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Temporary Traffic Circles, Explained

As per the earliest post. And yes, they are ugly.

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This entry was posted on Friday, August 28th, 2009 at 1:50 pm and is filed under Traffic Engineering. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

7 Responses to “Temporary Traffic Circles, Explained”

  1. Bossi Says:
    August 29th, 2009 at 9:51 am

    I don’t see why those areas couldn’t be filled in & landscaped… the article itself notes that they’re just being tested, so if the transportation agency decides to keep them: I’d expect they’ll probably improve upon aesthetics.

  2. George Says:
    August 29th, 2009 at 12:53 pm

    Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

    If it is cheap simple and it works. Go for it.

    Read a comment from the article.

    “PCRider Jul-29 @ 2:45 PM Take a trip to Sedona using the 179 over from the I-17. Traffic was bad before they built the roundabouts, now it’s just ridiculous.”

    You never hear from others who live and use the roundabouts on a daily basis. Just those who can’t handle driving in a circle at low speeds and looking out for others.

  3. fred_dot_u Says:
    August 29th, 2009 at 4:31 pm

    Interesting comment, George. It makes me think that drivers might be upset that some responsibility for their actions are being placed back in their hands.

  4. Jim M Says:
    August 29th, 2009 at 7:46 pm

    Some people will probably oppose the permanent roundabout just because the temps were ugly. They could at least thrown in some potted plants!

  5. Michiel Says:
    August 31st, 2009 at 5:41 am

    Cheap, effective and easy to put in place. So no tax money wasted.

  6. aaron Says:
    August 31st, 2009 at 1:00 pm

    The purpose of a traffic circle should be to speed things up, not slow them down. Bad idea.

    Tryin’ to fix what ain’t broken. No wonder the economy is in the shitter.

  7. Eric Says:
    September 9th, 2009 at 2:13 pm

    Unfortunately the article confuses a “traffic circle” with a “modern roundabout”.

    And aaron, once again, thinks speed is the ultimate goal, ignoring safety. How fast do you want people driving through your neighborhood?

    It sounds like these modern roundabouts exist simply to slow down traffic. But those used and heavily used intersections have been found to have the effect of both slowing traffic down and getting people to their destination faster by lowering the odds that someone will have to come to a complete stop and idle waiting for their turn.

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Traffic Tom Vanderbilt

How We Drive is the companion blog to Tom Vanderbilt’s New York Times bestselling book, Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us), published by Alfred A. Knopf in the U.S. and Canada, Penguin in the U.K, and in languages other than English by a number of other fine publishers worldwide.

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