Traffic Roundabouts: Do They Work In Your City? (condo, house)

[PITTSTON2SARASOTA]

Originally Posted by westhou

There is one here in Houston located in the Museum District. It's beautiful! My absolute favorite part of the city. The first time I used it I was a little confused but now it's easy to use and it really does help traffic.

How many lanes did the roundabout replace adding the initial 2 intersecting roads together? Also, how does it handle pedestrians and bicyclists? THANX.

[bradly]

In Albuquerque we have several roundabouts in my subdivsion. Same with Summerlin.

[WeSoHood]

Originally Posted by prelude91

they seem to work just fine in DC as well

Yup, they do work well..

[PITTSTON2SARASOTA]

Originally Posted by bradly

In Albuquerque we have several roundabouts in my subdivsion. Same with Summerlin.

Are they six lane roads intersecting or more suburban a setting?

[PITTSTON2SARASOTA]

Originally Posted by PeaceChild

That road I posted does have a lot of traffic. A couple auto plants and a lot of residents. I'm pretty sure that there was 8 lanes of traffic before it was put in.

That sounds encouraging.

[bradly]

Originally Posted by PITTSTON2SARASOTA

Are they six lane roads intersecting or more suburban a setting?

They differ,

Three roads go into one.
Four roads go into one.

But I have never seen 6 roads go into one besides the one in downtown.

No more than four laned.

[PITTSTON2SARASOTA]

Originally Posted by bradly

They differ,

Three roads go into one.
Four roads go into one.

But I have never seen 6 roads go into one besides the one in downtown.

No more than four laned.

I'm just not sure a roundabout would work on high volume roads.

[WestbankNOLA]

Here the traffic circles have to have traffic lights in them to keep people from killing themselves, defeating the purpose of having a circle in the first place.

[PITTSTON2SARASOTA]

Originally Posted by WestbankNOLA

Here the traffic circles have to have traffic lights in them to keep people from killing themselves, defeating the purpose of having a circle in the first place.

It is an oxymoronic move and Sarasota is discussing having some traffic lights with it also??? Makes no sense to me?

[atlantagreg30127]

In suburban Cobb County just NW of Atlanta, they are experimenting with them. There is one small roundabout (1 lane) that works very well, and a second 1 lane roundabout is in the planning stages. I think in a couple of other suburban areas the same sized smaller ones are in planning stages as well.

In many of the suburbs here, you still have lots of 2 lane roads. They never suspected that the metro Atlanta of 1.5 million people in the late 1970s would eventually turn into a metro area of 5.2 million in 2009. Due to very poor predictions and poor planning, many of those same 2 lane roads of yesteryear are still in use today, only with 20X the traffic on them they saw decades ago. Some of the intersections on these routes can back up a lot. The one area where the existing roundabout is in place has seen a big decrease in the congestion at that one intersection.

That being said, if they did a multi-lane roundabout within Atlanta, I'm not sure it would fly well. We're famous for having a high percentage of drivers who originate from all over the world, and who drive with cell/texting in hand, etc. A 4-6 lane roundabout here would most likely just lead to chaos.

More info...

Atlanta Metro News*| ajc.com

RoundaboutsUSA