i hate circles

[artifical sweetner]

I don't know how common these are in other states by NJ has these lovely "circles" throughout older highways that are sort of like roundabouts in Europe/England. They are highly annoying and slightly confusing to drive through for unaccoustomed drivers.

I personally hate them, though, I have gone through them several times. Well the other night I'm driving home from the bar and of course that means lots of do-dos on the road with me. I approach the circle and this douche nozzle behind me is trying to speed up to get in front of me (And of course theres a few other cars so hes going no where).

im in my precious new car and dont feel like this asshat raming me so i go THROUGH the circle...yes big ol mound of grass i drive onto it trying to avoid this dumb jerk.

car is ok, but, i seriously hate drivers who think theyre going to get to their destination 5 seconds quicker by cutting you off like that. (and im thankful it was flat grass and not a pole)

[LillFilly]

I've heard them called 'Round-A-Bouts' have only encountered 2 in my experience.

What I hate are 'Jug Handles.' See those alot in NJ.

[Javarod]

Circles in NJ are the worst in the country, know why? Because as of the time i moved from there (7 or so years ago), while they'd been installed in the first half of the 20th century to control traffic (cheaper than traffic lights), no one bothered to write any traffic laws that specifically applied to them, the means everyone has the right of way.

[mikoyan29]

They are starting to put more of them in my neck of the woods too. They claim they're safer.

[Millahtyme1983]

Rotaries/Circles/Roundabouts are the bane of my existance, I have to go through 3 to get to work and of course nobody knows how to drive them. I still wont forget the yahoo that missed his exit and swerved in front of me to make it, causing me to slam on my brakes and skid, it's a fing rotary, if you miss your exit you just go around again, how hard is that?

[raw456]

Australia has roundabouts just about on every corner these days

But the best one I ever drove thru was the Magic Roundabout in Swindon in the UK.

I found a couple of pics of them for you guys. The first time I went thru this I had no idea what I was doing. I just followed the car in front. The second time I just closed my eyes and hoped for the best.

[AriRashkae]

Australia has roundabouts just about on every corner these days

But the best one I ever drove thru was the Magic Roundabout in Swindon in the UK.

I found a couple of pics of them for you guys. The first time I went thru this I had no idea what I was doing. I just followed the car in front. The second time I just closed my eyes and hoped for the best.

:wtf:

My favorite was my alternate route home from the cinemas. Approaching the rotary from one street, you would have to stop at a light for a cross street, about 50 feet before the rotary. Of course, most people assumed this meant they could ignore the yield sign for merging onto the rotary. :rant:

I used to annoy a lot of people behind me by, you know, yielding the faster (and often bigger: rotary was just off a highway exit) vehicles. :lol:

[protege]

We don't have traffic circles in PA. Well, unless you count the massive *detours* courtesy of PennDOT, that is :p Seriously though, they never really caught on here. The only one I can think of, is at the entrance to South Park. Not sure why it's there...probably so people "cruising" Route 88 don't have to pull over and turn around :D

[mikoyan29]

Yield, what is this yield thing you mention?

[Geek King]

But the best one I ever drove thru was the Magic Roundabout in Swindon in the UK.

I found a couple of pics of them for you guys.

Is it wierd that I've never driven in a traffic circle, yet figured out how that worked by looking at the first picture? I may have played too many RPGs. Those circles-and-arrows made sense to me. :runaway:

[sarasquirrel]

Here in Massachusetts we have them as well, but we call them "rotaries". Gah, I hate rotaries, too. Just an invitation for an accident. :(

i cant think of any ive seen in CT, but ive been in a few in MA, not fun lol

[blas]

There's one roundabout right down the road from where I live, and a few here and there in some other towns......

It's really quite easy. Your standard roundabout, when entering, you yield to anyone coming AT you. If no one is coming, then go. Once you're in, you're in, and you don't have to yield to anyone anymore.

It's not that easy to the halfwits around here. Most of the time, they just join in without even looking...either ignoring the yield sign or thinking the can just plunge right on in.

[artifical sweetner]

Australia has roundabouts just about on every corner these days

But the best one I ever drove thru was the Magic Roundabout in Swindon in the UK.

I found a couple of pics of them for you guys. The first time I went thru this I had no idea what I was doing. I just followed the car in front. The second time I just closed my eyes and hoped for the best.

wow that looks like a joke/photoshopped road it has so much going on

[Dasota]

There's one right in Buffalo, and that one doesn't seem so bad, it's just fairly wide and you can get stuck if there are a lot of asshats and you have to drive a around a few times before you can get to the outer circle to get out. Also in one of the suburbs south of Buffalo, they've added 3? I think right on main street, which was really fucked up considering it was a major trucking route and now they have to find alternate ways for their semi's since theses are small round- a-bouts and they can't maneuver in them.

[raw456]

wow that looks like a joke/photoshopped road it has so much going on

If I had not driven it myself, I would agree. It does look fake. Thank goodness here in Oz they do not have any of those ones. Most drivers here dont know how to use a regular one :(

The UK have the right idea by painting them on the road rather than making an actual physical barrier, makes getting large vehicles thru them a lot easier.

[LionMan]

Of the ones around here, I really hate the ones that you can't see until you're actually in it. At least if you can see it ahead of you, you can react.

Now if you want a really bad one, there is one nice one here that handles a major road and traffic coming on and off a highway. So naturally the geniuses have decided there should be two more roundabouts within a .1 mile range, so when construction ends there, you will have 3 roundabouts where when you leave one, you enter the next immediately (there might be room for a few cars between them).

[AriRashkae]

Yield, what is this yield thing you mention?

Yield = realizing the 1 ton diesel pickup will probably not notice running over your '89 Cavalier (RIP! :cry: ), but you most definitely will notice the truck. :lol:

[smileyeagle1021]

umm, if I may the first one to speak from experience as a transit/road geek and former civil engineering major... roundabouts actually are theoretically safer than traditional intersections with lights. There are fewer potential points of conflict and when a collision does occur it is more likely to be a rear end or sideswipe, not a t-bone so damage will be horrendous, but occupants will be safe.

I like them :)

[Kogarashi]

Of course, from my experience all the roundabouts in northern Utah are much more reasonable and easily navigable than some of the ones out here on the East Coast. :p

[wolfie]

Circles in NJ are the worst in the country, know why? Because as of the time i moved from there (7 or so years ago), while they'd been installed in the first half of the 20th century to control traffic (cheaper than traffic lights), no one bothered to write any traffic laws that specifically applied to them, the means everyone has the right of way.

What I really hate are the old, small circles (like the ones you described) which have never been increased in diameter to take into account thing like, let's see, the standard trailer going from 28 feet long to 53 feet long. These tend to have planters in the middle, so that if you need to go anywhere except the exit immediately after you got on, you're scrubbing your right steer against the curb at the outside while simultaneously dragging your trailer wheels through the flowers on the inside. It's a simple matter of geometry - a trailer will track inside the path followed by the tow vehicle, and the longer the trailer, the further inside it will track.

This tracking difference is why big rigs frequently turn right from the 2nd lane, and into the left lane of the "target" street (on minor streets, it's frequently necessary to turn right from, and into, the opposing lanes). Of course, there are always morons who try to do a right turn from/to the rightmost lane at the same time, not realizing that A) the right side of a big rig is called the "blind side" for a reason B) the space they are planning to use will be closed off from the side when the truck makes its turn C)their full-size SUV may have 3 tons of steel to protect their family, but the big rig has 10 tons of tractor, 7 tons of trailer, and 20 tons of cargo to turn them into a red smear.

[BookstoreEscapee]

I'm not a fan of circles, either. There aren't too many around me anymore, but there is one I have to go through to get to Ex's house (which, now that Pablo is no longer with us :(, I don't have much reason to anymore). There used to be a big one in Freehold, right by the mall, that was a huge pain. I was glad when they replaced it with a light by the time I started driving, so I never had to actually deal with it.

I've heard them called 'Round-A-Bouts' have only encountered 2 in my experience.

What I hate are 'Jug Handles.' See those alot in NJ.

Maybe it's because I grew up here and have done most of my driving here, but I like jughandles, for the most part. Maybe I'm just used to them. The biggest pain is when you have to go way past where you're trying to get to, just to get to a jughandle and turn around because you can't turn left. I used to get my hair cut at a place that was on the other side of the highway, just about midway between two jughandles. That and making a left off of some of them, especially at rush hour. But then I have ways around them in most of my day-to-day travels. I'm also not above making a right, going down a bit and turning around in a parking lot. :)



This tracking difference is why big rigs frequently turn right from the 2nd lane, and into the left lane of the "target" street (on minor streets, it's frequently necessary to turn right from, and into, the opposing lanes).

I work at a warehouse, and there is a Costco distribution center down the road as well (the road we are on - called Costco Dr. - has no outlet at the other end, either...technically it does but it is closed off with a fence to keep trucks off the little side street back there...I wish they would let the cars through, though. It would be so much easier for me in the morning. :(), so there are a ton of trucks. I have many times sat in the left turn lane at the light and watched a truck turn right from Costco Dr. and held my breath until I was sure they wouldn't hit me. Luckily the handful of accidents I've seen at that intersection have all involved only cars, and not the huge trucks.

[smileyeagle1021]

Of course, from my experience all the roundabouts in northern Utah are much more reasonable and easily navigable than some of the ones out here on the East Coast. :p

you should see the ones in Northern Nevada (and yes, the capital N in Northern is intentional... Northern Nevada is completely separate from Las Vegas :p )... some of the circles in Reno and Sparks are incredible... I saw one there that has like 5 roads feeding into it :eek: Traffic flows smoothly, I've never seen problems during the few times I've been there. If only every intersection could be as well built as the circles in Reno/Sparks.

[MoxisPilot]

I like roundabouts when they're used properly - more so than I do intersections with stolights, anyhow.

Now, when you get to Naples and drive in a two-lane roundabout which the drivers have somehow managed to turn into a SIX LANE roundabout...THEN I freak out.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

They've started putting in more roundabouts in Cheeselandialand and I don't mind them. They're nothing like the ones raw posted.

The thing to remember is you yield to traffic already in the roundabout.

[Vickitoria]

I live in NJ. God. I hate circles so much. I was driving to go to a college visit. My mom was with me and she told me there were a few circles, so be careful because for some the yield is the incoming traffic, and some it's for the exiting traffic. She failed to inform me that 'a few' meant no less than 7.

Also, over the summer break right before I started college, they installed a circle at the main entrance. I only used it twice and took the side entrance every other time. It was an all commuter school, and I'm sorry, I may trust myself in circles, but I didn't trust the other people I was going to school with.

As far as jug handles go, I love them. I was in OH recently and it took forever to get used to making left turns from the left lane.

[ADoyle90815]

There is a traffic circle in my city, and I avoid it whenever possible because so many people don't understand that you have to yield to traffic already in the circle. There's a local urban legend that says that a family member of the designer of that circle was killed there.

[bean]

My apartment complex is at the end of a street, with a roundabout in front of it.

Serving 2 other apartment complexes.

It also has 3 "ONE WAY" signs, one at the beginning and 2 in the middle.

I almost hit a gas company truck head on going through it once, along with a COP.

[smileyeagle1021]

I almost hit a gas company truck head on going through it once, along with a COP.

:ashamed: I've gone the wrong way in a circle before :ashamed:

to give me credit... it was inside the parking lot where my other works... and I was following her... blame her :p

[mattm04]

Beat this one. seven, count em, 7 streets and no light. Years ago their weren't even STOP signs.

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=east+longmeadow+ma&um=1&ie=UTF-8&split=0&gl=us&ei=DRMiSqy2DJSWMd2vlKsJ&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=title&resnum=1

[DerangedHermit]

Traffic circles aren't too bad in my neck of the woods except for two, both in the same town: Old Country Road/Roanoke Avenue, and NY Route 24 and three other roads, Ah, I love Long Island. Nothing like keeping relics from the past even though the road using it is way too busy for a traffic circle.

[LadyAndreca]

Ahh, you want bad NJ circles? Try this little number:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v446/littlekarichan/AsburyParkCircle.jpg

It's at the intersection of two highways; the one going NW to SE is a major, heavy-traffic-at-all-times-of-day highway. The entire thing is two lanes, but THE CIRCLE IS NOT STRIPED. My husband, an engineer, had to send photo evidence of this to the Department of Transportation before they would approve a blueprint of his 'because he didn't show the stripes in the circle'.

His boss, a certified traffic engineer, has a standing offer to the DoT to redesign the entire thing for free if they'll fix it, it's THAT bad.

[Andara Bledin]

Beat this one. seven, count em, 7 streets and no light. Years ago their weren't even STOP signs.

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=east+longmeadow+ma&um=1&ie=UTF-8&split=0&gl=us&ei=DRMiSqy2DJSWMd2vlKsJ&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=title&resnum=1
How would you even begin to put a light on that monstrosity of an intersection?

I think this one needs to be redesigned a lot more than LadyAndreca's does. At least hers begins to make some sense.

^-.-^

[AccountingDrone]

Not a traffic circle ... but I put forth The Can of Worms (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Can_of_Worms_(interchange))

[smileyeagle1021]

accounting drone, I've actually been through the can of worms... it sucks...

then again, salt lake does have the oh so lovely spaghetti bowl, with 3 freeways (15, 80, 201) and depending on who you ask 3 or 4 major arterial streets (West Temple, 1300 South, 2100 South, and some would include 900 West)

[crazylegs]

Not a traffic circle ... but I put forth The Can of Worms (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Can_of_Worms_(interchange))

I present to you the original spaghetti junction (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravelly_Hill_Interchange).

I love roundabouts, however we're getting more and more street furniture and road markings with them now; traffic lights, feeder lanes, box junctions, you name it it'll be found on a roundabout somewhere!

Oh, and the smaller versions that are just paint, they're helpfully called mini roundabouts, but the rules remain the same (other than the additional rule that you must go around the painted circle and not over it unless the length of your vehicle prevents you from doing so).

[Andara Bledin]

We've got a few of those around here. Actually, there's a page dedicated to Los Angeles County interchanges over HERE (http://members.cox.net/mkpl/interchange/interchange.html).

The East LA interchange is quite a doozy. I try to aviod it entirely, if possible. And the 105/110 interchange has the added fun of also being a Metro Green Line station, as the Green Line runs along the center of the 105.

^-.-^

[mattm04]

How would you even begin to put a light on that monstrosity of an intersection?

I think this one needs to be redesigned a lot more than LadyAndreca's does. At least hers begins to make some sense.

^-.-^

They have talked about re designing it but all the roads that enter are heavily traveled roadways. They think they have plan to make it better to travel through then can't find a way do do construction without creating miles of traffic jams on each road. A minor accident, espically if PD gets involved, has been know to create "breaking news" type events if it occurs during rush hour.

[raw456]

Beat this one. seven, count em, 7 streets and no light. Years ago their weren't even STOP signs.

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=east+longmeadow+ma&um=1&ie=UTF-8&split=0&gl=us&ei=DRMiSqy2DJSWMd2vlKsJ&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=title&resnum=1

I see your 7 streets and raise you 5 more :D

The Arch de Triumph in Paris is surounded by a 12 road, 6 lane round-a-bout.

They have a accident on it approx every 90 seconds (mostly fender benders) We went round it on a tour bus late a night with very little traffic, still scared the heck out of us :eek: