way at some of them, you’ll get hit.

Also, too many Massachusetts drivers believe that the rule that car on the right at an intersection has the right of way carries over into rotaries, as well, so that someone entering has the right of way. Accidents ensue.
Washington DC has them and depends on them, but in DC the traffic circles have traffic lights regulating them.

One last question – the OP calls them “roundabouts”, and the poster lives in the US. But are you a transplant? I don’t know anywhere in the US that calls traffic circles “roundabouts”.

Definition #180 in the (U.S.) Federal Highway Administration’s “Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices” which is the legally required standard for all U.S. traffic control devices application:

180. “Roundabout—a circular intersection with yield control at entry, which permits a vehicle on the circulatory roadway to proceed, and with deflection of the approaching vehicle counter-clockwise around a central island.”

N.C. is building them anywhere they can to save $$ over the cost of installing volume-warranted traffic signals.

Here’s one that opened in August-a unique squeezed design, called by users “The Peanut”:

Roundabout to open soon, driver concerned - WWAYTV3

[Ignatz]

And then there’s this one, with 11 entrances:

[madmonk28]

@CalMeacham

…Washington DC has them and depends on them, but in DC the traffic circles have traffic lights regulating them…

Not all of them, I live a block from a circle in DC with no traffic light and there are others.

[jz78817]

@madmonk28

Not all of them, I live a block from a circle in DC with no traffic light and there are others.

like I said above, “traffic circles” and “roundabouts” are two very different things.

@Ignatz

And then there’s this one, with 11 entrances:
Google Maps

again, that’s a traffic circle. completely different than a roundabout.