I hate roundabouts -- but maybe I am wrong
Roundabouts are spreading across the country -- I find them infuriating and unsafe (when I am towing a trailer). And yet the experts say they are much safer than ordinary intersections. Check out th...
Forum Discussion
A lot of it is perception.
If they are designed properly, they force drivers to slow down in order to make the turns. A lot of the design revolves around deflection angles which is why you get the triangular splitter islands going into modern roundabouts.
Yes, they often have a paved inner circle on 1 lane roundabouts to accommodate trucks.
Occasionally, they will result in a small increase in property damage only (think fender bender crashes) but injury crashes go way down pretty much always, simply because everything is happening slowly.
Way more capacity than stop controlled intersections and far less delay. At traffic signals it depends but usually a roundabout will do better.
As far as people struggling to enter:
- It may be annoying but relatively harmless if you just stop at the entrance.
- It's really very simple, look to the left...if there is a gap, you can enter and once you have entered you have right of way over other entering vehicles (multilane, follow the lane markings).
PS: About 20yr ago, I was working at MiDOT and we put in the first multilane roundabout (3 lanes). We had a webcam, so we could observe from the central office. After it was announced to be open, we all gathered around and finally called the construction office to see if really was fully open. They said yes, so we put an intern to counting cars. It was handling 5000 vehicles/hour with essentially no queues or delay. Even really big signalized intersections will struggle with that kind of volume and there will always be substantial delays...of course post script, the plow drivers had to learn they couldn't leave the bucket up while going thru after one fell over. They lift the bucket so the salt flows back to the spreader but this made him top heavy and he took the turn too fast.
If they are designed properly, they force drivers to slow down in order to make the turns. A lot of the design revolves around deflection angles which is why you get the triangular splitter islands going into modern roundabouts.
Yes, they often have a paved inner circle on 1 lane roundabouts to accommodate trucks.
Occasionally, they will result in a small increase in property damage only (think fender bender crashes) but injury crashes go way down pretty much always, simply because everything is happening slowly.
Way more capacity than stop controlled intersections and far less delay. At traffic signals it depends but usually a roundabout will do better.
As far as people struggling to enter:
- It may be annoying but relatively harmless if you just stop at the entrance.
- It's really very simple, look to the left...if there is a gap, you can enter and once you have entered you have right of way over other entering vehicles (multilane, follow the lane markings).
PS: About 20yr ago, I was working at MiDOT and we put in the first multilane roundabout (3 lanes). We had a webcam, so we could observe from the central office. After it was announced to be open, we all gathered around and finally called the construction office to see if really was fully open. They said yes, so we put an intern to counting cars. It was handling 5000 vehicles/hour with essentially no queues or delay. Even really big signalized intersections will struggle with that kind of volume and there will always be substantial delays...of course post script, the plow drivers had to learn they couldn't leave the bucket up while going thru after one fell over. They lift the bucket so the salt flows back to the spreader but this made him top heavy and he took the turn too fast.
