I know it’s not Europe. I get it that we all grew up with 90° turns, often with traffic lights. Yes, to some, it can be a little confusing not knowing whether a car is exiting the circle or doing a Clark Griswold and going around. There is a YIELD sign which every driver in the US knows what the hell it means. It doesn’t mean coming to a complete fucking stop when there’s no car even close or close enough to affect their travel. It’s pretty much the whole damn reason a circle was used to replace a stop sign or traffic light in the first place. Drive!

Here, here!

I love traffic circles. They keep the flow going so much more efficiently than a damn stoplight.

Our county put in one on a section of road that I frequently travel and it has been a blessing. People are still getting used to it but by and large, it's better than sitting in a 4 mile long backup for hours on end. Generally, the older folks are the ones that have the hardest time trying to figure it out. The out of towners also seem to lack the capacity to properly navigate it without a little coaxing from a friendly fella like myself Can't wait for the next 2 projects to be completed within the county.

People who stop at empty traffic circles are the same ones who go 10-15 mph under the speed limit on county roads and won't take the right-of-way when they're clearly first at a 4-way-stop. They are useless and unfit to be on the road.

Traffic circles are awesome as long as they keep them simple and put them in appropriate places. About 2 years ago we replaced the one stop light in town with a circle and it has drastically improved traffic flow (except when you encounter the assholes mentioned above). An added benefit is that it has kept the stupid truckers from trying to go under the very clearly marked 13' viaduct right next to it with trucks that are taller than 13'. It used to be an almost daily occurrence, but since they put the circle in the trucks try to avoid the area altogether and we only get calls about one getting stuck once or twice a month now.

quote:

Traffic circles are awesome as long as they keep them simple and put them in appropriate places.

So, you're saying, if you put the first one ever in a place like Jackson, MS (technically Ridgeland area), near outdoor mall and residential high traffic area, you might, just might rabbit, consider NOT putting one in that has a bizarre combination of one and two lane turn-off options in the course of the four points of entry/exit?

I swear someone designed this just for the chuckles from a traffic camera...... You can't assume anything going into or around this circle. Including that you understand it unless you pay close attention!

I love them generally and can traverse them with ease, but this one.....

quote:

Originally posted by Georgeair:

quote:

Traffic circles are awesome as long as they keep them simple and put them in appropriate places.

So, you're saying, if you put the first one ever in a place like Jackson, MS (technically Ridgeland area), near outdoor mall and residential high traffic area, you might, just might rabbit, consider NOT putting one in that has a bizarre combination of one and two lane turn-off options in the course of the four points of entry/exit?

I swear someone designed this just for the chuckles from a traffic camera...... You can't assume anything going into or around this circle. Including that you understand it unless you pay close attention!

I love them generally and can traverse them with ease, but this one.....

Yeah, when you start adding extra lanes and junctions they can get overly complicated fast. Or you can put too many in one place. Carmel Indiana did away with an insane amount of traffic lights a few years ago and replaced them with circles. IIRC they have more than 100 in town now. The problem is, there are so many that there is literally no straight road between some of them...one circle feeds directly into another. It gets confusing fast trying to navigate through that town, and if you're not careful you'll get dizzy!

I did have a situation a couple of weeks back at work that I've never encountered before related to a traffic circle. I live about 15 minutes out of town, and as I was coming on duty my buddy who works for the county called me and asked if I could help them out with a welfare check on a distraught elderly lady who had walked into the minimart just around the corner from my house. I went over there and found her...according to the clerk she had come in frustrated, crying, and cussing and had no idea where she was.

I sat down at a table and talked with her for a while, and learned that she's an elderly USAF vet who lives alone and was trying to get to a Dr. appointment at the hospital, but got turned around in a traffic circle 3 blocks from the hospital and ended up driving all over the county for almost three hours with no idea where she was. She was upset about missing her appointment, and man was she pissed off about that traffic circle! She certainly used some colorful language to express her opinion of them !

I believe there was possibly some early stage dementia going on complicated by some other medical stuff. I convinced her to let me give her a ride to the hospital so we could get her checked out and take care of the stuff she needed to do for her appointment. She ended up getting admitted, and the hospital cop helped me get her car down there later that night so she'd have it when she got released. Really nice, interesting, and sharp lady who told me all about working in NORAD and other parts of her Air Force career, but that traffic circle really threw her for a loop that day .

The most insane traffic circle in the world.

I feel your pain

Pennsylvania has seemingly fallen in love with the damn things over the past couple of years, they are springing up everywhere.

If people can actually navigate through them like you are supposed to, they are great. The problem is, half the people here either completely panic in one and they are stopping and waving people in and doing all sorts of other stupid things, or people are blasting into them without even looking to see if it's clear.

There is one between my house and church that I have to keep my hand on the horn ready to go and have to really be careful because they'll just barrel right in on top of you even if they are supposed to yield.

Older people seem to have the hardest time adapting and getting used to the concept that if it's clear you never stop. They ALWAYS stop in front of me like it's a stop sign.

I've never even seen a real live traffic circle and I shudder to think how I would react should I ever have to use one.

quote:

Originally posted by 2BobTanner:
The most insane traffic circle in the world.

I went around that thing 4 times trying to get over. Nobody would, so I said Fuck It and cut the wheel to the right. Thankfully, everyone got the hell outta my way. But, yeah...Paris can shove that thing up their ass!

quote:

Originally posted by ggile:
I've never even seen a real live traffic circle and I shudder to think how I would react should I ever have to use one.

They're really not that hard.

You drive up to it, look to your left and if it's clear you keep going, enter the circle and exit where you need to go. If it's not clear, you yield until it is clear. Traffic in the circle always has the right-of-way.

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Originally posted by 2BobTanner:
The most insane traffic circle in the world.

I'll raise you the Magic Roundabout in Swindon

They have gone back to some of the traffic circles the put in here and added stop signs to them.

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Originally posted by 92fstech:
Carmel Indiana did away with an insane amount of traffic lights a few years ago and replaced them with circles. IIRC they have more than 100 in town now. The problem is, there are so many that there is literally no straight road between some of them...one circle feeds directly into another.

Used to work for Zotec, was there occasionally. The circle-into-circle linkages were NUTS!

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
You drive up to it, look to your left and if it's clear you keep going, enter the circle and exit where you need to go. If it's not clear, you yield until it is clear. Traffic in the circle always has the right-of-way.

We have a good friend who had read/heard that the only way these worked properly was if people just proceeded through them, that they were designed specifically with the expectation that you not stop at or in the circle.

My wife was riding with her when she discovered this wisdom. Did I mention her friend deals in absolutes? She was divebombing into Huntsville, AL circles at a full clip and shouting at the panicked people honking at her while swerving to avoid her Volvo-missile!!

Want to have fun? Watch the tourists try to navigate our traffic circles. To add to the fun, many of ours are multi lane, so idiots try to change lanes in the midst of the damn thing. The resultant crash (low speed, so at least there is that) then jams the whole thing up and shuts it down.
Want more fun? Try sharing a roundabout with a tandem trailer log or mine truck. On your motorcycle!
The one of the main reasons often cited for a proposed Yooper roundabout? They are easy to plow snow!

traffic circles out in the country (or a new development) where they can be properly sized/built work fine. However the current 'trend' by municipalities in MN to replace a 2 way stop or 4 way stop with a traffic circle in the same fucking footprint need to have their engineering certificate revoked. These 'circles' are nothing more than a 4 way yield at best and that just doesn't work on very busy secondary roads. I'm talking circles that are so small that the center isn't raised because a normal truck/trailer can't drive around it without driving over the center, never mind a semi. They also like to add 'protected' bike lanes - further reducing space/room in the intersection. I've yet to see a bike on one, but hey - the green/bike mafia got what they wanted.

^ Agree with that! They absolutely need to be big enough that they provide ample lead time so approaching drivers can determine if they'll have to yield to traffic already in the circle, or if they can proceed. If they're so small that you don't have enough time to tell where the other car is going, incoming traffic always has to stop and it defeats the whole point.

I grew up in Massachusetts and as kids we would see how many times we could go around before the cops came. It was near prison and the State Patrol headquarters in Concord Mass. I think the record was around 80 times? The first one here in Minnesota [off interstate 35 in Medford] caused constant semi roll overs due to to small a circle with high curbs on the circle. Trucks would hit the curbs and it would flip them. They finally re-did it.

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Originally posted by sreding:

I'm talking circles that are so small that the center isn't raised because a normal truck/trailer can't drive around it without driving over the center, never mind a semi.

The center apron is designed to be driven on like that by larger vehicles, that's why it's flat.

Montgomery put in three near my sister, by pouring an island in the middle of an existing 3-way intersection, then removing the stop signs. Can't find a static image, but here's a video that includes pics, including firetruck running over at end. I didn't believe her until they drove me over to them.

quote:

Originally posted by Georgeair:

Montgomery put in three near my sister, by pouring an island in the middle of an existing 3-way intersection, then removing the stop signs.

Don't know what the hell they were thinking there, those are NOT traffic circles. Someone deserved to be fired for that mess!