"yitznewton" (yitznewton)
12/21/2015 at 09:45 • Filed to: honk if you're
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"yitznewton" (yitznewton)
12/21/2015 at 09:45 • Filed to: honk if you're | 1
| 11 |
In the Most Unexpected Compliments department, I was passing through the local traffic circle, and of course someone defies the painted lane lines and cuts me off. All traffic circles should be set alight and sunk into the ground. Kind of like communism... sounds nice on paper, but doesn’t take into account human nature.
Speaking of traffic circles and communism, it seems like every other Russian dash cam fail is in a traffic circle... why don’t people drive defensively?!
Anyway... I gave them a good blast of the PIAA’s, and a pedestrian yelled out, “NICE HORN!”
I was too involved with the driving and it happened too fast to respond, but... thanks, man!
BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires
> yitznewton
12/21/2015 at 09:49 |
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“All traffic circles should be set alight and sunk into the ground. Kind of like communism... sounds nice on paper, but doesn’t take into account human nature“
They seem to work perfectly fine on this side of the pond. Methinks there's another variable at work ;)
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yitznewton
> BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires
12/21/2015 at 10:00 |
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Maybe it only works if the flow goes along with the Coriolis Effect :D
Your move, Australia.
RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
> BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires
12/21/2015 at 10:05 |
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The trouble over here is largely bien pensant types who think that since uniformly handling intersections with traffic circles works well, it’s surely a good idea to start a King Canute vs. the tides struggle to install single traffic circles flung widely abroad whenever they personally can install one. Which makes for... well, extremely scarce traffic circles that are poorly located, poorly designed, often poorly suited to the combination of roads they meet, and which the public at large never have a chance to acclimatize to, as changing direction to go straight flies in the face of all other American traffic logic at large. The result: chaos, as would be instantly predicted by anyone not the roundabout-smitten wanker in the planning commission.
Aaron M - MasoFiST
> yitznewton
12/21/2015 at 10:07 |
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Anytime I have to drive to work I have to go through a traffic circle that’s a bit of a nightmare. People inventing lanes, getting cut off left and right, it’s nuts. But then I think about how long it would take if that six-way intersection was a traffic light...
smobgirl
> Aaron M - MasoFiST
12/21/2015 at 10:16 |
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I discovered a few weeks ago that there are traffic circles THAT ALSO HAVE LIGHTS. I don't even know how that works. The whole thing turned red when I was in the middle - I just kept going.
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yitznewton
> RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
12/21/2015 at 10:22 |
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I think... this may be the most educated-sounding comment ever on Oppo.
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Aaron M - MasoFiST
> smobgirl
12/21/2015 at 10:27 |
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There’s a big traffic circle in Somerville, MA which has a brace of traffic signals and terrible lane markings. It’s one of the few places where I watched two cars drive right into each other in front of me.
Conan
> yitznewton
12/21/2015 at 10:28 |
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Being from the part of my state that features almost zero traffic I actually rather like hooning the traffic circle when I go home. Mind you I don’t go around it 37 times in a row like the local college president did in the 80s and caught a DUI for.
Svend
> smobgirl
12/21/2015 at 10:51 |
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We have lights on one of our main roundabouts where I live in the U.K. The lights are only part time (during rush hour in the morning and rush hour in the evening), the rest of the time it functions as a regular roundabout.
Works brilliantly.
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smobgirl
> Svend
12/21/2015 at 12:10 |
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That sounds like it might. I think my situation was an intersection that was a roundabout when constructed (decades ago) and they realized people here don’t understand roundabouts so they tried to turn it into a regular intersection without removing the roundabout. The lights make sense if you’re going straight but are confusing as crap if you’re turning left, because no one yields like a roundabout normally requires.
Chan - Mid-engine with cabin fever
> yitznewton
12/21/2015 at 12:46 |
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Roundabouts are best suited to moderate levels of traffic. They are a waste of space for lightly used roads, and massively inefficient for Ameriacn 8-lane divided expressways.
Also, American driver’s education does not really teach people how to use them. So people arrive, get confused and eventually dive in, ignoring the “Yield to traffic in circle” sign. Somebody in the roundabout forgets that he holds the right of way. He gives way to the entrant, causing everyone to slow down.