3 ms·
While you're here, can I ask you a question I've always wanted to ask about traffic circles? Perhaps this is also related to why they suck for safety. At least
by mitthrowaway2 3y ago
While you're here, can I ask you a question I've always wanted to ask about traffic circles? Perhaps this is also related to why they suck for safety.
At least where I live, there are two rules for traffic circles: (1) yield to traffic that is already in the traffic circle, and (2) when two cars arrive at the same time, yield to traffic on your right.
Rule 1 is the same as for a roundabout, but rule (2) is a bit strange when the two are put together. It creates a scenario where if the leftmost car doesn't yield for whatever reason (perhaps they thought they arrived a microsecond earlier), then now they move forward and become "traffic in the traffic circle", which means they steal priority and the right-most car now has to yield to them. If the rule were flipped the other way, such that we default to always yielding to the car on the left, then this wouldn't happen; it would work just like a roundabout, and the order of yielding priority would be the same regardless of agreement on the exact timing of when each car arrived at the traffic circle.
So, why is it that at a traffic circle we yield to traffic on the right, rather than the left? Is it just to be consistent with 4-way stops?
- eszed 3y agoJust clarifying: you drive on the right-hand side of the road, so "right" for you means on the outside of the circle? Yeah, that seems mad.
- mitthrowaway2 3y agoCorrect, right-hand side of the road.
- fshbbdssbbgdd 3y agoThey added some circular medians in the middle of 4-way stops where I live, are those traffic circles? Are you suggesting that when I get to a 4 way stop, whether I yield to traffic on the left or right should depend on whether the intersection has one of those medians in the middle? Personally I find it confusing that yielding works the opposite way on roundabouts and 4-way stops, and nobody else in my neighborhood seems to know what to do either. Whether people yield to me seems to depend mostly on the size of the vehicle I am driving.
- mitthrowaway2 3y agoIn this case, they've removed the stop signs, so it's not a 4-way stop anymore, just a traffic circle.
- Moru 3y agoSweden treats the roundabouts as it's own road. To get into the circle you yield to whatever is inside the circle. The cars inside the roundabout is on their own road so only yields on lane change from inner to outer lane. When exiting they are leaving the road and is yielding to any pedestrian/bicycle crossing directly after the roundabout. Well, they are supposed to do but mostly don't. There are a few non-standard roundabouts that has no yield sign and the lane goes straight into the roundabout but then it usually doesn't have an outer lane before that entrance.