Eugene GloverThey’ve got an actual 2-lane traffic circle out here, it’s quite busy, not very well lit, and, I’ll admit, I’m a little uncomfortable running through one of these in the dark.
dlupham@LoneLocust I'm in France 3 to 4 months a year. There are traffic circles everywhere, some as small as a 2 meter circle to go around. In Seattle where I grew up and my daughter lives they have traffic circles mostly in the residential area that are somewhere between 15 and 20 feet in diameter. Also a few large normal sized ones. My experience seems to be that in the US nobody really know traffic circle etiquette. I am hoping that over time there will be more traffic circles in the US and people will learn how to use them correctly. They do same time and money.
@dlupham oh I’m 100% behind traffic circles. They are cheaper and they are much much safer but they do not teach people how to use them in this country.
I’m no exception. There are very few in Arizona. Fewer still that are the two lane ones where you supposed to pull to the middle if you’re going more than one exit.
It was really dark and remarkably busy and I didn’t really want to have to do it, but I had no choice.
Simon Wood@LoneLocust This seems to be one of those divided by a common language days… Is a 'traffic circle' a roundabout?
And by two lane you mean you can go round it in either direction? We have got one of those. It's in Swindon, and it’s a little more complicated than the on in your picture... https://hillsideherald.com/to-do/the-magic-roundabout-in-swindon/
@simonwood I think there’s an awful lot of crossover between the two. I believe traffic circle is the current preferred term in motor vehicle engineering circles and traffic circles allow for more forms of traffic flow control than roundabout does. For example, you could have stoplight limiting access to enter a traffic circle, whereas I believe roundabouts exclusively use “yield to oncoming traffic” flow control.
This particular one was actually just yielding.
@LoneLocust I'm pretty sure we have roundabouts with traffic lights (which I assume is a 'stoplight’) over here. I've not come across the term “traffic circle" before.
@simonwood and by 2 lanes I mean that there are 2 lanes entering the circle and going around. 1 on the right where people exit and 1 on the left where people just go round forever, but the idea is you’ll eventually merge outwards and then turn right and exit the circle.
There are so few Arizona that most of the ones we have (and I can think of fewer than 10 in a conurbation of several million people) are single lane and on small neighborhood streets.
@LoneLocust Oh we have lots with two (or more lanes) in the same direction. They are not so terrifying.
@simonwood Oh, now just imagine that absolutely NO ONE going around the circle has ever been told or shown how to drive in one AND, 50-75% in the circle have probably never seen or been in one before.
They're terrifying.
@LoneLocust If you really want terrifying… have you heard of ‘priorité à droite’?