Roundabout nailed again

[dinneR ★]

I don't get it, but another driver went right over the top. It's hard to see, but there are parts of the car sitting on the median. I found more parts on the other end as well. This might have been the 10th crash here.

[KrAzY]

so they missed the round part and scattered their vehicle all about

[Parsnip Totin Jack ★]

I think it’s time for a “Revenge of the Roundabouts” movie to come out. Nothing disables the American drivers thinking abilities like a straight road intersection that goes in a circular direction. Inconceivable!

[bikeman564™]

america is not europe

[groupw]

Grand Island, NE is quickly becoming the roundabout capitol of Nebraska. They tried them on a couple intersections about 5 years ago. They had been 4-way stops and a traffic light made no sense except for a few hours each day during commute times. They decided to give it a try. 
There were 2 fatalities in the first month after opening. Both were high speed that meant they would have run stop signs in the past. It took a little edumacation, but the locals have mostly figured them out. 
They proceeded to convert many more 4 way stop intersections to roundabout. People wail and moan until they figure out that they actually work better than traffic lights!  Sure. There are people who don’t figure them out. They are the same people who can’t figure out 4 way stops, traffic lights, fast lanes and turning lanes. You can’t wait for the stupid people to catch. They never will. 

[Airehead ★]

Wascspeed a factor?

[dinneR ★]

1 hour ago, bikeman564™ said:

america is not europe

I'm not sure what that means, but this intersection was a game of frogger for anyone on a bike before the roundabout. Now it's safe on a bike. Car traffic is now slower, so it is safer for drivers too. There is a popular campground close, so RV traffic is heavy. One more reason this intersection is now safer with slower traffic instead of RVs trying to pull out into highway with cars cruising at 45 mph or higher.

1 hour ago, Airehead said:

Wascspeed a factor?

Probably. I expect to read the report in tomorrow's paper. The speed limit is 45, then 30, then 15mph as you approach the roundabout. 

[Longjohn ★]

They didn’t spend enough millions on that roundabout. The ones they build here involve lots of concrete chutes to get you going in the right direction. They spend two years building them and everyone complains about them for two years (I was one of them). Then they open it up and we all say hey this actually works.

[bikeman564™]

8 minutes ago, dinneR said:

I'm not sure what that means,

 

Americans are stupid lol. These roundabouts are popping up in Michigan, have been. Takes a lot of getting used to. The first time I went thru one, was on a bike about several years ago.

[Longjohn ★]

Ohio has some stupid ones. When I was dating Nancy we had to go through ones that had a stop sign at the entrance to the roundabout. What sense does that make?

[jdc2000]

This roundabout gets hit because drivers are not driving the vehicles or looking out the windshield.  They are either looking at the scenery (Tetons to the left, Gros Ventre range to the right, or they are on their cell phones or otherwise distracted.  Signs?  What signs?  I didn't see any signs!

 

[groupw]

2 hours ago, bikeman564™ said:

Americans are stupid lol. These roundabouts are popping up in Michigan, have been. Takes a lot of getting used to. The first time I went thru one, was on a bike about several years ago.

Our joke was cyclists in a roundabout. Prepare for motorists heads to explode! Still, I have seen several haters turn to believers. 

[Ralphie ★]

Jersey got rid of the biggest ones but then small ones started appearing.

[BuffJim]

I was most impressed my American colleague navigated this one in Swindon, England. She got us through while I sat in a fetal position on the floor. 

[Razors Edge ★]

2 hours ago, BuffJim said:

I was most impressed my American colleague navigated this one in Swindon, England. She got us through while I sat in a fetal position on the floor. 

Honestly, in England - with the wrong side driving - I LOVED roundabouts.  I would take a first lap reading the signs and giving my wife time to figure out which one matched the map, so on the second lap, I could take the correct exit!  The technique works in other places like the rest of Europe or the US,  but it was especially helpful in the UK before we had GPS.

[Scrapr ★]

We saw this one the other day. 12 roads converge. There are no lane markers 

 

[Razors Edge ★]

8 minutes ago, Scrapr said:

We saw this one the other day. 12 roads converge. There are no lane markers 

 

We've been hoping for some updates on the trip!!!

[Longjohn ★]

14 minutes ago, Scrapr said:

We saw this one the other day. 12 roads converge. There are no lane markers 

 

I should suggest this to PennDot. All roads lead to Mercer and they built a court house right in the middle of that mess. They could leave the court house there and have it the center of the roundabout. They could make a bridge or a tunnel to access the courthouse.

[Scrapr ★]

17 minutes ago, Razors Edge said:

We've been hoping for some updates on the trip!!!

ohhh....load of pictures coming up

[dinneR ★]

Bikes get their own path around the roundabout. It's pretty sweet.

This is what it looked like as it neared completion.

 

Then this happened

[Bikeguy]

5 hours ago, BuffJim said:

I was most impressed my American colleague navigated this one in Swindon, England. She got us through while I sat in a fetal position on the floor. 

OMG  it looks like that roundabout has 5 smaller roundabouts too.   

Yeah I'd probably hide too, and I'd be driving. 

[Bikeguy]

2 hours ago, Razors Edge said:

 I would take a first lap reading the signs and giving my wife time to figure out which one matched the map, so on the second lap, I could take the correct exit!  The technique works in other places like the rest of Europe or the US,  but it was especially helpful in the UK before we had GPS.

Before I had my first GPS we were on a road trip.   If I recall, somewhere in the Boston area, (or Cape Cod too long ago to remember)  I entered a roundabout.   There must have been at least 6 possible exits.  I did one lap.....   Then I thought I selected the correct exit.

Nope...   a few miles down the road.  I was looking for the next road on the map, but it never came.      Yeah... I was going the wrong way.  Then I got the opportunity to navigate the same roundabout again.   At least the second time I got it correct. 

There is one that was just built several mikes from where I live.   I have to admit it is MUCH better than the prior road configuration.   

Another is getting built soon where traffic is just horrible on the weekends.  Lots of tourists take the route on the weekend.  I just avoid that intersection ALL the time.  One of the last times I drove thru it... there was a one mile traffic backup.  Nope not going that way any time soon.  With the road construction I don't even want to know how bad traffic could be there. 

[Kzoo]

As a deputy sheriff friend said to me. "How hard can it be?  There is only one rule in the roundabout - Yield left."  If that's all you do you will survive And if you miss your exit you can go around again...

[Thaddeus Kosciuszko]

10 minutes ago, Bikeguy said:

 If I recall, somewhere in the Boston area

I worked in Boston for a summer, and often drove through that intersection or a similar one.  In the center it had one - one - yellow caution blinking light facing each oncoming street, and underneath each blinking light a sign that read "KEEP RIGHT".  That's it.

I tell you, Swindon, England roundabout would be a picnic in the park compared to navigating that 'roundabout' with Boston drivers. 

[Razors Edge ★]

11 minutes ago, Kzoo said:

How hard can it be? 

At 85+mph on a dead straight road in the middle of the night...

...well, it's tough to spot in time - especially if otherwise engaged.

[Bikeguy]

15 minutes ago, Thaddeus Kosciuszko said:

I tell you, Swindon, England roundabout would be a picnic in the park compared to navigating that 'roundabout' with Boston drivers. 

Back in college, in Milwaukee, a guy from Boston had a car.  I rode with him ONCE.   

I didn't drive in England.   We walked, took the tube, or trains only a few busses.   I didn't want to  deal with were to park the car.  And I did NOT want to be the idiot American who fubars up when turning at an intersection.   Nope..  we walked a LOT. 

[Square Wheels]

1 hour ago, Razors Edge said:

...well, it's tough to spot in time - especially if otherwise engaged.

I suspect that is a major factor in many accidents, people look at driving their vehicle as a secondary activity.

[Razors Edge ★]

4 minutes ago, Square Wheels said:

I suspect that is a major factor in many accidents, people look at driving their vehicle as a secondary activity.

I think it is now third or fourth on the list!  

[MickinMD ★]

I hate the damn traffic circles in downtown, congested, Annapolis and Baltimore and D.C. that are sometimes as many as 3 lanes and if you.re stupid enough to move into one of the inner lanes because the outside one is moving too slow, you have to go make a couple complete circles to get back to the outside to get to the exit you want - then you find out the lane you got in ends at an exit you didn't want.

There are a couple of them on side roads near me, but they're not congested, though one of them has one exit a quarter of the way around, one exit another quarter around, and TWO exits right next to each other another quarter of the way around that are confusing if you haven't been that way for awhile.

 

[Square Wheels]

Mountains come out of the sky and they stand there. One mile over we'll be there and we'll see you. 

[Bikeguy]

4 hours ago, Bikeguy said:

OMG  it looks like that roundabout has 5 smaller roundabouts too.   

Yeah I'd probably hide too, and I'd be driving. 

I looked at that picture again.    It is MUCH worse than I noticed the first time.   

The inner roundabout is traveling counter clockwise.  (notice all of the arrows)

The outer roundabout is traveling clockwise

And the 5 mini roundabouts... must be how you transition between the 2 large large concentric roundabouts.  

Driving on the wrong side of the road is bad enough in England...  but this design...  OMG  WHY would they do that????

[Tizeye]

Learned to drive roundabouts in Great Britain. Quite simple and two things to note - sign on approach to determine 1, 2, 0r 3rd exit off, and the guiding principle - he who hesitates is last. After mastering them, only problem I had was in France where they sent in the opposite direction.

The one's I've negotiated in the States, it is obvious people don't comprehend those two basic principles. Brakes only slow you down! GRRRRRR

[groupw]

5 hours ago, MickinMD said:

I hate the damn traffic circles in downtown, congested, Annapolis and Baltimore and D.C. that are sometimes as many as 3 lanes and if you.re stupid enough to move into one of the inner lanes because the outside one is moving too slow, you have to go make a couple complete circles to get back to the outside to get to the exit you want - then you find out the lane you got in ends at an exit you didn't want.

There are a couple of them on side roads near me, but they're not congested, though one of them has one exit a quarter of the way around, one exit another quarter around, and TWO exits right next to each other another quarter of the way around that are confusing if you haven't been that way for awhile.

 

Admittedly, you do have to plan ahead for a multi-lane roundabout. They introduced one about 3 months before we moved on a street that had horrible congestion in multiple directions. My own experience was positive and I heard many doubters admit it worked far better than expected. They even praised the city for their signage to meals it even easier! You had to live there to appreciate how big a deal that was!

[Scrapr ★]

13 hours ago, Kzoo said:

As a deputy sheriff friend said to me. "How hard can it be?  There is only one rule in the roundabout - Yield left."  If that's all you do you will survive And if you miss your exit you can go around again...

Except in Great Britain.....look right!!!

^{but I get your point}

[Prophet Zacharia]

21 hours ago, BuffJim said:

I was most impressed my American colleague navigated this one in Swindon, England. She got us through while I sat in a fetal position on the floor. 

It seems like you don’t need to venture into the inner roundabout if you don’t wish to. I don’t know how much longer it would take, though. It looks in the photo as if there are a lot of people standing in the grass looking on, as if it must be great sport to watch the cars try to navigate the space. It seems as if low speed collisions are a selling point of the construction. 

In 2005, it was voted the worst roundabout in a survey of the general public by a UK insurance company.^[6] In September 2007, the Magic Roundabout was named as one of the world's worst junctions by a UK motoring magazine.^[7]In December 2007, BBC News reported a survey identifying The Magic Roundabout as one of the "10 Scariest Junctions in the United Kingdom";^[8] however, the roundabout provides a better throughput of traffic than other designs and has an excellent safety record, since traffic moves too slowly to do serious damage in the event of a collision.