Debate Roundabouts: Efficiency in Action or Vortex of Death

Palum

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My problem with roundabouts is that they are rare enough that most people have no idea wtf to do with them and it feels like a free-for-all.

It's also known as "the devil's intersection"
 
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BrutulTM

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The solution to that is obviously more roundabouts!
 
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Lendarios

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It's probably just how much they fuck up traffic in certain population densities. I'm sure they're fine in some places, but in tighter inner urban areas they become savage. It's also compounded for me when I approach them with lights and sirens. The other roads, feeding the other inlets to the roundabouts, are not aware of the situation and thus keep feeding themselves into the meat grinder and clogging up the entire approach to the thing. The problem here is that there is no relief. It just keeps going. At a light, even if shit is fucked up, I can always just wait for the green. The green is inevitable and it will clear the way for me eventually. Roundabouts clear themselves for you, but they require every monkey involved to become self-aware and that takes forever. The lights tell the monkeys to stop and go, the roundabouts just confound them.

Don't even get me started on optional on/off ramps. The dude who invented those is in the 9th circle of hell.

The problems is that people don't know how to use roundabouts. Roundabouts are one of the most efficient ways of traffic intersections, as cars are constantly been moved.
 
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Aldarion

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I guess you're saying that a system where every single vehicle on the road has to completely stop even if no one else is there is better than one where almost no one has to stop ever? I believe the rules with regard to who goes first are exactly the same as in a 4 way stop?
When the cars are traveling in intersecting paths? Yes, the solution that has the cars stopping is preferable to the solution that has the cars not stopping.

Whoever is in the roundabout has right of way over whoever is entering the roundabout, so whoever gets in first has right of way. It incentivizes aggressive driving, which is exactly what I see every time I have the misfortune to encounter one.

Meanwhile over in civilized society, we're stopping briefly and taking turns.

Roundabouts are like those cultures that dont believe in waiting in line and try to argue why their way is somehow more efficient. Some cultural values are just superior. Waiting your turn is a fundamental value of Western Civilization and roundabouts break that.
 
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Palum

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When the cars are traveling in intersecting paths? Yes, the solution that has the cars stopping is preferable to the solution that has the cars not stopping.

Whoever is in the roundabout has right of way over whoever is entering the roundabout, so whoever gets in first has right of way. It incentivizes aggressive driving, which is exactly what I see every time I have the misfortune to encounter one.

Meanwhile over in civilized society, we're stopping briefly and taking turns.

Roundabouts are like those cultures that dont believe in waiting in line and try to argue why their way is somehow more efficient. Some cultural values are just superior. Waiting your turn is a fundamental value of Western Civilization and roundabouts break that.

So you say that but it can get worse. I don't know if it's still true but back in the day, in Ohio state law says that state highways have right of way over city/town roads. Well near my Uncle's farm by Akron there were a series of roundabouts where one of the state highways intersected with a major county road, but the traffic circle was considered part of the county road. The inflow from the state route had right of way against the traffic circle. Effectively every time any traffic occurred, it just stopped solid for hours.
 

BrutulTM

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Whoever is in the roundabout has right of way over whoever is entering the roundabout, so whoever gets in first has right of way. It incentivizes aggressive driving, which is exactly what I see every time I have the misfortune to encounter one.

So you're saying you're too much of a pussy to take your slot? You're usually talking about a fraction of a second delay if someone gets in ahead of you. Whether or not you are correct about "incentivizing aggressive driving" the fact remains that even the pussies are getting through the intersection faster than they would a 4-way stop which benefits everyone, and it's not like nobody ever cuts in line at a 4-way.
 

BrutulTM

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Eventually the self-driving cars will solve this problem in an even more terrifying way but not before all the people who fear change cry even louder than they do about the roundabouts.

1gG63Os.gif
 
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Sludig

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There's a street in Billings with like 10 of them and I love driving 4 miles of a major street without ever coming to a full stop.


In po dunk not busy streets sure, or if much larger like the real ones in Europe unlike here the tiny ones with decorative shit blocking sight lines...

The tiny ones wouldn't be so bad but elderly and the illegals around here seem terrified and confused by them.
 

Pops

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Eventually the self-driving cars will solve this problem in an even more terrifying way but not before all the people who fear change cry even louder than they do about the roundabouts.

1gG63Os.gif

Considering how often my computer and phone screw up you really want to put your life in Skynet's electronic bits?
 
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BrutulTM

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I'm willing to wager that 90% of the objection to roundabouts is that people aren't used to them and don't feel comfortable going through them. When traffic gets backed up, people blame the roundabout because hey, you gotta blame something right?
 
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Cad

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I'm willing to wager that 90% of the objection to roundabouts is that people aren't used to them and don't feel comfortable going through them. When traffic gets backed up, people blame the roundabout because hey, you gotta blame something right?

No no its those OTHER people who are overaggressive, don't know how to drive, etc... it is never my personal failing. It's only when all thought is removed by just following an inefficient light that I feel equal and safe.
 
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ZyyzYzzy

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Considering how often my computer and phone screw up you really want to put your life in Skynet's electronic bits?
Yes. Humans are very dumb. I once tried explaining to a friend using simple math, physics and a very generpus estimation of nerve impluse travel speed how it is literally impossible to react quick ebough traveling at 60mph being 10 feet behind the car in front of you to it stopping.

People are retarded
 
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Hateyou

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I didn’t mean to turn this into the Michael Brown in Roundabout Town but I feel this is relevant:
5B8ABE1E-323E-4436-84B4-2AFD4793DA43.gif
 
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Asshat wormie

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  • Test all way stop, uncontrolled with “traffic cop”, and roundabout (let drivers warm up in roundabout for a half an hour since we’re Americans, arguably not used to roundabouts)
LOL more solid scientific research by mythbusters. I can't tell, do you think they wanted a particular result?
Its not a good scientific experiment but not because of what you stated. I am sure the drivers selected were not a good representation of the overall driving population. And so the experiment only suggests that there might be benefits to roundabouts over stop signs and nothing more. However it does make sense to check how well these things would work when people are familiar with the system instead of just throwing confused people at it.
 

Pops

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No no its those OTHER people who are overaggressive, don't know how to drive, etc... it is never my personal failing. It's only when all thought is removed by just following an inefficient light that I feel equal and safe.
Just like getting onto the freeway or even changing lanes during rush hour, no one lets you in.
 
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