Here's Why You Don't Want to Shortcut a Traffic Circle

We had a local garbage hauler catch air with a semi when he was 'suprised' by a new traffic circle at 4:30 in the morning.
 
Well, in her defense that doesn’t look like a real traffic circle. It looks like a regular intersection with an obstruction in the middle. In fact there appear to be stop signs in both directions on the street she was on. Not that she noticed them either....
 
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Her insurance rates are going to get bumped up a bit.
 
That landing only rates a 2. She was airborne before hitting the Boulder, she just needed a little more air.
 
Van Johnston said:
Well, in her defense that doesn’t look like a real traffic circle. It looks like a regular intersection with an obstruction in the middle. In fact there appear to be stop signs in both directions on the street she was on. Not that she noticed them either....
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Yeah, but not everyone can afford a real traffic circle...

I would think it was put there to do what it did, that is take out people like the driver in the video...
 
Those neat mini circles with big rocks are called traffic calming devices. The rocks were added to keep 4 wheelers from stomping across them.

The major down side at least here, they are now solid stops for large fire trucks and all tractor trailers, including moving vans. We have a gently curving residential street that would be a challenge to drive faster than 40. They put in two, and there is a large 4 story town home development in between them, and that road is the only access. The circles were added after all housing was complete, to an otherwise complete street.

When one of the homes caught fire, only the smallest trucks could get in, no ladder trucks, no tower nozzles, etc. The nearest fire house is a mile away, 1 traffic light, no stop signs,, only one intersection to the fire, speed limit 35. The fire department was unable to save either unit beside the origin of the fire, and a total of 5 units became illegal to live in until full repairs were completed, 2 years later I wonder how much of that disruption their insurance covered?

The other ongoing problem is the necessity of hiring two moving trucks, a Uhaul size to ferry the household between the house and the big van.

Genius idea, only truly useful for killing drunk drivers. Not even reliable at doing that, as shown in the video.
 
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Is Danica Patrick practicing her moves on the street again? Same old Dani...
 
Zeldman said:
Yeah, but not everyone can afford a real traffic circle...

I would think it was put there to do what it did, that is take out people like the driver in the video...
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I recall when one of the independent cities/villages near San Antonio put one in on a Main Street. I recall a couple of retiree-class folks in big caddies being so confused that they drove up and over part of the circle rather than negotiating it properly. It was kind of amusing, in a sad sort of way. Probably would make a YouTube highlight reel.
 
wsuffa said:
I recall when one of the independent cities/villages near San Antonio put one in on a Main Street. I recall a couple of retiree-class folks in big caddies being so confused that they drove up and over part of the circle rather than negotiating it properly. It was kind of amusing, in a sad sort of way. Probably would make a YouTube highlight reel.
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There are a few traffic circles out here in nowhere, New Mexico. I have been known to go clock wise to make a left turn.....
 
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Zeldman said:
There are a few traffic circles out here in nowhere, New Mexico. I have been known to go counter clock wise to make a left turn.....
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I saw someone do that in a more highly trafficked area a couple of days ago. The other drivers using the traffic circle just stopped and waited until the miscreant was gone.
 
They made a traffic circle with paint and little plastic cylinders that stick into holder which are hot glued to the asphalt. It took about 2 weeks for our local Mensa society members to completely destroy it. It cause numerous fender benders and even a couple of road-rage incidents. They've since gone back and re-built it into a proper roundabout. Hasn't fixed the road-rage, I don't think...

https://www.google.com/maps/place/A...7b154f276528c!8m2!3d48.3994645!4d-122.3265596
 
Just be careful... Not all round-abouts are created equally. There is (was?) at least one round-about in West Virginia where the traffic entering the round-about has the right-of-way. I learned that the hard way while riding a motorcycle through there 13 years ago. Fortunately the driver of the big red GMC pickemuptruck was apparently accustomed to non-residents coming through town and managed to not kill us that day.

o_O
 
smv said:
Just be careful... Not all round-abouts are created equally. There is (was?) at least one round-about in West Virginia where the traffic entering the round-about has the right-of-way. I learned that the hard way while riding a motorcycle through there 13 years ago. Fortunately the driver of the big red GMC pickemuptruck was apparently accustomed to non-residents coming through town and managed to not kill us that day.

o_O
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That's true of New Jersey, too, but it depends on the traffic circle. I didn't know about West Virginia.
 
Traffic circles, a sign your local government gets too much of your tax money.
 
James331 said:
Traffic circles, a sign your local government gets too much of your tax money.
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Better than more traffic signals. Traffic circles and roundabouts are great for when there is too much traffic for a stop sign and a traffic signal would be too much.
 
My town added a couple of traffic circles at two intersections that would typically back up during rush hour. The backups reached well into residential neighborhoods and there was desire to keep things moving. The local FD told the city they were going to require that the largest piece of FD equipment could get through without problems. After all the dimensions were tested, they went ahead and built them. I think enough people have been through them to figure them out. Now they are "cool", I guess, because I've seen a lot more of them being installed.

I think that most of the new circles are installed for speed limit reasons, they do keep traffic speed down.

Here's one you are not going to drive across:
circle.jpg
 
This is a brand-new one built just outside of Sidney, MT. Note the hooligan friendly built-in concrete ramp...

Screenshot_20200218-112240_Maps.jpg
 
James331 said:
Traffic circles, a sign your local government gets too much of your tax money.
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What cost more to install, a traffic light or a traffic circle? What cost more to maintain yearly?

There is an intersection here in Gallup that is in bad need of a red light. It is where traffic comes off the interstate and needs to turn left or right. Traffic can be fairly congested and the 18 wheelers need to turn left to get to the truck stops. They never get a break in traffic so they end up just pulling out in front of traffic. And I don't blame them for doing so.

I was quoted by the city that it would cost between 500K and 1 million to purchase and install traffic lights, and another 25K per year to maintain those lights. And to coordinate the lights will cost another 100K initially and about 8K per year to maintain. According to the city council, that won't fit into the budget unless there is a tax increase. Also according to the city council there has not been enough fatal accidents in that intersection to warrant spending money for traffic lights.

Unfortunately a traffic circle would not fit in the area due to the exits were built way too close to the intersecting road leaving no room for improvements.
 
The Gallup story is a sign that the DOT has too much money rather than too little. There is zero reason traffic signals should cost that much. "If it isn't triple gold plated, we're not buying."
 
James331 said:
Traffic circles, a sign your local government gets too much of your tax money.
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In my town, we had an intersection that had a traffic light. It was two fairly busy streets , but the neighborhood is mostly residential. Depending on the time of day, one or more of the approaches to this intersection would back up, sometimes to where you would have to wait three or four light cycles to get through the intersection. A few years ago the city replaced it with a traffic circle. What a difference, since then I don't think I've seen more than five or six cars waiting on any approach, and much of the time at morning rush I don't even have to stop for it.

Sometimes, a traffic circle indicates that your local government has sufficient funding and is aware of its citizenry's pain points, and works to correct them.
 
Years ago I got a phone call to pick up several friends who had been in an auto accident. The driver of the car struck a six-foot tall blinking arrow in the traffic circle in Freehold, NJ. He was having issues with a careless driving citation that resulted from this. He claimed the officer hadn't witnessed the accident and couldn't make such an accusation. I said, "Jon, you drove your car into a six-foot tall blinking arrow. That's sort of prima facie evidence of you not paying attention."
 
I don't have a problem with traffic circles. And I don't have a problem driving in Australia. But, for some reason, traffic circles in left side traffic really screw me up.
 
I work at an engineering firm and we've designed both round a bouts and traffic signals and the round a bouts are MUCH cheaper to install and maintain. Plus they move traffic MUCH faster than signals or stop signs. Their only disadvantage is they take more space to build and the public normally isn't smart enough to figure them out on their own.
 
lancie00 said:
I work at an engineering firm and we've designed both round a bouts and traffic signals and the round a bouts are MUCH cheaper to install and maintain. Plus they move traffic MUCH faster than signals or stop signs. Their only disadvantage is they take more space to build and the public normally isn't smart enough to figure them out on their own.
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I don't mind roundabouts. What I have trouble with are the "You go, no you go" Pacific Northwest socks-n-sandals man who's man-bun is so tight his oxygen starved brain cells come up short a few IQ points. Traffic lights seem to lessen this problem somewhat.
 
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