7 ms·

I live in a country where roundabouts are common. They're great for relatively low traffic intersections as you can often get through much faster than lights.

I live in a country where roundabouts are common. They're great for relatively low traffic intersections as you can often get through much faster than lights. They are a liability when traffic levels are high enough - say during peak times - when one inbound direction is blocked by another. Wondering why Americans loathe them?

afavour 2y ago
I don’t think Americans loathe roundabouts. They’re just unfamiliar. So when someone says “would you like to add an unfamiliar section of road design in our town?” most say no.
- leapingdog 2y ago
  This is fair. The UK has box junctions which have many non-obvious rules.
TacticalCoder 2y ago
> They are a liability when traffic levels are high enough - say during peak times - when one inbound direction is blocked by another. The rule should be that when traffic is bumper to bumper, the "zip" is made mandatory. That rule already supersedes the normal rule on, say, many (all?) european highways when the highway goes from, say, 3 lanes to 2 lanes and in case that creates a traffic jam: people in "their" lane doesn't have the right of way anymore. It's one car from one lane, one car from another lane: the "zip". People in a roundabout should lose their right of way when traffic is bumper to bumper. Where I live people are extremely polite on the road so I don't even know if the zip it's mandatory: people shall simply act that way. In countries where road rage is common and people misbehave, like France, just make it mandatory by law.
- orwin 2y ago
  I'm in France and we do Zip in my area (which is quite touristic and see huge traffic right now, so I do that quite often when I drive in summer). But it is true that around Paris and in southeast France, people usually misbehave and act like entitled pricks.
- magahacka 2y ago
  The zip does nothing on the roundabout. bumper to bumper is very-rare, and it mostly happens momentarily due to pedestrian crossings placed directly after the entrance/exit of the roundabout. What is actually super dangerous are the non-standard 2/3 lane roundabouts where the first lane gets "ejected" at the next/second exit forcibly, while the 2nd lane can either exit or continue on the roundabout, so many lorries in the 1st lane try to runover those in the 2nd lane trying to exit.
leapingdog 2y ago
Peak time congestion requires a local form of driver etiquette. My city would grind to a halt without it.
throw0101d 2y ago
> They are a liability when traffic levels are high enough - say during peak times - when one inbound direction is blocked by another. It is possible to add traffic signals to roundabouts (in the UK the standard is TD 50 (DMRB 6.2.3)): * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roundabout#Signalised_roundabouts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roundabout#Signalised_roundabo... * http://www.jctconsultancy.co.uk/Consultancy/roundabouts.php http://www.jctconsultancy.co.uk/Consultancy/roundabouts.php * https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5e81b669e90e0706f8976d09/ltn-1-09_Signal_controlled_roundabouts.pdf https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5e81b669e90e0... If one direction dominates, you can stop it and then let the others have a turn.

afavour 2y ago

I don’t think Americans loathe roundabouts. They’re just unfamiliar. So when someone says “would you like to add an unfamiliar section of road design in our town?” most say no.

leapingdog 2y ago
This is fair. The UK has box junctions which have many non-obvious rules.

TacticalCoder 2y ago

> They are a liability when traffic levels are high enough - say during peak times - when one inbound direction is blocked by another. The rule should be that when traffic is bumper to bumper, the "zip" is made mandatory. That rule already supersedes the normal rule on, say, many (all?) european highways when the highway goes from, say, 3 lanes to 2 lanes and in case that creates a traffic jam: people in "their" lane doesn't have the right of way anymore. It's one car from one lane, one car from another lane: the "zip". People in a roundabout should lose their right of way when traffic is bumper to bumper. Where I live people are extremely polite on the road so I don't even know if the zip it's mandatory: people shall simply act that way. In countries where road rage is common and people misbehave, like France, just make it mandatory by law.

orwin 2y ago
I'm in France and we do Zip in my area (which is quite touristic and see huge traffic right now, so I do that quite often when I drive in summer). But it is true that around Paris and in southeast France, people usually misbehave and act like entitled pricks.
magahacka 2y ago
The zip does nothing on the roundabout. bumper to bumper is very-rare, and it mostly happens momentarily due to pedestrian crossings placed directly after the entrance/exit of the roundabout. What is actually super dangerous are the non-standard 2/3 lane roundabouts where the first lane gets "ejected" at the next/second exit forcibly, while the 2nd lane can either exit or continue on the roundabout, so many lorries in the 1st lane try to runover those in the 2nd lane trying to exit.

leapingdog 2y ago

Peak time congestion requires a local form of driver etiquette. My city would grind to a halt without it.

throw0101d 2y ago

> They are a liability when traffic levels are high enough - say during peak times - when one inbound direction is blocked by another. It is possible to add traffic signals to roundabouts (in the UK the standard is TD 50 (DMRB 6.2.3)): * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roundabout#Signalised_roundabouts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roundabout#Signalised_roundabo... * http://www.jctconsultancy.co.uk/Consultancy/roundabouts.php http://www.jctconsultancy.co.uk/Consultancy/roundabouts.php * https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5e81b669e90e0706f8976d09/ltn-1-09_Signal_controlled_roundabouts.pdf https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5e81b669e90e0... If one direction dominates, you can stop it and then let the others have a turn.