Does America have round-abouts?

[xmbts]

I stand corrected [sub][sub]...multiple times...[/sub][/sub] they're less common at least, intersections are favored over them.

I have a friend from California who had never seen one so when after circling it about 3 times she said "What the hell is this!?"

 

[Peter Manning]

There are roundabouts, but only about seven people in the country who know how to use them.

 

[Jewrean]

Pure Imperial, maybe that map is correct.

Fixed

 

[Dr Snakeman]

It's not just an east coast thing. I live in Texas, and just encountered one for the first time a few weeks ago. Didn't know it was called a roundabout, though. I don't think I did too shabbily (is that even a word?), either. It isn't all that hard to figure out, but certainly nerve-wracking.

So, to answer your initial question, yes, we do have them. Although, obviously, they go the opposite way to the one in your little diagram there.

 

[UnderCoverGuest]

Alaska has 'em. Drove round one on my way to the greenhouses at UAF every other day.

Don't know if the US has them though. I've been in them during trips to Texas and New York, so I suppose they exist. During my time stationed overseas my way to the barracks was practically all figure-eights, I swear. In short, nothing to compare to Europe, but yes they exist, Pacific, central, and Atlantic--just not everyone deals with'em.

 

[tahrey]

[Does Europe have any cloverleaf roadways? You know, like this?

We do have a few, but it's the roundabout thing in reverse I think. They just don't work with us and our mindset, or how our highways work, for some reason. Also, apparently, although they're very efficient of space and engineering requirements (only needs one simple earth-bank-and-flat-span bridge), they're a traffic, navigation and safety nightmare. You get tremendous slowdown and potential for trouble as drivers entering one bit of road have to weave around those coming off of it 100 yards later, and the tight curves and potentially bad cambering don't do trucks any favours. And, of course, regardless of where you're going, you have to turn right (or left, in UK)... and if it's the really simple, cheap version, to go ACTUAL right you have to go around three leaves of the clover...

I think continental europe may have a few, but I can only think of two, maybe three in Britain. One is on a general-class (but divided) highway about thirty miles south of me, in the provincial town of Redditch, where I've gone around a full four-leaf 1440-degree tour (ending up going the same way) just for the novelty of it after noticing it on the map whilst route planning. Another is on a meeting of a couple of motorways where the amount of turning traffic is quite low, but still needed to be cheaply provided for in all directions in a very limited space.

Instead we tend to either go for interrupted-flow solutions (long on/off ramps leading to/from a flyover/underpass with either a big roundabout, or plain ol' crossroads with or without lights), or more fancy shapes like trumpets, or a pair of little islands + diamond-split sliproads + a single bridge (the "dumbell"), or all manner of crazy free-flowing solutions that look like the brainchildren of a basketweaver on meth. It sorta works, though it's surely more pricey.
(One way to tell if a junction is a cheap, old skool, easily engineered design: does it appear on the M6 Toll? I think that might actually have a cloverleaf somewhere on it. It's certainly got an overdose of Trumpets, which are the next cheapest/dangerous/confusing thing but get rid of the traffic-weave issue. Ironic, given how much of a ghost town that road is)

 

[ProfessorLayton]

No where near as common as red lights, but they do exist. There is only one anywhere near me and I hate driving on it, but that's because it's on a hill and it's hard to see cars coming and blah blah blah...

But yes, we do have them. I'm a Tennesseean and I've seen several, just only live near one. I like the fact that instead of having a light telling you to stop and go, you are unable to go so there's no running lights so that's pretty cool.

Does Europe have any cloverleaf roadways? You know, like this?

-snip-

Is it bad that I saw that and the first thing I thought of was that one level from the Battlefield 2 expansion?

 

[Jewrean]

Some interesting images:

I compare this to kids saying things like down with homework simply because it's too hard and challenging for them to understand.

Or an even better example, picture an old guy refusing to use a word processor because the type-writer suits him just fine.

 

[Enigmers]

I don't think so, British stores I've been to used feet and miles sometimes, and I'm pretty sure that Canada is also partially Metric and partially Imperial.

I live in Canada, as far as I know the only people that insist on using Imperial are American companies (like The Home Depot).

 

[Exile714]

They exist in America every once in a while, and I suspect that the reason we don't have more is because nobody knows what to do about them. When faced with a roundabout/rotary, people act like idiots, cut each other off, act way too cautiously or boldly... it's very difficult to drive through a rotary because nobody seems to know how to follow the rules.

Personally, I think that they're a great idea, and wouldn't mind seeing more of them (as long as people knew how to use them).

If your logic held true, that the reason roundabouts (rotaries) are so uncommon is because people don't know what they're doing, then roads in general would be uncommon. People in the US have no idea what they're doing on the road, and if they do act as though they are ignorant to get away with driving aggressive or distracted.

Maybe the whole world is like that, I don't really know... but it won't stop me from complaining!

 

[Arkvoodle]

Yes. Everybody hates them because we're all too dumb to learn how to use them properly.

 

[BlumiereBleck]

Yes, and they're PAINFUL!

 

[darkfire613]

We've got one two-lane one near where I live, and there's one near where my grandparents live, but they are really rare here.

 

[Glaive_21842]

I've seen one. Ever.

 

[Koroviev]

East coast has rotaries, West does not.

And that's all I know about it.

I live in California and we have one in our town.

 

[SimuLord]

In New England they're called "rotaries" and Bostonians have learned to be extra-careful when seeing people with out of state plates ("retahded drivahs" in the local dialect) trying to navigate them.

There are three roundabouts I can think of right offhand in Reno---one about two blocks from my house just off the freeway, one across town at Clear Acre and Wedekind ("William Webb Memorial Traffic Circle", and all I can think is that Mr. Webb must've really pissed someone off at the DOT while he was alive to get that atrocity in a shitty neighborhood named after him), and the last near the Wal-Mart off McCarran.

 

[Zeromaeus]

There's one near Duke Hospital I know.
Its the only one I've ever seen, however. I live in a small city though, so there's not much traffic congestion here.

 

[Stryc9]

East coast has rotaries, West does not.

And that's all I know about it.

Bullshit we don't. It seems like my county is trying to replace every four way stop that isn't light controlled with one of the damn things. They probably wouldn't be so bad if people understood how to work the damn things but they're almost worse than just having a four way intersection. If I could get away with it I'd just drive over the little middle bit like a regular intersection but they put trees and rocks and shit in them to keep you from doing that here.

 

[Peteron]

We have a few, but are far from common. I remember seeing one in Oregon and a few in Long Island.