Play a game - imagine you are Jamie during this segment and then based on how Adam is constantly talking over you and never deferring to you ("20,000!") imagine how much working with this guy non-stop for a decade would cheese you off.
My brother experienced road-rage. Years ago (decades), he bought a Lambretta scooter, and when he had owned it for about 2 minutes, on his way home from the showroom, he was stopped by a red light. When it changed, he stalled the scooter, and a guy in a big V8 behind him started to hoot immediately. My bro kicked the scooter a couple of times, got it going again - and stalled it again. The guy behind him put his hand on the horn and was blasting continuously, so my brother pushed the scooter to the side of the road, and the car went past under maximum acceleration, its big engine straining at the leash, with the guy leaning across the front seat, shaking his fist out of the passenger's window - straight into the back of a stationary tramcar. A moment of deep satisfaction!
3:30 In the Netherlands i would say most traffic light junctions have sensors that respond to traffic (cars, bikes, pedestrian, trams ) , in the US apparently nowhere ..😵 And a lot of roundabout junctions .
Traffic circles and rotaries are common in the Northeast. They're not the same as roundabouts. However, they are building more roundabouts in the Northeast, as well.
fm00078 that is true of any intersection. Why do people act like having multiple turn Lanes and confusing colored lights giving orders is so much easier? It isn't
Where I live in South Carolina, they are putting in more round abouts, and I like them a lot, they work....when people figure out how to use them that is.
At night, we use weighing triggers, especially on left-hand turns at stop lights, to trigger the light to say "Okay, there is a car waiting at this turn signal". And it either immediately or a short delay, it will stop the main flow road to allow for the person turning. Because there isn't really any traffic on the road. So we have weighing triggers that feel the weight of the car sitting on pads at turn signals that communicate with the lights.
motorcyclists are rarely found in cold climates. But heres the thing, bud... motorcyclists rarely obey traffic laws. No one is going to pay any mind to them since they tend to not pay any mind to others. Its a shame 'cause there are good motorcyclists out there, but sadly, they've strung up a bad name for themselves.
@@vysearcadia522 Do I... do I really have to pull out the 99% statistic? Basically, the bad name for motorcyclists doesn't come from an actual basis in road law, but law in general, and it originates in America, mostly the West but it was a national thing. After the Vietnam war, there were tons of poor, young veterans who had army connections, guns, ammo, and an antagonistic relationship with the public, as well as motorcycles, as they were cheaper than a car. Well, as what happens to the downtrodden and rejected, they started frequently forming into gangs, who would do all sorts of regular organized crime in order to make money. This gave motorcyclists a reputation for ignoring the law, which turned into a reputation for ignoring road law later, when they kept being killed in accidents (which were frequently not their fault, it's real fucked up). The 99% statistic comes from a general saying that "99% of motorcyclists are perfectly law-abiding citizens." I don't know the actual origin, but, as the child of a motorcyclist, I can vouch for it, admittedly, anecdote, but most even bother to wear the helmet for god's sake (The helmet has not been shown to significantly alter the survival of motorcycle accidents).
I don't know why people think roundabouts are more efficient and safer than traffic signals. Come spend a few hours with me in northeast Ohio where we have roundabouts at just about every intersection and you'll quickly see that roundabouts are much more dangerous than intersections with traffic signals.
Mostly because they demonstrably are, every single time experiments are done the roundabout is 18-26% more efficent then junctions but especially 4 way stop junctions.
I drive truck and have seen "phantom traffic jams" many times. The main cause of them is following too close. If 200 cars in a lane are following each other too close the first car just taps their brakes and starts a chain reaction where the car at the back will be completely stopped.
I'm American and I love roundabouts, I've never found them confusing. I wish all of our 4-way stops could be roundabouts or at least the ones that don't already have traffic lights. I hate 4-way stops that don't have traffic lights, frequently two or even three cars will get to them and stop at the exact time and then everybody has to somehow figure out who goes first.
I don't like the "who stands first at the stop sign has the right of way"-system. To dependet on timeing, rather than the more static approach, we in Europe have.
@@emmata98 In a four way intersection, whoever arrives at the stop sign first got the right of way, which may encourage some drivers to speed up when approaching intersection. Speeding up like that is dangerous anywhere in the road, but especially so in an intersection. With a roundabout both drivers can enter the intersection simultaneously and don't cross each other's way. And because traffic already inside the roundabout have priority over the traffic just entering, it breaks that symmetry during such engagement.
Roundabouts have an additional advantage. For a car to travel around a roundabout it has to slow down compared to going straight across at a traffic light, which means if collisions occur, they occur at lower speeds. In addition because the cars are going around or entering a circle they are less likely to collide at right angles and more likely to collide at an acute angle which is likely to result in less damage to the cars and passengers than a "T boning".
But also it improves traffic flow by slowing the cars. This might sound counter-intuitive but cars are heavy so they take time to accelerate so a slow but smooth traffic flow is more efficient than one with lots of stopping and starting. Also the space-inefficiency can actually be a good thing as the empty space almost always has some kind of artwork on it which is a very welcome thing in the grey of the road. It's been shown over and over that art has a very real effect on people's well-being.
It helps, but even without that you can mostly tell where people are going by watching the positions of their cars. Afterall, there's not many ways you can go on a roundabout
ONLY if the roundabout is well designed and is appropriate for the traffic situation. Too many roundabouts in this part of the world are VERY poorly designed and tend to make things worse. Any time the majority of traffic is REQUIRED to make a line change in the roundabout you are going to have issues. This goes double if you are in a part of the world that gets snow or other conditions that hide lane markings. I can show you several examples that directly cause huge traffic backups and slow the throughput of an intersection to a crawl.
I've never heard of an accident in a roundabout but you hear about crashes at traffic lights every day. You sound like you live somewhere where they don't have roundabouts.
Hearing them complain about how traffic lights never work at night is odd because I would feel like San Francisco would have better technology. In my small town/city, we have pressure plates underneath the road which sense weight so if you’re the only person at a light, it’ll sense you’re the only person there and will turn green for you. We also have cameras which see you and if you’re the only person there, it’ll also turn green for you
They are actual electromagnetic loops, embedded into the street... When a large metal object (car) enters the area, it changes the conductance of the loop, sending a signal to the computer....
the problem is not the efficiency of the intersection it is the abilities of the drivers that tends to slow things down. At lest as far as what I have found.
+Brian Butcher Nope ... the efficiency of the roundabout is that you do NOT "have to STOP" at the intersection (wasting energy) but can adapt to the FLOW OF TRAFFIC. They said it themselves that at any time they had about five cars in the roundabout, while there were only two on the regular intersection. STOP + START is the big traffic killer ... and "ability of the driver" has nothing to do with it, because you can have indecisive drivers at both types.
Roundabouts are spinning cyclones of death waiting to grind your car and spit it out the other side. They care nothing about you getting to where you're going safely. Deathtraps. Actually, if used properly, they are cool, but it's easy to not know the correct way to use them.
The concept of yielding and going with the flow is far easier to remember then arbitrary color coded rules that are not even consistent between states.
Because cars outside have to yield. However in heavy traffic, that means stopping for nearly forever. Drivers will get mad after waiting for so long and try to get in even if there isn't enough room. Thus accidents.
Traffic light's are added in certain situations. If there is one specific route that has heavy traffic, and if the roundabout is designed for higher speeds, then another joining road will rarely be able to safely join the roundabout, as they are stuck there constantly giving way to fast heavy traffic. This make a higher accident risk as people get impatient and pull out when they shouldn't. But your right those lights should only work at peak times!
When a roundabout is saturated with cars it will jam up completely stopping all traffic. Traffic lights on them help to stop this but they also reduce the maximum number of cars, as well as reducing the flow when they aren't saturated. Thus they should not be used unless the the roundabout is full.
@@pwhnckexstflajizdryvombqug9042 , Correctly designed roundabout can't jam. There is always way for people in the roundabout to drive fowad and exit it if people entering follow rules and yield.
Not at all, the roundabout works by giving way to traffic coming from one direction, in the UK it's from the right, America it would be from the left, a driver focusing on what's in front through the roundabout would not be focusing on the right area.
London does have the scoot system on many junctions (mainly major bus routes) - not all of them yet, that used buried cables to "count" traffic and so adjust the light timings. Other wise the timings are controlled by the London Traffic Control Centre.
In germany you have as a pedestrian right of the way at the intersections into the roundabout, for cars coming out of the roundabout. For the other direction you have to wait, or there are zebra crossings or traffic lights for pedestrians in the relevant areas.
+Bruce Liu And that would prove what exactly? They did it at "maximum density" and with "average Joes" ... which is exactly the way to test it for efficiency. This efficiency doesnt mean that a roundabout is the best answer everywhere, because it comes at a cost: space.
I seldom drive, but when I'm on the road I'm guaranteed to meet some primate trying to kill me. Once I almost crashed into some granddad that was driving at 30kph (20mph) on a badly lit highway, without his back lights on. Seeing that car popup from nowhere while driving a bit under the speed limit myself gave me somewhere around 1 second decision time, "do I pass left or right". Due to lack of time to brake or check the lane left of me for oncoming traffic, I quickly decided to steer right onto the emergency lane myself and pass him that way. Apparently there was indeed a car at my left, so if I instinctively choose left I had crashed into that car. About 1 minute ahead of me there was also a bridge, blocking the emergency lane with a concrete pillar. So if I had met that dude only 1 minute later I could have crashed into that pillar. Another time I had to dodge some alcoholic driving the wrong side of the road... This is why I prefer public transport or a bicycle. Lots of crazy people their to, but less of them are equipped with a 5 ton heavy tool that could end my life...
I had a similar experience with road rage in Houston. I was driving an 18 wheeler and someone rammed me because he didn't wanna get stuck behind me. He did this while I was changing lanes and the trailer pushed me off the road. I was gonna pull over, but he fled the scene. "Oh, well," I thought.
Hamburg, Germany, has several roads where the traffic lights have roll-over sensors that register traffic flow over them. These roads are the main thoroughfares of Hamburg. At night these roads often get full on green phases that might last several minutes, if no side traffic tries to merge onto these roads. Once the sensors of side roads registers cars approaching a merging intersection, it signals the central computer a request for turning that specific side road green. The central computer for each section of these roads calculates if it should immediately switch side roads to green, or keep them red if a large chunk of traffic has been registered approaching that intersection on the main road.
I have experienced these sorts of lights many times here in the US where as a motorcyclist the light would never get me a green and my choices were to break the law or wait for a car to come in the same direction.
US traffic lights typically use magnetic detector loops buried in the pavement because they're virtually indestructible. Detection failures are either due to poor tuning or fluctuations in the ambient magnetic field. The magnetic field shifts over time and the detectors have to be periodically re-tuned.
I work in the factory/manufacturing industry and i can tell you there is a way to make ALL the light communicate with eachother. Like the whole of LA, NY etc. The draw back is that its a little more expensive because you need ethernet cables, special modules and a good programmer with alot of time and data for each city to make it work.
I grew up with them in New England so I was surprised when one or two popped up in the St Louis area and people had no idea how to navigate them. I didn't realize they were a national and, here, a regional thing until I was in my 30s.
Roundabouts are dangerous in US because no one is trained to use them, people speed even in roundabouts, many are trucks drivers who can't easily slow down for people who pop onto roundabouts, hardly no one uses signals... they might be better than 4 way stop signs perhaps but traffic signals are still far superior in terms of safety.
We don't/shouldn't have roundabouts particularly multilane roundabouts in the midwest because of freezing rain and ice. When the roads are icy driving in a straight line than driving in a circle.
Actually Swindon is 7 roundabouts. Other than the five mini roundabouts, there are two more roundabouts, one formed by the outermost lanes of the mini roundabouts and the slip roads, and the counter rotating inner roundabout. People unfamiliar with navigating the Swindon could just use the outer roundabout just like a regular roundabout, and people who drives in the wrong side of the road can use the inner roundabout to feel like driving back at home.
I miss these guys.......Kevin Moore and Grant Reynolds kinda picked up the slack a bit. I hope the 4 of them could make just one special for discovery.
probably because the roads aren't privately owned. Competition and free market is the mother of invention. a state monopoly on something always yields inefficient and primitive goods and services.
I live in a city that has had traffic circles or as you called them "roundabouts" for over 60 years. About 20 years ago there was a movement to get rid of them and several were taken out or modified with lighting systems. The reason for this is the amount of accidents involving them. You see, far too many drivers can't figure out that if you are in the outside lane you are not supposed to go more than one exit from where you entered (essentially a right hand turn) and if you are in the inside lane you always have the right of way and can exit whenever you please.
I know some traffic lights here in Sweden that notice when a car is coming. Don't know how they work but the light stay red until around 20-30 meter away. They usually have a little yellow circle on the top.
+Jonas Jacobsson Many of our roads have been fitted with loops of cables which detect a moving car through its metal ... and those are probably connected to the traffic light. These sensors are used to detect traffic density on the roads.
Sensors in the pavement. Pay close attention next time you're near one of those intersections and you'll likely see what look to be crack's but actually cuts in the pavement so the sensors can detect movement.
@@benjaminsorenson because you have to look at a light above or in some weird place, distinguish it from other lights, recognize it's color, look at the intersection to see if it's clear. Whereas in a roundabout, you just merge in.
In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, road police does a terrific job of enhancing traffic flow on otherwise absolutely congested roads. Meanwhile, they inhale horrible car fumes for presumably 8hours a day. I highly respect these people! Thanks Jamie for giving some insight how heavy the job is to "keep the button down"!
If I pull up to a red light at 2:30 in the morning, and if as you said there is no one else around, I just treat it like a stop sign. No sense in waiting for a break in the flow of nonexistent traffic.
Hey guys. I live in the UK where we have a lot of roundabouts. In the UK we drive on the left side of the road and so on a roundabout you give way to the traffic to the right. In theory they work but it still amazes me how many people will just sit there when they have rite of way and so the traffic still jams up. It is very annoying.
+Gary Lowe I basically means you don't have to give way to people that are sitting there and waiting for other traffic, if there not in the roundabout you can enter.
Road rage incident: I was merging onto the freeway in a remote area. I pulled out in front of a guy towing his fishing boat and misjudged how fast he was going and he was closer to me than I expected when I had finished merging. He blared his horn and flashed his lights, expressing his displeasure. He then made an abrupt lane change into the inner lane and sped past me. I decided I was going to give this nut a wide berth so I applied the brakes and slowed down about 10 MPH. It was a good thing too because as soon as he had passed me his moved into my lane like he was going to cut me off. I will assume he forgot he was towing a boat because it missed my bumper by inches. If I hadn't slowed down he would have swept me off the road.
TBH, unlike Europe where many of the cities were thoroughly destroyed during WWII, the US didn't have the opportunity to rebuild with newer thinking with respect to traffic control. That being said, in the US there are more and more roundabouts being built along rural highways as a means of preventing t-bone crashes because neither car thought they had to stop. But, even here in Seattle, there are plans to build 2 new roundabouts on the border with Shoreline in order to help ease congestion crossing the freeway. I do think that as time goes by that you'll see more roundabouts being installed, but due to the space requirements, it's hard to justify having to bulldoze buildings in order to deal with the extra space that a standard intersection doesn't require.
We're seeing more roundabouts or traffic circles here in Oregon. They recently added one at a congested intersection near a freeway. It has 2 lanes and is very efficient. Sure, you have some that can't seem to get the hang of them but most do just fine. We've also recently added a new twist at light-controlled intersections (new for us anyway). Where there is a left-hand turn lane with a green arrow, when the green arrow timer expires you get a flashing yellow instead of a red. You are not allowed to enter the intersection on the flashing yellow until it is safe to make your left turn. This really helps clear intersections.
As a Dutchmen I actually don't consider the space inefficiency to be a bad thing. It often allows for really nice artwork in what would otherwise be a concrete desert.
Roundabouts might just be more efficient than 4-ways, unless you're in Arizona, where if you first got a driver's license in AZ, YOU STILL CAN'T DRIVE IF YOUR LIFE DEPENDED ON IT!
I think Discovery should release all the episodes of Mythbusters that have not yet made it onto DVDs/Blue Ray. There are so many that are missing: Car Drop, Ultimate Mythbuster, Boarding a Plane, Mythbuster vs Jaws, for just a few. Just give us all the episodes, for pity's sake!
I drove in the USA once and was so tired of the traffic lights after even 30 minutes. In the Netherlands every traffic light has sensors, never waiting on empty intersections!!
The reason why roundabout fails is that people are often speeding up in there, and not paying attention to others. And that happens only in the US, I presume.
There are a couple of places on my commute that consistently slow down for no reason. I have determined that nervous drivers in these places "can't see over the hill" and slow down out of uncertainty. The visual obstruction of the road ahead makes them panic...
Jamie on traffic circles: "well, I was surprised by the fact that we don't see them very much in the United States... If they worked that well one would think that we'd see more of them." The rest of the world: "By that logic, the USA would use the Metric system."
@@questioner1596 all real math and engineering is done in base units regardless and is done on computers and with calculators. Coupled with real life measurements are never whole easily divisible quantities. That adds up to a wash. If you think the metric system is better for anyone but the lowest common denominator youre fooling yourself.
@@t_c5266, so only idiots are tasked with unit conversion? I disagree. Also, engineers definitely do unit conversions to arrive at base units. Anyone could be buying a house and want to convert square feet to acres, for example. 1 acre = 43,560 ft, while 1 hectare = 10,00 m^2. You can do the metric conversion in your head, but it's not so quick with Imperial.
In Switzerland we have a lot of roundabouts and it really feels like it works pretty well - except in one place where there is a roundabout with five entries/exits, yet only two directions are heavely used, which actually blocks the entrance of the three other entries. Since you had to pass through that city when you wanted to leave one of two big valleys and you had to enter that city through this roundabout, they made a tunnel to bypass this city - which helped A LOT to reduce the traffic jam. But for now they closed the tunnel for about a year to make some maintenance works on it and the first month was like hell to get through there. But now we mutually agreed on the "zipper principle" - so you basically let one car per entrance in and then continue your way
It's called queuing theory and it is applied in traffic engineering, signaling, and other instances, such as waiting times at banks, entrances to entertainment venues, etc. It acts like a wave because there is a reaction time from when the following car starts moving after the lead car starts moving.
In the US I drive a semi. 53 foot trailer... roundabouts, when the traffic is heavy enough, I can sit there for a while waiting on a gap long enough to get into it.
Roundabouts have a harder time working in big cities due to that larger land footprint. Each lane needs its own round about lane so the size can get decently crazy fast. And another issue is the big trucks need a lot of room to turn and sometimes can turn in their lane properly without going into another lane.
In larger cities, roundabout often can improve traffic flow by, somewhat unintuitively, a road diet, by **reducing** the number of lanes. Extra lanes in traffic light controlled intersections are usually necessary because in a light controlled intersection, straight and turning traffic are blocking each other, so they need to be separated. With roundabouts, you usually don't really need to separate them and can get better throughput even without the extra lane because roundabouts encourage continuous, smooth flow of traffic in all directions, and turning and straight traffic do not actually block each other so they don't need to be separated. Reducing the number of lanes is often also how cities can often retrofit roundabouts into existing intersections without increasing the footprint of the intersection. Trucks don't really have problems navigating well designed roundabouts. Roundabouts in areas expected to have regular heavy vehicles traffic usually have a truck apron, these are slightly raised part of the centre circle that normal sized vehicles would drive around, but are designed so large vehicles like trucks and buses can drive on to get extra space for their turning. Smaller roundabouts are often just completely apron with no centre decoration, or they may just be painted so large vehicles can just drive straight as if it's a regular intersection. Larger, two lane roundabouts usually have enough space for large trucks as they can use two lanes, but they may also have aprons to assist in some parts.
Roundabouts in Weatherford Texas and I eagle county Colorado it tripped me out the 1st time I saw 1 it was so confusing no1 tells you how to properly use them unless you have a competent friend
Problem is that they always put them in relatively small suburban areas. I like them in the cities and in locations with high traffic though most of the efficiency gains are lost when there's little to no traffic in the area to begin with. All you're left with is more space being taken and higher property taxes.
@@snacksy7754 that's fair in some areas. I'm specifically picturing a handful of areas that would be fine with stop signs. In fact I have one particular example where it used to be a T-intersection where the cross traffic never had to stop. Also, the road with the stop sign leads to a rural dirt road. I can count on one hand the number of vehicles per hour that typically goes down that road. At least in these cases, I imagine traffic is actually somewhat hindered with no real benefits to infrastructure or even carbon footprint since the path most busy now requires multiple significant slowdowns...
@@myldx8457 Roundabouts are still a lot safer than an intersection with stop signs though. That's something that shouldn't be overlooked, especially in suburban areas with lots of kids around.
i was trying to turn left out of a parking lot onto a small road that crossed a more major one. it's a tricky left turn, because it's shortly down the way from a major intersection and sometimes the intersection fills up and i have to wait for the que to clear before i can even turn out. one time, i was waiting here to turn and i saw an opening, but the opening was just a little too far to my right. i needed the line to move up slightly before i could go. a woman next to me in the RIGHT turn lane turned left right in front of me and took the spot that I was eyeing. it was a busy day and i had already had to wait there for more than 5 minutes and i was waiting patiently in line for my turn to go and this woman just stole the opportunity from me by making an illegal maneuver. i held up my finger, and i stared her down until i was absolutely positive she saw me and understood the message. she looked at me and she seemed taken aback. i pointed at her and gave her a nod to confirm that she was the intended recipient of the finger. that's the only time that i've so blatantly wanted to send that sort of message to another driver.
3:30 You guys in the States don't have that? In The Netherlands it's not just common but it's the standard. We've got 'green waves' on some routes where if you keep a certain speed you wont have to stop. We have sensors that trigger traffic lights so you wont be sitting at a traffic light with nobody around and a bunch more. Looking forward to the next season! :)
Same in Germany. There are some streets in bigger citys here, where the speedlimit is for example 70km/h, but you'll have a green wave if you'll travel at 60km/h.
Harrisburg PA used to put a gloved, whistled traffic cop at a particularly congested "T" intersection on Front Street along the river. He would let a *lot* of cars on the main thoroughfare go through unimpeded, and then stop them to let a smaller group of cars turn out from the side street. When it was time to stop the main drag, he would pick a car 3 or 4 back in the line, give a seconds-long blast on the whistle while pointing directly between that driver's eyes. I tell you what, holding up a white-gloved hand and giving a toot on the whistle is probably sufficient, but having the guy point directly at your face while blasting his own eardrums right out of existence ... it *seriously* gets your attention!
The problems with US roundabouts where as follows People associate them with the earlier Traffic circles which where worse and more dangerous then a 4 way light controlled intersection. US drivers massively prefer when they are given instructions over their own decision making, Due to their not being many of them, people don’t have experience in turn dislikes them due to them being different and unknown.
About traffic lights and roundabouts: I live in Zaragoza (Spain) and I don't know why but there are traffic lights EVERYWHERE. Like, they even regulate roundabouts with traffic lights. They also cross roundabouts making them useless as a roundabout. And also, there's this neighbourhood (here as well) where they built roundabouts almost everywhere and pretty small. So you have this small 3 way cross with a little round thingy in the middle that pisses everyone off in that neighbourhood. I don't know why people come up with such stupid solutions and why do more important people let them build them. It's so frustrating!
He prolly merged going at a very low speed compared to the speed limit, the guy behind him didn't have road rage, he didn't have enough time to slow down enough! It's a hazard to merge slow as shit.
There are roundabouts in cities like NYC and San Francisco, but they can be hard to spot, for example, if you have a grid of alternating one way streets, you essentially have a series of roundabouts with the buildings in the center, and instead of roads in-between them, intersections with lights.
Pretty much all road rage in my experience includes some form of tailgating. I truly won't even tell the tale. Just know that I am willing to brake check you if I'm travelling over the speed limit and you are still tailgating.
Ahhhhhhh! Now we all know who you are. You are one of those who break the law by driving in the passing lane. You think it is a driving lane to pace beside the car on your right. In spite of your ignorance of the laws of the road (and basic good manners), you are arrogant enough to break check instead of just following the law and moving right.
@@robjohnson8522 Nope. Has only happened once in the passing lane. That was the worst. I was passing a tractor-trailer goin 70. I was doing 80. The vehicle behind me was a one-ton pickup with a trailer. They also exited at the next ramp (less than 2 miles away). Now look. You have me telling the tale.
@@codeman99-dev I am glad you told the tale! Now I don't think you are one of those selfish jerks that drives in the left lane! I do recall one time going through St. Lous there were FIVE lanes (each way) and I was doing the speed limit in the center lane and got tailgated and I was like, DUDE two open lanes either side of me! Seriously? lol
There's a couple of cities built from scratch in the UK in the 1970s with loads and loads of roundabouts, like Milton Keynes. Were they built in Canberra at the same time?
@@Septimus_ii The whole city of Canberra is laid out using triangles and circles, the roundabouts came later but fit the overall flow of the roads well.
Roads in America were build with high speed traffic in mind cause the idea was that the faster cars go the faster traffic flows. However this is an outdated idea cause it's been shown many times that smooth flow is more important than the maximum speed cars are theoretically able to go. In America though they ripped up their cities and spend massively on roads build with that high speed model in mind. They later on had to put in large amounts of traffic lights to regulate flow. Having traffic lights and roundabouts on the same road is very inefficient cause they work against each other. Traffic lights allow for higher speeds since they ensure an empty road while roundabouts slow cars down but keep the flow more constant. Having both on the same road kind of works against each other and makes the roundabout a major bottleneck. Traffic elements don't exist in isolation they are part of a system so for roundabouts to work well you need a system build around slow but smooth traffic flow.
The fact that we have a lot of roundabouts in Europe is probably more by accident than design, North American cities are mostly built in square grid patterns which allow 4-way-stops to be the obvious choice while European cities are a lot older and have a spaghetti style layout where intersecting roads won't align so easily. In the show they used a four exit roundabout with each exit at 90 degrees from the next, these are very rare in my 10 year driving experience in Europe.
Additionally, a lot of roundabouts do not have an actual center or a very small one and you are able to drive straight threw quicker then what they are showing.
That is not true. European roundabouts are not that old yet. Most have been made in the past 50 years. The real reason is actually political. The car companies don't have as much power and so smooth traffic flow, safety and eathetics were prioritized over showing off cars.
Play a game - imagine you are Jamie during this segment and then based on how Adam is constantly talking over you and never deferring to you ("20,000!") imagine how much working with this guy non-stop for a decade would cheese you off.
My brother experienced road-rage. Years ago (decades), he bought a Lambretta scooter, and when he had owned it for about 2 minutes, on his way home from the showroom, he was stopped by a red light. When it changed, he stalled the scooter, and a guy in a big V8 behind him started to hoot immediately. My bro kicked the scooter a couple of times, got it going again - and stalled it again. The guy behind him put his hand on the horn and was blasting continuously, so my brother pushed the scooter to the side of the road, and the car went past under maximum acceleration, its big engine straining at the leash, with the guy leaning across the front seat, shaking his fist out of the passenger's window - straight into the back of a stationary tramcar.
A moment of deep satisfaction!
Roundabouts are also a little more dangerous for pedestrians.
They’re not called roundabouts here in Massachusetts, we called them rotaries.
3:30 In the Netherlands i would say most traffic light junctions have sensors that respond to traffic (cars, bikes, pedestrian, trams ) , in the US apparently nowhere ..😵 And a lot of roundabout junctions .
There are actually a lot of roundabouts in the Northeast.
Traffic circles and rotaries are common in the Northeast. They're not the same as roundabouts. However, they are building more roundabouts in the Northeast, as well.
It takes just one timid driver and a roundabout is SCREWED!
+fm00078 this is true for all intersection, your logic is flawed.
fm00078 that is true of any intersection. Why do people act like having multiple turn Lanes and confusing colored lights giving orders is so much easier? It isn't
Freedom means being told what to do by stoplights and stop signs.
I saw someone slam on their brakes, think about ramming the car in front, and then ram it.
Where I live in South Carolina, they are putting in more round abouts, and I like them a lot, they work....when people figure out how to use them that is.
Squirrel 🐿 redirected me to this :)
At night, we use weighing triggers, especially on left-hand turns at stop lights, to trigger the light to say "Okay, there is a car waiting at this turn signal". And it either immediately or a short delay, it will stop the main flow road to allow for the person turning. Because there isn't really any traffic on the road.
So we have weighing triggers that feel the weight of the car sitting on pads at turn signals that communicate with the lights.
Useless for motorcyclists and bicyclists; 3+ wheeled vehicles aren't the only road vehicles.
motorcyclists are rarely found in cold climates. But heres the thing, bud... motorcyclists rarely obey traffic laws. No one is going to pay any mind to them since they tend to not pay any mind to others. Its a shame 'cause there are good motorcyclists out there, but sadly, they've strung up a bad name for themselves.
@@vysearcadia522 Do I... do I really have to pull out the 99% statistic? Basically, the bad name for motorcyclists doesn't come from an actual basis in road law, but law in general, and it originates in America, mostly the West but it was a national thing. After the Vietnam war, there were tons of poor, young veterans who had army connections, guns, ammo, and an antagonistic relationship with the public, as well as motorcycles, as they were cheaper than a car. Well, as what happens to the downtrodden and rejected, they started frequently forming into gangs, who would do all sorts of regular organized crime in order to make money. This gave motorcyclists a reputation for ignoring the law, which turned into a reputation for ignoring road law later, when they kept being killed in accidents (which were frequently not their fault, it's real fucked up). The 99% statistic comes from a general saying that "99% of motorcyclists are perfectly law-abiding citizens." I don't know the actual origin, but, as the child of a motorcyclist, I can vouch for it, admittedly, anecdote, but most even bother to wear the helmet for god's sake (The helmet has not been shown to significantly alter the survival of motorcycle accidents).
I don't know why people think roundabouts are more efficient and safer than traffic signals. Come spend a few hours with me in northeast Ohio where we have roundabouts at just about every intersection and you'll quickly see that roundabouts are much more dangerous than intersections with traffic signals.
Mostly because they demonstrably are, every single time experiments are done the roundabout is 18-26% more efficent then junctions but especially 4 way stop junctions.
"Sussinctly"? REALLY?!?
Traffic jams for no reason PROVEN - BRILLIANT
I drive truck and have seen "phantom traffic jams" many times. The main cause of them is following too close. If 200 cars in a lane are following each other too close the first car just taps their brakes and starts a chain reaction where the car at the back will be completely stopped.
Roundabouts are great until you have a dominant flow of traffic in one direction. Then they're pretty useless.
I'm American and I love roundabouts, I've never found them confusing. I wish all of our 4-way stops could be roundabouts or at least the ones that don't already have traffic lights. I hate 4-way stops that don't have traffic lights, frequently two or even three cars will get to them and stop at the exact time and then everybody has to somehow figure out who goes first.
I don't like the "who stands first at the stop sign has the right of way"-system. To dependet on timeing, rather than the more static approach, we in Europe have.
@@emmata98 In a four way intersection, whoever arrives at the stop sign first got the right of way, which may encourage some drivers to speed up when approaching intersection. Speeding up like that is dangerous anywhere in the road, but especially so in an intersection.
With a roundabout both drivers can enter the intersection simultaneously and don't cross each other's way. And because traffic already inside the roundabout have priority over the traffic just entering, it breaks that symmetry during such engagement.
@@yvrelna I know and this is the reasoning for my opinion in the refferenced comment :)
Roundabouts have an additional advantage. For a car to travel around a roundabout it has to slow down compared to going straight across at a traffic light, which means if collisions occur, they occur at lower speeds. In addition because the cars are going around or entering a circle they are less likely to collide at right angles and more likely to collide at an acute angle which is likely to result in less damage to the cars and passengers than a "T boning".
But also it improves traffic flow by slowing the cars. This might sound counter-intuitive but cars are heavy so they take time to accelerate so a slow but smooth traffic flow is more efficient than one with lots of stopping and starting.
Also the space-inefficiency can actually be a good thing as the empty space almost always has some kind of artwork on it which is a very welcome thing in the grey of the road. It's been shown over and over that art has a very real effect on people's well-being.
Roundabouts are much more efficient when people use their signals.
It helps, but even without that you can mostly tell where people are going by watching the positions of their cars. Afterall, there's not many ways you can go on a roundabout
ONLY if the roundabout is well designed and is appropriate for the traffic situation. Too many roundabouts in this part of the world are VERY poorly designed and tend to make things worse. Any time the majority of traffic is REQUIRED to make a line change in the roundabout you are going to have issues. This goes double if you are in a part of the world that gets snow or other conditions that hide lane markings. I can show you several examples that directly cause huge traffic backups and slow the throughput of an intersection to a crawl.
10p6 which they never do...
Turn signal? Whats that? 🤷 thats too complicated, i thought that was just a noise maker
@@jdinnis Enjoy, th-cam.com/video/FR5l48_h5Eo/w-d-xo.html
we dont see more roundabouts because they cause more accidents.
I've never heard of an accident in a roundabout but you hear about crashes at traffic lights every day.
You sound like you live somewhere where they don't have roundabouts.
my government needs to know this not me
Everyone needs to know this
Hearing them complain about how traffic lights never work at night is odd because I would feel like San Francisco would have better technology. In my small town/city, we have pressure plates underneath the road which sense weight so if you’re the only person at a light, it’ll sense you’re the only person there and will turn green for you. We also have cameras which see you and if you’re the only person there, it’ll also turn green for you
They are actual electromagnetic loops, embedded into the street... When a large metal object (car) enters the area, it changes the conductance of the loop, sending a signal to the computer....
the problem is not the efficiency of the intersection it is the abilities of the drivers that tends to slow things down. At lest as far as what I have found.
+Brian Butcher Nope ... the efficiency of the roundabout is that you do NOT "have to STOP" at the intersection (wasting energy) but can adapt to the FLOW OF TRAFFIC. They said it themselves that at any time they had about five cars in the roundabout, while there were only two on the regular intersection. STOP + START is the big traffic killer ... and "ability of the driver" has nothing to do with it, because you can have indecisive drivers at both types.
@@Muck006 The ability to use the idicators is a big thing in roundabouts though (when turning off)
Roundabouts are spinning cyclones of death waiting to grind your car and spit it out the other side. They care nothing about you getting to where you're going safely. Deathtraps. Actually, if used properly, they are cool, but it's easy to not know the correct way to use them.
The concept of yielding and going with the flow is far easier to remember then arbitrary color coded rules that are not even consistent between states.
Just my opinion. I think they’re only useful for roads that are not so active
Why do people keep ruining roundabouts with traffic lights? That defeats the point
Because cars outside have to yield. However in heavy traffic, that means stopping for nearly forever. Drivers will get mad after waiting for so long and try to get in even if there isn't enough room. Thus accidents.
I feel sad too. I love true roundabouts. Maybe smarter traffic light would help. Red lights should only show up when there's too many cars
Traffic light's are added in certain situations. If there is one specific route that has heavy traffic, and if the roundabout is designed for higher speeds, then another joining road will rarely be able to safely join the roundabout, as they are stuck there constantly giving way to fast heavy traffic. This make a higher accident risk as people get impatient and pull out when they shouldn't. But your right those lights should only work at peak times!
When a roundabout is saturated with cars it will jam up completely stopping all traffic. Traffic lights on them help to stop this but they also reduce the maximum number of cars, as well as reducing the flow when they aren't saturated. Thus they should not be used unless the the roundabout is full.
@@pwhnckexstflajizdryvombqug9042 , Correctly designed roundabout can't jam. There is always way for people in the roundabout to drive fowad and exit it if people entering follow rules and yield.
Their mock-up roundabout would've been more efficient if the centre was clear so the drivers could see clearly in front of them.
Not at all, the roundabout works by giving way to traffic coming from one direction, in the UK it's from the right, America it would be from the left, a driver focusing on what's in front through the roundabout would not be focusing on the right area.
I'm still annoyed that they never mention the true purpose of the roundabout, it's not traffic efficiency, it's reducing accidents with bodily harm.
Eight years later, and now this video just makes me miss Mythbusters even more.
London does have the scoot system on many junctions (mainly major bus routes) - not all of them yet, that used buried cables to "count" traffic and so adjust the light timings. Other wise the timings are controlled by the London Traffic Control Centre.
Have you removed "The Show". can NOT be found.
Roundabouts are good for cars, but pedestrians? crosswalks?
In germany you have as a pedestrian right of the way at the intersections into the roundabout, for cars coming out of the roundabout. For the other direction you have to wait, or there are zebra crossings or traffic lights for pedestrians in the relevant areas.
i would do the test again for high reaction speed humans or people that have high anticipation
+Bruce Liu And that would prove what exactly? They did it at "maximum density" and with "average Joes" ... which is exactly the way to test it for efficiency. This efficiency doesnt mean that a roundabout is the best answer everywhere, because it comes at a cost: space.
some people have better reaction speeds.to find best case situation and worst case if we do it with people that have low reaction speeds.
I seldom drive, but when I'm on the road I'm guaranteed to meet some primate trying to kill me.
Once I almost crashed into some granddad that was driving at 30kph (20mph) on a badly lit highway, without his back lights on.
Seeing that car popup from nowhere while driving a bit under the speed limit myself gave me somewhere around 1 second decision time, "do I pass left or right".
Due to lack of time to brake or check the lane left of me for oncoming traffic, I quickly decided to steer right onto the emergency lane myself and pass him that way.
Apparently there was indeed a car at my left, so if I instinctively choose left I had crashed into that car.
About 1 minute ahead of me there was also a bridge, blocking the emergency lane with a concrete pillar. So if I had met that dude only 1 minute later I could have crashed into that pillar.
Another time I had to dodge some alcoholic driving the wrong side of the road...
This is why I prefer public transport or a bicycle. Lots of crazy people their to, but less of them are equipped with a 5 ton heavy tool that could end my life...
I had a similar experience with road rage in Houston. I was driving an 18 wheeler and someone rammed me because he didn't wanna get stuck behind me. He did this while I was changing lanes and the trailer pushed me off the road. I was gonna pull over, but he fled the scene. "Oh, well," I thought.
I love how their talking about horrible traffic in Cali. Come to Toronto, it's actually been rated with the worst roads in North America.
Traffic is different that road conditions. Torrento's weather is largely to blame for their roads.
Hamburg, Germany, has several roads where the traffic lights have roll-over sensors that register traffic flow over them. These roads are the main thoroughfares of Hamburg.
At night these roads often get full on green phases that might last several minutes, if no side traffic tries to merge onto these roads. Once the sensors of side roads registers cars approaching a merging intersection, it signals the central computer a request for turning that specific side road green.
The central computer for each section of these roads calculates if it should immediately switch side roads to green, or keep them red if a large chunk of traffic has been registered approaching that intersection on the main road.
I have experienced these sorts of lights many times here in the US where as a motorcyclist the light would never get me a green and my choices were to break the law or wait for a car to come in the same direction.
@@alexreith4877 Here in Hamburg they work even with cyclists, not even a motorbike is required.
US traffic lights typically use magnetic detector loops buried in the pavement because they're virtually indestructible. Detection failures are either due to poor tuning or fluctuations in the ambient magnetic field. The magnetic field shifts over time and the detectors have to be periodically re-tuned.
Yet again the US shows how it selects the least effective solution.
I work in the factory/manufacturing industry and i can tell you there is a way to make ALL the light communicate with eachother. Like the whole of LA, NY etc. The draw back is that its a little more expensive because you need ethernet cables, special modules and a good programmer with alot of time and data for each city to make it work.
I grew up with them in New England so I was surprised when one or two popped up in the St Louis area and people had no idea how to navigate them. I didn't realize they were a national and, here, a regional thing until I was in my 30s.
F. F. S. hasn't your glorious US of A got "Real Estate" to spare?
20%?
If you have the space for roundabouts it's not even a contest!
History has shown that improving the conditions on the roads only serves to worse traffic.
Roundabouts are dangerous in US because no one is trained to use them, people speed even in roundabouts, many are trucks drivers who can't easily slow down for people who pop onto roundabouts, hardly no one uses signals... they might be better than 4 way stop signs perhaps but traffic signals are still far superior in terms of safety.
We don't/shouldn't have roundabouts particularly multilane roundabouts in the midwest because of freezing rain and ice. When the roads are icy driving in a straight line than driving in a circle.
I live in Swindon where there are like 5 roundabouts in one place.
I bet there are people who don't even believe you.
Oh, and Hemel's is 6.
Actually Swindon is 7 roundabouts. Other than the five mini roundabouts, there are two more roundabouts, one formed by the outermost lanes of the mini roundabouts and the slip roads, and the counter rotating inner roundabout.
People unfamiliar with navigating the Swindon could just use the outer roundabout just like a regular roundabout, and people who drives in the wrong side of the road can use the inner roundabout to feel like driving back at home.
North of Cincy has a bunch of round a bouts and it was like 700k each to put them in. I have no clue why.
In are area we have about 4 roundabouts.
I miss these guys.......Kevin Moore and Grant Reynolds kinda picked up the slack a bit.
I hope the 4 of them could make just one special for discovery.
probably because the roads aren't privately owned. Competition and free market is the mother of invention. a state monopoly on something always yields inefficient and primitive goods and services.
I live in a city that has had traffic circles or as you called them "roundabouts" for over 60 years. About 20 years ago there was a movement to get rid of them and several were taken out or modified with lighting systems. The reason for this is the amount of accidents involving them. You see, far too many drivers can't figure out that if you are in the outside lane you are not supposed to go more than one exit from where you entered (essentially a right hand turn) and if you are in the inside lane you always have the right of way and can exit whenever you please.
They are properly called roundabouts. It’s ‘traffic circles’ that’s the weird term for them.
Novice and timid drivers are intimated by round abouts. But they're not as complicated as they seem. Just a bit of a learning curve
I know some traffic lights here in Sweden that notice when a car is coming. Don't know how they work but the light stay red until around 20-30 meter away. They usually have a little yellow circle on the top.
+Jonas Jacobsson Many of our roads have been fitted with loops of cables which detect a moving car through its metal ... and those are probably connected to the traffic light. These sensors are used to detect traffic density on the roads.
Sensors in the pavement. Pay close attention next time you're near one of those intersections and you'll likely see what look to be crack's but actually cuts in the pavement so the sensors can detect movement.
We have and have had roundabouts in MN for many years. And they are replacing heavy intersections in many areas.
Traffic circles suck. Real countries build cloverleaf interchanges.
Dear all governments,
If you have the room, build a magic roundabout.
Thanks,
A Traffic-concerned American
I actually have 4 round abouts where I live in America and I swear to god people dont know how to fucking use them
Yasssss
ace8656 is so odd. They're the easiest thing in the world. Traffic lights are what's confusing
@@MK-ex4pb how are traffic lights confusing?
@@benjaminsorenson because you have to look at a light above or in some weird place, distinguish it from other lights, recognize it's color, look at the intersection to see if it's clear. Whereas in a roundabout, you just merge in.
In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, road police does a terrific job of enhancing traffic flow on otherwise absolutely congested roads. Meanwhile, they inhale horrible car fumes for presumably 8hours a day. I highly respect these people! Thanks Jamie for giving some insight how heavy the job is to "keep the button down"!
Double round about for twice the fun
If I pull up to a red light at 2:30 in the morning, and if as you said there is no one else around, I just treat it like a stop sign. No sense in waiting for a break in the flow of nonexistent traffic.
Hey guys. I live in the UK where we have a lot of roundabouts. In the UK we drive on the left side of the road and so on a roundabout you give way to the traffic to the right. In theory they work but it still amazes me how many people will just sit there when they have rite of way and so the traffic still jams up. It is very annoying.
+Gary Lowe that was the old rule in Australia, it is now that we give way to anyone in the roundabout
OZf1re how does that work? Who decides who will give way and who will go?
+Gary Lowe I basically means you don't have to give way to people that are sitting there and waiting for other traffic, if there not in the roundabout you can enter.
OZf1re sounds good idea. I guess if everyone does it, it will work.
Road rage incident: I was merging onto the freeway in a remote area. I pulled out in front of a guy towing his fishing boat and misjudged how fast he was going and he was closer to me than I expected when I had finished merging. He blared his horn and flashed his lights, expressing his displeasure. He then made an abrupt lane change into the inner lane and sped past me. I decided I was going to give this nut a wide berth so I applied the brakes and slowed down about 10 MPH. It was a good thing too because as soon as he had passed me his moved into my lane like he was going to cut me off. I will assume he forgot he was towing a boat because it missed my bumper by inches. If I hadn't slowed down he would have swept me off the road.
Feel free to use the accelerator when merging. Don't slowly idle up to the traffic flow.
Thought there was 1 city in the states with all roundabouts
TBH, unlike Europe where many of the cities were thoroughly destroyed during WWII, the US didn't have the opportunity to rebuild with newer thinking with respect to traffic control. That being said, in the US there are more and more roundabouts being built along rural highways as a means of preventing t-bone crashes because neither car thought they had to stop. But, even here in Seattle, there are plans to build 2 new roundabouts on the border with Shoreline in order to help ease congestion crossing the freeway.
I do think that as time goes by that you'll see more roundabouts being installed, but due to the space requirements, it's hard to justify having to bulldoze buildings in order to deal with the extra space that a standard intersection doesn't require.
We're seeing more roundabouts or traffic circles here in Oregon. They recently added one at a congested intersection near a freeway. It has 2 lanes and is very efficient. Sure, you have some that can't seem to get the hang of them but most do just fine. We've also recently added a new twist at light-controlled intersections (new for us anyway). Where there is a left-hand turn lane with a green arrow, when the green arrow timer expires you get a flashing yellow instead of a red. You are not allowed to enter the intersection on the flashing yellow until it is safe to make your left turn. This really helps clear intersections.
As a Dutchmen I actually don't consider the space inefficiency to be a bad thing. It often allows for really nice artwork in what would otherwise be a concrete desert.
There's two near where I live now. Every time I use them I'm satisfied knowing that it is more efficient.
Roundabouts might just be more efficient than 4-ways, unless you're in Arizona, where if you first got a driver's license in AZ, YOU STILL CAN'T DRIVE IF YOUR LIFE DEPENDED ON IT!
I think Discovery should release all the episodes of Mythbusters that have not yet made it onto DVDs/Blue Ray. There are so many that are missing: Car Drop, Ultimate Mythbuster, Boarding a Plane, Mythbuster vs Jaws, for just a few. Just give us all the episodes, for pity's sake!
I drove in the USA once and was so tired of the traffic lights after even 30 minutes. In the Netherlands every traffic light has sensors, never waiting on empty intersections!!
If no one's there I just treat then as a stop sign.
You have empty intersections? Lucky.
They do in the US as well, it’s just older lights that act dumb
The reason why roundabout fails is that people are often speeding up in there, and not paying attention to others. And that happens only in the US, I presume.
No, the main issue with Roundabouts is winters, they become a detriment to public safety when the roads are bad.
There are a couple of places on my commute that consistently slow down for no reason. I have determined that nervous drivers in these places "can't see over the hill" and slow down out of uncertainty. The visual obstruction of the road ahead makes them panic...
Jamie on traffic circles: "well, I was surprised by the fact that we don't see them very much in the United States... If they worked that well one would think that we'd see more of them."
The rest of the world: "By that logic, the USA would use the Metric system."
Or public health system...
the metric system only works better for stupid people
@@t_c5266, however smart you are, the Imperial System will slow you down compared to Metric. Why purposely add inefficiency?
@@questioner1596 all real math and engineering is done in base units regardless and is done on computers and with calculators. Coupled with real life measurements are never whole easily divisible quantities. That adds up to a wash.
If you think the metric system is better for anyone but the lowest common denominator youre fooling yourself.
@@t_c5266, so only idiots are tasked with unit conversion? I disagree. Also, engineers definitely do unit conversions to arrive at base units.
Anyone could be buying a house and want to convert square feet to acres, for example. 1 acre = 43,560 ft, while 1 hectare = 10,00 m^2. You can do the metric conversion in your head, but it's not so quick with Imperial.
In Switzerland we have a lot of roundabouts and it really feels like it works pretty well - except in one place where there is a roundabout with five entries/exits, yet only two directions are heavely used, which actually blocks the entrance of the three other entries. Since you had to pass through that city when you wanted to leave one of two big valleys and you had to enter that city through this roundabout, they made a tunnel to bypass this city - which helped A LOT to reduce the traffic jam. But for now they closed the tunnel for about a year to make some maintenance works on it and the first month was like hell to get through there. But now we mutually agreed on the "zipper principle" - so you basically let one car per entrance in and then continue your way
OGSankai what you need there is a magic roundabout
I live in Massachusetts and we have far more roundabouts than anywhere else I have ever been in the US.
It's a New England thing...
It's called queuing theory and it is applied in traffic engineering, signaling, and other instances, such as waiting times at banks, entrances to entertainment venues, etc. It acts like a wave because there is a reaction time from when the following car starts moving after the lead car starts moving.
In the US I drive a semi. 53 foot trailer... roundabouts, when the traffic is heavy enough, I can sit there for a while waiting on a gap long enough to get into it.
Come to Utah... there are quite a few roundabouts and I hate them!
Josh White because you're a moron. Why would you rather be in traffic and take orders from colored lights
Roundabouts have a harder time working in big cities due to that larger land footprint. Each lane needs its own round about lane so the size can get decently crazy fast. And another issue is the big trucks need a lot of room to turn and sometimes can turn in their lane properly without going into another lane.
In larger cities, roundabout often can improve traffic flow by, somewhat unintuitively, a road diet, by **reducing** the number of lanes. Extra lanes in traffic light controlled intersections are usually necessary because in a light controlled intersection, straight and turning traffic are blocking each other, so they need to be separated. With roundabouts, you usually don't really need to separate them and can get better throughput even without the extra lane because roundabouts encourage continuous, smooth flow of traffic in all directions, and turning and straight traffic do not actually block each other so they don't need to be separated. Reducing the number of lanes is often also how cities can often retrofit roundabouts into existing intersections without increasing the footprint of the intersection.
Trucks don't really have problems navigating well designed roundabouts. Roundabouts in areas expected to have regular heavy vehicles traffic usually have a truck apron, these are slightly raised part of the centre circle that normal sized vehicles would drive around, but are designed so large vehicles like trucks and buses can drive on to get extra space for their turning. Smaller roundabouts are often just completely apron with no centre decoration, or they may just be painted so large vehicles can just drive straight as if it's a regular intersection. Larger, two lane roundabouts usually have enough space for large trucks as they can use two lanes, but they may also have aprons to assist in some parts.
Can we talk about how these 2 are actually immortal. i swear they age like rocks.
We call it a rotary out here in Boston Mass lol
I see the 'almighty Algorithm' © has brought us together again by suggesting a 6 year old video that I didn't know I needed to watch.
See you all in a few months, stay safe!
I live in Canada . We are getting more and more traffic circles .
Roundabouts in Weatherford Texas and I eagle county Colorado it tripped me out the 1st time I saw 1 it was so confusing no1 tells you how to properly use them unless you have a competent friend
Not many roundabouts because many people don't like them. And it can cost a million dollars!
Henrygaga people like them once they get to know them and thaty is completely false. They are incredibly cheap and need little maintenance
We're seeing more and more roundabounds in Minnesota. Whenever an intersection is having major work, they're being put in now.
Problem is that they always put them in relatively small suburban areas. I like them in the cities and in locations with high traffic though most of the efficiency gains are lost when there's little to no traffic in the area to begin with. All you're left with is more space being taken and higher property taxes.
@@myldx8457 No billing cost on lights, less maintenance, no waiting on a red light for no one. Some pretty good upsides even with little traffic!
@@snacksy7754 that's fair in some areas. I'm specifically picturing a handful of areas that would be fine with stop signs. In fact I have one particular example where it used to be a T-intersection where the cross traffic never had to stop. Also, the road with the stop sign leads to a rural dirt road. I can count on one hand the number of vehicles per hour that typically goes down that road. At least in these cases, I imagine traffic is actually somewhat hindered with no real benefits to infrastructure or even carbon footprint since the path most busy now requires multiple significant slowdowns...
@@myldx8457 Roundabouts are still a lot safer than an intersection with stop signs though. That's something that shouldn't be overlooked, especially in suburban areas with lots of kids around.
I see people daily who fail at the most basic things like right on red and who goes first at stop signs. The US is simply too stupid for roundabouts.
And yet, we keep building them in locations that don't need them.
i was trying to turn left out of a parking lot onto a small road that crossed a more major one. it's a tricky left turn, because it's shortly down the way from a major intersection and sometimes the intersection fills up and i have to wait for the que to clear before i can even turn out. one time, i was waiting here to turn and i saw an opening, but the opening was just a little too far to my right. i needed the line to move up slightly before i could go. a woman next to me in the RIGHT turn lane turned left right in front of me and took the spot that I was eyeing. it was a busy day and i had already had to wait there for more than 5 minutes and i was waiting patiently in line for my turn to go and this woman just stole the opportunity from me by making an illegal maneuver.
i held up my finger, and i stared her down until i was absolutely positive she saw me and understood the message. she looked at me and she seemed taken aback. i pointed at her and gave her a nod to confirm that she was the intended recipient of the finger. that's the only time that i've so blatantly wanted to send that sort of message to another driver.
3:30 You guys in the States don't have that? In The Netherlands it's not just common but it's the standard. We've got 'green waves' on some routes where if you keep a certain speed you wont have to stop. We have sensors that trigger traffic lights so you wont be sitting at a traffic light with nobody around and a bunch more.
Looking forward to the next season! :)
Same in Germany. There are some streets in bigger citys here, where the speedlimit is for example 70km/h, but you'll have a green wave if you'll travel at 60km/h.
@@franzjaegers with all due respect, you are about 5 years late
@@skyguy1236 or maybe a time a traveler
@@skyguy1236 he can comment anytime he want bro
They have this in just about every country except for the UK and US as they are too lazy to afford it
Harrisburg PA used to put a gloved, whistled traffic cop at a particularly congested "T" intersection on Front Street along the river. He would let a *lot* of cars on the main thoroughfare go through unimpeded, and then stop them to let a smaller group of cars turn out from the side street. When it was time to stop the main drag, he would pick a car 3 or 4 back in the line, give a seconds-long blast on the whistle while pointing directly between that driver's eyes. I tell you what, holding up a white-gloved hand and giving a toot on the whistle is probably sufficient, but having the guy point directly at your face while blasting his own eardrums right out of existence ... it *seriously* gets your attention!
The problems with US roundabouts where as follows
People associate them with the earlier Traffic circles which where worse and more dangerous then a 4 way light controlled intersection.
US drivers massively prefer when they are given instructions over their own decision making,
Due to their not being many of them, people don’t have experience in turn dislikes them due to them being different and unknown.
yap, so used to 4-way stops, they do not yield correctly to the roundabout traffic
"US drivers massively prefer when they are given instructions over their own decision making"... We call that freedom.
@@kuriadams9138 🤣
About traffic lights and roundabouts: I live in Zaragoza (Spain) and I don't know why but there are traffic lights EVERYWHERE. Like, they even regulate roundabouts with traffic lights. They also cross roundabouts making them useless as a roundabout.
And also, there's this neighbourhood (here as well) where they built roundabouts almost everywhere and pretty small. So you have this small 3 way cross with a little round thingy in the middle that pisses everyone off in that neighbourhood. I don't know why people come up with such stupid solutions and why do more important people let them build them. It's so frustrating!
Did anyone see that prelude?
He prolly merged going at a very low speed compared to the speed limit, the guy behind him didn't have road rage, he didn't have enough time to slow down enough! It's a hazard to merge slow as shit.
you should have let brits do the roundabout thingy, maybe 20% quicker.
There are roundabouts in cities like NYC and San Francisco, but they can be hard to spot, for example, if you have a grid of alternating one way streets, you essentially have a series of roundabouts with the buildings in the center, and instead of roads in-between them, intersections with lights.
I drive by where they filmed the intersection spot all the time and point it out to people as a location from mythbusters as if they care.
I lived in Boston in the 70s. They had roundabouts.
Pretty much all road rage in my experience includes some form of tailgating.
I truly won't even tell the tale. Just know that I am willing to brake check you if I'm travelling over the speed limit and you are still tailgating.
Ahhhhhhh! Now we all know who you are. You are one of those who break the law by driving in the passing lane. You think it is a driving lane to pace beside the car on your right. In spite of your ignorance of the laws of the road (and basic good manners), you are arrogant enough to break check instead of just following the law and moving right.
@@robjohnson8522 Nope. Has only happened once in the passing lane. That was the worst. I was passing a tractor-trailer goin 70. I was doing 80. The vehicle behind me was a one-ton pickup with a trailer. They also exited at the next ramp (less than 2 miles away).
Now look. You have me telling the tale.
@@codeman99-dev I am glad you told the tale! Now I don't think you are one of those selfish jerks that drives in the left lane!
I do recall one time going through St. Lous there were FIVE lanes (each way) and I was doing the speed limit in the center lane and got tailgated and I was like, DUDE two open lanes either side of me! Seriously? lol
I know why America doesn't have many roundabouts.
They where all shipped here to Canberra Australia, the roundabout capital of the continent.
There's a couple of cities built from scratch in the UK in the 1970s with loads and loads of roundabouts, like Milton Keynes. Were they built in Canberra at the same time?
@@Septimus_ii The whole city of Canberra is laid out using triangles and circles, the roundabouts came later but fit the overall flow of the roads well.
Roads in America were build with high speed traffic in mind cause the idea was that the faster cars go the faster traffic flows.
However this is an outdated idea cause it's been shown many times that smooth flow is more important than the maximum speed cars are theoretically able to go. In America though they ripped up their cities and spend massively on roads build with that high speed model in mind. They later on had to put in large amounts of traffic lights to regulate flow.
Having traffic lights and roundabouts on the same road is very inefficient cause they work against each other. Traffic lights allow for higher speeds since they ensure an empty road while roundabouts slow cars down but keep the flow more constant. Having both on the same road kind of works against each other and makes the roundabout a major bottleneck. Traffic elements don't exist in isolation they are part of a system so for roundabouts to work well you need a system build around slow but smooth traffic flow.
The fact that we have a lot of roundabouts in Europe is probably more by accident than design, North American cities are mostly built in square grid patterns which allow 4-way-stops to be the obvious choice while European cities are a lot older and have a spaghetti style layout where intersecting roads won't align so easily. In the show they used a four exit roundabout with each exit at 90 degrees from the next, these are very rare in my 10 year driving experience in Europe.
Yeah your right......i think this 90-degree roundabout was just for the point of this experiment
Additionally, a lot of roundabouts do not have an actual center or a very small one and you are able to drive straight threw quicker then what they are showing.
+RuleBritannia1987 Here in Palmerston North, New Zealand, we have mostly grid like roads and HEAPS of roundabouts.
That is not true. European roundabouts are not that old yet. Most have been made in the past 50 years.
The real reason is actually political. The car companies don't have as much power and so smooth traffic flow, safety and eathetics were prioritized over showing off cars.
"Spaghetti style layout" the best description respectively comparison I have ever heard 👍🤩
do they know there are mini roundabouts
In holland you see round abouts like every 5 meters its irritatinig
3:12 Technically, a roundabout takes less real-estate because they don’t need extra turning lanes and “back up space” as conventional traffic lights.
untill you see all quarter panel damage from crashing constantly crashing every day there's more glass bits of plastic at the roundabouts...