Your unpopular (non-political, non-offensive) opinions!

[Donut417]

 

This is how America feels. 

[The_russian]

14 minutes ago, Donut417 said:

 

This is how America feels. 

In the last 2 or 3 years our city (I’m in the US) has started putting roundabouts in more intersections, prior to when that started I can think of less than 5 intersections that had a roundabout in the whole city. Anyways, it seems like a lot of people, especially older people, really don’t like them. For the most part I prefer them to stop signs, but man some people should not be allowed to have a drivers license. The amount of times someone failed to yield and I had to slam the brakes to avoid getting hit… We seriously need better driving schools and a harder exam to get a license. 

[Bitter]

6 minutes ago, The_russian said:

In the last 2 or 3 years our city (I’m in the US) has started putting roundabouts in more intersections, prior to when that started I can think of less than 5 intersections that had a roundabout in the whole city. Anyways, it seems like a lot of people, especially older people, really don’t like them. For the most part I prefer them to stop signs, but man some people should not be allowed to have a drivers license. The amount of times someone failed to yield and I had to slam the brakes to avoid getting hit… We seriously need better driving schools and a harder exam to get a license. 

Town I grew up in has had one for like 50+years, styled part of itself after a cute English village. I'm vaguely familiar with them as a result but yeah I can see the idiots tackling them.

[The_russian]

13 minutes ago, Bitter said:

Town I grew up in has had one for like 50+years, styled part of itself after a cute English village. I'm vaguely familiar with them as a result but yeah I can see the idiots tackling them.

Seems like most people in my city have either no experience at all or very little with them, so there are basically 3 types of drivers: 

 

1. Go through them the designed way (what most people do after getting used to them) 

2. Pretend it’s a stop sign, completely stop, then go through, even if there aren’t any cars in the ring yet (thankfully pretty rare, but I’ve seen it multiple times)

3. Drive straight through without slowing down or looking for other cars (unfortunately pretty common) 

 

 

I think the problem is that when most people here went through driving school, roundabouts were basically nonexistent in this area so they don’t know how they are supposed to function. I think it would be a good idea to require a short video about roundabouts be watched or something similar the next time a person needs to renew their license. 

 

 

Edited June 22, 2021 by The_russian

[Bombastinator]

Roundabouts are considered hectic and confusing by many Americans and they weren’t used much until recently so are still uncommon and Americans aren’t used to them.

[Quackers101]

there was talk that some towns or mayors accepted roundabouts in the US.

But before that, CA tried but failed after a set of experiements and I guess it has been unpopular ever since.

Also don't look on youtube, you will get so many issues and crashes that are around traffic light junctions and high speed lanes to poor standard for some cars.

 

also what are peoples opinion on shaving and what kind of shaving tools?

[Bombastinator]

5 minutes ago, Quackers101 said:

there was talk that some towns or mayors accepted roundabouts in the US.

But before that, CA tried but failed after a set of experiements and I guess it has been unpopular ever since.

Also don't look on youtube, you will get so many issues and crashes that are around traffic light junctions and high speed lanes to poor standard for some cars.

 

also what are peoples opinion on shaving and what kind of shaving tools?

Roundabouts are better on paper.  I have never had a problem with them personally.  They’re higher speed than a standard intersection and cheaper than a cloverleaf.  Sort of a middle option.

[ARikozuM]

7 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

Roundabouts are considered hectic and confusing by many Americans and they weren’t used much until recently so are still uncommon and Americans aren’t used to them.

I, for one, really enjoy roundabouts. I do wish our municipality would add signage to let drivers know which lane to use before entering the roundabout.

[Bombastinator]

Just now, ARikozuM said:

I, for one, really enjoy roundabouts. I do wish our municipality would add signage to let drivers know which lane to use before entering the roundabout.

Lol.  I can see that being a potential problem. There’s a lot of study done on this kind of thing.

[Donut417]

8 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

I, for one, really enjoy roundabouts. I do wish our municipality would add signage to let drivers know which lane to use before entering the roundabout.

They do have signs in the ones I have used. But most people are ignorant and can’t read. 

[The_russian]

Just now, Donut417 said:

They do have signs in the ones I have used. But most people are ignorant and can’t read. 

Most of ours also have signs (as well as painted arrows on the road surface), but some of them are right before the actual intersection when it’s already too late to switch lanes. It would be nice if they added signs some distance leading up to the roundabout, but like you said people probably wouldn’t read them anyways.

[WackyFolf]

21 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

I, for one, really enjoy roundabouts. I do wish our municipality would add signage to let drivers know which lane to use before entering the roundabout.

I don't like them very much. Well... I really like them, but not where I am. They're built here just fine, but nobody knows how to use them. Just a few days ago someone yielded to me while within the circle. I've also seen people go the wrong way around them. So it's not the circles' fault, just the morons that don't understand shapes other than squares.

[starry]

53 minutes ago, The_russian said:

Seems like most people in my city have either no experience at all or very little with them, so there are basically 3 types of drivers: 

 

1. Go through them the designed way (what most people do after getting used to them) 

2. Pretend it’s a stop sign, completely stop, then go through, even if there aren’t any cars in the ring yet (thankfully pretty rare, but I’ve seen it multiple times)

3. Drive straight through without slowing down or looking for other cars (unfortunately pretty common) 

 

 

I think the problem is that when most people here went through driving school, roundabouts were basically nonexistent in this area so they don’t know how they are supposed to function. I think it would be a good idea to require a short video about roundabouts be watched or something similar the next time a person needs to renew their license. 

 

 

Ive watch someone in a jacked up 4-wheeler drive straight over the roundabout in the city i grew up in, didn't slow down, just let their shocks do everything. Was the first time I realized how out of place this thing is in an american city with mostly underfunded infrastructure.

[Bombastinator]

3 minutes ago, starry said:

Ive watch someone in a jacked up 4-wheeler drive straight over the roundabout in the city i grew up in, didn't slow down, just let their shocks do everything. Was the first time I realized how out of place this thing is in an american city with mostly underfunded infrastructure.

I’ve seen that solved by putting a big statue in the middle of the roundabout.  The usa wouldn’t even outlaw drunken driving till shooting drunk drivers started to be advocated publicly.

[Quackers101]

To me roundabouts can be very situational and depending on what KIND of roudabout.

As they have failed with some in certain places, and the infamous roundabout in UK with multiple lanes and making it worse.

Else roundabouts should make things safer, and if you are given enough time.

As some roundabouts put in places from high speed to low speed, and with no visability of a roundabout, can cause problems.

 

So that "common sense" is supposed to help when laying down something like that, and roundabouts can fix a lot of traffic problems... if done right.

[Bitter]

Current town I live in replaced a staggered and angled offset 3 way stop with a round-a-bout and a bunch of street lights and signs instructing use of it. It's been way way better than it used to be. Old intersection was confusing, hard to see, and very unsafe. Imagine a 4 way intersection. Now take the westbound lane and split it off to a non yielding curve into the northbound lane. Now take the eastbound lane and it's a full stop. Now just before all of this is a full 3 way stop then about 50ft to the non yielding west to north thing. Super confusing and no street lights. The roundabout took all that and condensed it into a circle that uses the same area, looks nicer, and is way way less confusing.

 

From this (construction already underway)

To this (sat image hasn't updated yet)

 

Honestly if they'd just made it a normal 4 way stop to begin with it probably would have all been fine, I have no idea how or why it became the cluster-fudge that it was.

[Bombastinator]

31 minutes ago, Bitter said:

Current town I live in replaced a staggered and angled offset 3 way stop with a round-a-bout and a bunch of street lights and signs instructing use of it. It's been way way better than it used to be. Old intersection was confusing, hard to see, and very unsafe. Imagine a 4 way intersection. Now take the westbound lane and split it off to a non yielding curve into the northbound lane. Now take the eastbound lane and it's a full stop. Now just before all of this is a full 3 way stop then about 50ft to the non yielding west to north thing. Super confusing and no street lights. The roundabout took all that and condensed it into a circle that uses the same area, looks nicer, and is way way less confusing.

 

From this (construction already underway)

To this (sat image hasn't updated yet)

 

Honestly if they'd just made it a normal 4 way stop to begin with it probably would have all been fine, I have no idea how or why it became the cluster-fudge that it was.

Four way stops are a lot slower.  Decent possibility that if it was a four way stop people would be complaining that it was too slow.  The tiers go stop signed intersection, stoplit intersection, roundabout, diamond with overpass, cloverleaf.  Which one is used depends on traffic level, cost, and available land.  Urban planning is extremely complex.  Urban planners tend to be engineers.

[Quackers101]

just seen more stuff from the K-pop or similar content, just bad overall with small positive stories.

When fans might see the joy, I can only see horror in how they abuse the hell out of this "idol" content to an unhealthy amount.

[AMD A10-9600P]

11 hours ago, Donut417 said:

 

This is how America feels. 

I think I've only ever seen 2 roundabouts in North America, having been to 4 US states and 2 Canadian provinces. Here in the UK they're massively common (I've seen a lot in mainland Europe too), and a good chunk of what you learn when learning to drive surrounds roundabouts. The concept isn't that difficult at all when you learned to drive with them and they can keep junctions a lot, lot clearer than traffic lights and give way or stop signs, but I imagine that they can be an absolute pain when no one in the area understands how to tackle them. When they work though, they are very useful. The only gripe I have with roundabouts is people forgetting to indicate off, making you wait when you can actually go on.

[Avocado Diaboli]

I'm in two minds about roundabouts in general. When they work, they're brilliant. But that requires that proper traffic modelling has been done beforehand. Unfortunately many counties and municipalities operate under the assumption that roundabouts are the non plus ultra of traffic design, so every intersection needs one, regardless of frequency. I have to pass a particular roundabout every time I go to and come from work that has roads connecting from the west, north and east. In the east, there's a city, north and west lead to two smaller villages. Here's a rough diagram:

 

 

Every morning people from those two villages drive into the city for work but almost nobody leaves the city for work. So the people from the northern town all drive into the roundabout without any traffic from the east cutting them off, while I and everybody else coming from the west has to wait until all the people coming from the north are through. And the most annoying part is that there's also a large logistics company in that northern village, so you can be almost certain that every time you intend to drive by that roundabout, a large truck will enter before you and slow you down all the way into the city, because that's the closest entry onto the highway. 

 

A more ideal solution here would've been to just build an underpass for the vehicles coming from the north and just merge the eastbound lanes.

[HanZie82]

How about stop blaming the perfectly working roundabouts and do something about the general lack of intelligence and driving skill?

[Donut417]

12 minutes ago, HanZie82 said:

How about stop blaming the perfectly working roundabouts and do something about the general lack of intelligence and driving skill?

Roundabouts didn’t exist when I learned to drive in 2003. So…….. You can’t just change things and expect them to work. Also each US state is its own country in a lot of ways, especially the way roads are designed. The more roundabouts they add the more accidents they will create. Red lights might be less efficient, but most people in all 50 states know how to navigate them. 
 

Further more Michigan doesn’t give a shit if you know how to drive. They get car registration each year, license renewal every 4 years and kick back from car insurance and gas stations. It’s all about the money. 

[HanZie82]

18 minutes ago, Donut417 said:

Roundabouts didn’t exist when I learned to drive in 2003. So…….. You can’t just change things and expect them to work. Also each US state is its own country in a lot of ways, especially the way roads are designed. The more roundabouts they add the more accidents they will create. Red lights might be less efficient, but most people in all 50 states know how to navigate them. 
 

Further more Michigan doesn’t give a shit if you know how to drive. They get car registration each year, license renewal every 4 years and kick back from car insurance and gas stations. It’s all about the money. 

Yeah i meant more, educate the people.
But i can understand that being to 'expensive' in this highly capitalistic environment.

 

 

Ppl that in this way put prices on peoples lives should at least pay that every second to not forfeit their own. (I know, keep dreaming).

[Quackers101]

2 minutes ago, HanZie82 said:

Yeah i meant more, educate the people.
But i can understand that being to 'expensive' in this highly capitalistic environment.

 

Ppl that in this way put prices on peoples lives should at least pay that every second to not forfeit their own. (I know, keep dreaming).

Not educate, become a norm.

Also roundabouts is way less expensive.

[Bitter]

4 hours ago, Donut417 said:

Roundabouts didn’t exist when I learned to drive in 2003. So…….. You can’t just change things and expect them to work. Also each US state is its own country in a lot of ways, especially the way roads are designed. The more roundabouts they add the more accidents they will create. Red lights might be less efficient, but most people in all 50 states know how to navigate them. 
 

Further more Michigan doesn’t give a shit if you know how to drive. They get car registration each year, license renewal every 4 years and kick back from car insurance and gas stations. It’s all about the money. 

They did exist, just not where you lived, sorry your drivers ed didn't think you might never leave your home state. Maybe we need to have some federal standards for driver education since cars can cross state lines and people fly across the country then rent cars.