I had to pick up Sarah from school today because she missed the bus. On the way out of the parking lot, there is a roundabout. I yield to oncoming traffic, and enter the circle behind a truck. The guy on the right just zips into the traffic and almost hits me. Now, I have worked like 26 days in a row. I'm tired and cranky. I honk and yell at the guy and he continues to move into the circle. "It's a roundabout, you have to yield!" I yell at the moron. Honks and yells back, "Hey, it's a roundabout - it's one at a time!"
Really, one at a time? One at a time in a roundabout? Explain that to me. How would that be executed exactly? If four cars came to the roundabout at the intersection at the same time and all wanted to go say, south - would every one stop until everyone else went south? It doesn't make any sense. His CYL (Car Yelling Logic) is flawed.
And by the way, even if he had no idea how a roundabout worked - THERE'S A YIELD SIGN AT EVERY ENTRY POINT! Yield does not mean "one at a time."
Ah, aye, the roundabout. I've had some experience not only driving in roundabouts, but also had a brief foray into designing roundabouts. They're such an under-rated intersection....
ReplyDeleteIn fact, they're the Cochise of the intersection world.
To quote the true guide to life, The Three Amigos:
Mr. Flugelman: "Why don't you tell the boys
about the Cochise picture, Morty?"
Morty: "Sandy and Irving are working on it right now. You meet Cochise. At first
you think he's a terrible guy. You fight. Then you get to know him. You come to respect each other, and at the end of the picture... *enthusiastic hand clap*...you're friends!"
The way I see it, roundabouts are great. The last thing I want on a late night drive home is to have to come to a complete stop at an intersection where it's clear, ages before I arrive, that I'm stopping for no one but an inanimate sign. Ugh. Stupid sign....who are you to boss me around this late at night? Therefore, the "look and cruise" aspect of the roundabout is very appealing to me.
I think the major trouble issue with roundabouts is based on not only the general lack of understanding of the functionality and basic theory of how roundabouts work (not to mention the complete disregard by drivers of the copious signage, as you pointed out very well), but that the problem of with roundabouts is more directly based in the American Dream itself.
With a four-way stop, albeit overwhelmingly less safe (statistically speaking), as well as incredibly more complicated from a traffic flow point of view, the typical American driver can pull up to a 4-way stop and take solace in the fact that "Now that I'm here, and I've got a turn. I'm guaranteed my right as an American to have an opportunity to make my own God-given choice vis-a-vis my own personal navigation preferences (or something)." Point being, at a 4-way, you can clearly have a rough estimate of when it's your turn to move through the intersection.
This is not so at a roundabout.
In theory, there could be a constant flow of traffic from the other ingress points of the roundabout, thus preventing your entry in perpetuity. Of course, the possibility of that actually happening are so slim that even though I desperately wanted to, I could never use that as an excuse for not arriving to work until 10 minutes before closing. You see, the traffic engineers take all of that into consideration at the design stage.
While local, state, and federal agencies have yet to adopt an exact roundabout model to be used exclusively, the variations are based solely on safety issues, and have little or nothing to do with traffic patterns.
Sorry...got away rambling there...what was my point again?
Oh yeah.... you shoulda thrown a rock at the guy or something.
well, at least he didnt make eye contact with you in the mirror, lol. you would've kick his butt at the same light you told me that i could take a left on red, roflmao, and i mean that in the nicest way possible. mtfbwy! (and i removed my last comment because i spelled "the" wrong...again, plus my words were sticking together) XD
ReplyDeleteWell, "eclips," I am pretty sure who you are - and if you are who I think you are - you are not allowed to post any 'f's. roflmao? Do you even know what that means? I am also pretty sure that the 'f' in mtfbwy means the same thing. Maybe not.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I checked out your profile. I'm pretty sure that "The Loin King" is NOT a Disney movie. I think that your Dad wouldn't want that movie to be one of your all time favorites...