cdayton

Correct. In Europe, roundabouts work great but they seem to be beyond the comprehension of US drivers. The same with German autobahns - would never work here because there would always be someone driving 55 in the left lane.

jsmangis Loc: Peoria, IL

While they are quite common in New England (Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Maine), they have only started being built in the rest of our country. We have one in Peoria, and most people are confused by them.

Dannj

I know both of those spots and I’ve pretty much figured out Bourne but Hyannis still sends me in the wrong direction😂

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

If you don’t like roundabouts, stay away from Hamilton County, in Indiana, particularly the city of Carmel. The county has never met an intersection that didn’t need a roundabout. They even put the #$%^& things on major highways.

markngolf Loc: Bridgewater, NJ

Grew up near several roundabouts. Part of my driver's license (age 17) was to negotiate a roundup. In NJ we call them traffic circles. I still live near several of them. I have no problem driving on them. They seem to work for many drivers. I think getting comfortable is experiential, but does require good judgement and some driving skills. Unfortunately, there are too many drivers nowadays that have neither.
Mark

sb Loc: Florida's East Coast

We have a traffic circle in our area - although the designers and the county are very defensive about it, it is horrible. It is far too small for the traffic load - and, like you say, traffic can exit in front of other vehicles in the outer lane. Lane instructions from one direction conflict with lane instructions from another direction, and there is no clear right-of-way established.

AND - to make matters worse, some numbnuts put pedestrian walkways immediately across the rotary outflows. So as you are coming around this small rotary (which has a raised central area with a tree which is nice but which obscures the view straight across the rotary) carefully watching the merging traffic on your right and aiming for the exit, you can very suddenly come upon someone walking across the road right where you exit! It is really a stupid traffic feature.

Bridges Loc: Memphis, Charleston SC, now Nazareth PA

Yes, roundabouts can be effective and convenient but one poorly designed can be a terrible addition to the roadway system. I live next door to NJ and spend time each year in Mt. Pleasant, SC. Both areas use roundabouts and not all are designed equally.

rustfarmer

When I spent a year in Italy as a teen, 4 and 5 lane roundabouts were common (1962) and had the added fun of streetcar tracks in them, such that my Vespa was a real challenge. Sporty cars would sometimes race down a hill and one each dash around opposite sides of the circle. Such fun.

Dannj

This got me thinking of my first trip to Ireland and dealing with driving both on the “wrong” side of the car and the “wrong” side of the road. Roundabouts did present particular challenges reminiscent of Chevy Chase in “European Vacation”.😳

berchman Loc: South Central PA

Holy crap!

gleneric Loc: Calgary, Alberta

From the perspective of a seasoned (37 years) traffic engineering consultant there is no question that roundabouts take some getting used to, and that some people are either very slow to learn or refuse to even try to figure them out. They definitely have pros and cons. They have been proven to reduce or completely eliminate serious collisions such as "T-bones" as you no longer have two streams of traffic intersecting at right angles. They also provide a degree of "traffic calming" if designed properly and they happen to operate just fine in a power outage situation.

Things are pretty simple with a single-lane roundabout ... the rules are pretty straightforward and people tend to catch on pretty quickly. One exception is when the pavement in the roundabout is very wide, to allow for a large truck to get through, and people think maybe it is wide enough to be two lanes and maybe someone forgot to pain a line down the middle.

Make it a multi-lane roundabout and things can get crazy as there are basic rules of thumb about their use but those rules can be over-ruled with signs and/or pavement markings. Imagine the fun when you have a two-lane roundabout with pavement markings telling you what movements you can make from each lane and the pavement markings are regularly obscured by snow for many months of the year, or pavement markings that are not regularly repainted. Now add to the mix some idiot who adds signage in advance of the roundabout clearly showing you what movements you can make from each lane ... and those signs show a different message than the pavement markings. I used to be able to watch this exact situation from my office window, and I regularly saw people having to slam on the brakes and/or swerve to avoid a collision. It took multiple calls to the city to get them to understand the problem and come out and fix it.

There are certain combinations of traffic volumes that can make a roundabout work great and make it a perfect choice. There are, however, other situations where the specific mix of traffic movements make a roundabout a really bad choice. As long as the person reviewing the situation understands this and has the latitude to make decisions/recommendations that best fit the specific needs of the location then things should work out fine. Problems can arise when you get a "roundabout zealot" in charge of things and roundabouts become mandated as the one and only solution to everything!

OK, I've rambled enough. I should get back to work on one of our projects ... figuring out how to fit the first roundabout into a small rural municipality where it might not be well received by the locals

Stephan G

The size of the round-about is actually critical to the success in its effect. One of the traditional problems of setting up these things is that those who design them are not the ones who have to use them. Of course, we see the reports about semis trying to maneuver around them and their issues. The three local roundabouts cannot handle the 50 foot plus trailers without them going off the lanes. We will not mention those drunken "four wheeler" forgetting to turn into the arc of the lanes. The greatest problem is that there are no speed limit signs in the roundabouts. People seem to think that they can run them at Interstate speeds, for whatever reason.

A long time ago, I did see the "Give Gap-Take Gap" signs which clued people into one of the best methods to handle entry and exit from these multi-laned situations.

Maybe they will program those self-driven cars to handled the roundabouts a la parallel parking.

The images of traffic around those roundabout examples in Paris, France, pop up in my mind.

davidrb Loc: Half way there on the 45th Parallel

Should be known as "Governmental BrainFart." Began in the 1930s to alleviate "traffic congestion" of the time. 50 years ago, while being transported to our hotel in Tehran, Iran my crew and I were driven around a monster traffic circle. I noticed a "57 Ford circling the very inside for several circuits. The driver was obviously trying to get to the outside and exit but was unable due to other vehicles. Suddenly, the RH wheel separated from the Ford. The car stopped, many people exited and began walking down the road. I should have realize the Persians were 50 years ahead of calipunks of today. Looks as though L A built something that won't catch fire and burn down/up. Finally! The center area could become a tent grounds for illegals. Way to GO L A!

Abo

My roundabout technique is simple and effective... Blast into it, treat it like the ovals the US is famous for... think
Daytona or Indianapolis, full speed ahead and give way to your right (Left in the US of course)... fun fun fun

These guys can show you how to properly use a roundabout: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sLiioOQt5M

Chris

Was up in your neck of the woods for a few weeks and was surprised at how many rotarys/roundabouts had popped up since I was there 2 years ago