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A Roundabout by any other name still....STINKS!
A month ago I posted about my terror of a local roundabout. Well, as the month has gone by, I've gotten used to the roundabout, and am even doing a bit better navigating its curves. Just yesterday, only one driver honked at me in anger as I made my way through the roundabout. And last week, I had so much confidence that I actually tried to call someone on my phone while in the middle of the roundabout (now I'm not saying that turned out too great, but it does show I have more confidence).
So, this morning, I was reading the local paper and noticed a story about the new "traffic circle" they're building in the downtown. Hmmm....traffic circle? I immediately got on the web to see what this traffic circle business was all about, only to discover this diagram:
Traffic circle!!! No matter what they choose to call it, that looks like yet another roundabout (although this one does look simpler than the one I've been driving on). Could this be an epidemic? I decided to do a bit more research, and discovered that there was recently a small conference nearby to teach traffic engineers/road builders more about roundabouts. Good grief! One can only imagine where the next one will pop up.
Heh. There's only one roundabout in Canada that I know about, so moving to
Australia was a big ol' shock. Not only were they everywhere, but I had to
go through them the *wrong way around*!
Seattle has traffic circles in lots of residential areas to cut down on
people driving really fast. In fact, there are traffic circles at both
ends of the block I live on. It can be hard trying to cross the street
sometimes as the cars circle into the pedestrian (unmarked) crosswalks.
Ho-boy, now I want to see the one you've been going through!! This is the
kind that is in our small town.
Roundabout, Roundabout, Where for art my Traffic Circle!
*nods head sagely* I call it the Britainization of the roads. The Brits
started it, and now there are roundabouts EVERYwhere. Even in small German
towns. Truly shocking! :)
Kate: Roundabouts are bad enough. I can’t imagine going through them
driving on the WRONG side of the road, which is why I’ll never rent a car
in England (or apparently Australia).
Linniegayl: Yup, that's stinky. In the Chicago suburb where I live they're
all the rage. City plannners claim they're needed to slow down traffic.
Personally, I prefer speed bumps because they're much easier for
pedestrians to deal with. And now that you mention it, there is something
plague-like about them. Yikes!