Report: Roundabouts proliferating in America, drivers confused

[Haltech]

Filed under: Etc., Government/Legal, Safety



Roundabouts are the scourge of many a motorist and a favorite calming device of traffic engineers, and they're spreading like crazy across the United States roadscape. As anyone who's had the joy of driving in Massachusetts or New Jersey will tell you, plenty of drivers have absolutely no idea when to yield or how to successfully navigate these rings of macadam.

According to The New York Times, the fertile Midwest has sprouted a bumper crop of these sometimes-confusing intersections, with 100 popping up in Wisconsin since 2004, and almost 100 blooming in Kansas, as well. Other states have a richness of roundabouts; Maryland has nearly 200, for example; and there's more on the drawing board across the nation.

Despite a public that's apparently skeptical of the change, there are plenty of positives to roundabouts. Speeds are low, and any crashes that do occur are less severe because the head-on collision is virtually eliminated. Emissions are also purportedly lower because there's less starting and stopping (though drivers waiting in epic backups approaching these things might disagree), they don't require electricity to operate and they keep traffic moving simultaneously in multiple directions. Since they do seem to be the favorite device of traffic engineers, roundabouts won't be going away any time soon, so we're all going to get the chance to try them out. Like brussels sprouts at Thanksgiving dinner, they might even turn out to not be so bad.

[Source: The New York Times | Image: Una Smith via CC 2.0]Report: Roundabouts proliferating in America, drivers confused originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 28 Nov 2010 15:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.



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[FreeFlyFreak]

Hooray.

This country is sorely lacking in roundabouts.
It is one of the few things I really miss.
Roundabouts keep traffic flowing, save gas, save wear on car, and most importantly spread traffic out, so it flows better, instead of getting stuck behind or in the middle of some pack and thinking the road is crowded when if you were to see it from the air, there is very little traffic, it is just multiple slugs of traffic moving between stoplights.

[RacingToaster]

THese things are cool, I love them

[bscar]

Just what we need, idiots who can't drive normally trying to navigate these things.

[neotide87]

haha yea they are. My buddy (not buddy anymore) a few years back got a DUI for getting stuck in one and forgot which way to go and a cop watched him go in circles about 5 times before pulling him over.