Does America have round-abouts?

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weatherfn

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Oct 22, 2008
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As an Urban Planner in Ohio, I wish we would incorporate more of these in our roads. Unfortunately, whenever we do, they but a damn stop sign at the entrance to the circle, negating the purpose. Gah! That's annoying!
 

Kitteh

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Mar 31, 2010
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xmbts said:
East coast has rotaries, West does not.

And that's all I think I know about it.

>.<
long beach, CA. we got our traffic circle, and a road surrounding called the "outer traffic circle"
 

Iggy Rufflebar

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Mar 26, 2008
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I honestly thought that America didn't have any I've only been there 3/4 times though so that's my excuses.

they put stop signs everywhere instead, just in case anyone out there was foolish enough to try and think they could conserve diesel/petrol.

on a side note but still slightly related, what the hell is up with the speed limits? 50 was the highest I saw in my time in Illinois, it's so frustratingly slow I don't know how they cope lol
 

Kamikazi1231

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Mar 10, 2009
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We do have them. In everyone I've seen there are always people driving the wrong way through them in order to cut down on their travel time around the circle. So I'd say we don't have more because of morons like that.
 

Tdc2182

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May 21, 2009
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They do exist in America- had to learn how to do one on my permit exam about two years back- but they are rather rare.

I had one experience a few months back when I was visiting a city in Phoenix. I took one look at it, said "Yeah, no thanks", and took about a detour which ended up adding 30 or so minutes on a rather short trip.
 

Keepitclean

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Sep 16, 2009
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Down in Albany they never wanted traffic lights in their town so at every intersection that would need them the council put in a round about.

There was so many of them that my mum's friend would wear out the tires on the left of her car faster than the right.

They are pretty common here and I hate them.
 

photog212

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Oct 27, 2008
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Iggy Rufflebar said:
on a side note but still slightly related, what the hell is up with the speed limits? 50 was the highest I saw in my time in Illinois, it's so frustratingly slow I don't know how they cope lol
We cope by promptly ignoring all posted speed limits. Here in Chicago we rarely go under 70 on the highways.
(you are remembering to account for MPH and not Km/H, yeah?)
 

escapistraptor

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Dec 1, 2009
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Yeah, we definitely have them on the east coast, but not that much. I've heard them called round abouts, rotaries, and traffic circles. If anything they seem to slow traffic though...
 

DanielBrown

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Dec 3, 2010
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I'm from Sweden, and at least in Stockholm we got round-abouts everywhere. They might be helpful for the traffic, but I always feel a bit frightened while in one. Some people don't understand how they work and just charge right out... Almost crashed once.
 
Sep 14, 2009
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Jewrean said:
In European countries and also here in my home country of Australia roundabouts are extremely common.

I was told that there are indeed roundabouts in America but are extremely uncommon. This was also shown in the Simpsons when they visited England and were completely clueless about a roundabout.

Roundabouts reduce traffic considerably by means of increasing throughput. I suppose my question is why aren't there many roundabouts in America? If you are not from America; are roundabouts common or uncommon?


A simple roundabout
in the midwest we have some in my city, they aren't huge ones, mostly in neighborhoods, just to reduce speeds for the most part.

while that is a great thing and all, there are these things called human beings. highly incompetent of driving correctly and thus being able to do the roundabout properly. and we have ridiculous amounts of trucks (semi's included) so trying to have those on main intersections would tear traffic into shit storms.
 

skeliton112

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Aug 12, 2009
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Jewrean said:
New Troll said:
Roundabouts are usually very annoying cause one road is usually much more travelled than the other so when you're on that road it's like having to slow down for nothing.
Proper roundabouts are usually put in place of busy 4 way intersections. The majority of the time (providing people know how to use them) you rarely need to stop at all. A reduced speed is far more preferable then the chance of being stopped for 30+ seconds.

The way the two lanes should be set up is like this:


This allows both lanes to continue traveling straight as well as allowing traffic to turn off. Do not be afraid of them, they are far superior to a regular intersection given proper road planning.

FalloutJack said:
We do and I've seen them, but now I want to ask a question.

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

I've never seen one like that here in Australia. Yes we do have busy highways cris-crossing one another and there are exits that join. I have seen the circular exits like that before but not in all four corners, usually just in the congested areas.
Down where i live (NSW) there is one that i know of.
 

Tsunimo

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Nov 19, 2009
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xmbts said:
East coast has rotaries, West does not.
Are you kidding me?
Maybe the rest of the west cost doesn't, but here in Washington, our city just put in 3 new ones...
on a single street o_O
 

LostAlone

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Sep 3, 2010
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Jewrean said:
New Troll said:
Roundabouts are usually very annoying cause one road is usually much more travelled than the other so when you're on that road it's like having to slow down for nothing.
Proper roundabouts are usually put in place of busy 4 way intersections. The majority of the time (providing people know how to use them) you rarely need to stop at all. A reduced speed is far more preferable then the chance of being stopped for 30+ seconds.

The way the two lanes should be set up is like this:


This allows both lanes to continue traveling straight as well as allowing traffic to turn off. Do not be afraid of them, they are far superior to a regular intersection given proper road planning.
Indeed. I've often wondered why the states has quite so many 4-way intersections. Here in the UK, 4-way junctions are really quite rare. Sure there are places where one road has to cross another without a roundabout, but not that often, and the majority of them have traffic lights or the one of the roads has muuuuuch lower traffic.

I really think that the world needs roundabouts. They work the same everywhere and if you miss your turn you can just stay on the inside and go round again.

Embrace the roundabout! Save the world! Think of the children! Etc.