Roundabout Blues

[hotinhawaii]

Came home from Hilo through Pahoa about 3:30. Cars backed up to Makuu. I thought...they must be moving cones and limiting traffic or something. Nope. Just completely opened the roundabout and this is how quickly people move through it. Ugh.

I realize this is the first day and all. It seems like about half of the cars entering come to a complete stop first to check traffic in the circle. Also, when entering from Keaau side, it is hard to tell if someone already in the circle is going to turn off toward Keaau or cross in front of you. If only there were some type of signaling device on your car to indicate this...

Still reserving judgment though. We'll see if this improves with time and experience. Maybe when the county has some religious blessing for the grand opening of the circle that will clear it up. Let's hope for the best.

[terracore]

The signs said we were on roundabout opening "B", so its not fully operational (?)

[TomK]

I checked traffic on google maps around 6:30pm and saw no delays. Maybe the earlier backup was caused by the crews working to open up phase 2?

Of course google maps may have been using incorrect or out-of-date data.

[VancouverIslander]

Yes, pahoated, that part is correct, however they get traffic data from other sources, which you can use if you get it to provide directions between two points. I suspect they have a deal with gps companies (both hardware gps and software for phones).

edit to add: they even color code the route so you know which parts to expect heavier traffic (red), moderate traffic (gold) and clear sailing (blue)

https://www.ncta.com/platform/broadband-...s-traffic/

Apparently they get the data from android phones.

Just call me Mike

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

WTH? Google Maps/Earth isn't real time.

Google Maps isn't real time, but if you click the 3 horizontal bars at the top left on a Google Map, the dropdown menu lists "Traffic." Click Traffic, and it gives real time driving conditions including delays.

For more info, you could... Google it.

"How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives." -Annie Dillard

[ScottRAB]

Just opening day jitters. They work elsewhere in Hawai'i, why not the big island?

Modern, slow and go, roundabout intersections have less delay than a stop light or stop sign, especially the other 20 hours a day people aren’t driving to or from work (it’s the #2 reason). Average daily delay at a signal is around 12 seconds per car. At a modern roundabout average delay is less than five seconds. Signals take an hour of demand and restrict it to a half hour, at best only half the traffic gets to go at any one time. At a modern roundabout drivers entering from different directions can all enter at the same time. Don’t try that with a signalized intersection.
Single-lane modern roundabouts (90-120 feet in diameter) can handle intersections that serve about 20,000 vehicles per day with peak-hour flows between 2,000 and 2,500 vehicles per hour. Two- and three-lane modern roundabouts (150-220 feet in diameter) can serve about 50,000 vehicles per day and handle 2,500 to 5,500 vehicles per hour. Right-turn slip lanes can increase those numbers if needed (just like for signal intersections). Much depends on how balanced the entries are, but only in determining how many lanes are needed for each movement.

If you read the link, 8 of 116 crashes resulted in injuries, about 7%, and they didn't even discuss severity. Can you say the same for any similar intersection in the area? What the article doesn't mention is how many drivers enter those intersections each day. An apples to apples comparison would be crash rate, not total number of crashes. Crash rate accounts for exposure.
Modern roundabouts are the safest form of intersection in the world (much more so than comparable signals). Visit http://www.iihs.org/iihs/topics/t/rounda...icoverview for modern roundabout FAQs and safety facts. Modern roundabouts, and the pedestrian refuge islands approaching them, are two of nine proven safety measures identified by the FHWA, http://tinyurl.com/7qvsaem
The FHWA has a video about modern roundabouts on Youtube, or check out the IIHS video (iihs dot org).

http://priceonomics.com/the-case-for-mor...undabouts/
http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/intersection/...undabouts/

[Linchpin]

quote:

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Originally posted by pahoated

It is just highway fact that roundabouts trade intensity of crashes with more frequency of crashes.

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Citation needed?

quote:

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http://www.theoaklandpress.com/article/2.../151239886
Roundabouts top early list of Oakland County intersection crashes in 2015

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From the article:
“Driver behavior often tends to be the cause of many crashes,” he said.

...anyhow. I lived there. I put 300,000+ miles on my cars while living there and drove this roundabout (mentioned in the article) as well as half a dozen others daily. Any single one of these roundabouts gets a metric ****load more traffic per day than the Pahoa roundabout will get within a year.
And this very intersection - I lost an employee to an accident here before the roundabout was installed.

The sad thing is, all the B.S. that is going on here on this forum and on social media regarding this roundabout.... I've seen it all before. We went through the same crap in Michigan when they started phasing roundabouts and traffic circles in. Maybe I moved away too soon, but I don't recall a 50% drop in population due to roundabout-deaths or any such nonsense.

I guess some people need something to bitch about. And lacking that, they make things to bitch about. Oh the drama - I love what the internet has become.... the September that never ended.

It's not the roundabout that scares me. It's the complete lack of common sense that people have while behind the wheel. And I say this as a man who is currently laid up in a leg rig because of a car accident in mid-March. Yeah, if any of you got caught in the mess in Keaau where the bypass hits HW11 at 8:30 on that Tuesday morning - that was me laying in the road screaming in pain with a busted leg (among other things).

[TomK]

"From Puna? Give me a break, no, don't ever give me a break lavarockheads."

I believe even some Puna lavarockheads own smartphones which provide the tracking data Google uses to display real-time traffic information on their maps.

[ericlp]

I think half the reason it was backed up driving from hilo to pahoa, is because there is the merge from malama exit just before you get to the roundabout, everyone stopping and letting in that traffic. It might become the new norm, unless that gets phased out in plan C. I can't remember how it was suppose to be, a two lane roundabout would have solved most of these problems. But that's water under the bridge now.

[EightFingers]

Went through it four times today no problem each time. Only once did I have to wait on someone in the roundabout.
The sun off that white concrete was sure bright, tho'!