Comments by "SmallSpoonBrigade" (@SmallSpoonBrigade) on "Roundabouts Are Safer. So Why Does The U.S. Have So Few Of Them?" video.

Yes, it means that basically all roads are all way stops as you need to figure out who gets to go first. Also, horses aren't likely to be too keen on t-boning the other vehicle.
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@Rollin8.0 Roundabouts are definitely superior to all way stops. We have some 5-way stops around here and that tends to be rather annoying. The thing about them though is that there's usually enough space to install a roundabout, so hopefully I'll live to see the day. Unfortunately, the local DOT thinks it's its job to make traffic as bad as possible to force people onto buses and bikes, so it may be a wait.
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@JadedArsenic Yes, I learned the rules of the road from that Mel Gibson documentary where he was zooming around in that cool car.
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@barneyklingenberg4078 Are the trucks not able to drive over the top of them? All the roundabouts that they've built here are designed so that a larger truck that can't negotiate the roundabout can just drive over it as the curb is relatively gentle and designed for that if a firetruck or some other longer than normal vehicle can't negotiate the turn. If I understood correctly the same basic thing was done with the older traffic circles, basically baby roundabouts for residential streets) The trees in the middle would be planted super shallow so that they could be run over if need be. (Admittedly, I haven't seen it done, so that one may be a myth)
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@Yautah To be fair, part of why the European roads are the way that they are is that a lot of the stuff got bombed all to hell during WWII which allowed for some decisions to be made based on modern thinking without as much old infrastructure remaining. In the US you can see a bit of progression from the cities that were set up by the Dutch and Spanish, to the ones that were set up by the Brits and ultimately by Americans. But, since so much of it was done prior to cars or bicycles being invented, there are definitely goofy fossils in the system, such as the lack of roundabouts.
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@KenKen-ui4ny Yes, IIRC, when my grandfather visited London he got trapped in a roundabout for a bit. Around here, I definitely am seeing that as more of them are built that the drivers are starting to get used to them and understanding that you just have to yield to the traffic in there, you don't have to stop unless it's not safe to enter. I regularly pass through two of them on my way to my mother-in-law's and it's not a bad experience. There's probably going to be a couple proper roundabouts being built within walking distance of me and half inside the city. Which AFAIK would be the first one in the city that was a proper roundabout and not just a traffic circle. (We've had traffic circles on many residential streets since well before I was born and they function like baby roundabouts)
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@branscombe_ Umm, no, at least when it comes to scientists, biologists and chemists that's not true. There's a body of practices and research that's used. Anybody saying that is ignorant and should find another job. Teaching is a bit different in that there isn't the kind of firm body of evidence on some of this stuff to really say what the right thing to do is. So, a lot of it is tradition based until somebody either finds a big enough flaw to change or something is better by a large enough margin to justify the change.
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@arglebargle5531 As somebody with a massive capacity for memorized facts, that last bit about keeping up is a real problem. I think it's likely the real reason why such a large share of the innovation comes from younger people, they've got a cleaner slate in terms of not having a lot of wrong things in their head. They also don't have a lot of wrong things in their heads, so they can make a lot of mistakes when they are confronted with things that have happened before or are close enough.
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Um, the US doesn't hate them and I've been seeing a ton of them in construction the last few years. It's hard to imagine sometimes just how big of a challenge it is to add new traffic control devices and designs to so many trillion dollars worth of infrastructure when we're not even paying to maintain the stuff we already have. There's been literal bridges collapsing in last few decades due to insufficient maintenance. It largely started in more rural areas around here where they got sick of people not bothering to stop at intersections, but I've been seeing them moving closer and closer to town where the other issue of space becomes a factor. But, I'd expect that over time, there'll be more of them in town as well. It may take quite a while as interesections don't usually have additional space for a roundabout, but I think there's a decent chance that if AI cars don't beat them to the punch that we'll have more roundabouts. Even if AI cars do, we may still get the roundabouts.
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It's mostly because things built up with less traffic or less space. But, around here they've been building a ton of them, so I would expect that in a hundred years there'll be a lot of AI cars handling the roundabouts like champs.
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@waltersobchak1719 Frequently those are on sensors so they change rather quickly and are defaulted over to whatever road has the most traffic. But, I've been stuck with ones that are broken where it'll be over 20 minutes for it to change. All part of the local DOT's plan to force people to give up on driving.
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