Does America have round-abouts?

[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

 

[blarghblarghhhhh]

I live in the US. I was suprised to hear that they exist over here-there's certainly not any in the midwest where I am. They do seem like they'd lead to a smoother traffic flow, though.

I live in a modest size town in missouri and we have three round abouts. They are on s pretty popular road and work quite well to keep traffic flowing and letting people get to where they want to go. Most people are fucking idiots about them though and they become death traps when icy.

edit: I have never seen a two lane one though. that would mess me up.

 

[dex-dex]

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.

yeah it does not really explain Australia's amount of roundabouts sorry. Canada has the states to deal with and they cross our boarder quite a bit. We are over powered to be somewhat like the states.

 

[Angus565]

I live in Canada and I think last year one was put into a Peterborough not too far from where I live.

 

[PayneTrayne]

There is exactly two that I have run into. Neither were in my city, but they're on routes I need to drive every couple of weeks. So....yeah.

Also, I'm Canadian.

 

[Soylent Dave]

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.

I can't believe it took FIVE WHOLE PAGES for someone to post a picture of the Magic Roundabout...

In case anyone is wondering how it works :


Easy when you know how.

 

[theevilsanta]

Forget Roundabouts, I was driving through NJ and experienced the ultimate in weird. A Jug Handle:

 

[Brian Hendershot]

Oh yeah, they're popping up more and more in Missouri. I don't mind them at all, in fact, I find them quite convenient compared to most standard intersections like that.

Diverging diamonds, though, those freak me out. Looks like this.

It literally makes the lanes switch sides, so you're driving on the left instead of the right. It's confusing as all get out. You get stoplights that look like this.

It freaked me right out the first time I went through one D: I had no clue what was going on. And even now I just have to keep telling myself "just follow the lines, just follow the lines." And I have to be careful because the main one I have to use will shoot you back onto the highway you just got off of if you can't get out of the far left lane in time >.>;

Please tell me that those diamond things area no were near the Branson/Springfield area...

 

[shadyh8er]

Yeah. There's one in front of the local mall. It's a real treat to see people try and navigate through them. If you look really closely some of them have a lost puppy look in their eyes. It's funny.

 

[Jonluw]

No, they don't, because Americans are too stupid to figure them out

I kid, I kid. I had no idea roundabouts were this uncommon in the US, I wonder why that is. Maybe I'll find an answer if I read the thread.

Edit: They're hella common here in Norway though. Sadly, I couldn't find out how many there are in my town.

 

[Singularly Datarific]

Rarely, but in South Pasadena where I've spotted them, they get rid of every advantage they had by putting stop signs in front as well.

 

[Hawk eye1466]

Yea we have them their not as common as in europe but the one near me must have been run by retards because they put stop lights up and changed the cycles to be about 2 seconds between green and red so traffic is really backed up whenever there are a lot of people

 

[Zenn3k]

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

There are a few in my local area, but I know that I myself aren't a big fan of them. Most American's don't understand them very well so they tend to actually be fairly dangerous to drive in.

I find them fairly annoying myself, I just wanna turn left, I don't wanna turn right and go around in a circle to make my left turn.

 

[Xojins]

They're not everywhere but we do have them. It's called a rotary where I live.

Okay please forgive the ignorant Aussie savage, but rotary? That's a funky engine in some brands of Japanese sports cars for us! Why did your government come up with the name rotary or is a that simply a popular term for it? Although I'm guessing rotary cause it's round right?

It's pretty much just in my area of the state we call it that.