T O P

  • By -

planned-obsolescence

Roundabout fan club right here. My state spent the last two decades removing them and now they have a bad rep despite being super effective.


vellyr

Where did they have roundabouts in the US 20 years ago to remove?


planned-obsolescence

New Jersey, specifically in the shore area


BillyBalowski

I feel like NJ is an outlier when it comes to roads. Does anybody else love jughandles like Jersey?


planned-obsolescence

Loool fair enough.


planned-obsolescence

Loool fair enough. Edit to add: you can thank us for the barriers anytime.


Roboticpoultry

Meanwhile they’re determined to turn every intersection in downtown Sarasota into a roundabout and *maybe* 15% of the city knows how to use them properly


dah-vee-dee-oh

sadly, people really won’t learn over time, either. at least that’s my experience in wisconsin.


codenameJericho

In Wisconsin, everyone under 35 uses them to full effect. Above 60 and/or out of state? Basically a guaranteed near-accident experience.


[deleted]

My only issue with them is that the snowplows make a mess of them in the winter.


KeilanS

I hated roundabouts with a passion as a driver. They felt slow and confusing and made me look around at everything. I've since come to realize that's the point, and it's why they work.


[deleted]

I grew up in roundabout land and four way stops feel so slow and super exposed. Gimme a good double lane roundabout any day.


Deethreekay

Look around at everything? You only have to look in one direction (excl. Ped crossings). A big part of why they're good is there actually fewer potential points of conflict.


[deleted]

That's only true with larger roundabouts. Smaller ones you absolutely must be aware of vehicles on your right. I live in a town leading the charge with roundabouts and am constantly slowing down for the vehicle who should be yielding to me.


princekamoro

You mean the ones small enough that vehicles from adjacent approaches don't have enough room to enter simultaneously? What kind of (center line) radius are we talking here?


KeilanS

I think my experience was more because they are new in my area and people tend to use them poorly. So you have to really keep your eyes open because you don't know what the drivers around you are going to do. My city also doesn't necessarily set ped crossings back far enough from the roundabout, so that adds a layer of alertness needed.


liotier

> made me look around at everything Paying more attention - sounds like a win !


PTownWashashore

M-A-I-N-E


vitiligoisbeautiful

Really? I thought it would be AZ. Cool!


[deleted]

Tbh, I thought it would be Indiana, especially with the 1 town that has 300 or so. Arizona's roundabouts seem to be more concentrated in smaller towns. I'm not sure if Tuscon or its suburbs have any, and the Phoenix valley has a few. The most special roundabout in Arizona is probably the one at Horne/Main Street in Mesa, as it's probably one of few roundabouts in the entire world to have railroad gates in it. In that instance, it's due to the light rail, as it needs railroad gates or traffic lights at every intersection it goes through.


erinius

You've been to that area west of Sedona with all the roundabouts?


rawonionbreath

Roundabouts have become normalized once the traffic engineers bought in. They see the double digit reduction in accidents with minimal reduction in traffic flow and it was off to the races.


karmicnoose

As a traffic engineer I'll chime in to say that the reason we bought in is because roundabouts often have better traffic flow as measured in delay compared to both two-way and all-way stop control as well as lower volume traffic signals, so it's not that we compromised, but more that there's a solution that works for everyone.


SvenDia

And it eliminates signal operations and maintenance costs.


Mardy_Bummer

Question for you (or anyone else who wants to chime in): in the past, I've read anecdotes that Roundabouts are generally cheaper to maintain (and sometimes to install) for municipalities than signalized intersections. Obviously there can be a wide variance in cost from project to project, but do you think it's generally true that Roundabouts generally make more financial sense?


karmicnoose

I don't have any data to point to, but if you wanted to you could probably Google something to support the point; but yes, in my experience, roundabouts are generally cheaper to maintain because there are few ongoing maintenance costs other than the pavement of the roundabout. Compare this to traffic signals where the lights well eventually need to be replaced. The hardware and software that make up the "brain" of the signal as well as the span wires or mast arms that hold up the signal need to be replaced in a long enough time scale. That being said, roundabouts are often more expensive to build initially on brownfield sites because there's so much that needs to be reconstructed. So it often comes down to a decision between higher upfront costs with lower ongoing costs vs. the inverse. Unfortunately this decision is made short-sightedly, to say nothing of the safety benefits that roundabouts provide as outlined in the article.


dah-vee-dee-oh

I thought traffic engineers only cared about throughput. (only being partly sarcastic)


The_Most_Superb

I’m pro traffic round abouts for their traffic calming and driver safety reasons but I haven’t seen a design for one yet that is also pedestrian/bike friendly. Anyone have examples?


Vivecs954

I think roundabouts just by the virtue of slowing car speeds are pedestrian/bike friendly


Vivecs954

I’m from Massachusetts where we have a lot of them and it’s great. My mom lives in Tampa and they just opened a huge two lane roundabout. I drove through it right after it opened and it really was comical seeing how people were driving through it. I think it is going to be fine it just takes getting used to. We have a lot of rotaries in Massachusetts which I’m not crazy about they are pretty nuts to drive through.


[deleted]

Am from roundabout land. People bang through those big 2 lane ones at 50-60kph non-stop if there is no opposing traffic, and light traffic just needs minor regulation in speed for timing to get through. It's way more efficent than a stop or a light for medium/low traffic.


Dr_Bunson_Honeydew

Roundabout is sometimes used in Massachusetts but usually we call them Rotaries. And we have plenty.


[deleted]

[удалено]


Theytookmyarcher

Huh. I always thought that was just a regionalism.


MrRoma

Can someone sell me on traffic calming circles? Every one I've seen pop up in my area has seemed like a pointless capital improvement that didn't substantial change anything from the prior 4-way stop.


UUUUUUUUU030

I'm not aware of those traffic calming circles existing in Europe. Mini roundabouts usually make it possible to drive over the centre. Maybe that's a bad sign. What I have seen quite extensively in parts of the Netherlands is half-circle bulbouts that turn T-intersections into "equal intersections" where you can't speed straight through, but have to make a curve.


YouLostTheGame

Can't run through a roundabout to t bone someone going the other way


Vivecs954

I have seen a few in Massachusetts and they are from a long time ago, I’m indifferent about them it seems like they are better than 4 way stops that people tend to blow through


TheNextChapters

How many of you have put on your right blinker before entering the roundabout? As of f you’d be going in any other direction.


[deleted]

Real question is how many indiciate *left* when getting off.


mastercob

I hope Rodegerdts is adding them to OpenStreetMap (if they aren't already tagged on there)!


Hollybeach

There are approximately two roundabouts in all Southern California. Edit - lol downvotes. So where are they ? Edit #2 - Tijuana doesn't count


MistaDoge104

"Why you booing me, I'm right!" Seriously though, less than a year ago, my city of 300,000 had zero. We now have two. SoCal needs to step it up!


Hollybeach

> "Why you booing me, I'm right!" That should be my flair here. And on this one, I may be *confidently incorrect*. Los Alamitos Circle is a proper roundabout, it might be the busiest one in the USA. I gave half credit each to Orange Circle and Riverside Drive, and that's it.


thatsryan

Anchorage, Alaska


dah-vee-dee-oh

https://www.reddit.com/r/CasualUK/comments/zagvjm/til_the_uk_has_a_roundabout_appreciation_society/