Roundabouts in America?

“sacco - Are you another engineer here?
I'm electrical/electronic.”

“I think yes. They seem to be easy to spot.
lol”

“yup snaf - carrier circle is a great example of a traffic circle and why they suck.

the only reason i know all this stuff is because my B.S. is in civil engineering with a transportation emphasis.

i had to sit though a couple of class periods learning this crap in detail.
i never thought it'd come up again in my life.”

“Friggin Brits are so dang smart!

Sacco
That is true! Man I have seen some horrific crashes with peeps running a red light or stop sign...
I have been guilty a few times of day dreaming or tired and went thru a stop sign and when I realized what I did it scared the Bajeezzzus out of me.... at least with a roundabout I would not have had the chance to T bone someone I would just ended up in George Washingtons Lap!”

“Sacco - I think maybe DC has roundabout traffic circles? Most need lights, some don't. all are under 35 but that's a city limit. Some stop half the traffic with an inner circle that is "suppossed" to exit at a certain point (otherwise the traffic "crosses" but try telling that to "newbies. All have 4 or more entrances, usually controlled by lights and a ped can take there life in there hands regardless of what the light says! Some have "lane shifts" with no explanation

I've lived here almost 5 yrs and I still avoid driving a couple of them.”

“Thirty years ago, about every Courthouse in the south, in a small town, had traffic one way around the Courthouse resulting in "squareabouts".

I don't see many that are still that way, however. Centerville, TN still does it that way.”

“Fuel Dispensor Engineer when I was 14!

Race Team Engineer from 23-35”

“seems to be alot of engineers here. it's a wonder this site doesn't crash.

bear- i've seen plenty of good examples and bad examples. i remember in class seeing one in the DC area as a very good example of how NOT to design one.”

“Wow, I go off to work out, come back, and there's a gigantic thread dealing with my professional expertise!!

For the most part, a few posters have the facts right. There is some confusion on the terminology, even in our profession. The "modern roundabout" is the thing that "is coming" to the US. There are already many of them in place, especially along a section of I-70 in Colorado called "roundabout alley." No, not on the freeway, but at the place where the on/off ramps meet the local streets. The main distinguishing feature of a "modern roundabout" is a simple concept of yielding to a vehicle that is already in the roundabout. Other things (rotaries, circles, etc.) usually do not have this characteristic. With relatively low traffic volumes - maybe up to about 3-5,000 cars per hour total - these work really well, as long as there's not some weirdly high pattern of left-turn traffic or something.

Pedestrians are a major issue because the standard crossing takes place a couple of car lengths back from the circle along the approach road. Cars are supposed to yield to peds. People in the US are very nervous about not having a signal or stop sign for a ped crossing. Basically, it puts more responsibility on the pedestrian to make sure no one is about to run him/her over. I don't know if this is good or bad, but reports I've seen seem to indicate it turns out there are fewer and less severe ped/car collisions.

One thing that irks me about "modern roundabouts" is that there are some engineers who think they (the roundabouts) are the panacea for everything, when, instead, I think they should be just another option (like signals or stop signs) to consider for controlling traffic.

Any additional questions? Thank you. Now I will get back to my lunch.”

“"sacco - Are you another engineer here?
I'm electrical/electronic."
StoveStomper


COME ON!
Off with the batman mask!
Your true Identity is Alcohol man!
Your an Alcohol Stove stompin Design Engineer and practitioner(sp?)...LOL








j/k”

“whenever i see stovestomper i always think of that kids show where the woman looks in the mirror and says,
"stomper, bomper, stomper doo" or something like that.”

“whenever i see stovestomper i always think of that kids show where the woman looks in the mirror and says,
"stomper, bomper, stomper doo" or something like that.”

“whenever i see stovestomper i always think of that kids show where the woman looks in the mirror and says,
"stomper, bomper, stomper doo" or something like that.”

“BM,
If you get the chance to design one, make it look like a GIANT brown eye from the air!!! LOL”

“I was thinking you could landscape the middle with some narrow rows of red flowers against some white sand so it would look like a bloodshot eye from above....”

“In MA they are real (not like crop circles). And in MA (the home of the world's worst drivers, no one really has the right of way. It belongs to the most aggressive driver. In MA, people believe that the shortest distance between two poonts is a straight line even when it means driving into a circle, cutting across two lanes to the closest to the center and then cutting right back across two lanes ot get to their exit. It gets UGLY!!!! I know. I grew up just nroth of Boston and learned to drive there. I even drove a taxi in the northern burbs of Boston. Be afraid. BE VERY AFRAID!!!”

“AJ,
Thats just Typical of Red Sawx Fans!!!






LOL”

“Dude....
Big diff between a Brown eye, a Blood shot eye or even a black eye...

2 of the 3 are in relation to the head. one is not :-)”

“Actually, there is some evidence supporting the notion that it's best to not paint any stripes inside a roundabout - seems that it's sometimes best to have fewer rules, since most people don't want to get in an accident so will do a good job at avoiding each other....”

“We have one around here. A simple concept to grasp, but you wouldn't believe some of the idiots that couldn't figure the thing out. The ones in Hilton Head were always jammed the week I was there.”

“They installed a few roundabouts here in Jax., and further north at Amelia Island. The drunks just keep driving through the middle, squashing the plantings. I don't know if they still replace the palm trees that get pushed over or not. Maybe a nice concrete and steel reinforced decorative rock wall is called for...”

“I agree with Stick. It's the idiots that can't figure them out. There are many in Boston and right here, smack dab in the middle of the country, in my hometown. They serve to calm traffic in neighborhoods where peopl otherwise endanger the residents, and they are a great option to traffic lights or stop signs, which waste millions of gallons of fuel each day.
I drove in Europe a while back and came to love them. A busy roundabout can be challenging at first, but you get used to them easily.”

“A common thing around here is what we call "traffic circles," which are the opposite of the gigantic things that others think of when hearing this terminology. They are basically a circular planter in the middle of a residential intersection, intended to slow people down. I was involved in a project where the residents decided they wanted a series of about a dozen of them. They planted oak trees in the middle, some of which got run over by testosterone-induced rampages by SUVs, but they kind of just sprung back up. Now the trees are big enough that you wouldn't want to do that, so it doesn't happen any more....”

“In order to implement them in some neighborhoods, you just about have to build a guard tower with a machine gun. However, most folks take kindly to them here.”

“In NJ circles, they try to give right of way to the road with more traffic on it, thus making it real confusing when you have the right of way and when you have to yield. Many of the urban circles in NJ have been removed because they just plain cause way too many accidents.”

“Madison, Wisconsin has one and so does Gloucester County, Virginia.”

“Several in MD, including a very busy one at a 5-way intersection (Towson). That one replaced a mess of traffic lights a few years ago. In theory they are better than lights, but not one person I have talked to over the last several years says they like it. Much easier on the nerves to just have a traffic light say "go" than battle a bunch of rotating traffic.”

“I got to drive my first "stupid circle of woe" last New Years in FLA my sis lives near Ft Lauderdale and I did all the driving while visiting. The circle was a pain but was tolerable cause my sisters car is a blast to drive.”

“atlanta doesnt need or want these...we have enough interstates and expressways that im sure there are some people out there driving along with no clue that they ahve brakes that dont work....come on down and hop on the perimeter road I-285...bout 68 miles of mayhem, average speed is about 95 i think...”

“Some of the villages just outside of the City of Chicago have roundabouts/circles/orwhateveryouwanna call them. It's really weird, because the City is on a grid system, and then your trying to get to some place just outside the city limits, and you have these plants in the middle of the intersection! huh?




sacco

The show was Romper Room. You're showing your age. ;-}”

“We have a roundabout on a long parkway here. I think it's main purpose is to slow folks down. There are a lot of black marks on the curbs of the adjoining streets where people went too fast and missed. I know it's a roundabout, cuz there's a sign labeling it.


"Romper, bomper, stomper, boo.
Tell me, tell me, tell me do.
Magic mirror, tell me today.
Did all my friends have fun at play?"

Are you a do-bee?”

“We have several on Cape Cod. Good to know that vehicles entering, have the right of way in Massachusetts. Survival of the fittest prevails”

“head on's suck, lemme assure you.

we used to get drunk and go through them the wrong direction, only in reverse...

fun fun”

“I have begun the design for one modern roundabout that was been put on hold but has recently been fast tracked again and am preparing to begin the design for another one (need to send out my survey crew, but I already have them in the bush cutting line for another project).

I am not an expert on roundabouts yet, but I imagine by the time I finish these two I will be well on my way. Concerning the pedestrian question, roundabouts that are designed correctly have a Splitter Island to seperate enetering and exiting traffic, (and to direct incoming traffic into the correct geometry to enter the roundabout at the right speed, and hopefully, in the right direction.) Pedestrian traffic only has to cross one-way traffic before reaching the splitter island, then they can wait for the traffic to clear in the other direction before completing the crossing.

Its also my understanding that on roundabouts all entering traffic must yield to traffic in the circle, this keeps the traffic in the roundabout free flowing, and since the speeds are slower than in a traffic circle, entering traffic doesn't need as big a gap in traffic as they do in a circle.

The roundabout we are preparing to begin design work for is in a rural area but has a high amount of commuter AND tourist traffic coming through the current intersection. When we had the public hearing some of the attendees were carrying torches and pitchforks and chanting "Burn the beasts", but by the end of the meeting we had satisfied most if not all the people there.”

“Good luck, Hyway. It won't take you long to be an expert, I'm sure.”

“I keep thinking of the "Vacation" movie with Chevy Chase where they get stuck in a roundabout for hours, lol...”

“This thread sure has gone around in a circle, ha ha.
The 'Vacation' movie reference was the very first post to this thread.”

“Thanks for the luck, Dunadan, but I am still worried about those pitchforks and burning torches.”

“We have roundabouts all over the place here in S. Fl.

They've even put in new ones where there used to be "normal" American type intersections.

Foncuses the you-know-what out of the old folks.”

“If you drive in Massachusetts then you should know that the right or way belongs to him (or her) who takes it. Rules of the Road be damned according to most Mass. drivers. They are so aggressive!!!!”

“I prefer to let the aggressive drivers already "in" the rotary to do as they dam well please, rather than asserting my right of way to enter. But now that I've learned "rotary rules" on TT, I may have to kick it up a notch.”

“I see people have already posted my experiences:

-- the roundabout off I-70, going into Vail

-- the round thing surrounding a park IN FRONT OF THE COURTHOUSE in a quaint southern town where one of your fav. TTers (and his dogs) live. That "circle" has yield signs at the squared off corners on the edge of the circle in four areas. I had to blink twice to see the thing in operation!! I think that's right... or maybe they were stops. However, I think the stop signs were at the streets coming into it. I understand it needs a cop for morning rush hour traffic heading to Atlanta (and bad enough at noon when trying to stop at Grits for lunch!)”