Roundabout or Four Way Stop. What's your preference?


classylady
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Neither DH or I particularly like roundabouts. Even though both of us have driven fairly extensively in Europe where roundabouts are common, and we know how to drive a roundabout, but, we still don't care for them. Perhaps it's just our American bias? I admit we both groan when we see more roundabouts being put in as a routine part of a new subdivision or trying to improve traffic flow to an existing road. With that bias in mind, I just finished watching a Mythbusters episode on YouTube where they put the roundabout vs the four way stop to the test. The roundabout won the test, which I figured it would. But, I admit, I was hoping the four way stop would win.

I just get so frustrated with drivers who don't know what they are doing in the roundabout. Will American drivers ever learn this system?

What's your preference? And why?

Edited by classylady
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Our main cross street got very busy after we moved in (3 new neighborhoods will do that). My husband would wait at each stop sign for at least 10 minutes during rush hour. They put roundabouts in, and now there is virtually no wait. I think they're fabulous.

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I didn't like roundabouts until I used them a while. Now I agree with Eowyn; they are so much better than traditional four-way stops (or two-way stops). As long as there is room to construct a roundabout, it's a far more elegant and efficient solution.

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It depends on where they are. There is one close to a neighborhood I used to live in. There is an elementary school just a block away and skateboard park right at the intersection. Kids cross there. Seems ridiculous that they have a roundabout when the safety of so many kids are at stake.

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Roundabouts are fine in light traffic. Roundabouts are a nightmare in high traffic with several lanes.

4-way stops are fine in light traffic. 4-way stops are a nightmare in high traffic with several lanes. There's a 4-lane 4-way stop in Houston suburbs that I just close my eyes and take a deep breath and go because there's almost no-way I can figure out who stopped first when and some bright engineer put an island in the middle of the 4 lanes with tall trees so that you cannot see the cross-traffic on your left until you are the first in line.

So, which do I prefer? Roundabouts because, at least, if there's nobody there, you don't have to stop for nothin'...

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Four-way stops simply because of drivers who are unfamiliar with them interrupting the flow of traffic. In Utah I can't tell you how many times I had drivers stop in the middle of the round-about to let me in, but I can tell you it roughly equaled the number of times drivers outside the round-about glared at me for not stopping to let them in. It wouldn't surprise me to encounter the same behavior here, I just don't deal with round-abouts as much with my daily commuting here.

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I H-A-T-E roundabouts, no one knows what to do in them. There's one by my office, (the only one I know of in Dallas) and there's an accident there a couple times a week. its 3 lanes with the two right lanes being turn lanes, invariably someone is in the outer lane trying to (illegally) go around when someone in the middle lane (legally) turns.

I go a different way 99.9% of the time

Edited by mnn727
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I LOVE roundabouts. Having experienced both, I do prefer the roundabouts. I've lived in the US (east coast) and found the four way stops tedious, but kind of nice as far as driver manners go. In Australia where roundabouts are common, it's so much easier to navigate through traffic. We have them everywhere from small suburban streets to large busy 3 lane roads. I drive through quite a few of them every day on my way to and from work and have not witnessed an accident in many years involving a roundabout. In fact most accidents are in the straight lanes on the freeway or side roads.

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part of my driver's education course included navigating the two double-lane traffic circles in Augusta, Maine. I've always preferred traffic circles to stop signs. They're more efficient, prettier, and with proper education, are much safer. (although I question the wisdom of a three lane traffic circle...more is not always better).

The rules for a one lane cirlce are really quite simple:

1) Those in the circle have the right of way (this is the only logical use of traffic circles. If those coming on have the right of way, the circle will inevitably clog)

That's it!

The rules for a two lance circle are only slightly more complex

1) Those in the circle have the right of way

2) If you will be taking the first or second exit, enter and exit from the outside lane.

3) if you will be taking any exit after the second exit, enter and exit from the inside lane.

4) Use your blinker when attempting to exit

5) When trying to exit from the inside lane, the car in the outside lane has the right of way (duh)

6) If there is a car in the outside lane when you wish to exit, turn off your blinker and take a second trip around the circle. Do not ever try to force your way out of the circle.

The most full trips I've ever taken around a circle (except for when I was deliberately going around the circle for no reason) is one. Meaning, I may not have been able to make my exit, so I went around and was able to get off on the second pass.

If you are an entitled or aggressive driver, you will cause accidents on traffic circles. Defensive driving is essential.

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So if everybody hates roundabouts because no one knows how to use them properly, where the heck are all the people who are complaining because they obviously DO know how to use them??

I wouldn't say nobody knows how to use them properly, just enough to make them annoying. I'm sure that somewhere on the internet there are people complaining about people's failure to yield to let them into a round-about. You probably won't see posts complaining about those who yielded but the person outside of the circle didn't take advantage of their yielding because I suspect most people will take advantage of the yield even as they mutter under their breath about people not realizing they have the right of way. Also, I suspect in a lot of cases the yielding issue isn't so much ignorance but people interrupting the flow of traffic by trying to be nice. Kinda like someone trying to wave you through a gap in a long line of cars to make a left hand turn not considering that the person they are trying to wave through most likely can't see opposing traffic. It's not that they think you have to right of way, they're just trying to be nice to you.

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My main gripe is that too many drivers believe the yield sign if for others. Too many times I have come around the bend and had to hit the brakes, because the entering vehicle decided to hit the accelerator, rather than the brakes. No officer is going to pull some one over. There will always be the argument that "I had plenty of room--the other guy speeded up."

With 4-ways, you fail to stop and it's a moving violation.

My less serious complaint is that some American round-abouts are way too tight. Hey, maybe they are European, and therefore offer a kinda faux-sophistication. However, when you try to hard, you just look desperate.

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Roundabouts are fun, even if I get annoyed at timid people using the yield sign as a 5 minute red light. I haven't been on any huge roundabouts, but we do have 3 lane roundabouts in my city. Using my blinker on a roundabout is dangerous, as by the time I stare at the fellow about to swipe me, I am at my exit, so I rarely use the turn signal.

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I do not like roundabouts. In the areas I grew up in on the West Coast I didn't encounter them and then I moved to the East Coast and traveled to various East Coast states for work.

They confuse me and so I try to avoid them. Its probably just my lack of experience with them that makes me not like them. So I feel that 4-way stops are safer and prefer them.

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I wouldn't say nobody knows how to use them properly, just enough to make them annoying. I'm sure that somewhere on the internet there are people complaining about people's failure to yield to let them into a round-about. You probably won't see posts complaining about those who yielded but the person outside of the circle didn't take advantage of their yielding because I suspect most people will take advantage of the yield even as they mutter under their breath about people not realizing they have the right of way. Also, I suspect in a lot of cases the yielding issue isn't so much ignorance but people interrupting the flow of traffic by trying to be nice. Kinda like someone trying to wave you through a gap in a long line of cars to make a left hand turn not considering that the person they are trying to wave through most likely can't see opposing traffic. It's not that they think you have to right of way, they're just trying to be nice to you.

This same phenomenon occurs at four-way stops, at least here in western WA. Annoying as heck. I realize people are trying to be polite, but when "politeness" makes the whole intersection less efficient and ends up costing everyone time, it's not really polite, is it? And to some extent, the whole "politeness" thing is a cover-up for people who are too dim or too lazy to recall the actual traffic laws governing right-of-way.

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Roundabouts are fun, even if I get annoyed at timid people using the yield sign as a 5 minute red light.

Okay...OK! I waited...never mind that other cars were entering the round-about, and I didn't want to force them to brake by bullying my way. Oh, and btw, maybe the last couple of minutes was my message that you being 2-inches from my bumper, with your brights on wasn't going to intimidate me into rushing foolishly into a probable collision! :P

OKAY--DISCLAIMERS...I've never met Praetorian, and it wasn't him that drove the 16-ton semi that really did ride my bumper with brights on, at night, in the rain, while I was attempting to find my left turn...P.B. is probably a balanced, reasonable driver...but thanks for letting me vent! :D

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This same phenomenon occurs at four-way stops, at least here in western WA. Annoying as heck. I realize people are trying to be polite, but when "politeness" makes the whole intersection less efficient and ends up costing everyone time, it's not really polite, is it? And to some extent, the whole "politeness" thing is a cover-up for people who are too dim or too lazy to recall the actual traffic laws governing right-of-way.

Politeness, in this sense, is unpredictable, and predictability is a large component of safety and efficiency when you are driving with others.

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I do not like roundabouts. In the areas I grew up in on the West Coast I didn't encounter them and then I moved to the East Coast and traveled to various East Coast states for work.

They confuse me and so I try to avoid them. Its probably just my lack of experience with them that makes me not like them. So I feel that 4-way stops are safer and prefer them.

There are major differences between roundabouts and traffic circles. A lot of what you encounter on the east coast are traffic circles, which don't function as well and are almost never built anymore.

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Along with drivers who don't know how to drive the roundabout, I guess my next frustration is that the smaller communities that I frequently drive through, a roundabout isn't really necessary. Most of the streets don't even have stop signs. The traffic doesn't warrant it. So, to arbitrarily put in a roundabout, just doesn't make any sense to me. It slows me down because I have to go around instead of just a cursory slow down to check for traffic and drive on through.

This is one of the reasons DH and I opted not to drive a car in downtown Paris.

. This is actually a traffic circle with twelve avenues coming into it. Edited by classylady
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There are good roundabouts and bad roundabouts. I used to drive in Washington DC and still have nightmares about the roundabout at Washington Circle Park. It had eight streets emptying into it. When you entered you had to turn your head almost completely around to make sure you weren't about to hit another car. I'm really surprised there weren't more fatal accidents on dark rainy nights there.

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This is one of the reasons DH and I opted not to drive a car in downtown Paris.

. This is actually a traffic circle with twelve avenues coming into it.

Any multi-lane road, whether it be roundabouts or straightaways, that don't have painted lines is always going to be relatively chaotic. A 2-lane small road (1 lane in each direction) in the Philippines that do not have lines end up as 3 lanes, 4, lanes, sometimes 5 or 6 lanes with some cars riding up almost to some guy's kitchen... but... the same kind of 2-lane small road with lines... drivers seem to stick with the lines! Human nature.

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