Traffic Circles - what say you?

They've got a bunch of them in our city now. They seem to be going well. Keeps things moving. I haven't seen as many accidents.

 

Over the past 10-15 years, New Jersey has been removing many large traffic circles in favor intersections and jughandles, some with overpasses. There are a couple circles on Hilton Head Island where traffic entering in the right lane has to peel off on the first spoke, but so many folks are from out of town and don’t know until it’s too late, and it causes delays.

 

Seeing as Pierre (Peter) Charles L'Enfant.(a French man) designed the street layout of Washington D.C (a traffic circle/round about nightmare city)... we can now add Urban Planning to the list of failures of the French along with their inability to defend their borders from invasion (TWICE).

 

Have they done the Rt. 10 circle in East Hannover Twp, Yet? I used to live in Randolph Twp. The other I recall was on Rt 1, heading toward Princeton.

 

I'm not just referring to islanders. I should've said drivers in the islands seem to really really suck. Vacationers losing suction and locals as your referenced article suggests. Now we all see our driving through a lens, like everything else.

 

Though for hundreds of years the French were the giants of European militarism.

Who do we blame for downtown Boston?

 

They replaced the one in North Brunswick (Rt. 1 and 130) several years ago. Plus several in South Jersey, Racetrack, Marlton, Ellisburg, Collingswood.

Can’t believe it, but there’s a Wiki page for this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_traffic_circles_in_New_Jersey

 

Something I ran across in Morocco...in addition to traffic circles. (Opposing lanes of traffic): To make a left hand turn, rather than the tight left we've become accustomed to here in 'merica, drivers would pull forward and then guide left, driving past the opposing vehicle. This provided them an unobstructed view of oncoming traffic (to the right), rather than the neck craning and windshield sighting we are accustomed to here (hoping there's not a hidden car approaching). It's kind of like traffic circle behavior sans circle. I thought it was odd...until I started doing it. Worked out fine.

 

And then there is the hook turn!!

 

I have somewhat gotten used to them, but I have a bias. 30 days after I bought my new car, some old fart, older than me, ran into my rear end because he didn't yield to me.

 

It's not a terrible idea if both drivers are on the same page. Could be a disaster if they aren't.

Also in St. Louis, most drivers don't even creep out in the middle of the intersection on a left turn yield. When you don't creep out at all, you can see a lot better too. But of course you also have to make a much longer left turn. I really never noticed people creeping out into the intersection until I moved to Champaign, IL, for grad school as it's definitely commonplace in the Chicago area and a bunch of U of I undergrads are from Chicagoland. I have since converted to mostly creeping out...lol

 

I like them. The longest I have ever been stuck waiting to navigate a roundabout here in GH is a little longer than one average traffic light. Just assume all the other drivers are morons and you'll be prepared. Then try not to be one yourself.

 

They make an amazing amount of sense. When we added the first ones to our town 25 years ago, half the town went nuts when they heard they were used with great success in Europe... cause half the town is positive nothing good comes from Europe!

Now there are several more in town and they function well. Most of those opposed have passed-on to the big round-about in the sky or are now fighting anything that comes over from California!

 

I googled traffic circles and was studying how to negotiate them. Seems simple enough. If everyone is all on the same page. There were some video clips of those who weren't on the same page, lol!!

Were they morons and jerks? For the most part, no. Of course not. They were just not familiar on how to negotiate the traffic circle and probably panic, confusion, and fear kicked in.

 

You are kind of right. A good amount of Hawaii drivers never use their turn signals when making a turn or when changing lanes.

Some on the freeway are in the left hand lane going slow so other drivers have to pass them on the right. Some people commented recently that they stay in the left hand lane going the speed limit so they force other drivers to go the speed limit.

And I can't believe the number of people who don't plan while in traffic and then try to cut across 2 or 3 lanes to make a right or left turn.

 

Agree with what's been said if people keep moving they work great but there's always some idiot that will stop at the wrong time.
I much prefer them to the double diamond crossovers I think is what they call them . One minute you are on the right side of the road the next you are on the left.

 

We have at least 7-8 of them that I know of in Tallahassee. They are definitely called roundabouts here (some of them have instructional signs that say things like traffic in roundabout has right of way).

I have real mixed emotions about them. I think it depends on the education level of the local demographic and the reason for placement. We have a large upper class planned community that has them on main roads and they nearly always go smoothly and speed up traffic. On the opposite end of the scale, there's one at an intersection of two main roads in a very low income area and driving through it is taking your life in your own hands because it seems like most people driving through it have zero idea what to do. In a third scenario, we have a couple downtown type neighborhoods that have them at intersections for no other reason than slowing people down at intersections of two low traffic residential roads, and they do nothing but slow people down. I mean, that was their intent but most people don't speed through those areas and a few speeding tickets a month would have likely been more effective at correcting the outliers. If everyone knew how to use them, I'd like them, but they don't.

 

There was an infamous one in Cherry Hill, NJ that could back up traffic for miles in any direction. On Sunday nights in the summer, it was a nightmare with the returning Shore traffic. A few years back they removed it. Much better.

 

I've went through that one on a Sunday night in my F350. It was a nightmare. I remember my normally calm wife acting as a co-pilot kept her head on a swivel that night. Ugh.

 

Patience and understanding. That's what I try to do every day I drive. Sometimes I'm not successful. But I try. Everyday.

Hopefully when I fuck up there is patient and understanding drivers around me.