Two roundabouts added to my daily commute :)

Oh happy day. A 1 mile stretch of road on my daily commute has just been completely torn up and replaced. It was two lanes in either direction with a turning lane down the middle and several sets of traffic lights. IT was always a bit of a pain, but less traffic density on the alternative 1 mile to the East. The thing was it was in terrible terrible shape with decades of crappy patch jobs and it was falling appart. They've just spen the last 18 months (I dont' see how this should have taken longer than 6 months) to completly replace it. Tottaly torn up everthing the full width, incluiding side walks the lot. It finally re-opened full this morning. Two lanes, median, a couple of turn arounds plus TWO ROUNDABOUTS!!!! oh the joy. I really hope that once people learn how to use a round about it will help traffic flow a lot easier. The problem is, despite the massive YIELD signs at entry to the first roundabout and the fact taht nothing was coming around it the person ahead of me stopped, dumbfounded for about 5 seconds before tentativly edging into the round about, more frustraiting was the Mustange in the lane next to me with no numpty infront of him who nicly trail braked into it then was on the power to take advantage of two empty lanes as he clipped a perfect appex and was long gone before said numpty in front of me pottered along. I chose the next lane for the second round about, but someone was coming so I had to yield. I hope with some training people quckly pick up on the concept.

Visually the whole thing looks awesome too, which it should as it's a sort of showcase for that community and goes past the front of the library, civic center, Police station etc.

I've always felt that roundabouts and traffic lights defined the differences between American pony cars and British sports cars.

We have a few locally. I got in trouble with SWMBO for passing an M3 in the M5, sideways, in one of them. Apparently that's not okay.

The powers that be have been on a tear putting roundabouts in around here and I think it is great.

Don't worry some will figure them out but others will never. There a literally nothing you need to know than just all the other laws still apply. Maybe that's why people have problems, they don't know the actual rules of the road.

How about 7 roundabouts in ~1.8 miles

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/44.5358522,-88.0787975/44.548824,-88.1003882/@44.5411271,-88.0950411,15.21z?hl=en

Faster, safer, potentially greener, and unequivocally more fun. Roundabout FTW.

We've had roundys here in WA for years, and I am a big fan. My complaint comes from the inconsistency from one roundy to the next.

We've got one stretch of road that has about six of them within 1.5 miles, and EVERY ONE OF THEM IS DIFFERENT. Right lane is an exit only for the first option in the first roundy. Second roundy has two lanes that can go all the way around. Third roundy has only one lane.

The signs are way too convoluted to read, so you just have to know or try to conclude what the worn out painted lane markers are trying to say.

You can always tell it's the weekend just by the other drivers in the roundy... all the non-locals come through on the weekends.

My favorite part: the speed limit on the road is 35. You can just squeeze through at that speed if you really work at it.

RossD wrote: Don't worry some will figure them out but others will never. There a literally nothing you need to know than just all the other laws still apply. Maybe that's why people have problems, they don't know the actual rules of the road. How about 7 roundabouts in ~1.8 miles https://www.google.com/maps/dir/44.5358522,-88.0787975/44.548824,-88.1003882/@44.5411271,-88.0950411,15.21z?hl=en

12 in 2.2 miles: https://www.google.com/maps/dir/39.9893264,-86.1458714/39.985304,-86.1448093/39.983174,-86.141217/39.9777515,-86.1660102/@39.970338,-86.1625474,15.46z/data=!4m2!4m1!3e0?hl=en

In reply to mtn:

Don't sell yourself short, I counted 14. But you could have gotten off at the other exit. My little route is if I wanted to use the interstate and go to work, I'd have to do 7.

How about 5 roundabouts in a roundabout? Welcome to Swindon.

I actually really hate some of the double lane roundabouts in the area. They seem to create a constant state of traffic backup as they effectively make a busy four lane intersection into a single lane four way stop...

Livernois and Hamlin to be specific. I confess I am not familiar with the rules of a double lane roundabout, but it seems like you have to assume any car in the "center" lane is going to cut across the outside lane and exit, so it is never OK to be in the rightmost lane unless you are making an immediate right hand turn back out of the roundabout, despite the markings saying both lanes may proceed. Or is the center supposed to just circulate until it is safe to cut across the outside lane as depicted in the classic film European Vacation?

Roundabouts are great in low traffic volumes, I remain unconvinced they work in high traffic areas.

"Look kids. Big Ben, Parliament."

In reply to Adrian_Thompson:

Based on the Roundabouts in Ann Arbor, those will quickly become the most dangerous intersections for your commute.

Don't expect fun, expect people who will block your progress. Paris vs. England, in other words.

Adrian forgot to mention that most potential joy on this stretch of straight road now with curves is mitigated by the Southfield Police station located between the two spurs heading off the top of the page in his diagram. That and the sheer volume of the utterly clueless entering this (to them) new traffic hell that doesn't allow them to text while coming in to an intersection.

The traffic circle on Old Van Dyke at 19 1/2 Mile in Sterling Heights was a colossal CF for quite some time. I expect this one to be ugly for a long while.

WilD wrote: Roundabouts are great in low traffic volumes, I remain unconvinced they work in high traffic areas.

Roundabouts are pretty clearly worse than traffic lights when traffic is heavy. You'd think roundabouts with traffic lights that stay green when traffic is light would be best, but some Brits have told me it's the worst of both worlds somehow.

We have two roundabouts a few miles from the house on a 55mph road.

3am skidpad/drifting is a hoot. I can also maintain 45 through them in the elky if I clip them right.

They've been installing roundabouts in place of 4 way stop signs in residential areas all over around here. I love them for that use. Feels much safer for everyone.

Love love love single lane, predictable, roundabouts. Hate hate hate multi-lane or inconsistent roundabouts.

GameboyRMH wrote:

WilD wrote: Roundabouts are great in low traffic volumes, I remain unconvinced they work in high traffic areas.

Roundabouts are pretty clearly worse than traffic lights when traffic is heavy. You'd think roundabouts with traffic lights that stay green when traffic is light would be best, but some Brits have told me it's the worst of both worlds somehow.

Yup, roundabouts work great up to a certain volume, then they clog. So they have to be appropriately sized. I don't find multi-lane roundabouts to be an issue because I don't trust the other drivers any more than I trust the other drivers at a four-way stop. But some of the big British ones need familiarity for sure.

I have one in my commute.

Aside: we never had them in Kentucky when I was younger but during my summers on Cape Cod we always called them "rotary". "Roundabout" sounds British (specifically HHGTTG) and comes across weird here in Kantuckee.

It's the overly cautious/nervous drivers who clog them up the worst. With a reasonable morning crush of traffic we should all be able to flow through pretty easily but just a couple of nervous nellies and the whole thing grinds to a frustrating halt.

Several things, yes it goes past the Police station, I think I mentioned that in my first post, but this is Michigan where speed limits are more advisories than absolutes.

Being an Ex-Pat Brit means I grew up with roundabouts, the lack of them confused the hell out of me when I first moved here. For moderate traffic flow they are simply awesome. My biggest issue now they've started popping up more on this continent is I've got used to going round them CCW, but in the UK with driving not he left you go around CW. It always blows my mind a bit when I go back and have to adjust to going around CW, that takes more effort than remembering to drive on the correct side of the road.

Keith Tanner wrote: How about 5 roundabouts in a roundabout? Welcome to Swindon.

One more thing to help people here get the humor of this sign. There was a massively loved British/French puppetry cartoon called the Magic Roundabout for kids in the 60’s and 70’s called ‘The Magic Roundabout’ Absolutely everyone even current generations is aware of it. It and many of the characters catch words and sayings are part of the British Zeitgeist. People don’t know it here, but there was a movie version a few years ago that was renamed ‘Doogal’ (one of the main characters) for the American market so this sign has more meaning to us Brit’s. Do you North of the board crew get the Magic roundabout?

I love seeing how much I can freak out other drivers by confidently brushing the apex of the circle, basically only doing a little flick of the wheel to get through.

I just counted, there are 7 roundabouts in my commute, and only 1 set of traffic lights.

I learned to drive (not the "how to parallel park" drive, but drive drive) on a 1980 Mazda 626 with new front tires and bald rear tires in Australia. There were a few roundabouts in town. I could pretty much get through them with just a twitch. My mom didn't think it was cool.

alfadriver wrote: In reply to Adrian_Thompson: Based on the Roundabouts in Ann Arbor, those will quickly become the most dangerous intersections for your commute. Don't expect fun, expect people who will block your progress. Paris vs. England, in other words.

I work about a 1/2 mile from that roundabout. Most accidents in the state the year it came out. Every day there is a new pile of debris. After 2 years, I still see people stopping in the circle, stopping on entry even though it is clear, stopping 1/2 way into circle, GOING THE WRONG berkeleyING WAY!!!!, etc. It is just insane.

One week update. People obviously learn fast around here, it's flowing beautifully. One morning last week I did see a cop coming across the roundabout from my left. He was in a new Charger cop car, dude came flying across HARD on the gas, leaving the station but no sirens going.