I'm ok with most roundabouts. However, there is one near me that everyone complains about. There are 3 of them right in a row, but even that isn't the main issue. There is one with 5 places to turn out, which is relatively small and confusing. If you get it wrong it dumps you out on the expressway and it's an almost 9 mile trip to get back to where you originally wanted to go with no other option than to drive the 9 miles. I have yet to talk to a single person who hasn't made this mistake at least once. A little "oops" road to connect the expressway on-ramp with the road people intended to take would go along way and save hundreds, if not thousands, of wasted miles each year. Many people avoid the area completely because they don't want to deal with it.

Yeah, roundabouts certainly have the potential to be superior, but they're not immune to bad design!

Don't the exits have signs to say where the exit takes you? In Europe they'd be labeled, and highway onramps will have a different background color to indicate a highway..

Also, keeping your navigation display "north up" is much better than having one that will probably be laggy in a roundabout, confusing you on which exit to take.

If all else fails, look at the signage; I remember driving and a passenger not sure if the roundabout exit I was taking was correct, I said "Well there's a big sign there that says this way to our destination."

I think part of the issue is that it’s multi-lane. So if you’re in the right-lane to go to one road, and miss it, staying in the right-lane forces you onto the highway. If there is a car in the left lane you can’t get over to avoid it without causing an accident, or stopping, which would backup the whole circle and also risk accidents. So you end up paying the 9 mile tax. There is no way to miss your turn and easily recover.

Indeed. I've seen a number of stuffed-up multi-lane roundabouts in the States.

I've also seen a trio of 3 of them be adjusted (by changing lane markings and signage -- nothing of grand expense) in a way that was much more sensible and easier to follow than the original design.

It seems to me that a lot of the issues with them could be eliminated by having a bail-out path that is both safe and acceptable.

Logically, it seems like this ideally means providing the opportunity to simply go 'round again and do it over.

Or where that's not possible and there must be a lane with an irrevocable default exit, then: That exit should be low-cost and provide an opportunity nearby to safely stop and spend as much time as it takes to re-evaluate a second attempt

It should never dump a driver into an unexpected 9-mile-long Pavlovian clusterfuck.

I like the German roundabouts that have 3 lanes at each entry. The furthest left takes you to the 3rd exit (left hand turn), the middle takes you to the 2nd exit (straight ahead), and the right hand lane takes you the 1st exit (right hand turn).

The lanes are painted to "spiral" so that if you take the furthest left hand, by the time you get to the 3rd exit, it's the outermost lane.

Spiral roundabouts are very common all over Europe, including the UK. They take a little getting used to, but once you realise your drivers side wheel just needs to stay the correct side of the white line, and the white line will take you where you need to go, it's all good.

They do, but I’ve easily made that mistake. Most recently near Joigny I exited too early twice. Each was easily recoverable since I could simply go back around at the next but while it’s on me and a local would never err it did happen.

Led to quite a bit of ribbing from the passengers so perhaps this is a PEBKAC after all.

No, you're definitely not the only one who likes them. Some folks complain about them when they first go in, but they tend to figure it out.

WSDOT has been encouraging them for a few years now, and my town has several new roundabouts as a result -- and lots of other cities across the state are using them. They've made navigating those intersections way easier, reduced traffic "waiting times", and generally improved safety versus a lighted intersection. I'm glad they're continuing to find ways to make them work.

It seemed when I was growing up in NJ, the state DOT was taking out the giant roundabouts that they were famous for, and now in Washington, they're having a huge resurgence.

Huge roundabouts are very dangerous; the safety factor in the modern ones WA installs is that they are tight and slow, which reduces the severity of any crashes.

It also does not help that NJ is the only state in the US that does not have a consistent rule about roundabout traffic priority.

I agree, Washington does seem to at least aspire to better roundabouts than some places I've heard of. The one rule I see to be truly necessary is "yield to oncoming traffic from the left."

I still get confused at the big roundabout in Kent, after coming off Highway 167 at Willis Street, but most others I've encountered are fine, despite the drivers who still want to stop before proceeding onto them even when there's no other traffic.

I'll take a traditional cross with traffic signals or stop signs on all sides, it's simple and effective.

Roundabouts are a waste of space, disrupt traffic, and take more brain processing than I care to afford if I can help it. This particular example isn't even round.

I vastly prefer roundabouts, with a single exception. If traffic is heavy and dominated by the same entry and exit points, it can be hard to get a turn if you're coming from the side. Our nearest roundabout is this way.

I once saw a roundabout with stop signs. I assume it was an attempt to address this situation.

In the UK, you get roundabouts with traffic lights at the entrances, sometimes only operational at peak times, and off most of the time. Works well

You do, but that means there is no roundabout when you need it the most.

The problem occurs mostly when the dominant flow is given multiple lanes.

A fairly common solution/workaround is blocking the view of the approaching traffic, forcing it to slow down. But again, this doesn't work well on large roundabouts that allow people to speed up to of 30+ mph.

This really is the big failure mode of roundabouts, it essentially becomes "live-locked"

I used to go to work past one like this. They replaced a light where you would always eventually get to go with a roundabout where the 99% of traffic going north/south meant the other two ways were effectively not part of the traffic network for a few hours a day.

How is a roundabout more disruptive than a 4 way junction with stop signs.

In terms of brain processing, you get used to it and it becomes second nature. It is a skill.

Agreed, with the condition that there is only one lane.

Ones with multiple layers stress me out, there are more ways to screw up and more demands on your defensive-driving attention.

I think the problem is not that they're impossible to figure out but you have about 2 seconds from when you see the sign to when you're entering the double roundabout.

That’s a very solvable problem of bad signage.

Yes. If there are 2 it should be a "dog bone" with a long straight bit so you have time to adjust. Like:

     |            |
    =O============O=

We have back-to-back round-a-bouts in Chattanooga (153 / Lake Resort / Access) which have two loops (concentric inner & outer round-a-bouts)... that can be quite confusing for anybody unfamiliar with the local pattern.

Like the Magic Roundabout in the UK? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdx9nlgk97eo

I would do everything possible to avoid this UK Round-a-bout — nothing Magical about it having three concentric lanes just in its inner loop! =P

Ours is much simpler, with a round-a-bout on either side of a regional highway. One of the difficult parts about it is everybody is already jacked the fuck up (on account of 2 of the 5 input/outputs being extremely steep grade to enter/exit a river-crossing, with speeds averaging 65-70mph ["55mph" posted, oklol).

Oh, I've re-read and you just mean there are two fast paced roundabouts that are close by and they both have two lanes around them.

That wouldn't raise an eyebrow here in the UK, it's very normal for highway junctions to have on/off ramps that end in 2-3 lane roundabouts, one each side of the highway.

> In terms of brain processing, you get used to it and it becomes second nature. It is a skill.

Yeah, if my driver’s ed class (both content and classmates) are any indication, a four way stop is anything but intuitive or brainless.

There’s a lot of time spent covering the right of way order, and a lot of people failing their driving test on it.

Roundabouts are only disruptive because of a lack of familiarity… the only way to build that familiarity is with practice. Sucks that you have to learn a new concept after a decade or two or four ~~in the industry~~ on the road, but seems necessary for progress.

Roundabouts are faster, safer and more convenient. It sometimes needs additional traffic lights, since heavily congested roundabouts lose their effectiveness.

Your opinion here is at odds with the record for higher traffic throughput and better safety for roundabouts. They are better in pretty much every way, for appropriate situations.

Here the situation is uneven road size, through traffic on the highway and odd angles. Perfect roundabout application.

If your stop signs don't disrupt traffic then they're not working properly. Roundabouts are designed to efficiently weave traffic streams together instead.

I genuinely cannot read that roundabout from overhead, and I am not a person who has trouble with roundabouts. I think it would benefit greatly from an explanatory diagram. I do hope that it would be more obvious while on the ground, like you said.

Unfortunately, it's not. Driving from right-to-left (in the first picture) requires drivers to enter the roundabout twice, then leave once. Judging by the amount of vehicle debris generally present and the additional "Yield" markings and signage that have been added to the second yield point since the construction was completed, it's been confusing from the ground as well.

Based on the description it is some odd design to accommodate farm equipment. It seems a bit odd.