|
|
 |
|
03-16-2004, 03:05 PM
|
#1 of 35 
|
|
Member
Join Date: Mar 2000
Local Time: 07:29 PM
Local Date: 10-12-2008
Posts: 3,423
|
Just got a ballot to vote on putting traffic circles all down our street. Since the street was turned into a bike path, most people on bikes ignore the 4 way stops so the city came up with traffic circles instead of citing people.
Personally I love roundabouts ever since I got the hang of them in England but some people just don't know what to do when they encounter them.
The funniest thing I saw was a tired trucker who just drove straight over the traffic circle like it didn't exist.
Still haven't figured out how to vote so I thought I'd throw it out here and see how others feel about them
Grant
"Whatever it is, I'm against it!" G. Marx
Sony TAE/TAP/TAN(2)9000ES;DVP-CX860 DVP-CX777ES
Sony CDP-CX270 CDP-CX355 CDP-CX270 CDP-CX355
Sony S-TS 700ES XPR32450
Pioneer Elite CLD 79 KEFs (5) Q75s & 20B Subwoofer
|
|
|
|
03-16-2004, 03:09 PM
|
#2 of 35
|
|
Member
Join Date: Mar 2004
Local Time: 09:29 PM
Local Date: 10-12-2008
Posts: 29
|
We recently got one in my small town. The town sent an 'instruction manual' out to all of the residents to tell us the proper way to use the traffic circle  I couldn't believe it, it's not that hard! I think they are fine, but I don't see how they are any more safe than just a 4-way stop or a intersection with a stop light.
|
|
|
|
|
03-16-2004, 03:15 PM
|
#3 of 35
|
|
Member
Join Date: Dec 1969
Local Time: 10:29 PM
Local Date: 10-12-2008
Posts: 12,181
|
Well, I'm a pedestrian, and my experience with traffic circles/roundabouts is "I never get to cross the street". 
Jay's Movie Blog - A movie-viewing diary.
Transplanted Life: Sci-fi soap opera about a man placed in a new body, updated two or three times a week.
Trading Post Inn - Another gender-bending soap, with different collaborators writing different points of view.
"What? Since when was this an energy ball movie?" - Overheard during a screening of Takashi Miike's Dead Or Alive
"What the hell religion are you people?" - Overheard during the Captain Marvel serial at SF/29
"If I feel even one bullet hit me, I will rip your lungs out through your nostrils!" - Ron Silver as himself, "Heat Vision And Jack"
|
|
|
|
03-16-2004, 03:20 PM
|
#4 of 35
|
|
Member
Join Date: Mar 2001
Local Time: 06:29 PM
Local Date: 10-12-2008
Posts: 792
|
I encountered my first traffic circle this past year. They put one down on Los Robles, in Pasadena. It threw me for a loop (no pun intended). I've used it several times and I'm not crazy about them, although if I used them regularly, I suppose they might not be so bad.
|
|
|
|
|
03-16-2004, 03:27 PM
|
#5 of 35
|
|
Member
Join Date: Jul 2002
Local Time: 11:29 PM
Local Date: 10-12-2008
Posts: 1,883
|
They're like crop circles - alien jokes.
Rat's like wheels tho |
|
|
|
|
03-16-2004, 03:38 PM
|
#6 of 35
|
|
Member
Join Date: Sep 1998
Local Time: 10:29 PM
Local Date: 10-12-2008
Posts: 277
|
They seem to be very common around here. The only problem I have seen is that some people just don't understand how to use them. Every one I have seen has a huge sign at every entrance that says "Cars going around the rotary have the right of way", but that is apparently too vague as most people will just come flying right into the rotary, regardless of who has the right of way.
I guess the only other problem would be that in The States, the rules governing them are different from state to state. So some states give the right of way to the people entering the rotary instead of the people already on it. I've never understood how that could work, but it might just be that I am used to it the other way.
MikeP
|
|
|
|
|
03-16-2004, 03:40 PM
|
#7 of 35
|
|
Joe S.
Member
Join Date: Feb 2002
Local Time: 07:29 AM
Local Date: 10-13-2008
Posts: 1,990
|
I love the idea, got used to them in England too. Saves a traffic light that can go wonko on you and at 3 AM there is no waiting at a red light. Vote for it!
|
|
|
|
|
03-16-2004, 03:47 PM
|
#8 of 35
|
|
Member
Join Date: Dec 1998
Local Time: 07:29 PM
Local Date: 10-12-2008
Posts: 9,131
|
We have one in Long Beach and I've never had a problem with it. Just yield to traffic in the circle.
|
|
|
|
|
03-16-2004, 03:56 PM
|
#9 of 35
|
|
Member
Join Date: Jul 2000
Local Time: 02:29 AM
Local Date: 10-13-2008
Posts: 420
|
Are they just practicing democracy by voting? 
Roundabouts/circles are far better than intersections literally in every way. For the driver: safer, quicker, less fuel consumption. For the township:
Quote:
the initial cost of installing a traffic signal at about $100,000, plus an additional $3,000 per month for electricity and maintenance.
"A roundabout has a higher capacity for handling traffic than a stop sign or traffic circle by up to 30 percent and it's anywhere from 10 to 100 percent safer. "Signals have to be replaced every 10 to 15 years. A roundabout should last as long as the road and that could be 20 to 50 years
|
|
|
|
|
|
03-16-2004, 04:03 PM
|
#10 of 35
|
|
Member
Join Date: Feb 2004
Local Time: 10:29 PM
Local Date: 10-12-2008
Posts: 48
|
Rotaries, as we refer to them, are great at handling large amounts of traffic without much incidence.
However, the drawbacks are that if any of the main exits gets bottlenecked. . . as in a school, on-ramp, etc. then the whole traffic pattern for the rotary is affected.
As was mentioned earlier, rotaries are very pedestrian unfriendly too.
|
|
|
| |
