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Location: Segovia, central Spain, 1230 m asl, Csb Mediterranean with strong continental influence, 40º43 N
3,094 posts, read 3,574,255 times
Reputation: 1036
Quote:
Originally Posted by drro
I live close to the German border and now that I think of it, Germany has few roundabouts indeed, although there are some. The only reason I can think of why is the chronic lack of investment in the German road system. Over here at the Dutch side, roads are much better quality but we pay much higher taxes on our cars and fuel and much higher road taxes. The Dutch build many roundabouts because there are supposed to be safer and increase traffic flow. I suppose the Germans just lack funding.
On the other hand, I know this roundabout, which is fairly close to where I live, will be replaced by a cloverleave interchange because of traffic jams. Roundabouts only work up until a certain traffic density/volume.
I went from Spain to southern Netherlands by car in August 2011, and I found Dutch roundabouts interesting, as most of them have cycle lanes which allow cyclist to travel around them.
Why? They make traffic flow fine, in opposite of traffic lights which causing much wasted fuel and time.
I'd like to know how much fuel is wasted because of unnecessary roundabouts in France. Germany could build some more that's true, but the other extreme is equally annoying.
For example, there, planners thought a 110 km/h expressway was necessary and then decided to put a traffic circle every couple kilometers. Drivers have to decelerate from 110 km/h to nearly a full stop 6 times in less than 10 kilometers. How many barrels of oil a year does that represent, I don't know. There are many examples of that throughout the country.
The few super roundabouts they have are neatly designed. Driving through this is much more relaxing than driving through this mess (though the latter works surprisingly well, too).
Roundabouts are getting more and more popular in gemany. In my opinion they help to avoid traffic stucks. I was at Mauritius this year - there they are really crazy! They build them right on the highway! In Romania there are cross-walks on the highways... so there are many crazy things all over the world...
In North America (except in NYC & Montreal Island) right turn on red is permitted after full stop except when road signs prohibit that. This is much better and less waste of time!!
Actually, they are changing intersections to traffic circles all over these days compared to just a few years ago. Another trend is sound barriers along the autobahns which are coming up like mushrooms. You can't even enjoy the scenic towns along the way anymore.
Probably same reason why they barely exist in North America. Roundabouts makes me dizzy, headache and almost throw up. Thank God they are rare in America.
There are currently around 3,500 modern roundabouts operating in the USA that were constructed since 1990 not counting the many small neighborhood traffic.
Roundabouts reduce accidents by 40%, injuries by nearly 80% and fatalities by 90% when replacing intersections with a traffic light or stop sign. Roundabouts are an engineering breakthrough that saves lives - they slow down the traffic and, in the event of an accident, are very forgiving.
But then, where do they place their fountains and pretentious sculpt- I mean, modern art?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ariete
Yes, they do. Like this Finnish roundabout:
A guy named Timo Ruotsalainen took this picture.
Wonderful, this is the best critique to today's society that I've ever seen. It's poopy, like the oil-covered ground around it. Truly that roundabout is so full of ****.
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