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Or another one:
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And they are great for cyclists too:
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These pictures are intended to be indictments of the roundabouts right? Those three are all awful. They take up like 10x more space than any regular intersection.
No not really.
These are some of the ones I've driven on that I liked and the bottom one is a standard 3-way Dutch roundabout with a cycling path and pedestrian crossing.
Notice how the first two lack any cycling paths? That's because they are essentially in the middle of nowhere and space does not matter.
What it does offer however is increased throughput of an intersection. This may not be true in quiet crossroads where simultaneous traffic is rare but imagine having 30 cars coming in from each direction.
It may slow down your car but you are at least still moving instead of waiting a few minutes for your light to turn green. And if there is nobody in your way you can still keep moving.
As a driver it really simplifies your focus as well. Once you are on the roundabout you have right of way, yes even the bikes, and with the exception of the occasional cyclist or pedestrian you hardly have to worry about giving right of way.
Decades of research and experience have pointed out this effect increases if the unoccupied space in the middle is larger. Another bonus of this simplification is a huge difference in safety. Replacing an intersection with a roundabout
on average decreases accidents by 30-50% (70% in new ones) and makes a huge dent in the number of casualties because of the lower speed. Especially when fast and slow traffic meet.
Why? Again, because it decreases the attention load on the driver by simplifying the road and having less potential conflict points:
(
Potential conflict points on an intersection vs. a roundabout)
This doesn't mean they are the be-all and end-all of intersections but on certain places they offer superior functionality and safety if done correctly.
The unease of the driver is just inexperience and will lessen over time. It took us 12 years to streamline the traffic rules on all roundabouts since their introduction in 1990 but as someone who has experienced them as a pedestrian, driver and cyclist I prefer them over a regular crossroad.
P.s. if you want to know more I can translate some of the Dutch reports I linked or clarify some stuff here and there. :)
Here is an excerpt from a
traffic safety organization on roundabouts (Google Translate):
More
History of roundabouts
Published on 13-06-2009. Last updated on 31-10-2011.
Since 1990 roundabouts in the Netherlands, where cyclists on the roundabout have priority over traffic roundabout up and down properly.
Roundabout
Previously only knew Netherlands roundabouts where the line 'right way' was applicable. As a rule, these were larger roundabouts. This car traffic on the roundabout could still fairly hard drive. Priority for traffic from the right led to a lot of waiting cars on the roundabout, which is the flow of car did not help.
In the eighties came from England blow over the idea to give the traffic on the roundabout at the traffic roundabout up and down properly. In that case, they showed much smaller roundabouts also good to the feet. Also in the Netherlands hit the 'roundabout' on. Experiences were even better when the center island of the roundabout was designed larger. This new style roundabout appeared suddenly a great good speed inhibitor. On a well-designed car traffic roundabout drive no faster than 35 km / h.
On the position of cyclists was initially not discussed. On roundabouts without facilities and bicycle lanes cyclists were naturally priority was on roundabouts with separate bicycle paths, the 'obvious' that cyclists had to give water.
Enschede: first roundabout where cyclists priority
Around 1990 the municipality of Enschede suggested this first discussion. Because the speed of cars is so low, would prevail Priority Roundaboutfor cyclists are perhaps no problem. By the circular bike path, it fits nicely into the roundabout and the road user understands that the bike lane has priority. Enschede therefore did a test with a roundabout on which the corresponding paths had priority. And so the Knalhutte roundabout was (named after the Knalhutteweg) an experiment that thinking about cycling on roundabouts would change drastically.
The first experiences and observational studies on the Knalhutte roundabout were very encouraging. Reason for the municipality of Enschede to do in other roundabouts cyclists priority.
soon followed some other municipalities, first in Twente later elsewhere. This resulted in a few years time a totally chaotic situation in our country. The road user was faced with a multitude of shapes and priority schemes and understood that all anymore. This was by all road authorities in our country considered undesirable.
Unity in roundabouts (CROW)
was therefore launched a consultation in 1993 under the auspices of the authoritative institute CROW with the aim to come up with recommendations for a uniform design and priority rules for roundabouts. This eventually led to recommendation 'Unity in roundabouts (CROW). This recommendation was endorsed by the Minister, the provinces, municipalities and civil society organizations as VVN, ANWB and also by the Cyclists. This was a priority for cyclists at roundabouts within the built-up experiment promoted to the recommendation. The supplement published in December 2002 CROW 126a confirms this choice.
