Don't Be So Square - Why American Drivers should learn to love the Roundabout

Slate ^ | July 20, 2009 | Tom Vanderbilt

[buccaneer81]

Hell no, they are a pile of crap!!!! Keep the foreign crap foreign!

They have worked on the East coast for 60 years. You want to sit for three cycles of a traffic light? Not me.

[nina0113]

Roundabouts keep traffic flowing better than 4-way stops. I came to like them after driving and bicycling in Europe. The French ones need seriously better signage - “Village A”, “Village B”, and “Toutes Directions” (everywhere else) just doesn’t work.

[old-ager]

Anderson/Howe/Squire/Wakeman/White PING

[Kenny Bunk]

We must have more roundabouts in Democrat states. Should thin out their herd rather effectively.

It should cut the Florida population by at least half in week 1, returning the state to The Republicans much more securely than it is now.

Roundabouts are not doing the job in Maine, though. No one can afford gas.

[MCH]

MD has finally gotten around to building a bypass around the small town just south of me in northern MD. The new 4 mile bypass has three major intersections, including the 2 endpoints where it ties into the original high speed 2-lane road. All three intersections have been built as roundabouts. Definitely a new trend in road design. We have a few others now in the area as well, and I’ve learned to kind of like them. Hopefully the bypass will open soon. It’s been planned/promised for 20 years now.

[george76]

Saturday afternoon at Shibuya Crossing, Tokyo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXtOdSgf6Ic&feature=related

[old-ager]

Awww shuddup. You don’t have to stop to drive through a roundabout. Traffic lights are really stupid.

[buccaneer81]

I grew up in MA. There was a huge rotary in Dedham I used to go through all the time.

[nina0113]

There’s one in Rome that will scare the **** out of you.

ALL the ones in Rome scared the crap out of me. The straightaways too! Those are some FIERCE drivers.

[relee]

NO TO TRAFFIC CIRCLES!!!

Exactly!

Next thing you know, they'll permit you to pump your own gas or maybe even make a left turn from a left turn lane.

[Stentor]

My favorite driving experience was negotiating a triple roundabout in England. Hair’s still white.

[Kenny Bunk]

Nina, any Carmelite nun in Naples can out-drive any Roman in a Maserati ... on her Vespa.

Italy at 2 AM ... that's when the real cars and real drivers come out.

[Spirochete]

I'll be the Roundabout
The words will make you out and out
I'll spend the day your way
Call it morning driving through the sound
and in and out the valley.

[Kieri]

At many lights, yes. At a LOT of lights no, especially on boulevards. In some cases you have to go straight through the intersection and turn completely around and make a right. At others you have to make a right, turn around and go back through the intersection. If you get behind a big truck or a little old lady in a boat, you can waste a lot of time and gas just trying to get from A to B.

[flash2368]

They have them in Moldova where I live most of the time. They are great..they keep traffic flowing and save time.

I have never understood why we don’t have more of them in the States.

[LimaLimaMikeFoxtrot]

Off Topic: Your screen name makes me laugh every time I read it.

If I wasn't such an upstanding citizen I would steal it.

[Billthedrill]

Mountains come out of the sky
And they stand there
One mile over we'll be there and we'll see you
Ten true summers we'll be there and laughing too
Twenty four before my love you'll see
I'll be there with you

[LimaLimaMikeFoxtrot]

I have no problem with American roundabouts. Nearly got killed trying to navigate the first one I saw in England.. but then again I was nearly struck by a car the first time I tried to cross the street in London.

So I got that goin' for me. Which is nice.

[TomServo]

I was lucky enough to see them perform. Got high with one of the roadies...

Ahhh - the 70’s...

[TXBlair]

The only traffic circle I've driven on myself was a two-lane affair near my apartment in college. It wasn't too bad. I've always been very glad to be just a passenger, however, on the European roundabouts. Makes me think of

National Lampoon's European Vacation

That would be my luck. Lol.