Zerobricks

Do you have roundabouts where you live?

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I was just browing youtube today and noticed lots of comments (seesm from US and Canada) about how roundabouts (traffic circles) are a nightmare...

Whats your experience with them?

Personally I like them, in our little town there are at least five and there are no real issues with them.

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Welcome to the Netherlands, homeland of roundabouts. Every 100 meters there is one, in some parts. Where I live now, there are roundabouts about every 500 meters. Yeey. Ofcourse on the highway there are none. Most of them are quite small, but some are huge, like 50 meters diameter.

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Welcome to the Netherlands, homeland of roundabouts. Every 100 meters there is one, in some parts. Where I live now, there are roundabouts about every 500 meters. Yeey. Ofcourse on the highway there are none. Most of them are quite small, but some are huge, like 50 meters diameter.

Yeah, I've been to NL two times now, and its really full of roundabuts.

What i also love about NL are the bicycle paths everywhere.

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Here, in rural Missouri, my nearest roundabout is 60 miles away. They are so rare that drivers are unused to them and it's caused some problems. I've had people tell me that roundabouts are 'socialist' and 'unamerican' :laugh:

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^I think that is the problem. They are a relatively new thing here in the states, at least near me. I grew up in an area without one. The first time I ever saw one was when I went to grad school some 1200 miles away! I didn't know how to drive through it. That city had a few, but Indianapolis had this giant one in the city center that didn't even have lanes. Everyone was basically running into each other. It was odd.

My current city has at least 10 round-abouts. They are much easier to handle now and I don't mind them as I did before. It keeps the flow of traffic moving...if you are aware what they are supposed to be doing. Many still want to do a 4 way stop.

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I live near Carmel, IN. Carmel has more roundabouts than any other city in the US (over 60 of them). I love them. They're a lot more efficient than stop signs.

It's funny because Kokomo, IN is known as "stoplight city." It takes about 15 minutes to drive two miles down 931. I think at one point, Kokomo had more stoplights per square mile than any other state in the US, but they've recently replaced most of them with stop signs (I still can't decide which is more annoying). So I enjoy driving through Carmel a lot more than driving through Kokomo (the latter of which I have to do daily, unfortunately). Kokomo does have one roundabout, but it's in a really random location by a park, and the area gets very little traffic.

Edited by jodawill

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I forgot to mention, some of the roundabouts here have multiple lanes. You are just driving, come at a roundabout and then you got to switch lanes like a boss to get off at the right exit. Lots of accidents happen at those roundabouts. Traffic lights are a lot less dangerous if you don't know how roundabouts work, or are new in that city. So basically some people have to go round the roundabout like 5 times. Very weird. I'd say, ditch all of them and replace them with traffic lights.

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Try visiting Cambridge (UK). Plenty of roundabouts but strangely, the only place I've found where hardly anyone seems to use indicators. There are times I wonder if there's a local by-law I'm not aware of that bans their use! :sweet:

Edited by grum64

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I wouldn't mind them so much if everyone else understood how to use them. That's the only problem in the U.S..

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We have at least two here along the shoreline in Connecticut, but they connect relatively lightly travelled roads so are not much of an issue. Besides, the entrances are regulated with stop signs.

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Here in my town, which is mostly a suburb, there are just a few, and they are all in residential areas, so not a lot of traffic. They do cause problems because they are rare and unfamiliar to people. Around here, even a 4-way stop sign is a challenge for a lot of the peeps...LOL We have to endure a lot of speed 'humps' to slow them down...

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There's a couple of them nearby. They're mostly where you get on and off the freeway, so they're a bit more complicated than some that are a bit further away. I personally don't have a problem with them, though.

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Try visiting Cambridge (UK). Plenty of roundabouts but strangely, the only place I've found where hardly anyone seems to use indicators. There are times I wonder if there's a local by-law I'm not aware of that bans their use! :sweet:

I agree! In Warwickshire (UK) we have plenty and once again hardly anyone uses their indicator! What's it like in other places then?

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My sympathies lie with those who live in Milton Keynes (UK). It's a town of around 260,000 people with over 300 roundabouts! :damn:

Edited by grum64

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The nearest one I know about is 70 miles to the south of me in Waco, TX. We had a week of vacation in June and went to Ireland where we rented a car. At first, the roundabouts made us a little nervous, but we quickly became accustomed to them and realized we liked them a lot better than traffic lights and stop signs. It really helped with keeping the flow of traffic going.

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I agree, they are quite smoother than the usual traffic lights. But the give you more responsebility because you have to make your own decisions (no lights to tell you what to do).

Edited by Zblj

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(no lights tot ell you what to do).

Do I detect a touch of the rebel about you? :sweet:

Edited by grum64

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Its like this...maybe some people are afriad of roundabouts because they suck at making decisions and therefore prefer traffic lights?

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Its like this...maybe some people are afriad of roundabouts because they suck at making decisions and therefore prefer traffic lights?

You know, I think you could be right. You are wise indeed :sweet:

I just get annoyed by people at roundabouts who seem to like using my new car (Gandalf :classic:) for 'target practice.'

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Gandalf?

Yeah some people can be quite "lost" in roundabouts... What I dont like is when they dont signal they will go out and you wait like an idiot to get in.

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Gandalf?

Jake, named it Gandalf because he thinks it's magical :classic:

What it may lack in style in more than makes up for in cleverness.

Edited by grum64

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