Comments by "SmallSpoonBrigade" (@SmallSpoonBrigade) on "'It's awesome': Drivers road-test new peanut-shaped roundabout in North Ridgeville" video.

That's what I've observed. Around here roundabouts weren't even a thing 25 years ago. But, the planners have been integrating more of them. They started with rural areas to try and stop idiots from driving full speed through intersections and worked their way to the suburbs and pretty soon we'll have the first actual roundabouts technically in the city limits. I haven't seen that many issues with idiots. I think the worst I saw was some numbnuts speeding along a branch that went practically straight through the roundabout and almost slamming into me because they were trying to drive fast enough to get in so that I'd have to yield to them.
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Thanks. There's an intersection like that near me. There's a total of 5 streets and one private driveway that converge over the distance of less than 150 feet. It's a really confusing mess due to the DOT opting to just put a bunch of stop signs in and place the stop line for one of those in a really stupid place where you enter from one street and then immediately have a stop sign. A peanut-ish shaped roundabout that is low enough profile for trucks to drive over if they can't negotiate the turning radius would have made far more sense and probably not cost that much.
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@pin65371 Yes, there'd be a fair amount of shared cost between the road they would have had and this replacement. I'm personally looking forward to the pair of round abouts that they're putting in near me to help manage the flow of traffic onto and off of the freeway. For as long as I can remember, the left lane effectively is only usable by people trying to get onto the freeway because there wasn't enough space to allow for a left turn lane long enough to hold the drivers wanting to get on. Soon, there will be a roundabout that should both hold more cars when necessary and allow them to get on without the wait. I'm glad that roundabouts are being put in when possible, even if it results in fun ones like this one. This one looks like it would be a lot of fun to drive around.
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The ones around here are intended to be driven over by large trucks as there's often not the space to make them large enough to give truck drivers any hope of not driving over part of the roundabout.
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@keithcooper7027 The roundabouts around here only have an apron, there is no curb. I'm guessing it's because none of the roundabouts around here had the space to even consider adding one.
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It's been known for quite some time, the issue in the US is that there hasn't been the necessary space to install them without seizing property and the drivers are unfamiliar with them. In this part of the country, they started installing them in more rural areas in response to idiots just driving at full speed through rural intersections because most of the time there are no other cars coming. And, they've been working their way towards the cities. Somtime this month, there should be a pair of roundabouts on the city limits here to help manage the traffic entering and exiting the highway. Previously the left lane was pretty much perpetually full of cars waiting to get onto the freeway as there wasn't adequate space to do so. Now, they'll have a longer queue available, but will have the traffic lights eliminated to help them enter the freeway without having to stop.
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@17kcotsdoow86 You probably shouldn't make that assumption. Around here there are no formal rules on what the signals mean with respect to the roundabouts. Personally, I think the most sane thing would be for the turn signals to be the same as they would for other intersections. A right turn signal meaning that you're headed to the right, the first exit. No signal meaning straight through and a left signal meaning the third exit. Really, that's what the rule should be as it tells everybody what to expect in terms of whether you're going to be crossing specific entry points.
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@dolphincliffs8864 I'm not surprised, things like this commony function as toggles for whatever behavior it was. Perhaps try adding some stop signs to the roundabouts and see if that solves it.
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@dreadbull5039 They don't have yield signs, or are those people just stupid?
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It's to help regulate the speed people are driving around it. One of the neat things about this particular design is that they have the option of straightening it into more of an oval or making it even more curvy if they want to slow traffic down through the roundabout.
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@rudyschwab7709 The ones around here are paved over with a water permeable concrete. A lot of that has to do with the fact that they're too small for trucks to traverse without going over the middle. So, they have a short smooth curb and no plantings in the middle. The closest thing we have here to plantings in roundabouts would be plantings in traffic circles, but those are really intended to slow traffic as much as possible on side streets.
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They have their limitations. There's only so many cars that can move through them without it creating gridlock and you need the space for them. But, I definitely agree that we really do need more of them.
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I'd add that you shouldn't put the pedal to the metal in order to get into the roundabout and have the right of way. I almost got hit by a car because the direction they were speeding in the lead up tot he roundabout and that roundabout had one of the sides that was able to go almost straight through without really much turning. So, I pulled in because it was clear, and this car that wasn't even in the roundabout almost slammed into my rear.
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@joeyoungs8426 Around here, the car culture is still developing what the local standards are. I just looked at what the state has to say, and the brochures on roundabouts say nothing about turn signals.
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Yep, I almost got hit entering a roundabout because somebody was speeding entering the roundabout. So, I started to pull into the roundabout and was in the roundabout before they got in, but because they were going so fast due to that direction being a more or less straight through due to a retention pond the roundabout had to accommodate, I almost got hit. As you say, you're supposed to slow down a bit as traffic entering can take a moment to start moving due to the angle involved with checking for incoming traffic.
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@burnout_2017 Keep in mind that there was probably a lot of that money spent on traffic studies to figure out what to do and try and figure out if this might be an appropriate solution.
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