Comment by smithkl42
1 day ago
I've been driving roundabouts for decades, and think they're great - they really help with traffic flow. I've never found them confusing.
I had to drive this specific Kirkland roundabout the other day, and ended up missing my offramp and going in completely the wrong direction. It's the most confusing roundabout I've ever seen.
People (including me) are getting flat tires. There's an obstruction jutting out into the road in going west on 85th to South on 405. It's a few inches high, very sharp, and right into the pathway. We've filed a complaint but it's still there.
I live moments away from this roundabout. It's confusing. Single-lane roundabouts are really straightforward. You're either clear to enter, or you're not.
Adding lanes makes it far more confusing. I consider myself, you know, pretty smart. Not stupid, at least.
But I almost sideswiped someone in this roundabout the other day. Years of driving experience gave me an intuition that the middle lane would not cross over the outer lane. E.x. a car in the inner lane would not pass through the outer lane (except at the very end). So when I saw an oncoming car in the inner lane I thoguht I was safe to enter the outer lane. Not so. The inner lane car was actually lane-changing to the outer lane (at the exact point I was about to enter the roundabout) in order to exit.
I too live nearby
The lanes are quite narrow, and the outer curb is deceptive - there’s a 1” edge with a curved curb behind it making it look wider than it actually is. Scraping along that edge will push cars into the center of the road. There will be a lot of minor accidents here due to the road design.
One other second order effect - people are getting used to roundabouts here now, but nearby are ‘traffic circles’ that are roundabouts with stop signs on some entrances. People are now ignoring those stop signs (because it’s a roundabout!). I almost hit 3 cars in 2 intersections as people ignored their stop sign.
> People are now ignoring those stop signs (because it’s a roundabout!)
Do you mean they treat it as if they have right-of-way when entering? Because that's also unusual (but not unheard of) in roundabouts.
traffic circles (w/ stop signs) are an abomination and should be removed
12 replies →
> Single-lane roundabouts are really straightforward
Like the Arc de Triomphe roundabout? :)
If it had lane marking there would apparently be 10 tracks around the circle.
What makes it seem crazy is cars entering have right of way.
The reason it works seems to be French attitude. Cars entering do their thing, and cars already going around do their thing (and just have to avoid anyone on their right).
> What makes it seem crazy is cars entering have right of way.
The thing that’s bananas is that this is a City of Paris rule. In the rest of France, traffic entering a roundabout must yield. Not inside Paris. Better make sure you know this!
And even more crazy, the Periphérique, the controlled-access ring road around Paris which tends to move at 40-50mph, is a city street and so traffic entering that highway-like “street” also has right-of-way.
The top of the Arc is open space. Standing up there watching the traffic is amusing. I once saw two buses, side-by-side, exit the roundabout, while the motorbike sandwiched between them attempted to continue further around the circle. Luckily, everything happened at fairly slow speeds, so collision was avoided.
> What makes it seem crazy is cars entering have right of way.
I saw that on either Top Gear or The Grand Tour and was convinced they were just making fun of the French. It's really odd to not have changed it when everyone else learned that lesson already.
Not hitting anyone is a skill some people seem to lack. Sometimes the rules say one thing, but you have to do another, mostly give way even if you're not supposed to yield.
> Years of driving experience gave me an intuition that [another motorist wouldn't be a complete blithering idiot]
I regret to inform you...
Yeah, it's honestly an astounding creation. I enjoy driving it, if only for the bit.
There appear to be many such peanut roundabouts around the world, many of them in the US[1]
[1]https://panethos.wordpress.com/2024/06/14/working-list-peanu...
I did not understand why all the commentary in the game was about giant peanuts until I read your comment. Thank you!