OT- Product Of The YEAR! -Somebody Should Get A Nobel Prize For This-

Fred Abse Inscribed thus:

Yes thats one experience I would like to forget. I went round two or three times trying to get to the outside edge. The swine don't think anything about getting on the outside of you and forcing you into the center. They all know where the horn is !

I have. In a Renault Caravelle. And lived to tell about it.

Since it was a right hand drive car I figured I couldn't understand the comments so left the sound off. :-) ...lew...

The last thing we need, recursive roundabouts.

There are a lot in Massachusetts - we call them "Rotaries". Including this one at the base of the Bourne Bridge onto Cape Cod:

That one doesn't look too bad. Actually, we still have one like that not far north of here. I think the smaller ones are nuttier. As I recall, you used to have lots of small, tight ones in MA. We had them in NJ, too.

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That is for sure!

There is a teensy rotary at the main entry to the Kaiser Medical Center in Santa Clara California.

("700 Lawrence Expressway, Santa Clara, CA?" > maps.google.com)

We have folks entering that parking lot, many in a heightened emotional state. This results in lots of misleading driving moves with almost no use of turn signals.

Several times, folks entering the lot start an un-signaled right turn out of my path and then change their mind, seemingly aiming for my left fender (it's metal) just as I'm about to enter the rotary, to exit the lot. Most of the time, I'm reading their facial expression in an attempt to divine their path (lacking any other indication).

It is a "body shop owner's dream", a perfect combination of distracted drivers having their first encounter with a busy, confusing intersection in close quarters. So far, only sheer luck has prevented dents. Somehow that doesn't seem sufficient.

--Winston

Rome is no different, every car is 3 metres wide and 2 metres long. Fortunately I was driving a bigger car so I signalled and started changing lanes after a few seconds.

The Wisconsin DOT just sent out a flyer with my license plate renewal, claiming "Crash statistics show that roundabouts reduce fatal crashes by about 90%, reduce injury crashes about 75%, and reduce overall crashes by about 35% when compared to other types of intersection control."

"Today's roundabouts are much smaller than the "traffic circles" of earlier years."

About 82.54% of statistics are made up on the spot, though.

--Winston

Yes, they claim that studies over the past 25 years support rotary/roundabout intersections... my 30 year-old Highway Design textbook lists 6 serious drawbacks and says "Because of these disadvantages, highway engineers in the U.S. seldom recommend the use of rotary intersections for new construction." When I lived out east, cities were removing them as fast as they could fund the work, now they are popping up all over the midwest. LOL

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I guess the rotaries exhibit 'constant ambiguity' rather than 'intermittent ambiguity'. I can get a ticket for stopping at an unlit "flow control" traffic light on a freeway onramp or I can get a ticket for failing to stop at an unlit traffic light at an intersection.

Context is everything.

I expect that rotary intersections use less electric power than do intersections sporting traffic lights, so they are 'green' on a couple different levels.

--Winston

Come on, 83% of people know that prime number percentages are more believable.

Tim

But the other 17% know better.

I find it vaguely reminiscient of a neuron, with dendrites and axons...

Cheers! Rich

Noticed that. I guess you get extra points for head-ons at the "bullseyes".

Had my experience with "rotaries" up in NH. Had to go to the shipyard up there, so headed up the tollway per instructions, got off at the last NH exit and immediately hit the rotary. Instructions said that the hotel was right off Highway 1. There were three Highway 1 exits from that stinkin' thing! Went around a couple of times seeing if I could see any sort of signage, finally stopped at the last-chance liquor store right on the rotary and phoned the joint up( no cells back then). "Oh, we're right off Highway 1, you can't miss it!". Yeah, like 1/2 a mile off it, when I found it! Drove past it 3 times after I got off the rotary.

Not a happy camper when they redid the closed air base here with multiple rotary/roundabouts on the main drag through the place. Supposed to keep dragsters out, all it did was make them lean a bit more when they went around the curves at speed. Fire department with the ladder trucks hates them, too. Would like to know the accident statistics, they've built up the centers so you can't see what's coming at you. Crowned with the usual scrap metal "sculptures" they stick in open spaces around here.

Stan

I agree.

I hit one in Ohio iirc. I have never been more confused in my life. When I exited it, I had a choice of one high priced gas station or one that looked like a biker hangout.

I got out of there fast realizing I just got a preview of Alzheimer's.

Wes

You could be 17% off though. :-)

Interesting that 100 minus 83, a prime, yields 17, a prime. There are actually a couple of instances.

And one in Long Beach, CA

G=B2