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

by beedogs 13y ago

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.

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

by beedogs 13y ago

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

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.