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http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/2/AmericanFlag.jpg was actually the first country in the world to use the roundabout concept, with a rotary system in Columbus Circle, N.Y., in 1904 (http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20090924/OPINION03/909240347/1320/AUTO04/U.S.+should+reconsider+traffic+roundabouts)

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/Roundabout.jpgJohn McCormick - DETROITNEWS (http://www.detroitnews.com) - Sept 24, 2009

It's worth a retry --Ed.

Big changes to the driving environment are usually not welcomed by the public. Take the South Pacific island of Samoa, which recently switched from driving on the right to the left. Many locals feared disaster but the shift went off smoothly.

Here in the U.S., we don't need to swap road sides, but we could benefit greatly from much wider adoption of roundabouts.

For decades, European countries have used roundabouts, aka traffic circles or rotaries, to speed vehicle flow and reduce accidents at intersections.

Research there and at locations in the United States where roundabouts have been installed has proved that traffic congestion and accidents (including pedestrian) have been lowered. Furthermore, the costs of maintaining roundabouts are significantly less than conventional traffic-light controlled intersections....http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20090924/OPINION03/909240347/1320/AUTO04/U.S.+should+reconsider+traffic+roundabouts

Roundabouts are immense fun and frustration to deal with depending on the location, but IMO it beats waiting in so many traffic lights. It would be interesting to see some implemented. You would think you could save energy by not having so many lights and improve traffic flow because you only have to yield when approaching.

One nice advantage to them is in a regular intersection if you miss your turn you have to turn around or find a different route. For traffic circles if you pass you turn you can just go around the circle again.

In general I thoroughly support rotaries and roundabouts. The only problem with them is where at peak traffic there is a significant dominant flow in both directions across the rotary and it then makes it very difficult for others to enter. I saw this in last place I lived in the UK. To get around this problem large roundabouts often have lights on them to give appropriate priority at different times of the day.

Here in Maine there are two "circular intersections". Both of them are in Augusta. The smaller of the two was redesigned to use a spiral flow. (I believe they're planning to do the other one some time) It's not something I'd seen used in the UK but it's a very effective system. The idea is that as long as you pick the correct lane before entering the rotary you're either following a lane off the rotary or hugging the center of the rotary to switch to the start of a new lane. The key effect of this is that you never have to cross traffic. They did work at the entrances and exits to add lanes and filters to fit the different traffic flows. The only problem with the new layout is that when the lines are lost in winter it's harder to know where exactly you should be. Hopefully things will be better this winter.

While the redesign has improved flow, there is still one lower-flow entrance that has very difficult entry during the evening rush because it follows the two busiest entrances. No gentle acceleration at that entrance! (Fortunately for me I use a different entrance)

Yes yes and yes, as I've said before. Even our lobotomized not-
quite-rotaries around the Boston/Cambridge area are far better
than the alternative. Major advantages are that they're great
for hypermiling, because you *know* you have to come down to a
fairly low entry speed within a visible distance without having
to second-guess a light, and at a multi-way simultaneous arrival,
all four [or however many] cars can go at once -- try that with
a 4-way stop sign!
.
Rotaries come with the price of better education, and that includes
not treating the things as one's personal racetrack and leaving some
room to actually *accomodate" traffic entering from a minor direction.
As with many other road situations, it's the numbnuts who bunch up
who ruin it for everybody else. There should be NO need to have
to holeshot one's way into a rotary, ever. For those who think
there is, at least they're launching into slightly slower traffic
than a normal-speed road.
.
_H*

For some places they're ok, but they're not very pedestrian friendly.

For some places they're ok, but they're not very pedestrian friendly.esp if the blind were crossing it. :p

We recently defeated an attempt to get a new traffic light installed and had a roundabout built instead. It is in an area that is just starting to grow, so hopefully as new people move to this area, they will ease into the proper etiquette around the roundabout.

I moved a year ago to a location near a newly-built roundabout.
I love it because I can maintain momentum through this intersection at least 75% of the time. The biggest problem I see are those noobs who stop at the entrance until they have it figured out.

For some places they're ok, but they're not very pedestrian friendly.

The standard practice is to move the pedestrian crossing away from the roundabout itself

For some places they're ok, but they're not very pedestrian friendly.

In my experience as a public-transportation-using pedestrian is that it's more of an inconvenience than a danger. Instead of having crosswalks right at the intersection they are moved away, allowing a couple of cars to stop just off the roundabout. That gives drivers time to see and react to the pedestrian and the stopped cars at the cost to the pedestrian of having to walk further. At a busy intersection the benefits far outweigh the malefits*.

* It's a better opposite than detriment and far better than the horrible disbenefit.

Hi All:

___Regarding cross walks and roundabouts, they do not go together so there should not be a need to consider it. Leave the cross walks at the next block or open roadway with only two traffic directions instead of four plus.

___About rotary’s. They scare the hell out of me when I find myself approaching one (about one a year in my travels) and as soon as I get through it, I think that a great idea and we should have these at every intersection :D

___Good Luck

___Wayne