Yep. Canada suburbs here. We're starting to see roundabouts used more often for what would be higher traffic four-ways or inconvenient lights. They're great, both as a driver and as a cyclist. Lower conflict risk, simple rules to proceed.

IMO all smaller 4 way stops should become what I've described as trash can roundabouts. Small island to circle around. So much better than stop signs.

Wait until you find one of the distressingly common places where they build a roundabout and put stop signs on some or all of the entrances.

That is a good way to have an accident - I know since I've done it. While "looking one way" on a USA counterclockwise roundabout you are looking left to see traffic already on the roundabout and if clear you go and run smack into the back of the vehicle ahead of you who for some reason stalled or hesitated or just judged the traffic differently. However it will be a low speed accident.

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.

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.

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'd say just the opposite. Indeed, in the UK it's normal for the signs leading up to a roundabout to include an overhead map view, since that's often the easiest way to understand what you need to do to get where you want to.

Never underestimate how confused people can get with the unfamiliar. I live a couple of blocks from a fairly standard roundabout and see people trying to exit the roundabout through an entrance to the roundabout or try to go clockwise in the roundabout (this is in Canada) several times a year. This happens even though the design of the roundabout, the road markings, and the signage make it perfectly clear how you are supposed to go through it.

Then there is the less obvious stuff that happens multiple times per hour, like entering in the wrong lane given the desired exit (even though it is marked), vehicles inside the roundabout yielding to vehicles entering the roundabout (even though there is signage), or vehicles entering the roundabout failing to yield to vehicles inside of it (same signage).

As for non-standard roundabouts, those can confuse just about anyone since people often don't realize that it is a roundabout.

They're often not 'signaged' correctly.

Ideally the sign would be 1) Rotated so that the driver proceeds from the base towards the top or sides. 2) Clearly depict the LOGICAL layout (bent slightly towards the physical) of what flow patterns _do_ during the roundabout from that input. 3) Also clearly depict which exits go where.

There should really be two signs actually, one before the diagram that lists (locally relevant roads / landmarks) by lane for sorting (if there's more than one lane in).

PS: The route map should also add a YIELD sign in mini next to the entrance with an according broken line. The interior lanes of roundabouts always have priority and all inputs are yield merges in.

Aside from one old lady that I saw doing laps a few years ago after our nearby roundabout first opened, it seems like most people figure it out pretty quickly. But they're too comfortable with it, and most people blast through without even hitting the brakes. That brings its own problems.

They made a video that explains how to navigate the roundabout, and shows what it will actually look like (with yield markings)[1]

[1]: https://youtu.be/07_m7HHiZRw

There is no room for a traditional roundabout in this location and the gravel trucks from the nearby quarry can hop the very short curbs as needed.

This roundabout is perfectly fine in practice.

Watch the video - this roundabout's islands are designed to be driven over by semis and trailers. (Hopefully the drivers of those vehicles know that).

> Not to mention tight roundabouts always have horrible curbs that trucks have to smash into to try and jump over to make the turns, and they are never gentle bumps, they are always tire and curb damaging trash, especially for heavy loads which are primarily the vehicles that need to jump the curbs.

I'm not a fan of roundabouts, but the recent WSDOT roundabouts I'm subjected to have gentle curbs, at least for now, so that part isn't so bad. The part where I actually need to look left and right simultaneously to see if there's room for me to join the flow, and also watch for pedestrians (if present) isn't so great.

And I'm really not a fan of the unbounded wait when there is a large flow that crosses my entrance, which could result in a very long wait when the large flow comes from rush hour conditions or a ferry offloading.

OTOH if you can't read the sign where to turn right, you can keep turning left, make a full circle, and check the signs again, and again if needed, in under half a minute. All without creating a problem to anyone around you, and being safe yourself.

I'll take it any time over a typical highway exit; if you miss it, or uf you take a wrong one, it's usually dozens of miles before you have a chance to take any corrective action at all.

For one, roundabouts turn what would be a T-Bone intersection into a glancing hit. I think that's the biggest safety benefit. They also improve the flow of traffic since there's no starting and stopping (think of it like a stoplight is a mutex lock and a roundabout is a spinlock).

This roundabout was intentionally designed for the curbs to be traversable by long vehicles.

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They can eminent domain whatever land they need to expand the intersection.

It may be unusual there, but in the UK we have loads. Some are smaller than this: the minimum roundabout is just a paint circle. They aren't a problem

Most people here actually prefer roundabouts to traffic lights because you keep moving (although this is partly selection bias- traffic lights are deployed at junctions where a roundabout would fail to evenly arbitrate the different flows )

> Some of them have a stop sign in the roundabout?

Traffic gets much heavier and we'll need stop signs at our roundabout near my house. During rush hour it has predominantly one flow of traffic and nobody slows down below 30-35 mph so getting into the roundabout can be difficult. A stop sign would defeat some of the point of a roundabout but it may become necessary to enforce safety.

The article explains why they made the decision not to do a traditional dog-bone interchange with two circular roundabouts. Namely, there were right of way limitations and a need to incorporate heavy farm trucks making a left turn. So, they ended up with basically 1.5 roundabouts which represents a simplification over the dog bone.

The lack of turn signal usage in the region also makes funky roundabouts much harder to navigate. Like you have to wait until there is a large enough gap in the cars to enter the circle, even if none of the cars actually end up intersecting your path.

It is intentional. The idea is to force drivers to reduce speed, and the mechanism is because it isn't familiar to the drivers. The claim is it forces them to be thoughtful.

Whether or not it works or is a good idea is not something on which I'm opining.

IME (also observing other drivers), the usual multi-lane roundabouts are something you get comfortable with after just a little spaced repetition and then it's not all bad.

There are major cities in those countries with a few exceptionally gnarly ones, though. I don't blame if you're traumatized if you ever found yourself circling Arc de Triomphe in Paris, for example.

There’s a link in the article but here it is with a time code for the start of the simulation.

https://youtu.be/07_m7HHiZRw?t=39

I think this is what it’s supposed to be like

https://imgur.com/a/nsh80tf

About half way in to the article is a link to a youtube video.

The article has a video

https://maps.app.goo.gl/aBMc8ik6B1zZbBPQ7

It's not quite the middle of nowhere, but definitely quite rural. I wouldn't expect to find pedestrians out there.

Yes, it's a few miles outside of the nearest town. It's the intersection of a state highway and some small roads that mostly lead to farmland. Not much pedestrian traffic expected there.