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Re:What are roundabouts? The safety benefits of these circul... by tpmx on Wednesday October 25, 2023 @03:25PM (#38017102)
Seriously, americans need to learn about these.
Re:What are roundabouts? The safety benefits of these circul... by spogbiper on Wednesday October 25, 2023 @03:46PM (#38017335)
we have tons of them where i live in south florida
Re:What are roundabouts? The safety benefits of these circul... by eesmith on Wednesday October 25, 2023 @04:25PM (#38017887)
There are differences between a modern roundabout and the broader category of circular junction.

The De Soto Plaza in in Coral Gables, FL, built in 1925, as seen at https://www.google.com/maps/@25.7450124,-80.275242,3a,75y,75... is not a modern roundabout. Granada Blvd does not indicate a yield-to-enter, while the others streets have stop signs.

I think that one should also have splitter islands.

(Video of its history at https://archive.org/details/Did_You_Know_-_DeSoto_Plaza_Foun... .)

I think Cocoplum Circle might count as a roundabout? https://www.google.com/maps/@25.7059315,-80.2608362,3a,75y,1...

There are also "traffic calming circles", which are not roundabouts. "Traffic calming circles should not be confused with roundabouts, which are designed to handle much higher traffic volumes and reduce vehicle delay." - https://www.sfbetterstreets.org/find-project-types/pedestria...

Re:What are roundabouts? The safety benefits of these circul... by Minor49er on Wednesday October 25, 2023 @03:49PM (#38017377)
As an American, I can assure you that we have loads of these
Re:What are roundabouts? The safety benefits of these circul... by desas on Wednesday October 25, 2023 @03:50PM (#38017395)
As a guy who actually read the article, I can assure everyone else that this American is right

> In 2000, the U.S. only had 356 roundabouts. Over the past two decades, that number has grown to over 10,000.

Re:What are roundabouts? The safety benefits of these circul... by Y-bar on Wednesday October 25, 2023 @03:57PM (#38017462)
Less than half the 25,000 in UK, or just over half the 19,000 in Italy, or almost matching the 15,000 in Spain.

It's great news all over that the number is clearly increasing, but still a very long long way to go until it becomes widespread.

Re:What are roundabouts? The safety benefits of these circul... by oblio on Wednesday October 25, 2023 @04:01PM (#38017530)
To put things into perspective: 65 million + 60 million + 45 milion = 170 million people, about half of the US population.

So 59 000 roundabouts for half the population versus 10 000 in the US.

That's a deficit of 90% per capita :-)

Re:What are roundabouts? The safety benefits of these circul... by csdreamer7 on Wednesday October 25, 2023 @04:01PM (#38017536)
Indeed, wasn't until 2011 or so until I saw my first roundabout in the USA.

For my other Americans, read the Australian's post above. Can get across an entire town without stopping as a reason to remake our towns with roundabouts.

Re:What are roundabouts? The safety benefits of these circul... by candiddevmike on Wednesday October 25, 2023 @04:00PM (#38017515)
My area, and a lot of others I think, are no longer building stop light intersections. Everything new is a roundabout.
Re:What are roundabouts? The safety benefits of these circul... by SoftTalker on Wednesday October 25, 2023 @04:23PM (#38017844)
It depends where you are. Some cities are more on board with them than others. You do see them quite a bit now at the end of new or reconstructed freeway exit ramps, as opposed to the previously more usual stop signs or traffic signals.
Re:What are roundabouts? The safety benefits of these circul... by peterpost2 on Wednesday October 25, 2023 @04:19PM (#38017787)
France has about 30k of them, the UK has about 25k of them and those countries have a fraction of the population of the US.

The us does not have loads of them they are few and far between

Re:What are roundabouts? The safety benefits of these circul... by Minor49er on Wednesday October 25, 2023 @05:01PM (#38018330)
"Fewer than what's in France and the UK" is an interesting metric. Apparently it doesn't matter that there are so many that the only way to get through certain parts of various cities in most states is to drive through multiple roundabouts in serial. That certainly qualifies as "few and far between" simply because there are fewer than what's in France
Re:What are roundabouts? The safety benefits of these circul... by JohnFen on Wednesday October 25, 2023 @08:51PM (#38020343)
It must depend on where in the US you are. Where I am, they are pretty common.
Re:What are roundabouts? The safety benefits of these circul... by parshimers on Wednesday October 25, 2023 @03:49PM (#38017385)
the resistance is a problem. there are a few in Pasadena, CA on Los Robles between California and Raymond where it's a roundabout, with stop signs on each entrance. the worst of both worlds.
Re:What are roundabouts? The safety benefits of these circul... by seabird on Thursday October 26, 2023 @12:10AM (#38021511)
We have plenty of them. They're usually pretty miserable because your average American driver is a fucking moron and they're best not deployed unless there's a safety reason to do so.