4 ms·

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

by 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...
- mbell 13y ago
  For what it's worth when I took my driving test in ~1999 they were called rotaries but the dynamics and physical layout was more like roundabouts from your pdf. i.e. If properly entered there was no 'weave' area, it's just that there always seemed to be multiple cars in the rotary with no clue causing weaving. Ironically I've been back to that area recently and it's been physically changed and now looks much more like the rotary layout in your pdf.
- nostrademons 13y ago
  The "rotaries" I knew of in Massachusetts were all actually roundabouts in terms of their physical layout and traffic rules governing them.
brador 13y ago
My theory: here we drive on the right. In countries where roundabouts are succesful they drive on the left. The anti-clockwise flow of cars on right side drive might be more difficult for the brain to comprehend, leading to confusion and panic.
- dmoo 13y ago
  I live in Ireland (we drive on the left) lots of roundabouts which work fine. I have driven many times in France (they drive on the right) and their roundabouts work just fine as well. Your brain adjusts pretty quickly.
- masklinn 13y ago
  > My theory: here we drive on the right. In countries where roundabouts are succesful they drive on the left. France has 30000 roundabouts. Your theory is nonsense. > The anti-clockwise flow of cars on right side drive might be more difficult for the brain to comprehend, leading to confusion and panic. It's not, it's only difficult for the brain to comprehend when you don't know what roundabouts are and how they work, as with any other somewhat complex road structure.
  - brador 13y ago
    Relax, it was just a theory not an absolute declaration of my perfection. It would be interesting to see accident statistics comparing left and right side roundabouts. Maybe there is a difference.
KVFinn 13y ago
New England Rotaries are closer to roundabouts than traffic circles, but not generally considered the same. "Most common in the New England region of the United States, a rotary is primarily a mid 20th century roadway design defined as a circular, one way, often multi-lane roadway, similar to a traffic circle or a roundabout, but with key differences. They are often found as overpasses or underpasses to highways. Usually traffic already in the rotary has the right-of-way as in a modern roundabout and opposite of a traffic circle, although there are exceptions. The difference in design of a rotary versus a roundabout or a traffic circle, is such that rotaries tend to be quite large and there is little deflection around the central circle (meaning traffic coming on or off does so primarily in a straight line, not a curve). These two factors mean that rotary traffic often travels at speeds in excess of 30 miles per hour, leading to confusion and accidents, and the resulting unpopularity, that the modern roundabout does not suffer from. Although this is a traffic engineering definition, many rotaries are called traffic circles or simply circles, such as the Portsmouth Traffic Circle, in naming." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roundabout http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roundabout

by mbell 13y ago

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...

mbell 13y ago
For what it's worth when I took my driving test in ~1999 they were called rotaries but the dynamics and physical layout was more like roundabouts from your pdf. i.e. If properly entered there was no 'weave' area, it's just that there always seemed to be multiple cars in the rotary with no clue causing weaving. Ironically I've been back to that area recently and it's been physically changed and now looks much more like the rotary layout in your pdf.
nostrademons 13y ago
The "rotaries" I knew of in Massachusetts were all actually roundabouts in terms of their physical layout and traffic rules governing them.

brador 13y ago

My theory: here we drive on the right. In countries where roundabouts are succesful they drive on the left. The anti-clockwise flow of cars on right side drive might be more difficult for the brain to comprehend, leading to confusion and panic.

dmoo 13y ago
I live in Ireland (we drive on the left) lots of roundabouts which work fine. I have driven many times in France (they drive on the right) and their roundabouts work just fine as well. Your brain adjusts pretty quickly.
masklinn 13y ago
> My theory: here we drive on the right. In countries where roundabouts are succesful they drive on the left. France has 30000 roundabouts. Your theory is nonsense. > The anti-clockwise flow of cars on right side drive might be more difficult for the brain to comprehend, leading to confusion and panic. It's not, it's only difficult for the brain to comprehend when you don't know what roundabouts are and how they work, as with any other somewhat complex road structure.
- brador 13y ago
  Relax, it was just a theory not an absolute declaration of my perfection. It would be interesting to see accident statistics comparing left and right side roundabouts. Maybe there is a difference.

KVFinn 13y ago

New England Rotaries are closer to roundabouts than traffic circles, but not generally considered the same. "Most common in the New England region of the United States, a rotary is primarily a mid 20th century roadway design defined as a circular, one way, often multi-lane roadway, similar to a traffic circle or a roundabout, but with key differences. They are often found as overpasses or underpasses to highways. Usually traffic already in the rotary has the right-of-way as in a modern roundabout and opposite of a traffic circle, although there are exceptions. The difference in design of a rotary versus a roundabout or a traffic circle, is such that rotaries tend to be quite large and there is little deflection around the central circle (meaning traffic coming on or off does so primarily in a straight line, not a curve). These two factors mean that rotary traffic often travels at speeds in excess of 30 miles per hour, leading to confusion and accidents, and the resulting unpopularity, that the modern roundabout does not suffer from. Although this is a traffic engineering definition, many rotaries are called traffic circles or simply circles, such as the Portsmouth Traffic Circle, in naming." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roundabout http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roundabout