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Some time ago, I read all of the published data on the safety of traffic circles, as I had often seen them recommended as a safer alternative to traffic lights.
by romaaeterna 2y ago
Some time ago, I read all of the published data on the safety of traffic circles, as I had often seen them recommended as a safer alternative to traffic lights.
I was not very impressed. The confounding factors for the traffic light to circle projects were always far too large, and it always had to be coupled with the fact that it was usually poorest intersections that get rebuilt. I no longer have a high opinion of traffic safety research as a field.
Regarding this article's claims in particular, traffic fatalities went up a certain amount after 2020, and I doubt that road design changes were a primary driver. (Policing trends are one possible candidate.)
Regardless, in the last six months or so, my Tesla's autodrive went from "expensive joke" to "safer driver than me". IMO, leveraging existing technology could cut traffic deaths to a small fraction of what they are now over 3-5 years, were we to pursue aggressive conversion of the existing vehicle fleet.
- coredog64 2y agoThe city replaced a 4 way stop with a traffic circle and ever since there’s been a car-totaling collision at least every other month. One leg of the circle is fed from a highway off-ramp, with a good portion of folks entering the circle at 150% of the legal limit. Another leg is from a 4 lane road that feeds the highway on-ramp, and those folks are getting amped for highway driving. I’m always nervous in the circle as I can’t count the times I’ve had to quickly brake to avoid being t-boned by some moron who doesn’t understand what a yield sign means. Traffic circles really need a critical mass of drivers that know how to use them academically before they get installed all over town.
- wetpaws 2y ago[dead]
- tstrimple 2y agoI'm curious how you get car totaling crashes in a traffic circle. Generally the traffic circles that have been installed around me are all relatively small and greatly cut down on speed going through the intersection. I could absolutely see an increase in fender bender style accidents here, because for some reason how to operate a traffic circle is an impossible mystery to Iowa drivers. But how are cars being totaled? I remember when driving in SoCal, there was a massive traffic circle that I could see people maintaining fairly high speeds through and could see major accidents happening. But everything I see locally would be low speed collisions.
- Chilko 2y ago> Traffic circles really need a critical mass of drivers that know how to use them academically before they get installed all over town. This is why proper driver's licensing & training is so important - in my city & country (Wellington, New Zealand) roundabouts (as well call them) are so common that in some tight intersections they are nothing more than a circle painted on the ground. Everyone knows how to use them, and they end up being very effective.