Lights at traffic circles

[jrenaut]

Okay, forget jughandles.

I thought “roundabout” was just the British spelling of “traffic circle”.

[mstone]

@jrenaut 50912 wrote:

I thought “roundabout” was just the British spelling of “traffic circle”.

http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/research/safety/00067/000671.pdf

Note that they acknowledge that confusion between roundabouts and other circles is a potential issue. (To put it mildly.)

[jrenaut]

@mstone 50914 wrote:

http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/research/safety/00067/000671.pdf

Note that they acknowledge that confusion between roundabouts and other circles is a potential issue. (To put it mildly.)

Interesting. The disadvantage of a roundabout, then, is that the center of the circle has no pedestrian access. This is fine in places where there isn’t much pedestrian traffic, but becomes a big deal in the city (Dupont Circle would be a perfect example).

[mstone]

@jrenaut 50916 wrote:

Interesting. The disadvantage of a roundabout, then, is that the center of the circle has no pedestrian access. This is fine in places where there isn’t much pedestrian traffic, but becomes a big deal in the city (Dupont Circle would be a perfect example).

It’s fine anywhere you don’t intend to put a park in the middle of a circle. Once you do that, there’s no road design which isn’t dangerous.

[dasgeh]

@mstone 50920 wrote:

It’s fine anywhere you don’t intend to put a park in the middle of a circle. Once you do that, there’s no road design which isn’t dangerous.

Actually, a road design that significantly reduces speeds is great and reduces danger. See that video from the UK. Unfortunately, I don’t think there’s a safe road design that both moves lots of cars quickly AND has a park in the middle.

[mstone]

@dasgeh 50932 wrote:

Actually, a road design that significantly reduces speeds is great and reduces danger. See that video from the UK. Unfortunately, I don’t think there’s a safe road design that both moves lots of cars quickly AND has a park in the middle.

well sure, you can put a park in the middle of a woonerf, but that’s not a “road design” as understood in this country.

[dasgeh]

@mstone 50934 wrote:

well sure, you can put a park in the middle of a woonerf, but that’s not a “road design” as understood in this country.

I understand it just fine. I believe I’ve seen it in little towns.

More importantly, if you take it off the table, we’ll never have it.

[nikki_d]

@mstone 50816 wrote:

Interestingly, the wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_traffic_circles_in_New_Jersey) has a picture of one of the ones I was thinking of (recently replaced). It was a circle with a bisecting road through it, and a bunch of stoplights.

Ah, yes, the Marlton circle. Amazingly how easily I blocked that out given I drive through it pretty much every time I go to or leave NJ. Ok, I concede the point. NJ has bad ones too.

[mstone]

@dasgeh 50939 wrote:

I understand it just fine. I believe I’ve seen it in little towns.

More importantly, if you take it off the table, we’ll never have it.

For something like the circles in DC, it’s already off the table. The major arterials intersect at circles, and the probability of slowing those to a constant walking pace is basically zero. There are a lot of pedestrian safety fights worth fighting, that I’d tackle long before fighting for a 15MPH speed limit near all the traffic circles–because some of the other fights have a chance of success. (My number one would be better enforcement at crosswalks; the unsafe circles would actually not be so bad if crosswalks actually worked as intended.)

If you mean woonerfs generally, I’d describe them more as “vehicular access through a pedestrian park” rather than as “road design”. I’m not saying they should be off the table, but that they’re irrelevant when talking about situations where moving non-trivial volumes of traffic is a requirement.

[nikki_d]

@jrenaut 50906 wrote:

Jury is still out on jughandles.

Jughandles just make all your friends think despite the merit based scholarship you are completely unable to distinguish right from left at 19 years of age. 21 years later I still have 3 friends that remember that first time in a car with me driving.

[DaveK]

@bobco85 50847 wrote:

I just came back from a trip to Clearwater, FL, where I did some biking and encountered a few roundabouts. I think the best variation on the roundabout is the one that is less subtle about right-of-way than the basic form: all 4 ways have yield signs. That’s all I think people need to know for a roundabout to work, even if roundabouts implicitly give right-of-way to those in the circle.

Clearwater has a lot of very well done roundabouts in their neighborhoods and away from the water. Once you drive over to the beach you encounter a huge disaster of a roundabout – they put it in years ago and had to signalize it later. They also built the fountain in the center too close to the circulating roadway to the point that it blocks sight distances around the circle. Even so our transportation grad program had it on the front page of the website for years. It was a running joke among us…

[PotomacCyclist]

I avoid the large traffic circles whenever possible. I don’t think I’ll be riding around Washington Circle in the foreseeable future.

[bobco85]

@DaveK 50972 wrote:

Clearwater has a lot of very well done roundabouts in their neighborhoods and away from the water. Once you drive over to the beach you encounter a huge disaster of a roundabout – they put it in years ago and had to signalize it later. They also built the fountain in the center too close to the circulating roadway to the point that it blocks sight distances around the circle. Even so our transportation grad program had it on the front page of the website for years. It was a running joke among us…

Oh yeah, I know THAT one in Clearwater Beach (http://goo.gl/maps/7u4fK)! My sister (whom I was visiting) always explains the stupidity to me every time we go around it whenever I’m down there.

Also, quick thought experiment: how many people on this thread imagine the poorly-designed traffic circles, roundabouts, etc., as they are only during the day? Now, think of how much worse they get at night!

[DaveK]

@bobco85 50989 wrote:

Oh yeah, I know THAT one in Clearwater Beach (http://goo.gl/maps/7u4fK)! My sister (whom I was visiting) always explains the stupidity to me every time we go around it whenever I’m down there.

Also, quick thought experiment: how many people on this thread imagine the poorly-designed traffic circles, roundabouts, etc., as they are only during the day? Now, think of how much worse they get at night!

Note the old picture in the banner…

http://transportation.ce.ufl.edu/

(Go Gators)

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