A roundabout pioneer in America - Indiana edition

[MrSquished]

There was a good Radiolab episode on NPR last night all about roundabouts, and trying to figure out why they just aren't popular in America vs Europe. Lots of great info on the show, and there was a mayor of this town in Indiana on the show, who is kind of a roundabout evangelist/pioneer for this country. What do you guys think about roundabouts?

Roundabouts | City of Carmel

www.carmel.in.gov

 

[lxskllr]

I like them when people know how to use them, but dimwits send my blood pressure through the roof. Overall, I think it's a net positive, and will hopefully get better with familiarity.

 

[ch33zw1z]

Got quite a few of those in my area. I don't mind them, people unfamiliar with them can make it more challenging, and so can aggressive drivers.

 

[pete6032]

Cheaper to build and maintain than a stoplight. Allows more cars through than a stoplight. Roundabout vehicle crashes are generally less intense than stoplight collisions. More dangerous for pedestrians and bicyclists.

 

[BoomerD]

The main intersection here is a roundabout. When it's used right...it's great...otherwise, it's a clusterfuck.

 

[Spacehead]

I like them when people know how to use them, but dimwits send my blood pressure through the roof. Overall, I think it's a net positive, and will hopefully get better with familiarity.

Agree with this.
I'm liking them now that there are a few around here. People speed thru them a little more than i like(don't yield to cars already in them) & i wish people would still use a turn signals more often.

 

[dank69]

They changed a 5-way stop to a rotary near me and life has been infinitely better since. You think people are confused by rotaries, just watch what happens at a 5-way stop. I swear, we need to make DL tests a grueling 8-hour marathon. 75% of the population has no business being behind the wheel of a death machine.

 

[SKORPI0]

Have one a few blocks away, built about 3 years ago. Some unfamiliar drivers hesitate and stop/yield when there is no vehicle inside the roundabout.
Traffic is smooth when used correctly, since it's a heavy traffic intersection. Local people prefer using it instead of the 4-lane (each side) road across it.
Another roundabout is being planned on a 4-way intersection not having that much traffic, not sure why they want to.

Orland Park planning to bring roundabouts to village

While traffic roundabouts are becoming fairly commonplace in other parts of the country, they’re a scarcity in the south and southwest suburbs despite being touted as a quicker, safer way to …

www.chicagotribune.com

 

[thestrangebrew1]

I work as a land use planner, not a transportation planner, but when I work on community plans and other long range planning documents, we almost always recommend roundabouts vs. traffic lights at intersections. They work well, less time consuming, cheaper and keep a general flow of traffic vs stopping sometimes for up to 3-4 minutes or longer during rush hour etc.

It's true they take some getting used to but for people who live in those areas and get used to them, they're a breeze. It is tricky planning for circulation for bikes/peds though. I would not want to encourage them to go across roundabouts, but there really isn't an affordable solution except to encourage those folks to cross a block or two earlier or later. It's definitely a dilemma for planners who are trying to encourage alternative modes of transportation, then encourage something to be built that's not quite user friendly for those modes.

 

[nakedfrog]

Before I left Nebraska, it seemed like they were increasingly being deployed there.
Seen a number of them here in WA.

 

[VashHT]

I like them for the most part, worst part like other people said is people not knowing what to do. I do think sometimes they aren't the best option, there are places in WI where you go through 3 roundabouts to get off and on the highway. It's kind of crazy, each roundabout leads into another one (or multiple). Maybe that's the best way they could have done it but seemed overly complicated to me.