Roadguy video: About those roundabouts
Posted on June 29th, 2009 – 3:21 PMBy Roadguy
Minnesota now has nearly 100 roundabouts, so it’s the right time for the latest Roadguy video, which went online this morning. (Apologies for the posting delay — once again, I’m on the road.)
32 Responses to "Roadguy video: About those roundabouts"
I am so tired of the phrase “studies show.”
Roundabouts are a perfect solution for intersections common in Europe where three, four, or more roads meet in the center of town.
Here in America, at intersections of two roads, they accomplish nothing that a couple of yield signs wouldn’t easily handle.
Got it. DGB is tired of facts.
Nice vid. I have to point out that the whole point of roundabouts is to keep traffic moving albeit at lower, but constant speeds. The individual in the shot trying to take the curve at a high speed resulting in squealing tires could have (should have) been ticketed for reckless driving.
Matty, that squealer should have been caught for speeding as well.
I love roundabouts, people over here(200 miles east) are also generally hesitant to them. Somethings they say is “what about large vehicles and emergency vehicles?” well take it from me, my vehicle is 70 feet long and love the roundabout. Wisconsin builds a lot of roundabouts with this bricked surface in the middle part of the roundabout called an apron, which is actually there for us larger vehicles
Also, roundabouts have many rules that are similar to “normal” intersections such as; lets say there is a 4 lane road with a multilane roundabout. the rule is dont change lanes in the roundabout…well that is no different than dont change lanes when you have a green light at a lighted intersection, or any intersection actually.
That’s right Joel truck driver (about the truck aprons). People always bring up large trucks and emergency vehicles as problems.
These vehicles are known as your control vehicles when designing roadways, while the normal vehicles are your “design” vehicles. This means we don’t need to design roads for the largest vehicles, we just need to have designs that can accommodate them (like having truck aprons on roundabouts).
The best (quickest) first response emergency vehicle is a Harley Davidson motorcycle. As long as the EMTs can get there quickly, it’s OK if it takes the big rig fire truck an extra minute to arrive at the scene.
How would those harleys be the best (quickest) in the winter? Are they at least quieter when they’re lying sideways in an icy ditch?
I can’t watch your video. I am using the MVPS Hosts file (search for it) to block as many ad sites as possible. So your video page is stalled at “connecting to ads.doubleclick.net.” Then after a while it’s stalled somewhere else.
Well if the Star Tribune is forcing ads on me then tough.
Tony Toews, what browser are you using? Works great in Firefox w/Adblock Plus.
The car w/the squealing tires didn’t appear to be going all that fast, just seemed like a combination of bad suspension and low tire pressure.
Joel,
Don’t you find cars trying to squeeze by on your left constantly?
“The best (quickest) first response emergency vehicle is a Harley Davidson motorcycle.”
Nonsense. The BMWs (motorcycles) have far superior handling & braking - critical factors when lane-splitting in order to reach an accident scene.
Tony:
Star Trib isn’t forcing ads on you.
They are offering you “free” content based on your receiving ads (kind of like OTA TV) and you have chosen not to accept it. You can purchase the information (aka newspaper) at many local sites or view it for free at most libraries. You have to make the choice of an ad to ignore on your computer, money, or a trip to the library. Whichever method makes you less grumpy.
However, the programmer at the Star Trib site seems to be brain dead. For some reason they frequently rewrite the whole page (including the story) in order to update ads. This means that the screen will blank out (including erasing any comments that are being written) while it reloads absolutely everything on the page.
They might want to look up AJAX programming and have a look at how Google maps updates parts of the page without destroying everythin else.
I understand that some tires tend to squeal loudly on some surfaces. I had a set of tires that used to squeal very loudly in some parking ramps when I turned corners at walking speed. It sounded like a car chase scene from a movie.
However, looking at the video clip, that car is moving fast. Speeds of cars at that direction and distance from the camera are deceptive. I have shot a number of videos of cars running autocross and many appear to be crawling along at speeds way below what I knew that they were driving.
“Roadguy recommends that you figure it out or take an alternate route.”
Great clincher, crack me up! 
Roundabouts rock my world, especially when you reach the roundabout with other drivers who know how the system works.
Roundabouts simplify driving to its most basic form, yet until people understand that Yield does not equal I Don’t Have To Stop, they will have their problems.
Also, to the lady whose 80+ yr. old Mother-in-Law can’t comprehend the notion of roundabouts: time to take away the keys.
There are plenty of people of ALL ages that can’t comprehend the notion of roundabouts, or 4-way stop signs, or freeway entrance/exit ramps… The list is quite long.
Roundabouts work just fine as long as people pay attention.
Morg: funny thing about that lady with the 80-yr-old mother-in-law is that the lady herself likes the roundabout.
Dale - ive only been through one multilane roundabout, but there was no traffic…and i had to use left lane cause to get to this certain truck stop trucks had to use the roundabout as a u-turn to get to the T/S. But if it is a busy day, and i need to go straight at multilane roundabout, i think i would just look far enough ahead and jump into the left lane and use the left lane through the roundabout, then get back in the right lane…so my trailer tandem is using the apron through the roundabout. If i would have to take a right at a multilane roundabout, well the trailer is going to track right anyways. Or if there is no room for the trailer to track right, then just treat the multilane roundabout as a buttonhook. Thats what i would do.
Love roundabouts. Used to think they were an awful idea until I experienced them. Much faster! It’s not rocket science to figure them out, either. Considering how few Minnesotans can come to a full stop at a stop sign you’d think roundabouts would be more popular here.
I thought the same thing Froggie.
Hetty Says:
“Considering how few Minnesotans can come to a full stop at a stop sign you’d think roundabouts would be more popular here.”
Ha Ha! I agree… but yet they get angry when bicyclists don’t come to a complete stop.
roundabouts are awesome… I love the one by the falls!
Joel,
Exiting Hwy 61 at Jamaica in Cottage Grove I try to block the left lane but I am not always successful. I get the occasional cowboy who might think I am playing cop and slowing everybody down, but in reality I am just trying not to run anybody over. On Hwy 7 west of Minneapolis at Hwy 25 the roundabout there works well and is wider.
Dale (or Joel for that matter): have you experienced the roundabout down on Hwy 13 in Scott County (at County 2), or the roundabouts on the I-35 interchange at Medford? Asking since those were the first MnDOT-built roundabouts.
I doubt most drivers even notice Yield signs anymore. Hell, they barely pay attention to Stop signs and red lights. Roundabouts seem like a good idea, until they are used by the average (i.e. - sub-intelligent) driver.
The roundabout on Hwy 3 by Empire baffles me. It’s got very poor visibility (especially since someone decided to put a huge mount of dirt in the middle and plant stuff on it), and it means that the 55 MPH traffic has to slow down to 30 *all the time*. With a light, the traffic would have to come to a complete stop when there was actually crosstraffic, but since 3 is the main route, 3 tends to be a lot busier. I think roundabouts really only make sense if there is comparable traffic on both roads. If one road is substantially lighter than the other, a traffic semaphore makes more sense, so you’re not always slowing down the one direction to benefit the occasional traffic in the other direction.
Right on Callie. Roundabouts can be a very poor choice in the locations you mention.
I think the ones in New Prague are particularly poorly designed. ONly been through them a couple times awhile ago, but it seems they were very tight even for the average vehicle. I remember the aprons being coating with tire tracks.
yea Dale unfortunately that is just some of the bs we have to deal with, success is when we dont hit anyone.
no i havent been through those roundabouts Froggie
Studies show….
This is the most awful way to live your life.
Just FYI,
The 66th and portland round-about is one block from the richfield fire station. also, I have not taken the time to monitor how often the fire trucks avoid the round-about
Roundabouts are common in New England with multi-lane roundabouts in Boston. I had no problems with any of them. It only requires common sense. But whoever the brain-dead idiot from MNDot that designed and ordered those two roundabouts on MN7 west of Minneapolis totally lacked any common sense and needs at best a lobotomy. It’s one thing in the city but when you’re going 55 plus and have to crawl around at 20 with a dirt mound in the middle blocking your view shows poor planning. Ttaffic activated signals would have probably done the job with warning signals prior to the intersection.
As evidenced by comments here, not all roundabouts are created equal. The one on Hwy3 also has issues in the winter… roundabout speed limit is 15mph, then changes immediately to 55mph uphill coming out of the curve. Quite the treat when icy. Lots of downed signed and tornup curbs/grass. Wheee!
I go through the roundabout at Portland and 66th pretty frequently on my way home from work. I admit I was a little leery of the concept – and I also admit it took me 4 or 5 times going through it to figure out how the traffic flow works – but now I’m a wholehearted supporter of the idea. At least for intersections like that one! It used to take an eternity to make a left turn there; now, I generally only have to sit about 10 seconds before it’s my turn to go.
