Wouldn't This Be Fun At 3:30am? Peanut Shaped RoundAbout

In reply to Ranger50 :

Evidently, our bars  close at 2:00 am so I want to wait until all of the bar drunks have either made it home or are being processed by the cops and all of the cops are at the station booking said drunks. Plus most kids and pedestrians and bicyclists should be home in bed.

I'm not sure how many laps I could get in before I woke everybody up and they all called the cops, and trust me, my car would definitely wake them up, but the gentle right hand curve should give my oil a chance to slosh to the other side of the oil pan two times a lap. 

In reply to VolvoHeretic :

There's a roundabout in a residential area that I have to drive through to get from my prospective house to my job.  It's only a roundabout because some planner thought it'd be cute.  It's lightly traveled 25mph roads that don't even have center lines.

What I found, going back and forth to this house, is that people will stop at the stop sign, and then stay put until ALL prospective traffic has gone through.  They're treating it as a really confusing intersection, not a roundabout.

Meanwhile, in the more rural areas where they installed roundabouts, they put S curves before the circle to force you to slow down on what used to be 55mph roads.  The way I see it, that's just there to set up your Scandinavian flick 

Have you ever  been to the UK and have a local give you directions how to get somewhere which included 2-3 roundabouts ?

If you miss one  of the directions you could be headed to another country :)

Or in France where I never was sure who had the right a way , 

I hope we never get them here .

Traffic circles are becoming more common around here. One of them is on my way home from an autocross venue. It's approaching town with a series of lowering speed limits.
 

I'll drop my speed to about 40 in the 35, so frequently, I'll have a pickup or SUV so close behind that I can see neither the bumper or the windshield.

I'll be on my 200 treadwear tires in my Miata or Civic, so it’s fun to maintain my speed as I negotiate the circle.
 

It seems that the following drivers are only focused on the back of my car, and don't even notice the traffic circle until I turn into it. I haven't seen anyone hit the curb yet, but I've seen a lot of near misses. 

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

In reply to OHSCrifle :

You have to stop before entering one when they have stop signs at the entry, which is most of the ones I see.

I have never seen one like that - stop signs would seem to defeat the "don't have to stop unless..." benefit of a roundabout.

🤔 

californiamilleghia said:

I hope we never get them here .

I'm always blown away at negative comments about them.  All the ones I have personally witnessed before/after have resulted in a substantial reduction in congestion.

And like always, I'll point out that a traffic circle works perfectly fine without power.  Power outage where there are tons of traffic lights = pandemonium.  

OHSCrifle said:

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

In reply to OHSCrifle :

You have to stop before entering one when they have stop signs at the entry, which is most of the ones I see.

I have never seen one like that - stop signs would seem to defeat the "don't have to stop unless..." benefit of a roundabout.

🤔 

 

Yes.

I know.

There's also an on ramp to I-90W in Cleveland (right after Dead Man's Curve) that has a stop sign at the end.

Granted, that one does make sense, since it's fairly blind for both the merging traffic and the merged traffic, but it always amuses me to see that.

I'm old and easily confused and I have a hard time with roundabouts. Also wrong way diverging diamond crossovers.

In reply to VolvoHeretic :

Let me tell you about the time I tried to get to a gas station in the middle of the night in rural Kentucky and I ended up going back the other way on the Interstate, with fumes in the gas tank...

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

In reply to VolvoHeretic :

Let me tell you about the time I tried to get to a gas station in the middle of the night in rural Kentucky and I ended up going back the other way on the Interstate, with fumes in the gas tank...

For a good time, let Pete's girlfriend tell this story. Or air her many other traffic circle grievances 

In reply to RBCA :

I'm curious to hear her observation of the event.  Tell her to sign up and post it

My government wants to build dual roundabouts on a 70mph 4 lane highway which intersects a 2 lane state highway which leads off to the west 50 miles to a Native American Reservation with a casino and great late night concerts-plenty of fatal accidents. I always slow way down heading north or south, day or night. What speeds will they let cars scoot around this thing? I've always been able to go twice any posted speed limit. It should be fun... My own private test track. 

Edit: I see an interesting curve apex for people turning right. 

Interesting side note: That outlined square patch in-between to the north is a cemetery.

Here is a Google Earth view of the existing intersection. It is 620 feet from the far left of the South bound lanes on the left to the center of the North bound lanes on the right. That should be REALLY fun, in the middle of nowhere with no neighbors.

We have a roundabout at the end of our Nieghborhood of several hundred homes. It's amazing how many people who live here can't use it correctly. It is very effecient when people do use it correctly. 

We got a peanut shaped roundabout a few years ago and it frees up traffic so well it's nearly unbelievable.

now they are adding a diverging diamond at the other end of town and it will do the same. Free us from the ways of stops signs oh traffic planners!

The highway department is adding a couple roundabouts in my town, but leaving a 4 way traffic light between them 🤦‍♂️
 

I'm sure the roundabout will help with traffic flow until the light backs up and you have 1/4 mile of traffic waiting between the two roundabout and the traffic light. 

I tell my DE students that are learning to drive roundabouts and such not to worry about those who can't. They'll eventually die off, leaving those who can to go on their merry way!

Jay_W said:

These two are pretty berkeleying stupid:

In the middle of highway berkeleying 9. What in the hell.

vwcorvette (Forum Supporter) said:

Jay_W said:

In reply to vwcorvette (Forum Supporter) :

This one should have a driver-eye view, cuz it's small eough that you can't quite get a van through it without curbing. A 16' box truck is going onto all the curbs. But I gotta agree that it ain't as dum as the other ones..

The curbing in roundabouts is purposely designed for larger vehicles to drag their rear tires across since they travel a smaller radius than the fronts. I sometimes do it just to cut the apex a bit however!

They replaced a 4 way near me with the smallest roundabout I've ever seen. I was talking with a city council member and she said they designed it so the center could be driven over if need be. So whenever I'm towing the boat I just go straight. My right side tires don't even leave the pavement.

This is the biggest change in traffic I've ever witnessed due to roundabouts.

1) was just a traffic light for two single lane but high volume highways, but had dedicated RH turn lanes with no stopping needed

2) was only a stop sign for Watson rd (coming down from top)

3) and 4) did not exist.

Drivers waiting to make a left onto Watson rd used to cause 50 to back up westbound through the 1) intersection in the morning.  It was a cluster berkeley.  Even without that though, in the afternoon 1) would back up for several miles to the east.

As soon as they installed the roundabouts it shaved an honest 10-15 minutes off that intersection in the afternoon for those on Rt 50.  on Rt 15 I dont know how effecive it was.  That used to back up pretty badly also, but probably not quite as much.

And all of that was in 2008ish so volumes are quite a bit higher now I imagine.

And I'm a huge fan of the roundabout on either side of the highway vs. traffic lights or stop signs


 

I have this gem to drive on my way to work.   

iansane said:

vwcorvette (Forum Supporter) said:

Jay_W said:

In reply to vwcorvette (Forum Supporter) :

This one should have a driver-eye view, cuz it's small eough that you can't quite get a van through it without curbing. A 16' box truck is going onto all the curbs. But I gotta agree that it ain't as dum as the other ones..

The curbing in roundabouts is purposely designed for larger vehicles to drag their rear tires across since they travel a smaller radius than the fronts. I sometimes do it just to cut the apex a bit however!

They replaced a 4 way near me with the smallest roundabout I've ever seen. I was talking with a city council member and she said they designed it so the center could be driven over if need be. So whenever I'm towing the boat I just go straight. My right side tires don't even leave the pavement.

We just got an identical one here. A left turn in a full size bus/motorcoach looks impossible. 

The first roundabout they stuck in on hwy 203 worked. 203 is rural 2 lane highway, and 124th street crosses the valley and back in the day, just teed into 203 with a stop sign. Traffic used to go bumper to bumper, allll the way across the valley, and tie up the roads on the other side of the valley. The stop sign got replaced with a standard, normal roundabout, and the daily tangle just up and disappeared. I *like* roundabouts, at least the standard ones. But the powers that be around here seem to have a fondness for stoooopid roundabouts these days.