I have a sort of visceral negative reaction to roundabouts, but I think because most of the ones I've seen in Europe, when the road is more than one lane wide in each direction, seem to end up with a crazy ad-hoc-lanes thing going on in them, where it's as if you drove onto a huge plaza with no lane markings, where everyone is driving in all sorts of criss-crossing diagonal directions trying to get from their entrance road to their exit road across multiple lanes of traffic. I imagine some countries have more orderly versions, but that's how the Paris ones all felt to me.
I approve of one-lane roundabouts and wish America would replace all its four-way stop signs with them. Four-way stop signs make no sense and just make everything painful, especially for cyclists.
Two-lane roundabouts are pretty dangerous, though -- while I've never had an accident in one I've always suspected that I might. And anything more than two just seems to be crazy.
Well, the Arc de Triomphe is not exactly a /good/ example.
Your point is valid, but I (and others more qualified) argued this ends up being safer. People's mental model changes when they get to a roundabout, they sort of switch on their brain a bit more. I have in my head, but can't find a reference, that roundabouts are actually surprisingly safe.
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I have a sort of visceral negative reaction to roundabouts, but I think because most of the ones I've seen in Europe, when the road is more than one lane wide in each direction, seem to end up with a crazy ad-hoc-lanes thing going on in them, where it's as if you drove onto a huge plaza with no lane markings, where everyone is driving in all sorts of criss-crossing diagonal directions trying to get from their entrance road to their exit road across multiple lanes of traffic. I imagine some countries have more orderly versions, but that's how the Paris ones all felt to me.
edit: video of an example, around the Arc de Triomphe -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lay8aZlsbB0
I approve of one-lane roundabouts and wish America would replace all its four-way stop signs with them. Four-way stop signs make no sense and just make everything painful, especially for cyclists.
Two-lane roundabouts are pretty dangerous, though -- while I've never had an accident in one I've always suspected that I might. And anything more than two just seems to be crazy.
Well, the Arc de Triomphe is not exactly a /good/ example.
Your point is valid, but I (and others more qualified) argued this ends up being safer. People's mental model changes when they get to a roundabout, they sort of switch on their brain a bit more. I have in my head, but can't find a reference, that roundabouts are actually surprisingly safe.