Wisconsin driving

[Morris Minor]

Was was there recently (Green Bay area) & noticed that lots of places are pulling out traffic lights & reworking the intersections as roundabouts, complete with flowerbeds & nice brickwork. I would like to see this trend spread.

Some of the roads are in a bad way though. They were rough to begin with & the last winter finished them off. Lots of $$$ needed to fix them.

[FlatBlackCaddy]

We got one in town here(minnesota), they had to rework it(the lanes) about 3 times before people stopped running into eachother.

I think they are great, but then again I have an IQ above 40 and can navigate them. As for the rest of the people.....well.....it hasn't been working out too well.

[Madman]

How do people in Wisconsin drive with those big blocks of cheese on their heads? 

[Byteme]

Was was there recently (Green Bay area) & noticed that lots of places are pulling out traffic lights & reworking the intersections as roundabouts, complete with flowerbeds & nice brickwork. I would like to see this trend spread.

Some of the roads are in a bad way though. They were rough to begin with & the last winter finished them off. Lots of $$$ needed to fix them.

They are doing that all over here.  I know of about half a dozen constructed in the past year in town.   The locals are having zero problems with them.     

[Beav]

We have roundabouts here where I live in Kansas and they work great when they are big. Small roundabouts in residential neighborhoods suck.

[Byteme]

We have roundabouts here where I live in Kansas and they work great when they are big. Small roundabouts in residential neighborhoods suck.

Suck why?  That's what they've built here and they seem to work just fine. 

[CALL_911]

I like roundabouts quite a bit. More efficient than lights imo, but too bad about the learning curve. At school, I used to traverse one every day where I'd see people fucking up at least a couple times a week.

[hotrodalex]

I love roundabouts, great drifting practice.

[Payman]

[FoMoJo]

That looks like the one I came upon when visiting England a few years back.  Not for the faint of heart.  There was also a double roundabout that kind of resembled a figure 8 race track.  Very confusing...especially when you don't know where you're going in the first place.

[Payman]

That looks like the one I came upon when visiting England a few years back.  Not for the faint of heart.  There was also a double roundabout that kind of resembled a figure 8 race track.  Very confusing...especially when you don't know where you're going in the first place.

Yes, this one is in Swindon, England.

[Payman]

Here's a photo of it. 

[12,000 RPM]

Yo dawg....

[CALL_911]

Looks doable, but if I didn't know where I was going that would definitely not do me any favors

[Morris Minor]

Trouble with lights is they're easy to ignore, which is dangerous.

[CALL_911]

I disagree. Trouble with lights is that you're often waiting so unnecessarily long that it's a waste of time.

[CALL_911]

Obviously, roundabouts aren't a perfect substitute for the traffic light, but I can think of a few intersections where they would sub in nicely

[GoCougs]

Roundabouts are awesome - big fan. Like any proper decent red blooded American male I hated them to begin with. They work well though. The multi lane ones aren't that intuitive though.

[Morris Minor]

I disagree. Trouble with lights is that you're often waiting so unnecessarily long that it's a waste of time.

Yeah, I phrased that badly.  I meant that there's nothing to stop people zipping through red lights when it's dangerous to do so. Green lights mean "All clear" to many drivers,  so they go through blind to the asshole who ran the red and is about to kill them in a T-bone.

Roundabouts force you to slow down and negotiate.

[AutobahnSHO]

Multi lane ones suck. At least for Americans.

[FlatBlackCaddy]

Big Ben......Parliament.

[CALL_911]

Yeah, I phrased that badly.  I meant that there's nothing to stop people zipping through red lights when it's dangerous to do so. Green lights mean "All clear" to many drivers,  so they go through blind to the asshole who ran the red and is about to kill them in a T-bone.

Roundabouts force you to slow down and negotiate.

No I know what you meant, but in my experience, people running lights blatantly (running reds) is so rare that it is hardly a thing. Again, that's just my own experience

[hotrodalex]

Roundabouts are great for intersections that have large fluctuations in traffic level (rush hour). Able to handle the rush hour madness and then when it isn't busy you don't have to sit at a light for 3 minutes.

2 lanes is the max for ease-of-use, I think.

[veeman]

No I know what you meant, but in my experience, people running lights blatantly (running reds) is so rare that it is hardly a thing. Again, that's just my own experience

If you had experience, you would either be dead or been very close to it from being T-boned at 50+ miles an hour.

[veeman]

Roundabouts are awesome - big fan. Like any proper decent red blooded American male I hated them to begin with. They work well though. The multi lane ones aren't that intuitive though.

Totally agree.  When I'm relying on a nav device which is de facto in a place outside my routine, I always mess up the multilane roundabout.  Always.  It's very difficult to figure out exactly when you have to exit the roundabout from the map and voice instructions given by the nav device when you're driving at speed.  And on top of that people feel they're entitled to tail gate at these roundabouts.  I'm always yelling inside my car:  I'm just trying to make a turn asshole.  Give me a sec and get off my ass!

[12,000 RPM]

The Columbus Circle roundabout in NYC is pretty much the Thunderdome. Other than that though, I'm a big fan.

Speaking of weird intersections, they just put one of these up by me.



Big problem right now is that it's still under construction and is basically half done. So there should be 2 lanes per side, but there's only one. During rush hour traffic pretty much stops to a crawl, it's great.

There have been reports of old women going the wrong way as well.

Overall though, I think it may work well. Just waiting to see how it works when it's 100%. It's pretty ridiculous now. Wish they had made one side a different height than the other as well... that way you wouldn't need any lights at all, just yield signs.

[Soup DeVille]

Here's a photo of it. 

Well, it's confused the hell out of everybody there; they're all on the wrong side of the street.

[hotrodalex]

Well, it's confused the hell out of everybody there; they're all on the wrong side of the street.

There have been reports of old women going the wrong way as well.

[AutobahnSHO]

The Columbus Circle roundabout in NYC is pretty much the Thunderdome. Other than that though, I'm a big fan.

Speaking of weird intersections, they just put one of these up by me.



Big problem right now is that it's still under construction and is basically half done. So there should be 2 lanes per side, but there's only one. During rush hour traffic pretty much stops to a crawl, it's great.

There have been reports of old women going the wrong way as well.

Overall though, I think it may work well. Just waiting to see how it works when it's 100%. It's pretty ridiculous now. Wish they had made one side a different height than the other as well... that way you wouldn't need any lights at all, just yield signs.

They seem to work ok.   Once finished.
They're for heavy heavy flow areas really.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v20qJmnD-PE

Look at this wacky new stuff. "Continuous flow intersection". Requires wide space but works well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dB25GPPdeU&list=PLIUbVJOQ00BoDFRBSeIJWXnYnP9si7HwF&index=5

[CALL_911]

If you had experience, you would either be dead or been very close to it from being T-boned at 50+ miles an hour.

I'm not really sure how that detracts from my point, but okay

So then how many people here "have experience?"