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The New Coffee Room

  1. TNCR
  2. General Discussion
  3. Roundabouts

Roundabouts

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  • Doctor PhibesD Offline
    Doctor PhibesD Offline
    Doctor Phibes
    wrote on last edited by Doctor Phibes
    #3

    We have a large roundabout in the center of our town. Every time I drive around it, I'm filled with an impending sense of doom.

    To say the locals are clueless would be charitable. I've seen a guy drive around the wrong way, and people frequently make a left turn as a way of "saving time", rather than drive around.

    I was once pulled over by Johnny Law when the guy in front of me stopped dead in the freaking middle of the freaking road, and I swapped lanes to drive around him. According to the cop I should have stopped freaking dead in the road like an utter moron and sat their watching him drool on his cellphone instead of switching lanes (it's a two lane roundabout). I resisted the almost overwhelming urge to point out a number of things which would have undoubtedly led to my incarceration.

    This year, the town clearly lost patience, and put in huge numbers of traffic cones which forces people to swap lanes and gives priority to cars coming onto the rotary LIKE THE FUCKING FRENCH DO, which has made things even worse. Mrs. Phibes actively avoids going on it, and will take alternate routes. I refuse to be cowed.

    America isn't ready for roundabouts.

    I was only joking

    KlausK 1 Reply Last reply
    • Doctor PhibesD Doctor Phibes

      We have a large roundabout in the center of our town. Every time I drive around it, I'm filled with an impending sense of doom.

      To say the locals are clueless would be charitable. I've seen a guy drive around the wrong way, and people frequently make a left turn as a way of "saving time", rather than drive around.

      I was once pulled over by Johnny Law when the guy in front of me stopped dead in the freaking middle of the freaking road, and I swapped lanes to drive around him. According to the cop I should have stopped freaking dead in the road like an utter moron and sat their watching him drool on his cellphone instead of switching lanes (it's a two lane roundabout). I resisted the almost overwhelming urge to point out a number of things which would have undoubtedly led to my incarceration.

      This year, the town clearly lost patience, and put in huge numbers of traffic cones which forces people to swap lanes and gives priority to cars coming onto the rotary LIKE THE FUCKING FRENCH DO, which has made things even worse. Mrs. Phibes actively avoids going on it, and will take alternate routes. I refuse to be cowed.

      America isn't ready for roundabouts.

      KlausK Online
      KlausK Online
      Klaus
      wrote on last edited by
      #4

      @doctor-phibes said in Roundabouts:

      gives priority to cars coming onto the rotary LIKE THE FUCKING FRENCH DO

      Hu? That's not how French roundabouts work, I think. The whole point of the roundabout is that those on the rotary have priority.

      Doctor PhibesD CopperC 2 Replies Last reply
      • KlausK Klaus

        @doctor-phibes said in Roundabouts:

        gives priority to cars coming onto the rotary LIKE THE FUCKING FRENCH DO

        Hu? That's not how French roundabouts work, I think. The whole point of the roundabout is that those on the rotary have priority.

        Doctor PhibesD Offline
        Doctor PhibesD Offline
        Doctor Phibes
        wrote on last edited by Doctor Phibes
        #5

        @klaus said in Roundabouts:

        @doctor-phibes said in Roundabouts:

        gives priority to cars coming onto the rotary LIKE THE FUCKING FRENCH DO

        Hu? That's not how French roundabouts work, I think. The whole point of the roundabout is that those on the rotary have priority.

        Somebody needs to tell the French 😀

        (I wasn't being serious about the French, but they have that bloody priorite a droite rule, if I remember correctly)

        I was only joking

        1 Reply Last reply
        • LuFins DadL Offline
          LuFins DadL Offline
          LuFins Dad
          wrote on last edited by
          #6

          Now that you guys have witnessed my master debatery, let me be serious.

          Better for the environment? How much extra fuel and asphalt (mostly made of oil) did they use in creating these roundabouts? How much excess land did they have to use? Did they sacrifice green space? Easier driving encourages more driving and less walking and bicycling...

          Time saver? More traffic volume moved through quicker? What about all the backed up traffic while they were building these things? Also, what happens regarding maintenance? Instead of blocking one lane and street, you will block almost all...

          What was the cost? Was there a better use for the money?

          The Brad

          1 Reply Last reply
          • JollyJ Offline
            JollyJ Offline
            Jolly
            wrote on last edited by
            #7

            We he a few in town. The small ones are okay. The one large one is a nightmare...Nothing like merging into a roundabout with cars going 40mph.

            “Cry havoc and let slip the DOGE of war!”

            Those who cheered as J-6 American prisoners were locked in solitary for 18 months without trial, now suddenly fight tooth and nail for foreign terrorists’ "due process". — Buck Sexton

            1 Reply Last reply
            • KlausK Online
              KlausK Online
              Klaus
              wrote on last edited by Klaus
              #8

              77276c7e-72aa-44c9-85d9-3cbbe7514117-image.png

              I've been in the Arc de Triomphe roundabout a few times. It's a little frightening if you are not used to it, but it works amazingly well (famously every few weeks a car runs out of fuel driving for hours on the innermost ring). No way in hell would the traffic flow nearly as well with an intersection.

              1 Reply Last reply
              • Doctor PhibesD Offline
                Doctor PhibesD Offline
                Doctor Phibes
                wrote on last edited by
                #9

                The best thing about roundabouts is you can avoid going to unpleasant places.

                The M25 in SE England is the best example of this.

                9eabadca-a90a-4a74-9406-153b3e9d19d2-image.png

                I was only joking

                1 Reply Last reply
                • George KG Offline
                  George KG Offline
                  George K
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #10

                  None in our town, but in the adjacent suburb there's one in the center of town. Each of the streets leading to it has a stop sign.

                  I may have posted this in the past:

                  Screen Shot 2021-06-03 at 7.25.57 AM.png

                  "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08

                  The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.

                  Doctor PhibesD 1 Reply Last reply
                  • George KG George K

                    None in our town, but in the adjacent suburb there's one in the center of town. Each of the streets leading to it has a stop sign.

                    I may have posted this in the past:

                    Screen Shot 2021-06-03 at 7.25.57 AM.png

                    Doctor PhibesD Offline
                    Doctor PhibesD Offline
                    Doctor Phibes
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #11

                    @george-k said in Roundabouts:

                    Each of the streets leading to it has a stop sign.

                    Yeah, they did that on ours, too, even before the current debacle. It rather defeats the object.

                    I was only joking

                    1 Reply Last reply
                    • JollyJ Offline
                      JollyJ Offline
                      Jolly
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #12

                      None of our roundabouts have stop signs, they have yield signs.

                      “Cry havoc and let slip the DOGE of war!”

                      Those who cheered as J-6 American prisoners were locked in solitary for 18 months without trial, now suddenly fight tooth and nail for foreign terrorists’ "due process". — Buck Sexton

                      Doctor PhibesD 1 Reply Last reply
                      • JollyJ Jolly

                        None of our roundabouts have stop signs, they have yield signs.

                        Doctor PhibesD Offline
                        Doctor PhibesD Offline
                        Doctor Phibes
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #13

                        @jolly said in Roundabouts:

                        None of our roundabouts have stop signs, they have yield signs.

                        Yes, that's what they're supposed to do.

                        Having said that, back where I used to live in the UK, the roundabouts got so ridiculously busy that they ended up putting in traffic lights as well.

                        I was only joking

                        1 Reply Last reply
                        • MikM Away
                          MikM Away
                          Mik
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #14

                          I have driven extensively in Carmel and their roundabouts are great. Except that they are at every freaking intersection in some areas. It gets tiresome.

                          That said, we are getting a lot more around me and they work pretty well. Where you get problems is the one laners where visibility is not as good coming up to it.

                          “I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.” ~Winston S. Churchill

                          1 Reply Last reply
                          • markM Offline
                            markM Offline
                            mark
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #15

                            I prefer roundabouts to stop signs and lights. We have a group of them by an entrance/exit to I-43 and a few more at an exit off I-90 about 8 miles from here.

                            1 Reply Last reply
                            • KlausK Klaus

                              @doctor-phibes said in Roundabouts:

                              gives priority to cars coming onto the rotary LIKE THE FUCKING FRENCH DO

                              Hu? That's not how French roundabouts work, I think. The whole point of the roundabout is that those on the rotary have priority.

                              CopperC Offline
                              CopperC Offline
                              Copper
                              wrote on last edited by Copper
                              #16

                              @klaus said in Roundabouts:

                              The whole point of the roundabout is that those on the rotary have priority.

                              Yes, of course

                              I used to go through 4 rotaries on the way to school when I was in college in Boston. That route would have been unusable without them.

                              They could solve a lot of problems in Northern Virginia.

                              Where was I where they had rotaries but then the idiots had traffic lights in each of them? That destroyed the whole thing. Detroit maybe.

                              1 Reply Last reply
                              • KincaidK Offline
                                KincaidK Offline
                                Kincaid
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #17

                                The US driver hadn't even figured out the zipper method of merging and now you expect them to understand a roundabout?

                                Doctor PhibesD 1 Reply Last reply
                                • KincaidK Kincaid

                                  The US driver hadn't even figured out the zipper method of merging and now you expect them to understand a roundabout?

                                  Doctor PhibesD Offline
                                  Doctor PhibesD Offline
                                  Doctor Phibes
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #18

                                  @kincaid said in Roundabouts:

                                  The US driver hadn't even figured out the zipper method of merging...

                                  Another thing that frequently sends me into apoplexy.

                                  I probably need to calm TF down.

                                  Having said that, I was once stuck in a traffic jam in the UK near my parents house, and cars were actually blocking emergency service vehicles from getting through by using lanes they weren't supposed to. In the end a couple of large trucks took action to essentially run these drivers off the road in order to let the ambulance through. It was genuinely sickening to watch. I think on the whole US drivers are a lot better behaved when they hear an ambulance or fire engine.

                                  I was only joking

                                  1 Reply Last reply
                                  • CopperC Offline
                                    CopperC Offline
                                    Copper
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #19

                                    While in the rotary, never make eye contact

                                    Never

                                    It is an admission that you see them.

                                    A Bostonian will take advantage of that every time.

                                    KlausK 1 Reply Last reply
                                    • CopperC Copper

                                      While in the rotary, never make eye contact

                                      Never

                                      It is an admission that you see them.

                                      A Bostonian will take advantage of that every time.

                                      KlausK Online
                                      KlausK Online
                                      Klaus
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #20

                                      @copper said in Roundabouts:

                                      While in the rotary, never make eye contact

                                      Never

                                      It is an admission that you see them.

                                      A Bostonian will take advantage of that every time.

                                      There's a legendary clip of a German TV journalist crossing the roundabout at Place de la Concorde in France live on TV, suggesting that the trick to crossing as a pedestrian is to avoid eye contact at all cost.

                                      https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1533711050051587

                                      1 Reply Last reply
                                      • MikM Away
                                        MikM Away
                                        Mik
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #21

                                        You really haven't had the roundabout experience until you do it in Tijuana.

                                        “I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.” ~Winston S. Churchill

                                        HoraceH 1 Reply Last reply
                                        • MikM Mik

                                          You really haven't had the roundabout experience until you do it in Tijuana.

                                          HoraceH Offline
                                          HoraceH Offline
                                          Horace
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #22

                                          @mik said in Roundabouts:

                                          You really haven't had the roundabout experience until you do it in Tijuana.

                                          Nor the reacharoundabout experience.

                                          Education is extremely important.

                                          1 Reply Last reply
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