Comments on: Proven Safety Countermeasures

By: Toddy Cat

Toddy Cat — Thu, 19 Dec 2013 19:56:47 +0000

“I call bullshit. This is US civil engineers with too large of a budget and feeling continental envy.”

Totally agree. If roundabouts save lives, I’m Marie of Romania. I’ve nearly had three crashes on our local roundabout, and I try to avoid the thing whenever possible.

By: Marc Pisco

Marc Pisco — Wed, 18 Dec 2013 03:10:32 +0000

I can vouch from the last hour that shoulder rumble strips are a comfort at night in a snowstorm.

I wonder if roundabouts (“rotaries” in New England) improve safety merely through hyperawareness due to anxiety. I hate the damn things, and I am not a timid driver. They put a lot of cars on a tight curve with everybody merging and unmerging in all directions, and it makes just continuing in a straight line a task that requires thought. Find the right exit while dodging maniacs. On a curve. Yeah.

They may very well be safer? lots of results are counterintuitive, and the more acute the angle at which cars approach each other, the greater the danger. It makes sense. But they sure don’t feel safe at the time.

By: Guy

Guy — Tue, 17 Dec 2013 22:33:17 +0000

"...By converting from a two-way stop control mechanism to a roundabout, a location can experience an 82 percent reduction in severe (injury/fatal) crashes and a 44 percent reduction in overall crashes..." Even if the two-way stop in question experiences a total yearly traffic of three vehicles a month. Yes, even if the intersection is out on the middle of nowhere and farm animals cross the pavement more often than vehicles do, it's necessary to eminent domain 20 acres of arable farmland and use 500 tons of concrete to set up a series of roundabouts to control traffic. I call bullshit. This is US civil engineers with too large of a budget and feeling continental envy.

By: Chris C.

Chris C. — Tue, 17 Dec 2013 02:04:12 +0000

I like all of these except the last one. When I was stationed at Ft Knox, KY in the mid-1970s, the road between the post and Louisville was US 31W, known as the Dixie Highway. Or, to those of us who drove along its two-lanes-each-way-with-a-center-strip, the Dixie Die-way. Far too many drivers used the raised center strip as a merging lane, with predictable results. I have always been a rather, ahem, assertive driver, but this road made me nervous.