this post was submitted on 13 Aug 2023
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Damn, that's interesting!

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Video: Roundabouts Are Safer. So Why Does The U.S. Have So Few Of Them? (CNBC) (17:18) (www.youtube.com)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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Video description:
Roundabouts - the circular intersections seen all over Europe and elsewhere in the world - are said to be far safer than traffic lights. Research shows they reduce crashes, clear up congestion and save cities quite a bit of money. They have a heritage in the U.S., but America has a fraction of the roundabouts that far smaller countries like France, Spain and the United Kingdom have. But there are some states that are adopting them, and one small town in particular: Carmel, Indiana. The people of Carmel love their roundabouts and the mayor credits them with helping revitalize his city. So are they all they’re cracked up to be? And if so, why hasn’t the U.S. adopted them?

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Just as a reminder since the conversation is going to the same tired tropes:

Even still, safer. That potential collision from ignoring proper right of way in the roundabout is still a safer angle of attack at lower speeds.

@Neato If people were going through the intersection at 30mph with the roundabout, how fast would they be traveling those streets without it? The >>30mph streets are likely the fundamental issue here since I doubt anyone is accelerating into or in the roundabouts. I bet these are huge, wide, roads with big clearings in the easements to promote that high DOT letter grade (which, outside of expressways, correlates with the most dangerous roads).

Fairly high-speed roundabouts are possible, but if the road really needs such high speeds odds are pretty good you'd be smarter to have a simple stop (for a country road) or a more thoughtful design (for an urban road) to eliminate the need for a huge roundabout structure. Usually the "we tried nothing and are all out of ideas" approach North American designers take is to just make a massive, signal-controlled intersection and change nothing else about the overall street pattern.