Debate Roundabouts: Efficiency in Action or Vortex of Death

Oh you found a website that agrees with you

I am totally convinced, despite all logic and experience to the contrary

this is my I am totally convinced face

Lendarios said:

I don't know what to say. accidents at roundabouts are safer than accidents at intersections. You are never gonna t-bone someone in roundabout, as you always approach in an gentler angle, ie not 90 degrees.

How often people get t-boned at a traffic light? All the time, and those left turns into incoming traffic are just horrible. Roundabout accidents do happen, but are mostly sideswipes, or cutting people off/ rear ending them..

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people get tboned because they follow the lights without also following the traffic. you make your left turn when the light says you can, but you also make sure the cars have stopped and are letting you make your left turn. you do that simple shit and continue to pay attention on the road, then you aint ever gonna get tboned unless its intentional.

My other post got nuked so I must repeat:

When the civil war starts, all pro-roundies are getting either gulaged or ovened.

Roundabouts are good for low to medium throughput intersections. Anything that sees a shitton of traffic needs standard lights or signs.

This is another resistant to change problem. In 10 years when more Americans are used to them and a bunch of the old people are off the road it won't nearly be an issue.

Seriously I lived in Europe for 8 years working for the government, every new American that came over acted like the majority here ( myself included). After a few months you beco me comfortable with thme and 4 way stops piss you off.

They put the first of our town in last year and it did solve most of the congestion issue in the area by WKU. It wasn't because it was so much efficient but because people fear other drivers so much that many people now take a different route.

I live in Australia, our Capital city is basically a roundabout within a roundabout within ... you get the idea.
That place sucks balls.

Everywhere else the Roundabouts are great, I hate lights.
There seems to be a lot of traffic lights going up around roundabouts lately, they limit the traffic into the roundabout... WTF .. I don't think it's a problem with the design of the roundabout, more the amount of traffic using it in peak times.

Get with the future peeps and embrace your new roundabout overloads.
they are good for drift practice too

They probably work pretty well for shorter vehicles. They don't work worth a damn when they require a lane change in the middle of it especially with semi trucks. The one I'm most familiar with is between the interstate and a truck stop, first truck stop in a 100 miles. So trucks leave the interstate and go thru the roundabout and have to change lanes in the middle of it. Sucks. In the last 6 months every time I've gone thru it they have a new set of signs and warnings before you get to it on how to make a U-turn if your truck won't fit thru it. Wonderful.

Roundabouts are a detriment to peak traffic flow in 95% of the applications they are used in. A properly sized traffic circle requires too much space and at the point where you do not have space limits at all but high volumes you would likely choose an off-grade option like a cloverleaf interchange.

In many practical applications something like a diverging diamond interchange (or more modern derivatives) or a continuous flow intersection are superior in practice when you consider real traffic flow. A roundabout is only advantageous when you wish to slow traffic or you have moderate, consistent influx from all directions with varied destinations from all entry points that would otherwise necessitate a full light cycle on a normal intersection including separated left turn right of way. Congestion is far worse than a lighted intersection due to an overreliance on uniform driving behavior to enter the roundabout consistently and proceed through it. In essence, any flow restriction on or around the roundabout render it ineffective and find me a roundabout that isn't anywhere near ANY traffic control and I'll show you a place in the middle of nowhere where they were simply too cheap to build overpasses or is so low volume a triggered light is no impediment.

Traffic circles are also unfriendly to pedestrian traffic and become compromised by nearby crosswalks that cause stopping.