Wrong Roundabout at National Academies
America discovers the advantages of roundabouts, but risks making much bigger mistakes than Europe did!
Please, don’t make the same mistakes in America that Europe made!
I noticed some serious defects in the image of the roundabout National Academies page.
I have opened the image separately, to be able to show you the problems and risks.
MAIN RULE IN ROUNDABOUT:
The roundabout way is the main ONE WAY road and has the right of way.
All other roads entering the roundabout are secondary roads and must give priority to the roundabout way!
In the roundabout,
– the forward direction is the circular, gyratory, or rotating direction,
– direction to the right is represented by the exits from the roundabout,
– and the left direction does not exist!
If you go around the roundabout all day, you will only go in the forward direction, which is a road curving to the left. You will probably not agree with this, but if you analyze a giant roundabout, you will understand better.
Put the roundabout under a magnifying glass, or under a microscope and you will discover a different perspective! Or, you can see the Roundabout page, where I have already analyzed what the roundabout is. The roundabout is not an intersection!
Any other perspective is wrong.
1. The first thing I noticed are the crosswalks.
NEVER PUT CROSSWALKS IN THE CURVE, OR AT THE INTERSECTION BETWEEN THE SECONDARY ROAD AND THE ROUNDABOUT WAY!
I explained in detail about the place and geometry of pedestrian crossings on my blog, on the Crosswalk page.
In the curve, drivers’ visibility to the crosswalk is reduced both in their own car, due to the rear-view mirrors and the A-pillars between the windshield and the door window, but especially when there is another vehicle to the left or right of their own car that could block the driver’s visibility towards crosswalk!
2. Eliminate Conflicts!
Those entering the Roundabout will have to give way to those who are already in the Roundabout (which is the main road).
So those who enter will be able to cross the broken line that separates the two lanes of the circular road (the roundabout).
In the same way, the driver of the red car who does not know the “special” architecture of this roundabout before arriving inside it, because he did not receive information through specific markings in advance regarding the route he is going to take, will you could consider that he can go on the first lane (outer lane) to reach and exit at the 3rd exit!
The driver is convinced that he can cross the dashed line to continue moving inside the roundabout, entering into conflict/collision with the black car!
The broken line marking does not oblige him to do anything and is confusing.
I repeat: In the roundabout, the forward direction is the circular, gyratory, or rotating direction, the right direction is represented by the exits from the roundabout, and the left direction does not exist!
In the same way, a driver who enters the roundabout from the north and did not have markings (arrows) to warn him, will be able to enter the roundabout by mistake from the first lane (outside lane), and even if his route is inappropriate, will do it. Then it will come into conflict/collision with those entering from the same secondary road, but from the second lane.
3. In this architecture, I notice a lot of wasted space inside the roundabout, which limits the possibility of drivers to follow the exit lane from the roundabout.
Architects are artists and can create whatever comes to their mind, but those responsible for road safety must refuse projects that undermine safety!
The objectives of the traffic rules must take into account 2 main objectives: SAFETY and Fluidity and the human factor must never be ignored!
I redid the architecture of this roundabout. Now it is clear that the roundabout is a main road with two lanes,
and the conflicts will be more obvious.
You probably now know why Americans don’t like roundabouts.
To eliminate conflicts and to increase fluidity, we must use correct markings, logical markings. The solution? Smart Roundabout©!
We delete the old markings and put the Smart Roundabout© markings!
Now, it should be clear to anyone what the route to follow in the Roundabout is:
- from the professional driver who is behind the wheel every day to occasional drivers with limited skills and abilities,
- for those dejected by life problems (loss of job, infidelity on the part of life partner, etc.), which is a major cause of lack of attention and concentration, as well as decreased reflexes,
- but also for those drunk or smoked. I know it’s not politically correct and it sounds bad, but people like these are among us in traffic, every day! Only a small part are detected by the police crews and sometimes they are detected too late. If we want to fix something, or build something positive, we must not hide the negative things.
This model of Smart Roundabout© (4.2.2.1X) represents the ideal solution for a higher traffic flow on the west-east axis and a lower traffic flow on the south-north axis.
The role of the road safety expert is to prevent.
If we eliminate conflicts, we eliminate risks and we eliminate accidents.
Road signaling means communication! If the markings are defective, missing or are confusing, the risk of an accident is close to becoming a statistic number.
Smart Roundabout© considers prevention, easily shows the optimal routes to follow, eliminates conflicts, eliminates traffic jams or accidents, eliminates any losses caused by collisions or pollution.
I hope that this material and the Smart Roundabout © solutions will be analyzed by all designers, architects and those responsible for traffic safety and flow.
Read also the considerations about regular Roundabout. The videos on the page might be helpful.
June 22, 2023