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Funny pics and Memes thread - keep it clean
- Thread starter Brutal_HO
- Start date
silver billet
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Have to say, I don't get this one at all. Traffic circles are the best thing if there is room, it really helps keep traffic moving. Where I live they have been replacing 3, 4 ways with TC and I haven't heard anyone complain, seems like nobody is waiting anymore.
Eatonpcat
Well-Known Member
Until you are behind someone that is afraid to enter and you slam into their rear end because they think it is a stop sign at the circle.
Dr__Bob
Active Member
Or until you get to one that has a main street and a side street. If there's a lot of traffic, and you are on the side street, it can take forever to get in..
Three years in Germany in the early 80's and I thought traffic circles were the coolest thing, but they are BIG. The circles here are dumb. Too small (good luck if you're stuck moving through one with a long rig) and people don't know how to use them.
Amen, they are too small. Stupid ones around here are a joke. I used to love take the semi through a few on my route.......took out many a sign, due to stupid engineers.
McHenry2500
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The town I grew up in had a circle exactly like that in downtown. It was funny that the locals had no issue with it but the tourists (and there was a lot of those in the summer) were terrible with it.
Never understood what was so confusing about it...…
Never understood what was so confusing about it...…
Sarge33Army
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The most challenging TC that I've encountered was near Concord, MA. It had a busy four lane highway (Route 2) and THREE two lane highways entering/exiting the same circle. It also had a very LARGE state prison at the same intersection. I haven't been that way in 27+ years, so it may be better now.
Distillusion
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Town I moved from 3 years ago had a intersection with 4 way stop signs. Huge backlog of traffic during rush hour and you could sit there for 15 minutes sometimes, a quarter mile away. Traffic would pass through from larger towns nearby out toward smaller towns. Big argument in the town about putting inn a circle or a light. Simulations were run using peak observed traffic. The lights were expected to keep you stopped for at the most 3 minutes during rush hour. The circle folks won. A year later, no rush hour clog. You almost never need to stop and wait now, even at the busiest times. It was designed correctly for the traffic.
The problem you run into with a lot of circles is that they've been there for years, and were fine with earlier levels of traffic. But increased population and traffic means congestion, and a lot of times the taxpayers don't want to pay for an expansion, and the landowners around it don't want to give up the property. At least they function just fine in power outages.
A few of the older ones I know of are smaller, not designed for long rigs, because they go back 100 years or more.
Newer roundabouts are actually designed to be smaller on purpose, to enforce traffic to slow down. Older traffic circles were larger and there were a lot more accidents on them, and traffic safety folks started replacing them with lights, which were less efficient but had fewer accidents. Eventually roundabout design ideas led toward smaller ones, which tend to decrease accidents by about 75% less than lighted intersections.
There will always be people that don't know how to use them. I see folks run red lights, turn left from the right lane, and do plenty of other stupid stuff at lighted intersections, too. Got passed by an a-hole in a pickup the other day on a 5-lane rode. Both lanes going our direction were busy, so he jumped into the center turn lane and blew by about 4 cars. Speed limit was 55, we were all cruising along about 65, and he was doing about 90. He didn't even need an intersection to properly demonstrate "stupid. "
The problem you run into with a lot of circles is that they've been there for years, and were fine with earlier levels of traffic. But increased population and traffic means congestion, and a lot of times the taxpayers don't want to pay for an expansion, and the landowners around it don't want to give up the property. At least they function just fine in power outages.
A few of the older ones I know of are smaller, not designed for long rigs, because they go back 100 years or more. Newer roundabouts are actually designed to be smaller on purpose, to enforce traffic to slow down. Older traffic circles were larger and there were a lot more accidents on them, and traffic safety folks started replacing them with lights, which were less efficient but had fewer accidents. Eventually roundabout design ideas led toward smaller ones, which tend to decrease accidents by about 75% less than lighted intersections.
There will always be people that don't know how to use them. I see folks run red lights, turn left from the right lane, and do plenty of other stupid stuff at lighted intersections, too. Got passed by an a-hole in a pickup the other day on a 5-lane rode. Both lanes going our direction were busy, so he jumped into the center turn lane and blew by about 4 cars. Speed limit was 55, we were all cruising along about 65, and he was doing about 90. He didn't even need an intersection to properly demonstrate "stupid. "
