small traffic circle driving rules: right of way

[440Magnum]

Originally Posted By: Whitewolf
I like those little 'smooth' ones, more like a chicane!




And that's the whole point. They're introduced in neighborhoods DELIBERATELY to impede and slow traffic flow, and are referred to as "traffic calming" devices. Chicanes, speed cushions, and other impediments are also used to keep speeds down.

Its a very conflicted idea- take a device (traffic circle) that on the proper scale will ENCOURAGE smooth traffic flow, then [censored] it into something that does just the opposite.

 

[eljefino]

Originally Posted By: 440Magnum
Originally Posted By: Whitewolf
I like those little 'smooth' ones, more like a chicane!




And that's the whole point. They're introduced in neighborhoods DELIBERATELY to impede and slow traffic flow, and are referred to as "traffic calming" devices. Chicanes, speed cushions, and other impediments are also used to keep speeds down.

Its a very conflicted idea- take a device (traffic circle) that on the proper scale will ENCOURAGE smooth traffic flow, then [censored] it into something that does just the opposite.



What gets me are parking lots with twenty impediments to actually getting to a parking space. Like making people come all the way in, drive right past the store, then all the way up the middle, then back around approaching from the back towards the front. If you pass the last open space, you have to loop around, as everything's one-way. Traffic calming is one of those great contradictions in terms.

The city of Portland (built upon being a PORT, eg, a mecca for ship and land traffic to meet) is busy trying to slow down various arterial roads... numbered state highways... because people who chose to live there are now spontaneously scared and upset. The highway has been around longer than they've been alive-- free will, man, pick up and move.

 

[hpb]

Wow, lots of discussion about something we take for granted here! Just taking my kids to school I negotiate 5 roundabouts, and apart from the odd moron who doesn't indicate their intentions, they work just fine, traffic flows smoothly through the busy urban areas. Great fun of a night too when there's no traffic around, doing a few laps to get rid of the chicken strips on my motorbike tyres...only the ones on the right side though! (Yes, we go clockwise on roundabouts too, like the UK

). Sounds like some driver education through advertising campaigns would help in areas where roundabouts are a new thing.