Driving on the "Other" Side of the Road

[Sbooker]

Colorado LOVES traffic circles... and also the new Diverging Diamond interstate intersections.

I have 3 traffic circles within about 1/2 mile from my house for example (all built in the past ~15 years or less).

We call them roundabouts. They are prolific all over Australia but more so out of the older inner city grid pattern suburbs. They work very efficiently in the correct location.

 

[MarzNC]

In theory, a traffic circle is safer from a potential traffic accident standpoint. In particular, accidents that result in serious injuries. I was a grad student working at the UNC Highway Safety Research Center when there was research being done about whether or not the additional cost of left-turn lanes and left-turn lights were worthwhile. The focus was on accidents severe enough to crunch a car (TAD 6-7 on a 7-point scale).

The city street that is the main drag with restaurants and shops near NC State in Raleigh was completely reworked to have traffic circles on both ends. They have popped up in quite a few places in Chapel Hill, where UNC-Chapel Hill is located. Some are closer to the town center, with others out in the neighborhoods. A few feel like a variation of a speed bump to get people to slow down, although there is more traffic at those intersections than there was in the 1970s.

October 2013 - St. Louis

MythBusters Tackles Four-Way Stop V. Roundabout Traffic Throughput - NextSTL

Who doesn’t love MythBusters? I mean, I’m still perplexed by the staying drier by walking and not running in the rain thing, but these are generally pretty fun. So Jamie and Adam recently took on the traffic throughput of a four-way stop intersection versus a roundabout. You’ll have to check out...

nextstl.com