Roundabouts

[PaulW]

> They work beautifully in England where there has been more of an "after you" tradition.
There's no after-you involved with roundabouts. Those on it have the right of way.
But they do work beautifully, I hate waiting for traffic lights when the road is empty.

[Sean]

Well, I gotta' say it. There is a dark issue in Hawaii that goes back before my time here, first time here that is

The people of Hawaii can't manage to merge. There I said it. How many times have I looked for the simple cooperation of every other car and not seen it? Several times I've felt like I was in TJ crossing the border after a surf trip. I mentioned this to my mom and she said it was that way in the 60's/70's when we lived here before (I didn't remember too much of that, too little).

I've seen big roundabouts and little roundabouts in Arcata, CA and I wasn't really all that impressed. The mixture of slow hippie vans and redneck logger trucks kept it interesting. Don't even think about how critical mass affected them. They just kept going in circles...

In Australia it seemed to work, I just wonder if many of the good citizens of Hawaii make it a habbit to run red lights, how are they going to cooperate at a roundabout?

Cheers,

Sean

[Blakeyboy1]

They have been using roundabouts in Park City, Utah for a while now (http://www.roundaboutsusa.com/parkcity.html). I have spent a lot of time in London (and greater Western Europe) and the locals seem to loathe traffic lights and blame them for all London traffic woes (not totally true but...) and they love their roundabouts. Then again (and this is important) they are familiar with them and know how to use them. Whenever I am in the Park City/Deer Valley area the roundabouts experiences are NOT the same experience you have in Europe. In fact the experience is plagued with near misses and freaked out people without a clue what to do. As Sean said above the people of Hawaii cannot merge (neither can the people of Utah). I think the roundabout idea is just a trendy and cool idea that in reality just does not work in many applications. It is like randomly adding driving on the other side of the road on various streets.

-Blake



Blakeyboy1

[PaulW]

Roundabouts were once new in England too, as were traffic lights once upon a time. People just get used to them.

As for driving on the other side of the road, they did that overnight in Sweden once! They knew it would cost a few lives, and it probably did, but it was worth it in the long run.

[Jon]

LOL... can you imagine the lawsuit if there is any piece of paper in any Hawaii government office that said that putting in a roundabout might cost someones life?

You would be talking 100's of millions of dollars in loses to the state.


-----------------------------------------------------------
I do not believe that America is better than everybody else...
America "IS" everybody else.

[james weatherford]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jon

LOL... can you imagine the lawsuit if there is any piece of paper in any Hawaii government office that said that putting in a roundabout might cost someones life?
You would be talking 100's of millions of dollars in loses to the state.

---

As it happens, there are plenty pieces of paper in Hawaii government offices that clearly indicate that roundabouts are an opportunity to improve safety considerably. This is where liability arises.





James Weatherford, Ph.D.
15-1888 Hialoa
Hawaiian Paradise Park

[Jon]

I still don't see how it will improve pedestrian safety, just the opposite.

and as for auto safety you might be right, most drivers on the island has been using them for a few years.




-----------------------------------------------------------
I do not believe that America is better than everybody else...
America "IS" everybody else.

[james weatherford]

Why? Maybe 'cause the traffic is slower and there is not gunning the car to get through the red light? Also, it is being noticed that drivers are looking at the road when going through a roundabout, whereas they are looking away from the road and up at a light for a signalized intersection.

For whatever reason, real world results continue to consistently show fewer overall collisions and fewer injuries for motor vehicles, pedestrians, and bicycles.



James Weatherford, Ph.D.
15-1888 Hialoa
Hawaiian Paradise Park

[Guest]

Hawaii Roundabout Experience/Demo and How to:

For Video of Hawaii Example, Click here

Damon Tucker's Weblog

[PaulW]

Thanks for the link, Damon, it taught me some things that I didn't know about roundabouts, and I've used them many times.

Using a tinyurl to hide links to your blog now, eh?
Here's a direct link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0GKrMIHwig