Am in Vancouver at the moment and it really puzzles me why the Canadians and Americans have never taken to roundabouts. Driving to and from the Down-Town area to the suburbs where I am staying is an interminable succession of lights controlled intersections. Whoever invented the roundabout should have been awarded the Nobel prize.
And anyone who thinks there is a tailgating problem in the UK should take a trip down Highway 1 in rush hour!
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Agreed but with some reservations for our versions.
In places like Milton Keynes where there are 3 lane roundabouts at intersections of fast dual carriageways from all directions actually entering the roundabout unless you have a very fast vehicle can be daunting.
The other problem and this is nationwide is the growing of huge spinneys on every island possible completely blocking the view across for earlier warning.
Oddly enough where the highways authoirity have put traffic lights to control the flow there weren't usually forests on the 'bout so these could be negotiated fine anyway.
You want to try getting out onto one of these in a long slow moving truck, by the time you've got it especially an automated manual to pick up (some need around a second to respond) the chance has gone, and usually once you do get a clear chance by the time the tractor has cleared someone has come flying round, honest we don't do this deliberately it's hell trying to get out these days.
If they were cut down we could see the likely developing flow, apart from those who don't indicate and who take an unreadable mimse route, we could get going causing less hindrance.
Final points, the roundabout is not a cross roads, someone from the right doing 80mph and 300 yards from the 'bout does not have the right to steam roller through at racetrack speed despite it being almost universal practice.
For goodness sake why when we are all trying to get along in increasing traffic with a growing proportion of incompetent mimsers do people not indicate their intentions, and it's not the usual referred to make at all.
Lastly, given the aforementioned difficulty in getting a truck even onto a 'bout why do some aggressive types aim at the back of the truck now in their right of way blasting their horns?, is it some way of intimidating it out of the way quicker, if they get it wrong and hit the thing it will not move or buckle or crumple, and plod/insurance may well not lay the blame where they seem assured it lays.
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>> Final points, the roundabout is not a cross roads, someone from the right doing 80mph
>> and 300 yards from the 'bout does not have the right to steam roller through
>> at racetrack speed despite it being almost universal practice.
>>
>> For goodness sake why when we are all trying to get along in increasing traffic
>> with a growing proportion of incompetent mimsers do people not indicate their intentions, and it's
>> not the usual referred to make at all.
>>
These two are common practice it seems these days, espcially where I live
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Americans cant handle roundabouts, it means they have to make choices. They are much happier with explicit instructions, like STOP or YEILD.
NOt fair I know, they do have a good choice for cross road traffic lights where they go into flashing yellow outside peak periods and its every man for himself. Nothing worse than stuck at a red light at 1:30 in the morning with not a car in sight.
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Also the abilty of turning right on a red, thats a good Idea there is no nead to be stopped if you can join the flow of traffic safely.
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Roundabouts do not work where there is a heavy flow of traffic from one direction during peak hours. In fact, they are not suitable for heavy traffic routes.
I too like the fact that in many countries, you can turn left (or right depending on which side you drive) on red unless prohibited explicitly. Don't know whether we don't have this option in UK (we do have some filtering left occasionally)
Speed limit in USA/Canada is lower than UK for equivalent roads!
Milton Keynes was designed like an American city. For example, you don't have sidewalks (!) in MK. You have 2-3 lane dual carriage with NSL inside town. But you have roundabouts instead of American traffic lights!
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>> Final points, the roundabout is not a cross roads, someone from the right doing 80mph
>> and 300 yards from the 'bout does not have the right to steam roller through
>> at racetrack speed despite it being almost universal practice.
>>
>> For goodness sake why when we are all trying to get along in increasing traffic
>> with a growing proportion of incompetent mimsers do people not indicate their intentions, and it's
>> not the usual referred to make at all.
These are definitely on the money for me.
Why do folks feel the need to accelerate at their cars limit once they're on the roundabout.
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Another thing we don't have here is 4 way stop junctions. All cars must stop, but the first car there has priority. It seems really odd at first but once you get used to it, it's not too bad, until you get streams coming from all four directions.
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Thank the Lord for Roundabouts - -
