Found this and thought it was interesting. I wish we had one around here. NC is starting to do circles again after realizing their merits, and if there's no traffic around I love to do them 3 or 4 times. Major hoot.

http://www.swindonweb.com/life/lifemagi0.htm

 

Ugh... I HATE traffic circles!!!

Oh sure they're fun when you're the only one... too bad that practically never happens. There are 2 by my house and, more often than not, I get trapped behind a teeny little old lady whose bouffant is just barely visible over the seat of her bigarse Continental as she stops -- not yields -- and waits to see if cars in the preceeding circle are going to venture into "her" circle then, just to be sure, allows an extra 3 minutes of complete carlessness pass before trepidatiously entering the circle at a maximum of 3mph. Generally, these people also enter the following traffic circle in precisely the same manner, sucking up about 15 minutes of my daily commute -- time during which I could have driven to work (having some fun in the roundabouts), poured coffee, chatted up the security guard and keyed myself up to my 3rd floor office in the worlds slowest elevator!

Traffic circles... BAH!

 

I'm dizzy just looking at those pictures!

 

Good one....

I don't have a picture but there are several good ones up in the Boston area that I've been around many times... And one in the Bahamas (the sign says "Squeeze in Play" as you merge - hehehehehe...

Donna

 

There are three roundabouts in a line, no more than a half mile apart a bit over a mile from my house. I drive through these things every day. They are a blast to go through as long as there is not a bunch of traffic, the bonus being that they are 'two lane through', meaning that traffic going 180 degrees through the roundabout in the road's major direction has two lanes. This makes for great passing scenarios. Not to mention big surprises for those who think they can keep up with a MINI in a roundabout.

 

There is a town close to where I live that recently put in a roundabout at an intersection near a hospital. The public outcry was incredible. People went NUTS over the idea of this. There were all kinds of complaints about how bad an idea this was and how it would never work, cause accidents, cause traffic jams, etc. It seemed funny to me that most of the world uses roundabouts without any trouble and that they help traffic flow better at intersections than stop signs or traffic lights, but here they were going to be the downfall of the motoring public. I wonder if most of the outcry was people weren't smart enough to figure out how to drive a roundabout.

Then the city built it too small. Trucks and SUV's couldn't go around with out hitting the curbs. Needless to say that created a MAJOR uproar. I think someone even started a petition to have it removed. The city has since enlarged the circle and the uproar seems to have disappeared, but I never see much traffic there so I guess most people avoid it.

Gromit always seems to find traffic circles and use them. I guess he enjoys them! We like the fact that traffic is always light.

I can just hear the screaming if a roundabout like the one in Swindon was planned in this area! Around here, a basic circle traveling in one direction is too complicated for most. It at first looks a little complex, but I can see the benefits with it if folks knew how to use it.

 

We have one roundabout in my town and sometimes I go out of my way to whip through it a few times. I have never run into any other traffic in it, as it is in a newer part of town. Good fun!

 

That's the most retarded thing I've ever seen...

 

Yeah, great fun when there's no other traffic on them. Since getting the MINI, I feel compelled to do at least at least 5 or 6 continuous orbits of the roundabouts in Eden Park every time I'm up there.

Alway makes me think of the chase in The Man Who Knew Too Little...

 

<shudder>
Been thru the Boston area roundabouts many times. One word describes the experience. Now what was that word?...
Wait, it's coming to me...

Oh, yeah; cluster&^#$ !!!

 

Look kids....Big Ben!

 

Ahhh My cousin lives in Swindon I'll have to swing by that way. Going there in May after the Dragon, for my 2nd annual visit to the MINI Plant...

Boy I am going to have fun with this one......

 

Roundabouts are excellent traffic tools and beat stop signs any day of the week and twice on sundays.

They aren't meant for every intersection and no doubt some DOTs have screwed the pooch and put them in bad places. But overall they are worth it.

Know what the hottest transportation item is? CFIs. Continuous Flow Intersections.

They work in Mexico. So Louisiana is doing the first one. It's technically half a CFI. But if it works then they'll start putting them all over the place. They want to put 2 in Lafayette. Check them out here, I recommend clicking on the video to see how it works. http://www.abmb.com/cfi-testdrive.html

 

Thats cool egnough but It seems to me to be a band-aid...a true interchange such as a cloverleaf means that you never have to stop at all and is a true CFI ...I am guessing that these type intersections cost signifigantly less than a cloveleaf but with just more and more cars clogging roads it seems like a short term solution where you truly need a real interchange to handle future capacity needs.

 

That CFI looks interesting. When someone blows a red light, the collision will be more head on and there will be more crush space.

A problem with both the CFI and the traffic cirle is that they take up too much real estate for Chik-Fil-As, Taco Bells and CVS stores. The developers around here would never let that happen.

 

Traffic circles are going extinct here in South Jersey. The roads have gotten way too congested to handle the load. During my very first driving lesson (1979!), the instructor took me around the dreaded Ellisburg Circle in Cherry Hill, NJ. We both lived to talk about it.

Ellisburg and Race Track circles are history in Cherry Hill. The Medford Circle is also gone, and the Berlin Circle is being removed as we speak. Next up, the dreaded Marlton Circle, where Routes 70 and 73 meet. This is a major route to the NJ beaches from Philadelphia and is an absolute nightmare. I, for one, will be glad to see them ALL gone.

 

I'm not sure whether Swindon was first, but there's a similar "magic roundabout" in Hemel Hempstead, UK. There first time I had to navigate my way around that in rush-hour traffic, I nearly sh*t my pants.

Given the way people often disregard red lights in the US (something you "never" see in the UK) I'd dread to think what would happen if roundabouts became a common sight over here; I, for one, would hate the thought of being broadsided in my MINI by a Hummer.

 

I drive those sames ones every day too (at least weekdays). It's really four in a row now though as they have the new one were all those shops are being built across from the Park & Ride. The biggest problem I have on them is the people who don't understand that both lanes are through. So the morons in the outside lane swerve to the inside lane and proceed to cut people off.

 

Maybe in theory, but I've been driving on them my entire life up here in New England, and when people don't follow the rules, roundabouts SUCK.

Massachusetts drivers have decided that even though the law disagrees with them, they have the right of way when they're entering the roundabout. Makes for a real fun game of chicken.

 

As an American living in Germany, it amuses me to see the response on traffic circles from an American perspective. Here in Germany that are used all over the place and are very effective at minimizing traffic. The downside is that you have to follow the rules of the road, something that most American dirvers have a hard time doing (myself included). Most accidents in traffic circles (here in my area) are caused by americans not signaling or swerving as if to exit and then not.

Bottom line is that they do work well, we just need to be trained how to use them. Signals are required and depending on the signs determines who has the right of way. (typically those in the cricle have priority).

 

Toast, that’s because people here do not no how to drive one. Having spent 6 years in the UK and finding them around every major and minor intersection, you learn how great they are very fast.

There’s no need for a traffic light and though you may have to yield briefly, traffic from all directions should always be moving. They are fantastic. Our problem here is people see a yield sign and make a full stop. All that does is defeat the purpose of the circle itself.

 

I find it interesting that you have the opposite problem there that we have up here. Our drivers ignore right-of-way and don't yield when coming into a roundabout, and yours are too cautious.

A fascinating sociological difference!

 

. . . just to mention, so's ya' don't forget - it's England mates, stay to the LEFT!!!!!

 

My mind wasn't working right, there are only 3 in a row. Somehow I thought there where 3 where 216 and 29 meet up so the new one would make it four. After going through them this morning I realized I was wrong. Oh well, they're still fun provided you don't get stuck behind the grey-hair in the ginormous buick.

 

This is true. I navigate two traffic circles in Cambridge MA several times a week on my way home from work. As soon as I enter one, I've got one hand on the horn ready to lay on it if somebody even thinks of darting in front of me. I'd say I have to use it only about 25% of the time, but when I do, it's certainly not a quick friendly toot. I still like them far better than traffic lights, though.

Where I grew up in NW Connecticut we called them rotaries.