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The article mentions roundabouts being the holy grail then faults them for not being able to handle capacity. But in Europe, it's quite common to have high thro
by athenot 10y ago
The article mentions roundabouts being the holy grail then faults them for not being able to handle capacity. But in Europe, it's quite common to have high throughput roundabouts, with multiple lanes.
- nothrabannosir 10y agoBut then you get many more collision points back. The definition of roundabout in this article is in terms of collision points, i.e. safety.
- icebraining 10y agoA turbo roundabout can have physical separators. And there are other variations; for example in my city there's a large one with two isolated circles (you chose the circle before entering the roundabout, depending on where you want to go).
- ethagknight 10y agoBut all those roundabout collision points are very minor threats compared to a left hand turned slamming into a red-light-runner. I'll take 50 chances of bumping side panels with someone on a roundabout compared to 1 chance of getting t-boned at a left turn.
- legulere 10y agoAnother issue is that they take up a lot of space which might not be there.
- ytjohn 10y agoProbably would take up a lot less space than the article's proposed mega intersection.
- pif 10y agoFrench traffic engineers love roundabouts. Actually, they are indeed safer that plain intersections. What I despise, though, is that too often building a roundabout coincides with giving up any effort to try and manage the traffic at intersection. Having heavy traffic in one direction on a national route yielding to cars leaving the parking of a mall, while the other direction flows undisturbed, is not nice at all. Especially if you are on the wrong side of the national route :-)
- JoeAltmaier 10y agoRoundabouts in Europe are being pulled out. They have a narrow band of efficiency, between TooMuchTrafficForAStopSign, and ConstantTrafficPreventingOneDirectionFromEntering. So they get built one year, and a few years later pulled out. In my growing town they're being built like sausages. I have to negotiate several a day. Most days the guy in front of me comes to a full stop, even when nobody is on the circle at all. If I'm not alert its dangerous - somebody stopping dead in the road for no reason. In a couple of years I look forward to them being removed.
- kalleboo 10y agoWhat are they being replaced with? Even a roundabout with traffic lights regulating traffic entering it seem safer and more efficient than a pure traffic light intersection.
- JoeAltmaier 10y agoTraffic lights. Left-turn lanes.