On Mon, 25 Oct 2021 08:31:02 -0500, AMuzi <
a...@yellowjersey.org> wrote:
> I have nothing good to say about them. They're a creative
> combination of antipersonnel devices in an oversized meat
> grinder for vehicles. Riding a half mile or a mile extra to
> avoid them is my personal solution.
By some miracle, roundabouts around here are designed by traffic
engineers, as witnessed by the "yield" signs in place of the city
fathers' beloved stop signs in places that teach drivers to ignore
stop signs.
The roundabouts work quite well -- though the first time I went
through our first roundabout, I pulled off the road and studied it for
a while before daring to enter. Another bewilderment happened a few
years later when I happened to have reason to drive out that way, but
I just followed the arrows and came out the other side.
When the roundabouts were first proposed, some folks worried about
drivers learning "the special rules of roundabouts". ??? The rules
in roundabouts are exactly the same as the rules everywhere else:
Traffic already in the roundabout has priority over traffic that
wishes to enter the roundabout, and a vehicle already in the
roundabout keeps going until it comes to the desired turn.
I haven't seen the newest roundabout at 255 E and Pierceton Road yet.
I dislike Pierceton because it has exactly the sour amount of traffic:
sparse enough that one has to signal to every car that comes along
that one has seen it, but not so sparse that one ever gets a rest
between signals. Rumor has it that the roundabout is all done; there
was a warning out a week or two ago that traffic would be seriously
backed up while they completed the landscaping. (I hope it doen't
inclued tall bushes in the circle; that's my only complaint about the
older roundabouts.)
So every time I turn left at the intersection of Winona Avenue,
Argonne Road, King's Highway, and Park Avenue, with the Argonne
traffic suddenly appearing out of a tunnel, I yell "come on
roundabout!" (We are finally next on the priority list.)
But if you want to explain to me how a two-lane roundabout is even
possible, you are going to have to use very short words and lots and
lots and lots of pictures.
--
Joy Beeson
joy beeson at centurylink dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/