Yep, they do have a few in various places... Florida for one, I'm led to believe, and conversely a few of the colder states. They seem rare, random, misunderstood and generally disliked however.
Jewrean said:
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
Hahaha.... oh if only that were true...
The above is what I try to do, and what's so far caused me to have a couple accidents, and a lot of brake-slamming wheel-wrenching horn-blaring near misses as I dodge the 'tards who
just don't get it. The top two favourite tricks seem to be 1. skirting around the outside of the island*, without signalling, regardless of what exit they're taking, even if it's a functional U-turn (optional: don't signal right at any point, but signal left at some random point between "1 1/2 exits" and "negative five seconds" before they exit), 2. go as straight across as possible when going dead ahead, regardless of other traffic. That is, for a typical 2- or 3-lane approach, start in the left hand lane, try to kiss the "apex" of the centre mound as closely as possible, then exit in the left lane.
Given that driving standards and levels of operator intelligence seem to be notoriously lower in the colonies - and the preference for long straight "main streets" in old towns, rather than the "market square" or central fountain/green space common in europe, it doesn't surprise me that roundabouts / traffic circles / rotaries / gyratories / islands are a lot less common over there. Seen enough videos where people drive round them the wrong way, straight over the top, etc...
"Screw it, these people just can't be bothered to understand or learn anything different. Just put a set of lights in and be done with it. Make 'em right turn on red just in case."
It's a shame, they're a useful tool for a good number of conflicting traffic situations, as you never have to deal with oncoming or cross traffic. So long as you have half a clue how to merge and change lanes, and it's set up so that traffic entering yields to traffic already on the roundabout (and, hopefully, that exiting the system doesn't hit a gridlock-causing stopping point too soon after**) you're fine. Though once volumes build up too much, you're going to want lights, or flyovers, or... that most evil-seeming but bizarrely efficient of things... the signalised roundabout. Uhhhhhrrrgghhh...
And also a good tool for learning how to control skids and how to get the back end of a FWD machine to step out without going into a full-force spin.***
Though as a sort-of-newbie biker on a machine with pram-like tyres, and having suffered prangs at the hands of clueless dipsticks who wouldn't know an indicator stalk, wing mirror, or big arrow painted on the road if they suffered a vicious and sustained sexual assault at the hands of one whilst tied to a chair in a well-lit warehouse, and too many entry-road tailbacks caused by people who just don't know how to merge into a busy traffic stream**** my love for them is waning slightly.
* I'm a brummie, bite me. They're islands. What else do you wanna call joyous mounds of greenery rising up out of the sea of concrete and metal?
** Though this can, counterintuitively, sometimes be good in a signallised-island kind of way to allow traffic on the unaffected sections to finally enter the system safely, and opportunist types to weedle their way into/through the stopped parts with less risk.
*** Though I have recently been totally caught out by a patch of diesel on a big island on my commute, went into a proper no-hoper 4 wheel drift, and ended up sheepishly facing down about five solid minutes of other unhappy drivers doing about 40mph until I could extricate myself. Just glad I wasn't on the bike. Wouldn't mind so much, but I wasn't even on the island proper, but a feeder lane between two closely spaced roads. Doesn't pay to get complacent - a lesson we all need a reminder in occasionally.
**** Good judgement, throttle and - if in/on a manual - clutch control are key, along with a bit of chutzpah... skills which often seem lacking. However, if in doubt, looking for something resembling a gap then flooring it, closing your eyes and screaming will probably work about as well.