7 ms·

Roundabouts have turned a corner

32 points by deusclovis 13y ago

beedogs 13y ago
Roundabouts are everywhere in Australia and I never understood why I almost never saw them in America.
- eropple 13y ago
  New England has a lot of the old, non-modern roundabout (which this article is talking about but doesn't really distinguish from traditional roundabouts/traffic circles/rotaries). Boston may have a few that aren't completely Euclidian.
- RowanH 13y ago
  Same in NZ - after living in Canada for nearly 8 years, just returned back to NZ. I love roundabouts... far quicker getting round town, you're not constantly having to do these infuriating 4 way stops everywhere.
- pandaman 13y ago
  People are not used to roundabouts in America. I lived in place where a whole residential area (i.e. very light traffic, low speed limit, school zones) used roundabouts instead of stop signs. Almost every other time I've seen another car on a roundabout it's been making a left turn by driving clockwise (in America people normally drive on the right side of the road so you need to drive counterclockwise). On a more lively roundabout that was on my way to a freeway I had to be very careful as a significant number of merging cars believed they have a right of way. If there had been a way from my home that did not have a roundabout I'd rather use that because roundabouts were really scary.
  - mapt 13y ago
    I've regularly used three roundabouts in my life in the US for different daily commutes, two of which were very busy: I've never seen anyone try to drive clockwise. They do cause confusion for the drivers, who are unlikely to regularly encounter them and are never sure who believes who has right of way, but not clueless to that degree. Right of way on single-lane traffic circles is something people can figure out through driving slow and common sense. I am not a fan of 2-3 lane roundabout / traffic circles which try to use signal-less operation, because right of way becomes intractable and lane changes difficult.
    - pandaman 13y ago
      That's not really clueless. I also lived near an overpass with ramps (where you can get on/off the upper street by a ramp, which is, naturally, unidirectional) and since the upper street was not divided it was possible to drive on a ramp in a wrong way. And I have seen couple cars doing just that. From my understanding, quite a few drivers do not really know traffic rules beyond "red means stop" and just follow other cars. If there are no other cars to follow they quickly get confused by any unusual road structure.
- decadentcactus 13y ago
  Agreed, they're simple to use, even the 2 lane varieties. I think the problem is as mentioned, often American ones are much different. It seems more like a free for all circle with a random bunch of roads exiting and entering, with no lanes marked. Also construction obscured the view to the left. I did come across a few "normal" roundabouts at least, but they either don't exist or are terrible.
mceoin 13y ago
"American authorities say swapping crossroads for roundabouts cuts deaths by 90% and crashes by a third."
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
OWaz 13y ago
In some of the skiing villages in Colorado the intersections were ripped out and roundabouts were added. I heard it was to make the towns seem more European. As a driver I realized it made traffic flow much, much faster. What I do wonder is if roundabouts that service major roads have a lower accident rate than an intersection with traffic lights.
ck2 13y ago
Plus I bet it is near impossible to text-while-driving in a roundabout, well at least not and stay alive. Might make people actually pay attention to their driving if there were more in the USA. Do other countries have a similar text-while-driving problem?
- mappu 13y ago
  In NZ we had an advertising campaign against it, and then in 2009 it was made illegal to use your phone while driving (excepting "infrequent and brief" GPS use and hands-free calling). If you're caught there's a small fine, but a comparatively large number of demerit points are applied to your license (after sufficiently many of which your license can be revoked).
- masklinn 13y ago
  > Plus I bet it is near impossible to text-while-driving in a roundabout, well at least not and stay alive. Depends on the size of the roundabout, on some of them you can more or less go straight through (the bends can be smaller than a chicane). > Do other countries have a similar text-while-driving problem? Yes. A number of countries have laws against operation of a mobile phone while driving (be it texting or calling).
btbuilder 13y ago
I've often suspected that the extensive use of stop signs instead of yields or traffic circles in the US on suburban or low traffic streets and roads is a conspiracy run by the brake pad and oil industries.
cjrp 13y ago
That's one of the things I've found frustrating about driving in America. In England, approaching a roundabout with a good open view to your right you can see when there's no approaching traffic and maintain 20-30mph. Whereas in America, despite the fact I could see it was clear, I had to come to a complete stop.
mmanfrin 13y ago
Nevada built America’s first in 1990 I grew up in Orinda, and for as long as I can remember there has been a roundabout in theater square[1]. [1] https://www.google.com/maps/preview#!q=orinda&data=!1m4!1m3!1d375!2d-122.1822754!3d37.8791622!2m1!1e3!4m15!2m14!1m13!1s0x80857cbd5dc823ff%3A0x89dac03702126789!3m8!1m3!1d5884509!2d-119.306607!3d37.2691745!3m2!1i1439!2i695!4f13.1!4m2!3d37.8771476!4d-122.1796888&fid=7 https://www.google.com/maps/preview#!q=orinda&data=!1m4!1m3!...
- blackjack48 13y ago
  That appears to be a traffic circle. Entry to roundabouts is controlled entirely by yield signs.
mbell 13y ago
I grew up in New England where there are a fair number of 'roundabouts' (or rotorys as we called them). They were part of my driving test to get my license as a teenager. My take on them is that they probably do make traffic flow faster, but I was always a bit scared to enter them whilst driving as almost no one seemed to understand the rules. i.e. If you're taking the first exit of the rotary, you should be in the right hand lane, if your not, you should be in the left hand lane. As a result there was a lot of awkward lane changing by people whilst at high turn angles, which was messy, mostly folks in the right hand lane of the rotary going multiple exits and ultimately cutting off someone in the left hand rotary lane on the way to a single lane exit.
- lallysingh 13y ago
  I don't have a link to the article, but I recall reading that having people slow down and be more cautious because of the ambiguity helps safety.
  - mercer 13y ago
    Yeah, this has been a big thing in Holland over the years, where they actually remove traffic signs and separation between roads and bike lanes (merging them into one wider street) precisely because it turned out to be safer. It makes complete sense: when rules are based on other people's behavior rather than mindlessly following rules (that others might not, for various reasons), everyone watches out more. Edit: to be clear, as a cyclist, roundabouts (and zebra crossings, for that matter) scare the hell out of me precisely because the rules are less explicit, and one dumb driver who doesn't stop for me might cost me my life. But I still prefer a roundabout that results in me being overly cautious, to traffic lights that I and my fellow commuters mindlessly follow where there is still the same risk of a dumb or distracted driver going through red. I'm probably safer off with roundabouts.
- sigkill 13y ago
  It's interesting that you call a roundabout a rotary, they are two different things actually - http://www.cityofbrooklyncenter.org/DocumentCenter/Home/View/331 http://www.cityofbrooklyncenter.org/DocumentCenter/Home/View...
sandGorgon 13y ago
These absolutely do not work in Asia - they are pretty common in the Indian subcontinent and SE asia. However, fundamentally it is a self-regulated mechanism where you need to follow rules like allow merging from left, etc. Traffic signals have more simplistic rules and can be more strictly enforced. The problem happens in heavy traffic when you are literally fighting for your exit - there is no way that you can claim to have been following the rules. In India, a lot of roundabouts are being converted to traffic signals to save time and safety.
- 616c 13y ago
  Said the same thing about the Middle East. In the Gulf, Indian community is large as well, and they seem to be much more adept at understanding "the rules" than the European and American expats who complain a lot.
- masklinn 13y ago
  > These absolutely do not work in Asia - they are pretty common in the Indian subcontinent and SE asia. Considering traffic lights don't work either (unless there are a few cops looking for coffee money under the light), that's not exactly surprising.
malandrew 13y ago
The other day I actually got to see inside one of those big green boxes on the intersection corners in SF that control the street lights. I was shocked at how much equipment was needed to operate one of those. It's as if there has been no progress in the industry with respect to minimization because it's not a selling point, only price and functionality are.
- josh2600 13y ago
  Yes. It's as if companies don't waste money on R&D when there's no competition. That's how most of industrial America (and the world) works. Competition breeds innovation, or something like that.
616c 13y ago
Qatar made a lot of controversy here quite recently, as part of the crazy World Cup efforts for the next decade or so. Part of those efforts are removing all those roundabouts why? This article can say what it wants about R/As, but the maintenance improvements are lost as the rest of the traffic grinds to a halt and it severely impacts the local economy with crippling traffic. People do not respect the flow of traffic here, being the major issue. It is hard to get people to use R/As properly if they do not understand intent. Traffic frequently grinds to a halt as people cut-across, going from the most inner lane out of the roundabout, or circle around in the outer lane and continue to the next exit. It is so common it is the common cause of accidents in the country's capital of Doha. Since the R/A is the nexus of the major chokepoints, an accident causes more severe traffic. The massive traffic is now compounded by the fact they must build intersections inside the center of the R/A, and tear up the road to properly re-align. This never goes smoothly, and the countries traffic has become worse over the last few months as people continue to do this. So, perhaps the cost is lower, but traffic dynamics are terrible in large cities where the rules are misunderstood, which I assume to be all of them.
- AlisdairO 13y ago
  Roundabouts are extremely common in the UK and work very well - but (a) they are well understood, and (b) my experience is that drivers here are probably more polite than average.
  - 616c 13y ago
    And hence my point. Coming from the US, and many expats there are from the UK, the amount of stern criticism leads me to believe driver education will continue to be a problem, and they need intersections and more clearly cut rules (read: radar detectors, with expensive fines, increasingly more common in Qatar) and things will continue along the same course, just faster adoption of cultural standards.
d43594 13y ago
Gloucestershire in the UK have a habit of putting traffic lights on roundabouts which as you can imagine completely defeats the point of one. A round about automatically prioritises traffic based on demand. This combination of two contradictory solutions is the work of the devil.
- barrkel 13y ago
  Roundabouts need traffic lights if any exit has a continuous stream of traffic; it starves the entrance immediately before the exit. If there's much traffic entering before a popular exit, it can easily get backed up. I've seen several roundabouts get traffic lights, or get converted back into a traffic light junction, because of this, as traffic patterns changed.
joshuaheard 13y ago
Roundabouts rule! I live in France and can drive from here to the store without ever stopping. Single lane roundabouts are common, multi lane roundabouts are more rare. The 5-lane roundabout at the Arc de Triomphe is a white-knuckler. They work simply: each car entering the roundabout must yield. I've never had a problem. I have had issues in the roundabouts in Seattle. Partly because they inexplicably put a left turn lane in them. The other reason is most Americans are not familiar with the concept and balk when using them.
- mercurial 13y ago
  The only problem with roundabouts (especially around Paris) is when you have a lot of traffic and half the people forget to blink.
- ben0x539 13y ago
  One-lane roundabouts are fairly common where I live in Germany and I like them just fine, but your ridiculous muti-lane roundabouts confuse the hell out of me! Even on the two-lane roundabout between a place I stayed for a week and the nearest supermarket, I probably pissed off a couple of locals every time. :(
  - masklinn 13y ago
    > your ridiculous muti-lane roundabouts confuse the hell out of me! It's really not difficult, at least when there are only two lanes: * If you're going to travel for less than half the roundabout (going right), stay on the outer lane * If you're going to travel for more than half the roundabout (going left), go on the inner lane * If you're going straight, you can do either (it's mostly a question of traffic, if there's no traffic you can cut through the inner lane) The second is more risky as not all drivers use their signals, let alone correctly, but normally you give your output direction when entering the roundabout (so use left signals if going left and right when going right), then cut off the signals when on the roundabout and signal right when you're between the exit you want to take and the previous one. If you fear multi-lane roundabouts or are lost, just stay on the outer lane and do not use your turn signals. People will get slightly annoyed when they gave way and you were turning before them, but nothing more.
jeffblake 13y ago
Imagine you are one of the engineers behind traffic lights. That's something to be proud of, you've built something that keeps people safer, can allow emergency vehicles to pass through, are centrally controllable, it can do this this and this, EVERYONE knows about them... "Hey I'm the guy that invented the traffic light!" BUT now look at the "primitive" roundabout. It wins. Something thats simpler, won't fail, and actually keeps people safer. This is the dilemma I always fight with myself when I build tech solutions to problems: Does this really make it better? Just because I think its cool, or even that I am proud of it, doesn't mean its good for people to use. For me it always comes down to what is the best. I believe the best in anything is very objective, and that can often lead to very existential questions... I make software that replaces paper tickets. The battle is always there when someone will say they just want to stick to paper tickets. Sometimes, its hard to disagree with them. but when a customer pays me money, I start to feel better for awhile. Then the thought is not: 'is this the best solution to this problem'... but rather: 'is this the best thing I am capable of'
blue1 13y ago
The article mentions "dutch roundabouts" without explanation. Here is a page describing them: http://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2013/05/09/a-modern-amsterdam-roundabout/ http://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2013/05/09/a-modern-amster...
mehdim 13y ago
France has half of the world roundabouts with close to 30 000 ones (for a total of 36000 cities)

32 points by deusclovis 13y ago

beedogs 13y ago

Roundabouts are everywhere in Australia and I never understood why I almost never saw them in America.

eropple 13y ago
New England has a lot of the old, non-modern roundabout (which this article is talking about but doesn't really distinguish from traditional roundabouts/traffic circles/rotaries). Boston may have a few that aren't completely Euclidian.
RowanH 13y ago
Same in NZ - after living in Canada for nearly 8 years, just returned back to NZ. I love roundabouts... far quicker getting round town, you're not constantly having to do these infuriating 4 way stops everywhere.
pandaman 13y ago
People are not used to roundabouts in America. I lived in place where a whole residential area (i.e. very light traffic, low speed limit, school zones) used roundabouts instead of stop signs. Almost every other time I've seen another car on a roundabout it's been making a left turn by driving clockwise (in America people normally drive on the right side of the road so you need to drive counterclockwise). On a more lively roundabout that was on my way to a freeway I had to be very careful as a significant number of merging cars believed they have a right of way. If there had been a way from my home that did not have a roundabout I'd rather use that because roundabouts were really scary.
- mapt 13y ago
  I've regularly used three roundabouts in my life in the US for different daily commutes, two of which were very busy: I've never seen anyone try to drive clockwise. They do cause confusion for the drivers, who are unlikely to regularly encounter them and are never sure who believes who has right of way, but not clueless to that degree. Right of way on single-lane traffic circles is something people can figure out through driving slow and common sense. I am not a fan of 2-3 lane roundabout / traffic circles which try to use signal-less operation, because right of way becomes intractable and lane changes difficult.
  - pandaman 13y ago
    That's not really clueless. I also lived near an overpass with ramps (where you can get on/off the upper street by a ramp, which is, naturally, unidirectional) and since the upper street was not divided it was possible to drive on a ramp in a wrong way. And I have seen couple cars doing just that. From my understanding, quite a few drivers do not really know traffic rules beyond "red means stop" and just follow other cars. If there are no other cars to follow they quickly get confused by any unusual road structure.
decadentcactus 13y ago
Agreed, they're simple to use, even the 2 lane varieties. I think the problem is as mentioned, often American ones are much different. It seems more like a free for all circle with a random bunch of roads exiting and entering, with no lanes marked. Also construction obscured the view to the left. I did come across a few "normal" roundabouts at least, but they either don't exist or are terrible.

mceoin 13y ago

"American authorities say swapping crossroads for roundabouts cuts deaths by 90% and crashes by a third."

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

OWaz 13y ago

In some of the skiing villages in Colorado the intersections were ripped out and roundabouts were added. I heard it was to make the towns seem more European. As a driver I realized it made traffic flow much, much faster. What I do wonder is if roundabouts that service major roads have a lower accident rate than an intersection with traffic lights.

ck2 13y ago

Plus I bet it is near impossible to text-while-driving in a roundabout, well at least not and stay alive. Might make people actually pay attention to their driving if there were more in the USA. Do other countries have a similar text-while-driving problem?

mappu 13y ago
In NZ we had an advertising campaign against it, and then in 2009 it was made illegal to use your phone while driving (excepting "infrequent and brief" GPS use and hands-free calling). If you're caught there's a small fine, but a comparatively large number of demerit points are applied to your license (after sufficiently many of which your license can be revoked).
masklinn 13y ago
> Plus I bet it is near impossible to text-while-driving in a roundabout, well at least not and stay alive. Depends on the size of the roundabout, on some of them you can more or less go straight through (the bends can be smaller than a chicane). > Do other countries have a similar text-while-driving problem? Yes. A number of countries have laws against operation of a mobile phone while driving (be it texting or calling).

btbuilder 13y ago

I've often suspected that the extensive use of stop signs instead of yields or traffic circles in the US on suburban or low traffic streets and roads is a conspiracy run by the brake pad and oil industries.

cjrp 13y ago

That's one of the things I've found frustrating about driving in America. In England, approaching a roundabout with a good open view to your right you can see when there's no approaching traffic and maintain 20-30mph. Whereas in America, despite the fact I could see it was clear, I had to come to a complete stop.

mmanfrin 13y ago

Nevada built America’s first in 1990 I grew up in Orinda, and for as long as I can remember there has been a roundabout in theater square[1]. [1] https://www.google.com/maps/preview#!q=orinda&data=!1m4!1m3!1d375!2d-122.1822754!3d37.8791622!2m1!1e3!4m15!2m14!1m13!1s0x80857cbd5dc823ff%3A0x89dac03702126789!3m8!1m3!1d5884509!2d-119.306607!3d37.2691745!3m2!1i1439!2i695!4f13.1!4m2!3d37.8771476!4d-122.1796888&fid=7 https://www.google.com/maps/preview#!q=orinda&data=!1m4!1m3!...

blackjack48 13y ago
That appears to be a traffic circle. Entry to roundabouts is controlled entirely by yield signs.

mbell 13y ago

I grew up in New England where there are a fair number of 'roundabouts' (or rotorys as we called them). They were part of my driving test to get my license as a teenager. My take on them is that they probably do make traffic flow faster, but I was always a bit scared to enter them whilst driving as almost no one seemed to understand the rules. i.e. If you're taking the first exit of the rotary, you should be in the right hand lane, if your not, you should be in the left hand lane. As a result there was a lot of awkward lane changing by people whilst at high turn angles, which was messy, mostly folks in the right hand lane of the rotary going multiple exits and ultimately cutting off someone in the left hand rotary lane on the way to a single lane exit.

lallysingh 13y ago
I don't have a link to the article, but I recall reading that having people slow down and be more cautious because of the ambiguity helps safety.
- mercer 13y ago
  Yeah, this has been a big thing in Holland over the years, where they actually remove traffic signs and separation between roads and bike lanes (merging them into one wider street) precisely because it turned out to be safer. It makes complete sense: when rules are based on other people's behavior rather than mindlessly following rules (that others might not, for various reasons), everyone watches out more. Edit: to be clear, as a cyclist, roundabouts (and zebra crossings, for that matter) scare the hell out of me precisely because the rules are less explicit, and one dumb driver who doesn't stop for me might cost me my life. But I still prefer a roundabout that results in me being overly cautious, to traffic lights that I and my fellow commuters mindlessly follow where there is still the same risk of a dumb or distracted driver going through red. I'm probably safer off with roundabouts.
sigkill 13y ago
It's interesting that you call a roundabout a rotary, they are two different things actually - http://www.cityofbrooklyncenter.org/DocumentCenter/Home/View/331 http://www.cityofbrooklyncenter.org/DocumentCenter/Home/View...

sandGorgon 13y ago

These absolutely do not work in Asia - they are pretty common in the Indian subcontinent and SE asia. However, fundamentally it is a self-regulated mechanism where you need to follow rules like allow merging from left, etc. Traffic signals have more simplistic rules and can be more strictly enforced. The problem happens in heavy traffic when you are literally fighting for your exit - there is no way that you can claim to have been following the rules. In India, a lot of roundabouts are being converted to traffic signals to save time and safety.

616c 13y ago
Said the same thing about the Middle East. In the Gulf, Indian community is large as well, and they seem to be much more adept at understanding "the rules" than the European and American expats who complain a lot.
masklinn 13y ago
> These absolutely do not work in Asia - they are pretty common in the Indian subcontinent and SE asia. Considering traffic lights don't work either (unless there are a few cops looking for coffee money under the light), that's not exactly surprising.

malandrew 13y ago

The other day I actually got to see inside one of those big green boxes on the intersection corners in SF that control the street lights. I was shocked at how much equipment was needed to operate one of those. It's as if there has been no progress in the industry with respect to minimization because it's not a selling point, only price and functionality are.

josh2600 13y ago
Yes. It's as if companies don't waste money on R&D when there's no competition. That's how most of industrial America (and the world) works. Competition breeds innovation, or something like that.

616c 13y ago

Qatar made a lot of controversy here quite recently, as part of the crazy World Cup efforts for the next decade or so. Part of those efforts are removing all those roundabouts why? This article can say what it wants about R/As, but the maintenance improvements are lost as the rest of the traffic grinds to a halt and it severely impacts the local economy with crippling traffic. People do not respect the flow of traffic here, being the major issue. It is hard to get people to use R/As properly if they do not understand intent. Traffic frequently grinds to a halt as people cut-across, going from the most inner lane out of the roundabout, or circle around in the outer lane and continue to the next exit. It is so common it is the common cause of accidents in the country's capital of Doha. Since the R/A is the nexus of the major chokepoints, an accident causes more severe traffic. The massive traffic is now compounded by the fact they must build intersections inside the center of the R/A, and tear up the road to properly re-align. This never goes smoothly, and the countries traffic has become worse over the last few months as people continue to do this. So, perhaps the cost is lower, but traffic dynamics are terrible in large cities where the rules are misunderstood, which I assume to be all of them.

AlisdairO 13y ago
Roundabouts are extremely common in the UK and work very well - but (a) they are well understood, and (b) my experience is that drivers here are probably more polite than average.
- 616c 13y ago
  And hence my point. Coming from the US, and many expats there are from the UK, the amount of stern criticism leads me to believe driver education will continue to be a problem, and they need intersections and more clearly cut rules (read: radar detectors, with expensive fines, increasingly more common in Qatar) and things will continue along the same course, just faster adoption of cultural standards.

d43594 13y ago

Gloucestershire in the UK have a habit of putting traffic lights on roundabouts which as you can imagine completely defeats the point of one. A round about automatically prioritises traffic based on demand. This combination of two contradictory solutions is the work of the devil.

barrkel 13y ago
Roundabouts need traffic lights if any exit has a continuous stream of traffic; it starves the entrance immediately before the exit. If there's much traffic entering before a popular exit, it can easily get backed up. I've seen several roundabouts get traffic lights, or get converted back into a traffic light junction, because of this, as traffic patterns changed.

joshuaheard 13y ago

Roundabouts rule! I live in France and can drive from here to the store without ever stopping. Single lane roundabouts are common, multi lane roundabouts are more rare. The 5-lane roundabout at the Arc de Triomphe is a white-knuckler. They work simply: each car entering the roundabout must yield. I've never had a problem. I have had issues in the roundabouts in Seattle. Partly because they inexplicably put a left turn lane in them. The other reason is most Americans are not familiar with the concept and balk when using them.

mercurial 13y ago
The only problem with roundabouts (especially around Paris) is when you have a lot of traffic and half the people forget to blink.
ben0x539 13y ago
One-lane roundabouts are fairly common where I live in Germany and I like them just fine, but your ridiculous muti-lane roundabouts confuse the hell out of me! Even on the two-lane roundabout between a place I stayed for a week and the nearest supermarket, I probably pissed off a couple of locals every time. :(
- masklinn 13y ago
  > your ridiculous muti-lane roundabouts confuse the hell out of me! It's really not difficult, at least when there are only two lanes: * If you're going to travel for less than half the roundabout (going right), stay on the outer lane * If you're going to travel for more than half the roundabout (going left), go on the inner lane * If you're going straight, you can do either (it's mostly a question of traffic, if there's no traffic you can cut through the inner lane) The second is more risky as not all drivers use their signals, let alone correctly, but normally you give your output direction when entering the roundabout (so use left signals if going left and right when going right), then cut off the signals when on the roundabout and signal right when you're between the exit you want to take and the previous one. If you fear multi-lane roundabouts or are lost, just stay on the outer lane and do not use your turn signals. People will get slightly annoyed when they gave way and you were turning before them, but nothing more.

jeffblake 13y ago

Imagine you are one of the engineers behind traffic lights. That's something to be proud of, you've built something that keeps people safer, can allow emergency vehicles to pass through, are centrally controllable, it can do this this and this, EVERYONE knows about them... "Hey I'm the guy that invented the traffic light!" BUT now look at the "primitive" roundabout. It wins. Something thats simpler, won't fail, and actually keeps people safer. This is the dilemma I always fight with myself when I build tech solutions to problems: Does this really make it better? Just because I think its cool, or even that I am proud of it, doesn't mean its good for people to use. For me it always comes down to what is the best. I believe the best in anything is very objective, and that can often lead to very existential questions... I make software that replaces paper tickets. The battle is always there when someone will say they just want to stick to paper tickets. Sometimes, its hard to disagree with them. but when a customer pays me money, I start to feel better for awhile. Then the thought is not: 'is this the best solution to this problem'... but rather: 'is this the best thing I am capable of'

blue1 13y ago

The article mentions "dutch roundabouts" without explanation. Here is a page describing them: http://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2013/05/09/a-modern-amsterdam-roundabout/ http://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2013/05/09/a-modern-amster...

mehdim 13y ago

France has half of the world roundabouts with close to 30 000 ones (for a total of 36000 cities)