RV accident at a Roundabout.

As a much younger man driving a brick truck in New Jersey, I regularly encountered two different traffic circles. They were much easier to negotiate with a 44k# truck than the new imported "round about" design are in a small motorhome.

Matt

dodge guy wrote:
They put a roundabout on a rural road out by me that is a heavily traveled North/South route. well they made it so tight that semis cannot negotiate it. and there was no need for it, because the intersection it was put in doesn't see that much side road traffic!

You should see the new ridiculous interchanges they now have for expressways with the lanes switching sides over the bridge. completely ridiculous!

It's supposed to be tight, they want you to slow down. Not knowing the specific location, it probably was built with a mountable inner island to accommodate large trucks but discourage cars.

Diverging Diamond interchanges are what you are describing. They are freaky the first time you go thru one but they actually work great.

I live near, and drive through, roundabouts, a Divergent Diamond,
and a SPUI (Single Point Urban Interchange


traffic moves far quicker and safer through all of these than standard stop lights with left turn arrows.

1st ran into roundabouts in '03 in Las Vegas, thought they were stupid. After using them for a while realized they work! Mutch better than 4-way stops, keeps traffic moving, slower, but moving. Now here in the Bellingham WA area we got a bunch of them, most people get it, not all though, but some people aren't ever going to get it and shouldn't be driving.

valhalla360 wrote:

CavemanCharlie wrote:
I heard that the man driving had a hart attack

Show me an intersection design that works well when the driver is going thru a heart attack. :S

Reality is roundabouts used in appropriate places are great. Even if you are unfamiliar because of the low speeds, they tend to have fewer crashes and the crashes you do get tend to be minor fender benders.

People get nervous because they are different. Reality is they are very simple to drive:
- Single Lane Roundabouts: Look to your left on approaching. If you have a gap, go. Otherwise wait for a gap. Once in, proceed until you reach your exit.
- Multi Lane Roundabout: Approach in the same lane as if it was a normal intersection (ie: if you are turning left, enter in the left lane). Otherwise it's pretty much the same.

This was about 15yrs ago, the first big roundabout in Michigan and I was in the Traffic Department. We were all sure it was going to fail, so when they opened it and there was a web cam, we all gathered around to see the carnage. After about 15minutes, we were convinced it wasn't fully open as there were no backups, so we sat an intern down to count cars. A couple hours later we totaled up the numbers and it was carrying 5,000 cars per hour with no backups. I only know of 3 signalized intersections that come close to that volume of traffic and backups & delays are substantial at all 3.

This is not to say a poorly designed roundabout won't be a problem but the vast majority of complaints are people just not comfortable with something new.

I believe you nailed it!

Too often it's always the roads fault or weather conditions "causing the accidents". Never the driver's incompetence or refusing to drive according to road conditions.

People out here have no Idea how to use a roundabout, they stop before going into them, do not us turn signals coming out of them, most are built to small an trucks an fire engines can't get around them. Point in case two were built in close to our home a few years back, the fire deportment complained because the engines could not get around them without going over the curbs, they redid both of these twice before the fire engines would fit, they sure saved allot of money doing those. Try getting a semi around one with all the idiots think they can fit along side the semi an with signs stating do not drive side of large trucks.

Here in Indiana they are going to put in a round-a-bout in at the intersection of US-50 and US-50 bypass in Jennings Co. Why? Simply because people who want to turn left will not wait till all traffic is clear from the left before they turn into the path of traffic going straight thru and beside a large vehicle turning right. There have been very serious accidents there caused by out of State drivers who turned left and did not see the vehicle beside the truck in the right turn lane. There was also a fatal accident there by someone also from out of State pulling into the path of a driver coming from thier right. This intersection is out in the middle of the country with no trees or other items blocking any view in any direction. Just plain and simple fact is people are in to much of a very big hurry and do not want to wait. Guess this is the same reason a person run the stop light at a junction of this same road and a State road running up under a semi and thier vehicle catching fire. In my book some drivers can make any and all roads bad.
Starting next year anyone traveling US-50 east bound from I-65 to Cinci will have two round a bouts to contend with. Have fun and be careful out there on our fine roads.

rjxj wrote:

Old-Biscuit wrote:
Hwy monies were allotted so HWY 260 between I-17 and Cottonwood is being widened .....2 lanes east & west bound. Roughly 15 mile section will go for 1 lane each direction with a couple of short passing lanes and be 2 full lanes each direction----divided hwy.
Excellent! Whoo-Hoo


Hold your horses.......7 round-a-bouts are being built also.

Had to do something with the monies being allocated.

Maybe they have enough dirt to bury the moron next to use here at the Thousand Trails blm spot who runs his open frame generator from 6:30 AM until midnight.

:B


I was ALL for the widening, 2 lane divided hwy from I-17 to Cottonwood.
It was 55 speed limit with old 1 lane hwy...now they go and add 7 roundabouts which is NOT going to allow 55 mph on a greatly improved 2 lane divided hwy :S :S :S

valhalla360 wrote:

jfkmk wrote:

Roundabouts are nothing new at all. Where I grew up in North Jersey, we had them on one particular road since the 50s or 60s, but they were called circles. At one point, some time in the 80s, they did away eith them as they were too dangerous. Funny to see them make a comeback.

The design and operation of the old traffic circles was drastically different and cause major issue.
- Modern roundabouts are designed to limit speed thru them. Old traffic circles often could be taken at high speeds.
- Modern roundabouts yield on entry. Many traffic circles were so large they included yield within the circle.

They really are a different animal.

Not necessarily true. The old circles I'm referring to were quite small. I've been in roundabouts that were huge and some that were small. I've been in some where the drivers entering yield, and some where the drivers already in the roundabout yield. They vary state by state and even vary within states.

Here in Austin, I've had to dodge people going the wrong way on the roundabouts because they thought they could go either way. Done right, they are an asset. However, here in the states, they just seem to be very poorly engineered.