Traffic circle

[greenbarn]

It's always seemed like a dumb idea to me.  I mean, yea, it keeps traffic from slowing down, but sometimes that's preferable to heavy traffic to just "keep moving" in a cray random never-slowing circle where no one can really tell where the other guy is going.   So where did these things start, anyway?

[marshalldoll]

I too have rotaries all ove Ma. They are dangerous especially when the cars don't honor the yield. All trafic in the rotary has the right of way and the vehicles are supposed to allow those in the rotary to exit or keep going round first. Unfortunately some drivers are just impatient and go when not supposed to. Makes them SO dangerous on 2 wheels.
Dan

[Washbrook]

Yes but I think I'd prefer to bash the side of a car than go head on. I recently had a woman come out of a give way sign at a T intersection and leave me no room to do anything other than collide. Luckily I slid my back tyre out (not intentional, just braked harder sooner on the rear) which allowed me to hit he side on. With the engine bar I was protected and came away unhurt (the bike is still being repaired). If I had T boned her, or worse she T boned me, I think it would have been different for me.

Nothings perfect.

BTW I always go left on roundabouts, but we drive / ride on the correct side of the road down here.

[Troll]

Removal is what's happening in lots of OTHER states... but here we are just getting them. I wonder how long it will be before we get into sync with the rest of the world. I was coming into one from the South in Freiburg, Germany, back in '04. The damn thing had been there so long the locals had planted grape vines in the middle. As I entered, I had to stop pretty quickly. A delivery truck..one of those MB Sprinter things, had head-oned a car. Supposed to not be possible, but the truck driver went left instead of right, to cut across, instead of having to go all the way around to make a simple left turn....Our own Dept. of Trans. here in Wisconsin is saying that head on and T-bone crashes are down, across the board at these silly things, but side-swipe crashes are up 36%. I don't know about you, but an increase in side swipe crashes, especially on a motorcycle, sounds pretty ugly to me.

[Washbrook]

Small ones work well on secondary roads but busy roads can be a pain. Ours are not as large as the NYC one you mention. They have actually started to remove them from some locations down here and gone back to lights. They do not seem to work in all locations.

Yep, depending upon which bike I'm riding I drag my boots or foot boards around these some times, let me repeat .

[Troll]

I know what you mean. They are building these things all over. Sprouting like mushrooms. Sometimes they will string 3 or 4 together...This one is very lightly used, so there is almost always a chance to drag pegs around it. When it first opened, the Police got called several times in the early morning hours, cause the Hmong kids with their fart can equipped Honda civics were trying to "drift" around it...I used to pass through a real one...Croton-on-Hudson traffic circle..just north of N.Y.C. on the Hudson River...about 1/2 mile across, handling upwards of 50,000 vehicles a day...These are just too small and poorly designed.

[Washbrook]

We have roundabouts everywhere down here. I go through several everyday. Only fun when no traffic around.

[Troll]

  I absolutely hate these things, but they can be made to be fun. The suggested speed is 15 mph. I did this one at about 30...now here's the thing...white signs are regulatory...i.e. the 25 mph sign at the exit of the circle is binding...yellow signs are suggested, or informational. The last regulatory sign before the circle is 45 mph...ergo, the actual "limit" through the circle is 45 (I did 40 here on the W last Summer).
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