Are Roundabouts Actually Better Than Traffic Lights?

Comments · 3.6K

• ST

  @Streetcraft · 4 months ago · pinned

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• CO

  @conorcrowley6256 · 4 months ago

  I do think the key thing is to be smart in junction design. There are situations where a roundabout is better and others when traffic lights are preferable. The problems arise when we try to just slap a design onto a road regardless of context.

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• GA

  @galaxyexplorer8075 · 4 months ago

  Here in New Zealand, we indicate to waiting drivers which exit we&apos;re taking so the people waiting don&apos;t have to guess which exit you&apos;re taking.

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• LI

  @Lingon_ · 1 month ago (edited)

  As a swede, where we have a lot of roundabouts, I think it depends highly on how much traffic an intersection is getting. For low and medium traffic intersections roundabouts are the better option, but intersections with a lot of traffic pretty much have to be traffic lights. You see this philosophy in sweden with city centers having traffic lights while the outskirts are almost entirely roundabouts.<br>Large heavily trafficated roundabouts become very stressful and a sort of &quot;survival&quot; of whoever has the biggest balls. <br>Also regarding &quot;light timing&quot; from my experience almost all if not all traffic light intersections here are smart intersections where it skips certain light patterns if there is no-one turning that direction, and giving more time to the parts with more backed up traffic

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• BU

  @buckcherry2564 · 4 months ago (edited)

  You pointed out the best fact about traffic circles. The drivers have to be paying attention the whole time. No checking out until your brain detects RED and no sitting on their phone while waiting for a GREEN.<br>E: Ok, called out a couple times...ROUNDABOUT. apparently circles are different things, even though we call roundabouts circles. got it, thanks.

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• SP

  @spacecadet35 · 4 months ago

  And now for the real test. Do both routes through rush hour traffic.

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• KE

  @kenvangoe9358 · 4 months ago

  The problem with roundabouts is most people still do not understand that you still must yield if there is a car coming from your left. It’s the impatience factor . It’s like nobody knows what the yield sign means or it doesn’t apply to them or turn signal use.

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• SE

  @searchingfortruth619 · 4 months ago

  As my high school teacher said &quot;your average will fall very quickly with absent assignments because the average of 100% and 0% is 50%&quot;. <br>Stopping at intersections brings down your average <i>VERY</i> quickly.

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• JA

  @jacknguyen5220 · 4 months ago

  The part where the mayor pointed out that the improved traffic throughput had an effect on not requiring as many lanes to support the same amount of traffic got me. There&apos;s impacts to the surrounding traffic as well. Less lanes means less lanes for pedestrians to cross, more land for land owners or room for sidewalks and bike lanes. Very interesting!

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• SU

  @susansuewwilliams · 3 months ago

  Problem with the Roundabouts in Detroit Michigan suburbs is people do not either know the roundabout etiquette or simply do not care what the etiquette is. So many times, as I start the roundabout someone has almost hit me from the side, disregarding I was in the roundabout. Roundabouts in Detroit Michigan suburbs are extremely dangerous.

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• ED

  @edwardmiessner6502 · 4 months ago

  There was a study done on the street and road network of Milton Keynes, England in the UK and the study found out that four-lane roads with roundabouts were able to pass more traffic than six-lane roads with traffic lights.

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• SA

  @samuvisser · 4 months ago

  In The Netherlands, these pure two- lane roundabouts have become very rare. They are all replaced by what we call a ‘turbo roundabout’. Those have physically separated lanes that forces your car to go exactly how you’d want to. They feel much safer to me as those two- lane roundabouts are always difficult even as a European

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