• Threeme2189
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    2 days ago

    I hope they don’t react the same way they did when roundabouts (rotaries/traffic circles) were introduced. Another thing that is only a problem in America and works well in many other countries.

    • effward@lemmy.world
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      13 hours ago

      Runabouts can be very awesome, but can anyone explain to me what the hell is going on in the UK where (in some places) they’ve added a bunch of traffic lights to their roundabouts? In my (admittedly limited) experience, they make them substantially worse, but perhaps I’m missing something?

      • Humanius@lemmy.world
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        9 hours ago

        From my understanding there are two main beneftis:

        • Capacity
        • Safety

        Roundabouts work great, until the amount of traffic becomes to big. Then it actually starts causing problems.
        At that point you can put in a regular intersection with traffic lights, which actually works better than a roundabout does in high traffic environments. But you do lose out on the traffic safety benefits, with head-on collisions becoming possible again.

        A roundabout with traffic lights increases the capacity of the intersection while still reducing the risk of deadly accidents.
        It’s also a lot cheaper than upgrading to the next step, which is building an interchange.

        Signalised roundabouts are also quite prevalent in the Netherlands, and I can speak from experience that they generally work quite well if the lights are adjusted properly.

        Note: I’m just some random guy, I’m by no means an expert on the matter.
        This is just my understanding of the benefits of lighted roundabouts.