Is the British roundabout conquering the US ?
Quote
Is the British roundabout conquering the US?
01 July 11 03:03
By Tom Geoghegan
BBC News, Carmel, Indiana
A roundabout revolution is slowly sweeping the US. The land of the car, where the stop sign and traffic light have ruled for decades, has started to embrace the free-flowing British circular.
A few moments after entering Carmel, it's clear why the city has been described as the Milton Keynes of the US.
As the sat-nav loudly and regularly points out, there's often a roundabout up ahead.
But unlike in the English town famous for them, driving into this pretty city on the outskirts of Indianapolis also involves passing several more under construction.
The city is at the forefront of a dizzying expansion, across several American states, of the circular traffic intersection redesigned in 1960s Britain and then exported globally. About 3,000 have been built in the US in the last 20 years.
The Mayor of Carmel, Jim Brainard, has become America's evangelist-in-chief on the matter, demolishing 78 sets of traffic lights and replacing them with those round islands so familiar to drivers in the UK. Four more will be finished in the coming months.
"We have more than any other city in the US," he says, standing proudly in front of one. "It's a trend now in the United States. There are more and more roundabouts being built every day because of the expense saved and more importantly the safety."
He quotes a study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety which suggests there is on average a 40% decrease in all accidents and a 90% drop in fatal ones when a traffic intersection is replaced by a roundabout.
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Rest of amuzing item here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/mobile/magazine-13863498 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/mobile/magazine-13863498)
Yes. And it's wonderful.
It will be better once more Americans get used to it though. After one was built here, I witnessed one guy in a pickup truck in the roundabout who stopped in order to let another car enter. Totally missed the point. We'll catch up.
Every time but one when I ran the red light, I ran the red light at a particularly nasty traffic circle in Brooklyn. Having traffic lights at the traffic circle kinda misses the point of the roundabout, I would think.
How strange. And here I thought the very concept of them was strange and foreign to Americans.
Quote from: MadImmortalMan on July 01, 2011, 01:57:58 PM
Yes. And it's wonderful.
It will be better once more Americans get used to it though. After one was built here, I witnessed one guy in a pickup truck in the roundabout who stopped in order to let another car enter. Totally missed the point. We'll catch up.
Well...that happens in Britain sometimes, though technically the law of the road says to be a bastard and take your chances folk often let other people in.
I have two within a very short distance. They're definitely gaining in popularity here. I only wish people understood that "yield" doesn't mean "stop". :glare:
Quote from: Habbaku on July 01, 2011, 02:33:52 PM
I have two within a very short distance. They're definitely gaining in popularity here. I only wish people understood that "yield" doesn't mean "stop". :glare:
Oh god I fucking hate that.
There is an intersection near my home with a yield sign, and you can see like a mile down the road if anyone is coming. Yet 30% of the people still stop at it and look. There are a lot of retirees here, and a general deficit of driving skill in the population. Which they make up for by driving extra slowly. Bleh.
Down here the only yield signs are on the highway on-ramps. Everywhere else it's a fucking stop sign after stop sign.
I don't see why you need stop signs at all. It seems like the yield sign covers pretty much the same situation as a stop sign. You still have to slow down, you just don't have to stop if you don't need to.
Quote from: Habbaku on July 01, 2011, 02:33:52 PM
I have two within a very short distance. They're definitely gaining in popularity here. I only wish people understood that "yield" doesn't mean "stop". :glare:
There are two fairly close to where I live as well. But they aren't something that's caught on recently. I'm guessing that the one in Goldboro probably has been there at least since the 1920s, and the other one is probably nearly as old, if not older.
Then they're probably the dreaded traffic circles, like the one that invites me to run a red light every time I'm there, and not roundabouts. Roundabouts were only invented 50 years ago.
I hope they don't catch on here ib Ohio, as it takes fucking forever to get road work done in this fucking state.
Quote from: Ed Anger on July 02, 2011, 07:44:12 AM
I hope they don't catch on here ib Ohio, as it takes fucking forever to get road work done in this fucking state.
They put a turn-about in Towson ten years ago; it took over two years to get in. There are still old black women stuck in it, creating their own constant orbit.
Quote from: MadImmortalMan on July 01, 2011, 01:57:58 PM
Yes. And it's wonderful.
It will be better once more Americans get used to it though. After one was built here, I witnessed one guy in a pickup truck in the roundabout who stopped in order to let another car enter. Totally missed the point. We'll catch up.
Depending on the amount of congestion, I treat the yield sign like a suggestion rather than a demand, and I also apply the zipper principle when I'm in the roundabout myself. :hmm:
If you follow the letter of the law in roundabouts and traffic is dense you're going to create a lot of congestion and frustration. :hmm:
Quote from: CountDeMoney on July 02, 2011, 07:47:30 AM
Quote from: Ed Anger on July 02, 2011, 07:44:12 AM
I hope they don't catch on here ib Ohio, as it takes fucking forever to get road work done in this fucking state.
They put a turn-about in Towson ten years ago; it took over two years to get in. There are still old black women stuck in it, creating their own constant orbit.
:lol:
I'm also amused of that special style of british news story way of acting all pleased when something from over there (music act, movie star,a road) comes over here. They just crave a pet from Master and their tail starts to wag and their right rear leg starts thumping.
I have encountered roundabouts for some years, some of them simply modified traffic circles. At the right traffic density, they help things immensely, but they get overwhelmed pretty quickly if traffic density grows, and they really are more suitable for areas where growth is static or slow. If you have to add traffic lights to them, they become worse than intersections.
Quote from: MadImmortalMan on July 01, 2011, 02:42:08 PM
There is an intersection near my home with a yield sign, and you can see like a mile down the road if anyone is coming. Yet 30% of the people still stop at it and look.
Pretty much exactly what they do here. A good portion will pull up to the roundabout that has no one around and, despite being able to see there is no one for ~50 feet or so, they will still come to a complete stop.
When I was driving through one roundabout, a real one, in some small New Jersey town, there were three Dodge Chargers standing right there, in police markings. I hope they were standing there to explain how to properly use roundabouts to dumbasses, and not because it would be a very lucrative ticketing spot. It certainly made me extremely self-conscious while navigating it.