Comment by dheera | Hacker News Reader

Comment by dheera | Hacker News Reader

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Roundabouts seem great and consistent in Europe but in the US their rules differ from state to state.

For example, in California, people in the roundabout have right of way. But sometimes there are confusing traffic lights in the roundabout:

https://www.google.com/maps/@37.3911304,-122.0805522,3a,75y,...

In New Jersey, on the other hand, sometimes, the subjectively most "major" road has the right of way both going in and out of the roundabout. People already in the roundabout have to actually stop for the major road people to enter the roundabout. If you're on the major road you can theoretically pass through the roundabout and not worry about the fact that it's a roundabout. A couple examples of this is seen here, where you're IN the circle but have to yield to incoming traffic:

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.5027947,-74.8525293,3a,75y,2...

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.5761533,-74.6286047,3a,75y,2...

One of my colleagues jokes that we'll know we have truly self-driving cars when they can handle driving through Powder House Square, one of the Boston area's strangest "roundabouts".

https://www.google.com/maps/@42.4011187,-71.1170306,19.36z

Try as we might to keep chaos at bay with our laws, stop signs, and blinking orange lights, it peeks through the seams when you watch the traffic patterns there.

Sounds like a bad use of a roundabout. I'm not familiar with roundabout theory (?), but it seems they work best on evenly weighted intersections.

They're also used to slow traffic. Because you need to check before entering, all traffic slows, even on unevenly weighted traffic. So still useful.

Although the UK seems to be going towards more lights and fewer larger roundabouts.

This pattern sort-of exists in France too. The smaller streets have appropriate signage.

In fact France has several dozen different signs that as a US driver I had to learn and relearn. My wife who grew up there keeps pointing out my mistakes every time we visit.

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