Community Chat

[Venezia]

This topic got my attention.  I lived in England for 20 years and roundabouts are common there and work well because everyone knows how to navigate them.  At the largest ones (think London), there are even traffic lights to make them easier.

However, where I am now in the northeast, they have started to install these and the drivers here have no idea how to navigate them.  You take your life in your hands.

Just this past week this is what happened to me:  I was out for some shopping and needed to get some lunch.  Decided to go to a close-by restaurant, which involved driving around a rotary.  Entered it and needed to go round to the third exit (essentially what would've been a left-hand turn in a normal intersection).

Just about to exit, when an idiot pickup driver shot through in front of me and then slammed on his brakes, coming to a complete stop.  I hit my brakes thinking WTH is he doing?  HE had driven ONTO the island in the middle of the roundabout and was blocking my path!   (Could've been drunk or texting, for all I know.)  I didn't know whether he was going to back up; had other cars coming behind me and was just about to go out around him, when another idiot from the same lane drove in front of me and around him!

I'd have blasted my horn at both of them, if I hadn't been so busy avoiding a bad accident.  I wish I could say this was an isolated incident in this particular town.  It is not.  They don't think the "Yield" signs apply to them and most drivers have no idea how to drive around a roundabout.  I think they're dangerous here.  Traffic lights would be better.

[GCR18]

We have them all over.  I like them, but come across many people that have no idea how to drive them.  Whatever lane you start in is the same lane you end in.  No switching lanes in the roundabout.  You go in when the lane is free and you go the speed limit.  If there is a tractor trailer going around, they have the right of way. Let them go first, don't race or drive next to them.

[Bridgegal]

@IdahoGram

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@IdahoGram wrote:

Personally I don't understand what the problem with roundabouts is.  It's a circle!  Everyone should be going in the same direction, which is clockwise.  You enter the circle when there isn't a car to your immediate left and exit right when you have reached the direction you wish to go.  Easy Peasy!  

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       I agree.   I love them.   They can take a bit of getting the hang of but after living in England for 5 years, we came to appreciate the efficiency of them.  

[Sooner]

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@Bridgegal wrote:

@IdahoGram

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@IdahoGram wrote:

Personally I don't understand what the problem with roundabouts is.  It's a circle!  Everyone should be going in the same direction, which is clockwise.  You enter the circle when there isn't a car to your immediate left and exit right when you have reached the direction you wish to go.  Easy Peasy!  

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       I agree.   I love them.   They can take a bit of getting the hang of but after living in England for 5 years, we came to appreciate the efficiency of them.  

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Well that's just fine and dandy in thre isn't a car by you, which at some locations there is, and IF that car is aware of where YOU want to go and will let you in, which doesn't always happen.  

I would think England is not small town and city America where spaces are gigantic and far apart and people drive big pickups and SUV's and hay trucks and tractors.  The problem is those things are cropping up here and causing some terrible problems.  

I refer to them as "road rage roundabouts." Others here call them traffic circles mostly. 

[Cats3000]

We have a couple in our area.  They're called "Traffic Calming Devices".  They may calm traffic, but they don't calm me when I'm driving.   Haven't had any close calls yet.

[software]

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@IdahoGram wrote:

Personally I don't understand what the problem with roundabouts is.  It's a circle!  Everyone should be going in the same direction, which is clockwise.  You enter the circle when there isn't a car to your immediate left and exit right when you have reached the direction you wish to go.  Easy Peasy!  

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Sure if you are the only one using it.

There's one near me, it's like NASCAR.   No one yields.

And it's not clockwise.

You must be from Europe.

[Tribesters]

@bonnielu

Our small town put them in a few years ago. At first I wouldn’t use them at all-going out of my way & using side streets to avoid them. Every once on a while I’ll white knuckle it through one but still try to avoid them. As others have said they’re dangerous because not everyone understands them. I’ve had some close calls where I was in the circle & a car flew through the yield sign & almost hit me. The driver never even looked to see if anyone was in the circle. Ours have yield signs for cars entering but it seems a lot of drivers interpret that as not having to stop or even look for oncoming traffic. Luckily ours are just one lane. I can’t even imagine trying a multiple lane one. 

[Bri369]

There are a lot of them in Hilton Head.  

I really don't care for them at all. 

[CelticCrafter]

We call them circles here.

I hate them and will avoid them at all costs to the point of not going someplace if there is no alternative route.

[Sweetbay magnolia]

Roundabouts have helped ease congestion in rural transition areas, on a road DH uses to go to work.  He likes them - in this circumstance they are vastly better than the four-way stops that were there.

He's an ex-cabbie, though.  Driving doesn't phase him.

I do not drive them often enough to be comfortable.  Come to think of it, there's a circle in a nearby 'burb, been there ever since I can remember (grew up here), that I avoid.  It's crazy.  The area is very busy.  No mercy for novice circlers.