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Where I grew up the city actively avoided traffic lights (too expensive!) and opted for roundabouts wherever possible. While you would always encounter the odd
by bspn 9y ago
Where I grew up the city actively avoided traffic lights (too expensive!) and opted for roundabouts wherever possible. While you would always encounter the odd tentative person who screwed things up, generally they did a wonderful job of regulating traffic flow. I contrast that with the US city I now live in where it feels like you can't drive 200 feet without grinding to halt to wait at yet another red light.
- sixothree 9y agoWhere I live we have this massive traffic circle thing. It has four levels - N/S, E/W, Traffic Circle, diagonal train tracks. East/West direct road has traffic lights on either side of the thing. I find absolutely infuriating to be sitting on this marvel of efficiency waiting for an unsynced traffic signal to turn green.
- sliverstorm 9y agoRoundabouts are great and I am 100% in favor of their use, but they are not a drop-in replacement for all traffic lights. Roundabouts are best IMO (not a traffic engineer) for medium speed intersections with one or two lanes each way, and low to medium traffic. High speeds, three or more lanes each way, and high traffic volumes and you may do better with a traffic light. And really, again not a traffic engineer, but I wonder if we could solve a lot of these problems by simply eliminating left turns from feeder streets onto arteries (or allowing them, but refusing to put in stop lights). They mess up optimal light spacing and screw with timings. I'm not really aware of a good reason to have them aside from neighborhood residents want them.
- alkonaut 9y ago3 lanes each way in a level interaection seems like a bad design to begin with. I have never seen a 3 lane (3 lanes in each direction) road cross another at the same level. One road should go over and the other under, with large onramps for turns. Because a 3+3 road is a highway and has no place in a dense area at all.
- u801e 9y ago> I wonder if we could solve a lot of these problems by simply eliminating left turns from feeder streets onto arteries (or allowing them, but refusing to put in stop lights). I think it would be better to disallow those types of left turns entirely and direct traffic to make a U-turn at next available intersection. During busy traffic times, it's often easier to to that compared to trying to make left. Even during times it's not so busy, making a right turn with a subsequent U-turn doesn't take that much longer.
- boznz 9y agoExcluding the odd road works, there are no traffic lights anywhere in Marlborough, New Zealand, they use roundabouts everywhere. Driving is actually fun here.
- bspn 9y agoHa, NZ was the unnamed country in my post!