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Comment by throwaway173738

20 hours ago

When you’re walking the stop sign stops traffic for you so it’s a lot nicer. I’ve found that even with a marked crosswalk people ignore you if they’re not forced to stop.

I guess jaywalking stuff makes this harder? Because in the UK for example, roundabouts will often be surrounded by marked areas for pedestrians to cross, but they are not proper crossings. You don't have to wait or expect traffic to stop for you, you just walk across when it's clear.

  • It's much better when there's no traffic. When there's traffic, it often doesn't stop for you when it exits the roundabout (even if it technically should) because everyone is busy going around the circle as fast as possible (and driving in a circle means they might not have been looking at where you crossed). Sometimes they move the pedestrian crossings way back to give people more of a chance to stop, but that still requires drivers to stop when they don't feel forced to.

  • I don't understand your comment.

    * Jaywalking makes.. what harder?

    * In the UK, roundabouts are marked with areas for pedestrians to cross but they are not crossings? What are they, then?

    * You don't have to wait

    * But also you can't expect traffic to stop for you

    * What do you do if it does not become clear?

And as a pedestrian, drivers going around a circle aren't necessarily going to see you until they're already exiting, even if the city didn't put something large in the center that entirely blocks their vision. Plus, you lose the ability to know which way a car is likely to go until it's already too late.

When I lived in Nashville, I spent a lot of time near a roundabout, and even after they redid it to be a bit better I still had to avoid it for my own safety. The light-controlled intersection next to it was much less of a problem.