Community Chat

[CatsyCline]

i learned to drive in a town where we had two rotaries so they don't throw me at all. just don't stop when you are in the rotary! Please!  you have the right of way!

one of them was never been upgraded and  has 6 converging roads of traffic!  imagine how backed up that gets and one is a divided highway (thats 2 of the roads)  The other one is right by the Hospital ER!

sometimes the traffic on one of the roads is backed up for miles and miles, but it actually moves along faster than if there were set of lights .

major confusion -  try driving through some of the older Boston burbs and their "squares". the roads converge from everywhere plus the trolleys!  i think one of them, Columbus Circle, had the wierd intersections.

[shoptilyadropagain]

We're starting to get a few more of them.  Personally, I find them confusing and dangerous and refuse to use the streets/routes where they're located.  The ones in our area are not wide enough for bigger trucks...much less larger box trucks etc.  There have been many scrapes & wrecks, etc.  We're told the roundabouts are to alleviate congestion at 4-way stops during rush hour..  The same amount of traffic will go through that intersection and a 4-way is much safer and more clear as to who has the right away, IMHO!! 

[Irshgrl31201]

We have a few in my town but people seem to have trouble with them. I do not understand the difficulty. People should know all these rules BEFORE they get a license. They have them all over the place in Australia and they handle them just fine.

[sfnative]

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@CaitlinH wrote:

This topic makes me lol! It's about time the other part of the country picks up to what MA picked up decades ago.. Learning how to drive in a rotary/roundabout is actually a must in driving school now in MA.

Whenever I see someone who doesn't know how to drive in a rotary, I think to myself that they must not be from around here. lolll!!

It's like the people that STOP when merging on to the highway...:smileywink

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I don't understand why you find this so funny.  The jist of this thread has nothing to do with not knowing how to enter, exit and drive in a roundabout, we were throwing around the subject of whether they make sense, beyond the original question of whether there are a lot of them in ones area.

My first experience with them was in Great Britain, which is rife with them and let me tell you, if you're new to an area, you've a pretty good chance of getting lost, because you're not going to exit correctly.

The roundabout I encounter on a frequent basis was placed where two extremely busy streets intersect.  What we really need here is stoplights, because the way big trucks go careening around this darn thing, I'm sure that one day my entire left front/rear quarter panels, as well as doors are going to be taken out.  You can see why I don't find this one bit amusing.

[Nightowlz]

LOL!!! I had to Google roundabouts. No we don't have any of those around here. It's a good thing. We have right turn on red after you stop first. Some people just go right around the corner without stopping or yielding. I don't want to drive in large populated places that have roundabouts.

[LilacTree]

When we first moved to South Jersey I couldn't believe how many "circles" (which is what we call them) it had compared to North Jersey.  I was always pretty good at navigating them, but never liked them.

In the past ten years they have eliminated practically all of them.  With all of the cars on the road these days, they are not safe because everyone seems to think they have the right of way.

I'm glad they're gone.