Does America have round-abouts?

[Tsunimo]

East coast has rotaries, West does not.

Are you kidding me?
Maybe the rest of the west cost doesn't, but here in Washington, our city just put in 3 new ones...
on a single street

Now I have to know where you are in Washington. I have a shop in Tacoma, and the city is trowing them in like they are candy.

Yeah... Tacoma is a little crazy with 'em to.
I'm in the Tumwater/Olympia area

 

[Xaio30]

We do indeed have them in Sweden, but they are called "rondell" and we use therm for nearly every 4-way intersection.

 

[holy_secret]

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

There is one close to where I live. It is not as big as that one though.
Oh yeah. I live in Stockholm, Sweden.

It's not as confusing to use it as it looks, folks. Promise!

Oh yeah. We call the normal roundabouts "Rondell". I like that name.

 

[gamefreakbsp]

Yeah. We call em' rotaries where I am from though.

 

[astrav1]

Plenty in Massachusetts, they are known as rotaries.

 

[Firetaffer]

They exist in America every once in a while, and I suspect that the reason we don't have more is because nobody knows what to do about them. When faced with a roundabout/rotary, people act like idiots, cut each other off, act way too cautiously or boldly... it's very difficult to drive through a rotary because nobody seems to know how to follow the rules.

Personally, I think that they're a great idea, and wouldn't mind seeing more of them (as long as people knew how to use them).

Don't they teach everyone about them in the rode code or something :O.

 

[holy_secret]

We do indeed have them in Sweden, but they are called "rondell" and we use therm for nearly every 4-way intersection.

...! Why you little! Had to write that just a few minutes before me, did you?
Fan också :-(

 

[trophykiller]

Fort collins has 5 or 6 roundabouts, and will probably build more. so yes we do have them, just not many.

 

[repeating integers]

Yeah we have roundabouts.

They don't rock as hard as this one though...


Best song ever.

...Crap. I was gonna post that! You ninja...

Not quite the best song ever though. This is:

<youtube=aBP6lFU-J2M>

Having lived in England for most of my life, I take roundabouts for granted. I'm actually kinda surprised to learn anywhere doesn't have them, but I suppose you learn something new every day. They do work pretty well,but maybe that's because people over here actually know how they work.

 

[airplanedude550]

I'm from England; therefore I am a seasoned round-about driver. I went to Loveland, Colorado, one time, and they had them all over the bloody place. Apparently, ski-towns (as well as many other cities in Colorado) do this in order to appeal to European tourists. (I do not see how, because our round-abouts go clockwise as opposed to American round-abouts which go anticlockwise).

 

[Falseprophet]

In Canada i've only seen 2 and both are in Edmonton. I don't like traffic circles (thats what we call it here) cause it usually most of the accidents happen here.

We have a traffic circle in Hamilton, Ontario. But I was out east last year and the Maritimes have them too, but they call them rotaries. Based on this thread it sounds like rotary is the Maritime/New England term, and it's traffic circle for the rest of the continent.

Though according to Wikipedia, a rotary/traffic circle [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_circle] is not quite the same as a roundabout.

 

[Evilsanta]

I don't know about the US but here in Sweden we have plenty of them.

 

[JezebelinHell]

We have a roundabout close to where I live in Ohio and for the longest time it was set up to work the OPPOSITE of what they are supposed to. No one stood a chance on that circle. It was supposedly fixed a few years back but I am just in the habit of avoiding it. Even with it fixed I am certain that the people going around it are still clueless.

 

[Iggy Rufflebar]

on a side note but still slightly related, what the hell is up with the speed limits? 50 was the highest I saw in my time in Illinois, it's so frustratingly slow I don't know how they cope lol

We cope by promptly ignoring all posted speed limits. Here in Chicago we rarely go under 70 on the highways.
(you are remembering to account for MPH and not Km/H, yeah?)

well i'm currently suffering from a particularly nasty case of sleep deprivation so I doubt i'm doing the conversion correctly, regardless it felt really slow

i'll always remember the first time I went to Chicago, I saw lots of high end sports cars all of which were going horrifically slow with no real traffic around, in my country we've got idiots in their tiny European cars doing silly speed everywhere lol

 

[Halceon]

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?

Ayup! [http://goo.gl/maps/DseZ]

Also, here [http://goo.gl/maps/FBdc]'s my favourite case of roundabouts.

 

[Kair]

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.

Actually, with traffic lights you would have to stop and wait because the other road had many more vehicles passing through.

 

[Roperius]

I made the embarrassing assumption that America was without the roundabouts when I met my new housemates in September. Red-faced much?

 

[Towels]

I have a couple near the suburban neighborhood my parents live in, and in a small office park down the street. I think its silly though because Roundabouts only seem to be useful in high-traffic intersections, and neither of these places see much of any traffic. Its just a fanciful, flashy waste of money and space where I live.

 

[Zenode]

Whats with Americans giving things retarded names.....its a roundabout.

A rotary (in the context of driving) sounds like something that's totally reta......oh wait your all complaining about how no one knows how to use them, makes sense now

 

[DomM]

If you think roundabouts are bad, look at this:



Yes, it's a roundabout of roundabouts. And the only possible reason for going to Swindon.