8 ms·

I wish cities had roundabouts instead of intersections, so that would not be a problem :)

avh02 7y ago
They take space for anything at reasonable size I'd guess. Strangely enough though it's one of the few things I miss about the city I grew up in (Jeddah, Saudi Arabia) - lots of outdoor art and sculptures because they had lots of very large roundabouts (check Google images to see what I mean about the outdoor art).
- RugnirViking 7y ago
  It absolubately can work, for a famous and oft-studied example see the city of Milton Keynes in the UK. Hundreds of roundabouts
- viburnum 7y ago
  America cities have too many oversized streets and major intersections. Keep the streets small and you don't need as many intersections and you can invest more in the ones you have. This is what they do in the Netherlands.
  - vanadium 7y ago
    Wisconsin has become one giant series of roundabouts across the state over the past decade; they’re everywhere after new construction and being retrofitted whenever the opportunity arises. Sometimes 2 and 3 roundabouts connected at times.
roblabla 7y ago
I hate roundabouts. I live in France, and we have them everywhere. They're a huge clusterfuck that does not win any time, and when misused can be a lot more dangerous than a properly planned intersection. Of all the accidents I've driven past on my daily drives, all of them happened on roundabouts. I hate them.
- jrochkind1 7y ago
  > Of all the accidents I've driven past on my daily drives, all of them happened on roundabouts. In localities with few/no roundabouts, the vast majority of accidents still happen at intersections. Intersections of roads are the most prone to accidents (for fairly obvious reasons), with or without roundabouts. I believe there is research showing roundabouts are actually quite a bit safer in general, but it's possible it depends on various things. But anyway, accidents happen mostly where two roads intersect, either way.
  - ferzul 7y ago
    Roundabouts are great for cars, and awful for just about everyone else. People, bikes, buses, trucks: all face difficulty or death in their presence.
    - bkor 7y ago
      > People, bikes, buses, trucks: all face difficulty or death in their presence. Roundabouts make my bicycle commute way faster. This in The Netherlands where we cycle a lot. Difficulty or death is entirely incorrect. Suggest to compare the designs across countries, maybe there's a huge difference in the design?
      - stoobs 7y ago
        I think the issue comes when people try to circumvent the give-way priority - which gets worse when there are multiple lanes and multiple exits. It certainly seems to be a people problem rather than a roundabout deign issue from my experience? People trying to "beat" people out onto the roundabout rather than giving way, people not using proper lane discipline and squeezing/cutting into other lanes etc..
    - andrepd 7y ago
      You should copy the Dutch then. Their car+bike road designs are something else. Roundabouts included.
- 7y ago
Spooky23 7y ago
Roundabouts only work in the burbs. In cities, they are death traps for pedestrians and cyclists.
- bmn__ 7y ago
  Nonsense. See video linked in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8819614 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8819614 starting at minute 3.
- bkor 7y ago
  > In cities, they are death traps for pedestrians and cyclists. I haven't experienced that for the many roundabouts we have in The Netherlands. Throughput is higher (can easily be measured), plus waiting time is lower thanks to roundabouts. Not exactly sure what you mean with "burbs" though it doesn't matter as they're heavily used in cities here.
- Finnucane 7y ago
  I ride my bike through rotaries (as we call them here in Mass.) all the time. It's not that hard. It is advisable to try to ride as fast as possible, but the key is to signal clearly all movements in and out of the lane and the circle.
usrusr 7y ago
Roundabouts have the unfortunate property of smoothing throughput from a sequence of chunks and gaps to a constant dribble. That's fine on limited access roads with overpasses and parallel feeder roads for local traffic or where overall throughput is always low enough to still comfortably cut in from a lower rank junction. On everything in between (enough traffic to make turning difficult, but still having direct junctions with access roads) you are better off with the occasional traffic light that will as a side effect serve gaps to meet rank junctions downstream.

They take space for anything at reasonable size I'd guess. Strangely enough though it's one of the few things I miss about the city I grew up in (Jeddah, Saudi Arabia) - lots of outdoor art and sculptures because they had lots of very large roundabouts (check Google images to see what I mean about the outdoor art).

RugnirViking 7y ago
It absolubately can work, for a famous and oft-studied example see the city of Milton Keynes in the UK. Hundreds of roundabouts
viburnum 7y ago
America cities have too many oversized streets and major intersections. Keep the streets small and you don't need as many intersections and you can invest more in the ones you have. This is what they do in the Netherlands.
- vanadium 7y ago
  Wisconsin has become one giant series of roundabouts across the state over the past decade; they’re everywhere after new construction and being retrofitted whenever the opportunity arises. Sometimes 2 and 3 roundabouts connected at times.

roblabla 7y ago

I hate roundabouts. I live in France, and we have them everywhere. They're a huge clusterfuck that does not win any time, and when misused can be a lot more dangerous than a properly planned intersection. Of all the accidents I've driven past on my daily drives, all of them happened on roundabouts. I hate them.

jrochkind1 7y ago
> Of all the accidents I've driven past on my daily drives, all of them happened on roundabouts. In localities with few/no roundabouts, the vast majority of accidents still happen at intersections. Intersections of roads are the most prone to accidents (for fairly obvious reasons), with or without roundabouts. I believe there is research showing roundabouts are actually quite a bit safer in general, but it's possible it depends on various things. But anyway, accidents happen mostly where two roads intersect, either way.
- ferzul 7y ago
  Roundabouts are great for cars, and awful for just about everyone else. People, bikes, buses, trucks: all face difficulty or death in their presence.
  - bkor 7y ago
    > People, bikes, buses, trucks: all face difficulty or death in their presence. Roundabouts make my bicycle commute way faster. This in The Netherlands where we cycle a lot. Difficulty or death is entirely incorrect. Suggest to compare the designs across countries, maybe there's a huge difference in the design?
    - stoobs 7y ago
      I think the issue comes when people try to circumvent the give-way priority - which gets worse when there are multiple lanes and multiple exits. It certainly seems to be a people problem rather than a roundabout deign issue from my experience? People trying to "beat" people out onto the roundabout rather than giving way, people not using proper lane discipline and squeezing/cutting into other lanes etc..
  - andrepd 7y ago
    You should copy the Dutch then. Their car+bike road designs are something else. Roundabouts included.
7y ago

Spooky23 7y ago

Roundabouts only work in the burbs. In cities, they are death traps for pedestrians and cyclists.

bmn__ 7y ago
Nonsense. See video linked in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8819614 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8819614 starting at minute 3.
bkor 7y ago
> In cities, they are death traps for pedestrians and cyclists. I haven't experienced that for the many roundabouts we have in The Netherlands. Throughput is higher (can easily be measured), plus waiting time is lower thanks to roundabouts. Not exactly sure what you mean with "burbs" though it doesn't matter as they're heavily used in cities here.
Finnucane 7y ago
I ride my bike through rotaries (as we call them here in Mass.) all the time. It's not that hard. It is advisable to try to ride as fast as possible, but the key is to signal clearly all movements in and out of the lane and the circle.

usrusr 7y ago

Roundabouts have the unfortunate property of smoothing throughput from a sequence of chunks and gaps to a constant dribble. That's fine on limited access roads with overpasses and parallel feeder roads for local traffic or where overall throughput is always low enough to still comfortably cut in from a lower rank junction. On everything in between (enough traffic to make turning difficult, but still having direct junctions with access roads) you are better off with the occasional traffic light that will as a side effect serve gaps to meet rank junctions downstream.