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Comment by shiroiushi | Hacker News Reader

>Even if they don't prevent all collisions, they turn T-bones into glancing hits

No, they don't, at least not in America. When you let American traffic engineers design a roundabout, you get this: https://www.google.com/maps/@38.8643875,-77.2755474,583m/

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Nobody in their right mind would ever class that as a roundabout. You dont stick a high speed road directly through a roundabout.

An actual roundabout DOES solve the tbone issue.

That's... Not a roundabout. It would be funny if it weren't so scary.

As others have said ... that's not a roundabout.

Here's one of my favourite hybrid "roundabout" junctions:

https://www.openstreetmap.org/search?query=Boughton%20Heath%...

>As others have said ... that's not a roundabout.

American traffic engineers would apparently disagree with you.

That looks like a Hamburger Junction (or roundabout interchange https://www.roads.org.uk/interchanges/roundabout-interchange).

I think they're a bad design as they encourage drivers to go fast with the sweeping corners etc. Ideally, a roundabout should be designed to slow traffic joining it to reduce collisions and their severity. Trying to keep vehicles moving quickly at junctions is just asking for trouble.

It's disheartening to see that much parking place around that spot.

This reminds me of this oddity in Nottingham:

https://osm.org/go/eu8S4TeKc?way=50459468

(right-hand drive)

similar one here, but with added lights https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=18/53.479432/-2.281970

The one I linked to in Fairfax County VA also has lights, though it might not be obvious from the aerial view. It's really a disaster of traffic engineering. It's probably the most complicated intersection I've ever driven through.

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