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Possibly Chicken posted:So here's what has to be one of the worst intersections in the world. Just make the left to right road (as per the picture) the right of way and it sorts that out. BraveUlysses posted:worse: Slap a roundabout down and job done. Why are 4(or more) way stops still a thing in the US? I can understand having them in the early days of the car but by today they are just a bad option. If the road is so under used just make one lane the right of way and if it sees lots of traffic their are far better options to keep the traffic moving. Are the people who design road junctions their because they are the third cousin of the current mayor or something?
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Oct 4, 2014 12:10
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Foxtrot_13 posted:Why are 4(or more) way stops still a thing in the US?
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Oct 4, 2014 13:53
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In the United States, the road and traffic system is designed with that idea that it should be navigable by any driver no matter where in the country they're from or what their skill level. It's pretty much the lowest common denominator system. And to be honest, with licensing and vehicle maintenance requirements being so low that's probably not the worst idea. Edit: An thanks to the federal system, it is very hard to set national regulations for a lot of stuff. The DOT has used the power of the purse -- i.e. no new highway funds for states without raising the drinking age from 18 to 21 and the DUI BAC from 0.10 to 0.08 -- but that has likely been crippled by the Supreme Court's ruling on Medicare expansion. waffle iron fucked around with this message at 14:32 on Oct 4, 2014 |
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Oct 4, 2014 14:28
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waffle iron posted:In the United States, the road and traffic system is designed with that idea that it should be navigable by any driver no matter where in the country they're from or what their skill level. It's pretty much the lowest common denominator system.
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Oct 4, 2014 14:48
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Anime Reference posted:Most drivers still can't get through a 4-way stop correctly though so I don't think it worked. It's a system that has a huge sunk cost fallacy.
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Oct 4, 2014 14:50
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I genuinely think a 4-way stop requires more thought than a roundabout, based on all the complaints I see on here about people being overly polite about the right of way. A single lane roundabout is easy even for the dumbest of the dumb.
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Oct 4, 2014 15:12
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The basic roundabout is definitely way simpler. It literally only requires looking to the left and seeing if someone's going to crash into you if you were to continue. The only problem is that it's contrary to the right-hand priority rules elsewhere but they usually get a yield sign to make up for that.
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Oct 4, 2014 15:39
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You think Americans can read a yield sign? They must be invisible to the average driver, I can think of several yield signs in my area that are ignored on a daily basis and cause an accident nearly every week.
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Oct 4, 2014 15:53
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Yeah, there's a lot of people who either completely ignore yield signs, or treat them as a full stop. You could argue that people might actually learn what they mean if they popped up more than once in a blue moon, but it's still really annoying in areas where roundabouts are new and idiots have no clue what "yield" means.
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Oct 4, 2014 16:25
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Are you supposed to use your turn signals at all in a roundabout? I've never seen anyone do it here 
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Oct 4, 2014 16:32
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Deeters posted:Are you supposed to use your turn signals at all That's about right.
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Oct 4, 2014 16:45
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In my time spent with stereotypical old rural American muscle car gearheads, gently prying to understand their hatred of recently installed roundabouts, it usually turns out to be their dislike of European things, which itself is rooted in fear of anything foreign. Just keep installing roundabouts and people who use the word "towelhead" will be dead soon and won't be around to complain about them any more.
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Oct 4, 2014 17:02
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CharlieWhiskey posted:In my time spent with stereotypical old rural American muscle car gearheads, gently prying to understand their hatred of recently installed roundabouts, it usually turns out to be their dislike of European things, which itself is rooted in fear of anything foreign. Just keep installing roundabouts and people who use the word "towelhead" will be dead soon and won't be around to complain about them any more.
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Oct 4, 2014 18:14
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I guess they lose their appeal somewhat when those powerful RWD cars have oxcart suspension. 
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Oct 4, 2014 18:20
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Haifisch posted:Yeah, there's a lot of people who either completely ignore yield signs, or treat them as a full stop. To be fair, I come across a lot of yields that should be full stops because there is zero visibility until you get right up to the intersection. Conversely I've come across yields that should be a regular merge and would mess up traffic if you did actually yield. It's a crapshoot.
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Oct 4, 2014 18:47
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jammyozzy posted:I guess they lose their appeal somewhat when those powerful RWD cars have oxcart suspension. Especially when those oxcarts are still has fast as cars that cost twice as much. Americans hate roundabouts because no one knows how to use them and they are also often misused. Strangely, a powerful rwd car and a empty big roundabout can be fun. Just ask the aussies.
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Oct 4, 2014 19:53
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Ugh, I had a right one this evening. Someone with an unlit bike, wearing dark clothing... not cycling, but walking their bike along the road, in the same direction as the traffic. Jesus Christ. Some poor driver's going to wipe that idiot out, and get a load of financial/legal hassle for it.
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Oct 4, 2014 19:56
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waffle iron posted:In the United States, the road and traffic system is designed with that idea that it should be navigable by any driver no matter where in the country they're from or what their skill level. It's pretty much the lowest common denominator system.
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Oct 4, 2014 20:04
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Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester posted:Another big problem is that our engineers here are lowest common denominator asswipes too, and they don't build the roundabouts right. Right near me here, there's a big one that's oval instead of round, and there are traffic lights in it. Another one nearby is so small (the curb area in the center is like 6 feet wide) that it's almost impossible to be in the roundabout so it's almost impossible to know who should yield to whom when approaching it. Case in point: https://www.google.com/maps/@38.207519,-85.708736,19z That is a roundabout. Yes it's as dumb in person as it looks in the map. They just installed it recently.
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Oct 4, 2014 23:00
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revmoo posted:Case in point: https://www.google.com/maps/@38.207519,-85.708736,19z Well of course, it's outside of a zoo. Based on all the zoo's I've visited, I am fairly sure that zoo's are required by law to have strange road designs where you enter their parking lot.
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Oct 4, 2014 23:51
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It baffles me that roundabouts can be so difficult to understand. Single lane ones are dead simple. Multi lane ones where you have to change lanes while on the roundabout, people gently caress those up all the time though. The crazier ones like this one make people's brain melt but it's really not that bad if you just think about it: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.5629338,-1.7714007,243m/data=!3m1!1e3
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Oct 5, 2014 00:08
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The Locator posted:Well of course, it's outside of a zoo. Based on all the zoo's I've visited, I am fairly sure that zoo's are required by law to have strange road designs where you enter their parking lot. "Bear left"; so we went home.
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Oct 5, 2014 00:55
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ArcticZombie posted:It baffles me that roundabouts can be so difficult to understand. Single lane ones are dead simple. Multi lane ones where you have to change lanes while on the roundabout, people gently caress those up all the time though. The crazier ones like this one make people's brain melt but it's really not that bad if you just think about it: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.5629338,-1.7714007,243m/data=!3m1!1e3 As far as I know, multi-lane roundabouts have different rules in different places. In Alberta, for example, you're not supposed to change lanes in a roundabout, and if you're in the outside lane, you are responsible to yield to the person on the inside when they want to leave the circle. I'm not surprised people gently caress that up, to be honest, since it's pretty counterintuitive.
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Oct 5, 2014 02:39
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They put a super simple roundabout in a busy area here, and it's unreal how many people have no idea what the gently caress is going on. https://www.google.ca/maps/@52.2107699,-113.8163867,321m/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en there is only 1 loving lane, nothing blocking your view of anything anywhere. DON'T loving STOP BEFORE GOING IN IF THERE'S NOBODY THERE, DO STOP IF THERE IS. somehow, people do the exact opposite like the person already in the roundabout has to yeild to them, and nobody uses their signal lights.
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Oct 5, 2014 03:05
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People seem to have a lot of trouble with this one: https://www.google.com/maps/@30.2622181,-97.7514625,3a,75y,218.16h,72.64t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sqK2U2cEOvltZKmMVMVw-hw!2e0 Also, these bother me to no end. I guess they're just here to keep people on their toes and prevent them from speeding  :https://www.google.com/maps/@30.2469204,-97.7576262,3a,75y,297.94h,90.38t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1s1lEpK_waV-5zvE8p2ikjrA!2e0
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Oct 5, 2014 03:34
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There's a great roundabout near where I work that has five entrances, four of which are unsigned (yield), and one of which has a stop sign. According to some of the traffic engineer goons this is totally contrary to the federal regulations on how roundabouts should be installed (in fact, none of the entrances are supposed to be controlled by a stop sign, but certainly not just one of them). Doesn't matter to the police, who sit at one of the other exits a few car-lengths back and catch car after car as they blow through the unexpected sign. One afternoon I left my window open to hear the siren and counted nine stops in an hour and a half.
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Oct 5, 2014 05:24
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That's some bullshit.
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Oct 5, 2014 11:01
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Kind of related. A new apartment "community" I deliver to just started moving people in a few weeks ago. Apparently they have a roundabout, but it's not painted or marked in any way, and there's no lighting near it. At the moment, it's just a sea of concrete that rises up in the middle at the back end of the place for no loving reason. I wasn't the first one to leave deep gouges in it. The place has been open less than a month. 
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Oct 5, 2014 18:29
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There's a stretch of residential road in Memphis where they installed roundabouts at every intersection to eliminate street racing. It's not uncommon to find a car stuck in the median.  Edit: I really did type median - stupid autocorrect
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Oct 5, 2014 18:39
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Those are "traffic calming devices". All in all, they're a little bit better than the neighbourhoods that put giant gently caress-off speedbumps in the middle of the road, but I could do without either one. Apparently it's not just a speed thing, it's also meant to discourage people from driving through those neighbourhoods to avoid other traffic. I don't think frustrating drivers on purpose is a really good traffic engineering principle, but what do I know?
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Oct 5, 2014 20:36
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PT6A posted:Those are "traffic calming devices". All in all, they're a little bit better than the neighbourhoods that put giant gently caress-off speedbumps in the middle of the road, but I could do without either one. Apparently it's not just a speed thing, it's also meant to discourage people from driving through those neighbourhoods to avoid other traffic. I really like them, because I get a little bit of slalom practice or challenge myself to carry a little bit of extra speed through their baby roundabouts.
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Oct 5, 2014 22:30
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PT6A posted:I don't think frustrating drivers on purpose is a really good traffic engineering principle, but what do I know? I don't like that poo poo either, but I can see why they do it. It boils down to the lesser of two evils, really - if it keeps Mr. I'm-late-for-work-gently caress-you-I've-got-a-meeting (and all of his buddies) from going 70mph through neighborhoods to bypass slow / blocked up traffic on the main roads, then it's probably a good thing.
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Oct 6, 2014 00:29
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Plus the highcentered cars make an awesome teeter-totter until the tow truck arrives.
Goober Peas fucked around with this message at 02:03 on Oct 6, 2014 |
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Oct 6, 2014 01:53
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Seattle has to be extra cautious. We have roundabouts with 4 way stops!
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Oct 6, 2014 02:44
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Black88GTA posted:I don't like that poo poo either, but I can see why they do it. It boils down to the lesser of two evils, really - if it keeps Mr. I'm-late-for-work-gently caress-you-I've-got-a-meeting (and all of his buddies) from going 70mph through neighborhoods to bypass slow / blocked up traffic on the main roads, then it's probably a good thing. They can go get hosed if the limit is 25 mph but they have bumps that you can't take at 25 mph, though.
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Oct 6, 2014 03:14
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GENDERWEIRD GREEDO posted:They can go get hosed if the limit is 25 mph but they have bumps that you can't take at 25 mph, though. IIRC, these speedbumps are hard on a car at the speed limit, but on a motorcycle, are quite fun. By standing on the pegs and keeping my knees soft, it was the closest I ever came to riding over moguls on a sportbike. https://www.google.com/maps/@37.2393357,-121.845459,104m/data=!3m1!1e3
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Oct 6, 2014 04:23
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GENDERWEIRD GREEDO posted:They can go get hosed if the limit is 25 mph but they have bumps that you can't take at 25 mph, though. They have bumps you can't take at 5 mph. You'll notice them by all of the gouge marks in it. There isn't a strong set of guidelines for building them, so they sort of eyeball it and make sure the dump truck can make it over afterwards.
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Oct 6, 2014 11:59
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GENDERWEIRD GREEDO posted:They can go get hosed if the limit is 25 mph but they have bumps that you can't take at 25 mph, though. The real problem with speedbumps is they only matter if you're driving a car, and one that you give half a gently caress about at that. Yeah, I'm going to slow right down to go over it; the woman in the crossover behind me is going to nearly rear-end me and honk because she sees no problem with cruising over it at speed. The guy in the F-150 is just going to ignore the loving thing like it isn't even there. I'll admit to doing the same thing when I was driving an SUV, mind you -- it's only natural. At least the mini-roundabouts do actually force people to slow down, and apply to all vehicle types equally (though I wonder if large vehicles like moving trucks can successfully negotiate them...). They were talking about putting speedbumps in my building's parkade to keep people from speeding. The only problem is it's never the guys in Mustangs, or Lotuses, or Corvettes, or S2000s doing the speeding, it's always the giant Lexus SUVs and trucks that won't even notice if you put a speedbump there. I drive the 15 km/h speed limit, and I'm getting tailgated in the parkade by some of these pricks. Luckily, that plan was kiboshed because it would cause structural damage.
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Oct 6, 2014 15:22
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I live in a yuppie suburban sprawl hell, and I'll agree with that. People in giant SUV's looovve to dance around the main road blowing stop signs at 40 so they can get to starbucks a couple minutes faster. Which I find super amusing because it's these same privileged assholes that bitch and complain when someone speeds past their house, putting their precious crotch fruit in danger. Speed limits are only things that other people need to follow, based on my observations.
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Oct 6, 2014 15:33
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That's so weird. The road I used to take to work has a series of "speed humps" that I would take at 30-35 mph in my car (suspension would start to bottom out around 40), along with most everyone else in a car. The people in the trucks and SUVs were the ones slowing down to 10 mph to go over them. And the old people, of course.
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Oct 6, 2014 15:59
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