The Modern Roundabout

It is not the low speed which makes urban driving so maddening. It is the herky-jerky stop-and-go nature of urban traffic. The Modern Roundabout provides the opportunity for a low-speed but continuous flow.

What is a Modern Roundabout?
A Modern Roundabout is a type of circular intersection that has been successfully implemented in Europe and Australia, and more recently in the USA. Despite the tens of thousands of roundabouts in operation around the world, there are only a few in Canada. Until recently, roundabouts have been slow to gain support in this country. The lack of acceptance can generally be attributed to the negative experience with traffic circles or rotaries built in the earlier half of the twentieth century. Safety and operational problems caused these traffic circles to fall out of favor by the 1950's. However, substantial progress has been achieved in the subsequent design of circular intersections, and a Modern Roundabout should not be confused with the traffic circles of the past.

See also RoundaboutsUSA

Comments

[Jeff Knowles]

Any roundabout experts out there that would like to make recommendations on improving the two roundabouts City Council (by a 3-2 vote) has decided to remove? In the last 3 years Pleasanton, California built 6 compact urban roundabouts (per the new Federal Design Guidelines) and last month City Council decided to remove two and reconstruct the intersections at a cost of about $750,000 as standard 1-way stop controlled "T" intersections. At least one will most likely become a signalized intersection when surrounding development is completed.

Seems a shame to spend all that money to ripe them up if there is a quick-fix to solve our single-vehicle collision problem at these intersections. We have all of the standard warning signs and markers in place, but some drivers just won't slow down enough to negotiate the intersections!

Just a thought.