Does America have round-abouts?

[T3hMonk3y]

Roundabouts are usually very annoying cause one road is usually much more travelled than the other so when you're on that road it's like having to slow down for nothing.

Proper roundabouts are usually put in place of busy 4 way intersections. The majority of the time (providing people know how to use them) you rarely need to stop at all. A reduced speed is far more preferable then the chance of being stopped for 30+ seconds.

The way the two lanes should be set up is like this:

This allows both lanes to continue traveling straight as well as allowing traffic to turn off. Do not be afraid of them, they are far superior to a regular intersection given proper road planning.

We do and I've seen them, but now I want to ask a question.

Does Europe have any cloverleaf roadways? You know, like this?

I've never seen one like that here in Australia. Yes we do have busy highways cris-crossing one another and there are exits that join. I have seen the circular exits like that before but not in all four corners, usually just in the congested areas.

I think this has to be posted

Might have got my tags wrong there buts thats spagetti junction in brimingham england. its scary.

 

[Chris^^]

I saw 1 last time I was in America, it was only about 6ft across as well =P

 

[Ironic Pirate]

I know of one nearby to where I live, but for the sake of not giving a damn about proper names, we just call it the Circle. It's always pretty clogged up traffic-wise.

EDIT: "Nearby where I live" meaning Upstate NY.

You're from upstate NY? Cool, that's the first internet person I've met that lives where I do. Granted, Upstate NY describes a decently sized area, but still.

 

[HappyNoodleBot]

Just sticking this here

http://xkcd.com/253/

love xkcd

 

[Ethylene Glycol]

There's one right up the road a ways from my apartment. I was more confused by the sign warning people it was there than by the actual roundabout.

 

[Voodoomancer]

Plenty of 'em in Iceland. And I don't get what's so confusing about them.

One thing though: People who don't signal when exiting deserve nothing good -,-

 

[Pinguin]

Here in the UK we have loads. Including, of course, Swindon's spectacular "Magic Roundabout":
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Magic+Roundabout,+Swindon&sll=51.557009,-1.781845&sspn=0.13832,0.246162&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=The+Magic+Roundabout,+Swindon+SN1+2,+United+Kingdom&ll=51.562792,-1.771473&spn=0.00108,0.001923&t=h&z=19

 

[Squarez]

It's a shame that they're not common in the States so people don't know how to use them. I've grown up my entire life with roundabouts and after having only been driving a year and a half I must have gone over hundreds of them. They're a really good idea, but you really need to have been taught properly in how to use them (as evidenced in my first experience on the road, on a scooter and nearly killing myself by cutting lanes on one).

 

[Rickyvantof]

They're all over the place. Netherlands.

 

[TheWwwizard]

I've seen one near where I used to live.

 

[Hubbe]

Roundabouts are a nifty invention... they reduce the number of left hand turns on a route.

This leads to safer traffic. Which leads to fewer deaths. WIN+WIN =

 

[Duruznik]

Israel has loads. With the terrible drivers we have 'round here and high accident rates, mostly involving old fashioned intersections, roundabouts are a good way of dealing with the problem.

 

[Helmet]

I live in Oklahoma, and I had only ever seen the one we have in Tulsa until last September when I went the England. And rented a car.

...I hadn't driven a standard in years, and was not familiar with roundabouts.

I made it through my entire trip without getting in a wreck, but I'm still not sure how.

I understand roundabouts, I get the reason behind them, but I HATE THEM.

 

[Ironic Pirate]

I know of one nearby to where I live, but for the sake of not giving a damn about proper names, we just call it the Circle. It's always pretty clogged up traffic-wise.

EDIT: "Nearby where I live" meaning Upstate NY.

You're from upstate NY? Cool, that's the first internet person I've met that lives where I do. Granted, Upstate NY describes a decently sized area, but still.

Upstate NY with me too. None near me although from what i hear we used to have a four way intersection with no four way stop sign, apparently that was always fun but several dozen accidnets later then changed it go figure.

Wait, where in Upstate NY do you live? I swear I've heard about that too...

 

[Plurralbles]

some places. But it's freakin' weird when you're not used to it.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

In European countries and also here in my home country of Australia roundabouts are extremely common.

I was told that there are indeed roundabouts in America but are extremely uncommon. This was also shown in the Simpsons when they visited England and were completely clueless about a roundabout.

Roundabouts reduce traffic considerably by means of increasing throughput. I suppose my question is why aren't there many roundabouts in America? If you are not from America; are roundabouts common or uncommon?

A simple roundabout

I may have been ninja'd but I recommend if you haven't seen it to watch National Lampoons European Vacation. That will tell you about most American's experiences with "roundabouts" or "rotaries". But yes we do have a few in our country. Most of our traffic is handled by streetlights though, or cloverleaf transfers.

 

[Tethalaki]

In Canada is it more rare to find them. I have encountered about ten at the most in my life time. clover leafs are more common. The reason why the states and Canada don't have as many as the UK or other european countries is space. we have a lot more land to spread out roads. Also we have not been a country for as long as others. When they were just starting out, they saw tons of land and were just giving it away to anyone who came.

Personally I'd say that a roundabout uses slightly more land then a set of lights does.

Also; your argument doesn't explain why Australia has so many roundabouts. From memory, I drive through 8-9 to get to work, and there's only two sets of lights in our town (about 40,000 people) now.

 

[tris4992]

In European countries and also here in my home country of Australia roundabouts are extremely common.

I was told that there are indeed roundabouts in America but are extremely uncommon. This was also shown in the Simpsons when they visited England and were completely clueless about a roundabout.

Roundabouts reduce traffic considerably by means of increasing throughput. I suppose my question is why aren't there many roundabouts in America? If you are not from America; are roundabouts common or uncommon?

A simple roundabout

We do and I've seen them, but now I want to ask a question.

Does Europe have any cloverleaf roadways? You know, like this?

actually yeah, atleast here in the mainland there's an abundance of them except with a slight modification to not make part of it totally useless