Designed By Committee - WTF Road Design

"Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer" (smallbear94)
10/11/2017 at 11:45 • Filed to: Designed By Committee

Is it a roundabout? Is is a four-way stop? Is it neither? Is it both?

Is it pointless? <-

This is just ridiculous. I can only imagine the meeting went:

- “Let’s put in a roundabout, they’re good for traffic flow.”

- “I think roundabouts are complicated and dangerous. Let’s keep the stop signs.”

So we end up with an expensive lump of concrete topped off with some lopsided foliage and some road widening that has a net effect of allowing cars from opposite directions to turn left at the same time and nothing else. Oh, and while obstructing your view.

There is literally nothing else it does. By rights it should still be a true 4-way stop, it’s too small as it is to do any good as a roundabout.

It doesn’t really cause any problems (that I know of), but really Toronto? You spent our money on this? Suddenly I see why you need so many of those artificially low speed limits...

DISCUSSION (10)

Cherry_man1 > Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer
10/11/2017 at 11:51

It’s Canada, that’s all.

Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer > Cherry_man1
10/11/2017 at 12:04

Interesting theory

ShrimpHappens, née WJalopy > Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer
10/11/2017 at 12:04

Mini-roundabouts are a thing, and they can be done successfully (and they’re usually done with striping, not landscaping). A couple of cities near me in North AL have installed them in neighborhoods, but a low-speed low-volume neighborhood-type street is about the only place they work.

Looks like the intersection you’ve shown isn’t far off from a low-speed low-volume neighborhood-type street, but it seems to me the pavement widths approaching the roundabout are what’s messing it up. One of the key features of roundabouts is designing it to where the geometry of the overall intersection (approaches and interior circle) forces drivers to slow down. With the fanned-out approaches here, no one has to slow down, so it’s not wonder the roundabout didn’t work. So the city then had to put stop signs back up, and it’s not worth the money to tear out the landscaping.

jimz > Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer
10/11/2017 at 12:10

it’s just a four way stop with a small center island.

Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer > ShrimpHappens, née WJalopy
10/11/2017 at 12:15

That’s LITERALLY what these roads are. Also, while I’d like to believe that’s how it played out, I doubt it. I can’t see anyone looking at that design and expecting it to work as a roundabout. Considering other decisions that we get around here I think it’s far more likely that they just looked at the stop signs and went “eh, that’ll need stop signs” rather than fixing the design or scratching the entire project.

Anyway... fact remains it’s stupid.

Wacko > Cherry_man1
10/11/2017 at 12:16

hey, here in quebec our roundabouts don’t have stops.

Now if it’s a RoundaBoot then yeah, that’s canada eh!

Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer > jimz
10/11/2017 at 12:17

Functionally, that’s what it is.

But it’s signed as a roundabout, and is intended to be a roundabout.

What it really is more than anything else is a waste of money.

Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer > Wacko
10/11/2017 at 12:26

Mostly ours don’t either. Though there’s still plenty of ways the designers meddle with the basic design because they’re scared of them. For example.

What they did there was greatly reduce the main effect of the roundabout which is to allow traffic to flow freely. Instead of having to just bleed off a little speed and carry on, they’ve brought the approach off center so you’ve really got to lay on the brakes before you enter.

Corners are scary apparently

Wacko > Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer
10/11/2017 at 13:02

they might of just stuck a stop since some idiot drivers do a stop anyway when they enter a roundaboot

Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer > Wacko
10/11/2017 at 13:04

UGH DON’T REMIND ME