Oh my God, I've never had an epiphany as much as I just watching this! As an American, imagining a roundabout inside a roundabout was tough, but this explanation of roundabouts and city blocks and "streets" connecting inner roundabouts.... wow it makes so much sense now.
For me (an American), single lane roundabouts make perfect sense, but multi - lane ones are scary. The single lane case is simply turn right and merge. However, the multi-lane feeder road case involves "merging" across multiple lanes. The magic roundabout has people completely cutting across traffic! If Americans are going to embrace roundabouts, there needs to be better training about how to handle the multi-lane cases.
+nick2ny If you're going to quote UK driving reg, you're basically proving my point about needing more training in the US :-) The CA DMV is here: www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/dmv/detail/pubs/hdbk/right_of_way I don't find either adequate for teaching people how this really works. I think the word "merge" is the heart of the problem. We are used to merging into freeway traffic at speed, but roundabouts may require a stop. It's more like a right turn on red, but with no (often ignored) requirement to stop.
They istalled the fear of death in me when I was learning. There is a general rule for roundabouts of seeing them like a clock but it often varies depending on roundabout. The worst was juddering and then stalling when entering a multi lane roundabout and ending up a sitting duck, sideways, with a stalled engine, in a stationary car with shitloads of cars heading towards your door. Think of being stuck in the middle of a busy intersection with no engine and all lights on green.
Multi lane ones are fine, just be in the lane you're supposed to be in approaching them so you don't have to change lanes or merge on the roundabout. Changing lanes on a roundabout will lead to a lot of abuse here in Australia.
That was really interesting. I'm from Swindon and it really isn't as complicated as it looks. And there's never a jam. You just go where you want to go. One of the interesting things about it is that there is two routes you can take to each exit, so if one route is busier, you can take the other way round.
+Kevan Murtagh I would imagine that like most roads if you're local and you know your route, it's easy and efficient but if you're not from around there it's quite daunting. Do you often see people doing the wrong thing there? or are there many accidents or near misses? Leeds has a one way loop system in the city centre, outside that is an "inner ring road" very short motorway, A58(M), which is not a complete loop, then there are discontinuous patches of "ring road" beyond that which have nothing to do with a ring, they're just A roads really. If you know where you're going it's easy enough, but you have to get in the right lane 10 minutes before the junction because it will be very difficult to change lanes once you're in heavy traffic on the loop road and 2 signs for lanes can contradict each other within 100 yards, and if you don't realise that the one way system is a loop and where it goes (it's not clear without looking at a map), it's hard to navigate. What I really hate is say you have 4 lanes approaching a roundabout and lets say the road markings painted on the road show M62 in the left 2 lanes and not the right 2 lanes, then as soon as you're on the roundabout the markings painted on the road show M62 as the far right/inner lane of the roundabout and you have to cross 3-4 lanes of traffic, then when you exit it turned out lane 3 would have been fine. It was all much more intuitive when I lived in Surrey.
I know it’s 5 years after posting, this is really interesting and helped me realize some fundamental things concepts exist that I hadn’t even considered. (As a mathematician, it’s itching that part of my brain)
looking at the magic roundabout for the first time makes it seem complicated, but after looking at it for a few moments you begin to realize it's actual simplicity and genius design. them Brits have a certain panache when it comes to problem solving that I've always found endearing.
i grew up right near the shepherd and flock roundabout. It's a good little pub. Relatively expensive though. Roundabouts are easy as long as there are rules about when you can enter, which lane to be in and when you indicate left or right. In the UK, assuming a simple 2 lane roundabout with each road running into it being a single lane in each direction: -You only enter when there is no oncomming traffic on the roundabout. -If you're going to an exit before or including straight on (according to the simple diagram on the road sign), you stay in the outside lane and don't indicate except to exit. Of course that means if you're taking the first exit you'll be indicating left to exit before you enter. -If you're exiting after straight on, you go in the inside lane you indicate right for the entire time except when you're about to exit you indicate left. -Whenever you exit, you always indicate left from the last junction before the exit. -You should look in your left mirror before exiting but *if everyone is following the rules there won't ever be anything blocking your exit from the inner lane and that's what most americans seem to fear.* It seems there are different rules in different countries though. If you get into a situation where traffic entering has priority over that already on the roundabout which seems to be the case in the right hand drive clips in this video, that would cause chaos unless there are traffic lights. I should note though that at least where I live in UK, about 2/3 of people don't indicate at all on the roundabout.
+Yud Peace Can't wait to get more traffic on these highways! Even with few cars, it's pretty awesome. images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/358399892792180163/9705CDEB0B585B4CEEA7D3DC51DDE0EC73EECCCF/
I am a 48-year-old American driver, and roundabouts have always confused me. This video was a very good explanation, and I thank you for it. That being said, I would still likely cause a traffic incident, due to a life-long habit of driving on the opposite side of the road from pretty much the rest of the world. I think that if I ever visit Europe, I would have to use public transportation, in the interest of preserving the safety of everyone around me!
You do realise that only UK in the entire Europe drives in left side? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-_and_left-hand_traffic You'd be perfectly safe driving in most of Europe, let alone most of the world. Link for reference, I assume you know where Europe is on it =)
CacheRAM how are they confusing? Slow down, yield to traffic in the circle, get out at your exit. So much easier than all the lanes and combos and decisions you have to make in a traffic light
I live in Swindon (as a kid) and I used to go on the magic roundabout when my dad had a car. loved those old days. If you think that it is scary it's not that much. My dad thinks so to. Thanks for reading.
This massively overcomplicated explanation is the reason Americans don't have or understand roundabouts. Also, the magic roundabout works because when your on it you only deal with the bit your on, you don't see the big picture
Being in the UK I'm surprised to discover you have roundabouts in the USA, I can't say I've ever seen one depicted in a film, all I ever see are lots of very wide cross roads usually controlled by overhead traffic lights.
Yes they are, we just don't use that terminology to describe them. He takes care to define exactly what he means by "city block", and his definition applies to British cities.
+SolarPolarMan That's beside the point. Every part of the city which is not a road will still be surrounded by roads, making it a "block" the way he describes them. It's just that some of our blocks are large and have other roads inside them. In terms of his definition and discussion, they're still "blocks"
Uturns are illegal in most states at intersections in the us, thats why you don't do it. Also the cost in land value lost from the magic round about is crazy, no way NewYork would destroy multi-million dollar buildings to have better traffic flow.
I love roundabouts. If there are no cars on it when you approach you can fly straight through, only slowing enough to corner safely. If there are a few cars on it you can just get your timing right and quite safely punch through a gap in the cars. Still only slowing down just enough to corner. I especially love going straight through a small 2 lane roundabout when there's no traffic. Because you can drive in a straight line if you start in the outer most lane, cross to the centre lane of the roundabout, then exit back onto the outer lane. It's not legal but that's why you do it when there's no traffic.
Yeah but like think about WHY we have roundabouts and not intersections. A roundabout isn't like, the first thing you'd think of when creating traffic flow... that's why there's a long discussion of it in the video.
Good sir I am a British person and I am here to inform you that England’s fellow nation also use roundabouts such as Scotland,Wales and Northern Ireland and not only England.
Honestly roundabouts are just as easy as intersections. It's only when they get really huge with tons of lanes that it starts to get confusing with all the cars everywhere
Further more, if you resize the roundabouts so that they're the same size and side by side , you get a new york one way layout again... But we definitely need more magic roundabouts and less part-time traffic lights.
Traffic circles work great if people knew how to use them (In America people stop to let someone into a traffic circle all the time even though traffic inside the circle usually has right-of-way.
Stanford University has a whole set of pages devoted to roundabout training and awareness: transportation.stanford.edu/roundabout/ You're right though, too many people at the moment don't quite understand how they work I the US
:o)) I'm very glad to see an American at least attempting to appreciate the worth of the humble roundabout! They are actually the most awesome, time-saving, fuel-saving, vehicle wear and tear saving and stress-saving traffic-flow inventions of all time! Your explanation, however, was waaay too complicated, and I'm pretty sure it only served to confirm the idea that roundabouts were only for the weird 'other brainers from across the water'! Really, there are about four, basic rules to navigating a roundabout correctly and safely, and that's it - stick to them and Bob's your Uncle, Fanny's your Aunt! I'm a native of Wiltshire, home to the 'Magic Roundabout', Stonehenge and the Milk Hill Crop Circles - all, obviously, evidence of superior intelligence. Thank you for trying. xxx p.s. Oh! Gautier, Mississippi, where it's now my joy to reside, has recently constructed a roundabout, mostly, I believe, to contain an extremely large water feature. It's a very small roundabout, but very well signposted - I use it for the feelings of nostalgia, but have yet to meet another vehicle en route!!
Error: Etoile in Paris is definitely NOT a roundabout in the French definition. True French roundabouts have a priority "giveway to the left for vehicles that want to exit the circle, then those that want to stay in them, then those that want to enter". Normally they don't have any traffic lights on entry or exit: once you have entered the roundabout, you normally don't stop to exit on the next right turn (but eventually you may have to stop to give way to vahicles in the inner circular lane that want to get back to the outer circular lane for exiting, so drivers only look at their left side (the driver's side) This is absolutely not the case at Etoile: you have trafic lights at BOTH entry and exit, and no single priority, you still have to look on both sides, when the trafic light passes to green, and also in front of you because there are ALSO trafic lights just at the exit, so exists may be jammed. Jams will typically occur on the outer ring, and then people have to get to inner rings to avoid them. But it's complicate to do that because you also need to look behind you. Crossing Etoile may be scaring for many drivers including French drivers living elsewhere. Etoile is an exception in France. But it was never converted to a real normal roundabouts because of its heavy trafic and many lanes: most roundabouts in France have two lanes on the ring, and small roundabouts connecting residential streets have only one: they are easy to build. Well Paris is an exception for many things: it is unique by the fact it has NO stops, it has tricolor traffic lights everywhere. Even in another very busy city in France such as Marseille (with more jams than Paris), you won't find something like in Paris: you have real roundabouts upgrading older crossings with traffic lights, and you find stops or giveways everywhere between streets with very different trafic rates, plus some large corssing using stacked ways with bridges/tunnels (Marseille is not as falt as Paris, it has mountains bordering the sea and the trafic is congestioned along the coast with many curves and tunnels. Crossings occu in the middle of the city, within valleys where streets are packed and there are few large boulevards. Paris is different because of its many large boulevards with leteral alleys, and trees, and it's not simple to create tunnels except along the Seine River. Etoile remains very different: it is in fact not a single crossing but a series of conventional crossings around the monument block, but occuring at low distance between each other (their distance is smalller than the total width of lanes. You have vehicles everywhere around you in all directions! That why you find traffic lights BOTH on entry and exit to reduce the complexity. Accidents are common, but Parisians rarely have accidents there: only tourists and other French people have difficulties (most accidents occur when people want to exit from an inner ring lane to an outer right, as they are shocked behind them on their right side. Frontal shocks also occur when another vehicle exits the roundabout: the driver on the outer ring is directly exposed in front of him on its right side. Pedestrians and cyclists also can't cross Etoile easily: but there are some tunnels to reach the monument, and most pedestrian trafic occur in concentric circular streets around the roundabouts, but not directly in the roundabout. As well driving on the circular motorway around Paris (boulevard périphérique) is much more dangerous: there are no roundabouts, but entry (turn right and merge to left) and exists (unmerge to right then turn right) are causing many accidents, because unmerge/merge lanes on the motorway are very short and it was not easy to reach the needed speed to enter, or to brake when exiting. For this reason the speed on this urban motrway has been slowed down and is now very severely controled.
You forgot to mention some of the other reasons why roundabouts are used. In the UK, roundabouts are sometimes used in lieu of traffic lights, particularly if there is a joining traffic on the right hand side. Because of the automatic 'give way to the right' rule, any car on the main road, would have to stop and let any traffic wishing to join from the side road. Of course, you could control that intersection with traffic lights, but traffic lights are expensive, and may not have any effect on certain types of traffic patterns. This roundabout for instance, is located in Kinmel Bay, North Wales: www.instantstreetview.com/@53.298695,-3.51547,334.24h,-4.21p,1z Kinmel Bay is located on the North Wales coast, and the road that this roundabout is on, is part of a filter from a dual carriageway a few miles away. During the summer season this road can become very busy, with tourists and holiday makers filtering off the dual carriageway, as they head towards the local caravan parks, or visit the beach. Because of the volume of traffic, Traffic lights would be impractical and probably cause more congestion. A simple remedy is to paint roundabouts on the road, which will by default, provides an opportunity for joining traffic to advance. A quite ingenious method, and, because the roundabout is painted, rather than an actual defined structure, you are legally allowed to drive straight over it, if there are no vehicles waiting to join.
I'm dizzy just watching this. God help the motorists. As for pedestrians trying to cross over to the other side (on some of these so called "magic round-abouts)? I'd advise to say a prayer before you attempt the crossing. It may be your last! :) Have the Road Traffic Authorities not heard of pedestrian (fly-over crossings?) LOL
This roundabout looks daunting at first but it's easy all Swindon people know how to use it most people out of Swindon have no idea how to use it I myself am from Swindon :)
As a Brit, I'll tell you why roundabouts can be bad. If you get a lot of traffic joining from one direction and going straight or right, it becomes very difficult for people giving way to the on-roundabout traffic to then join the roundabout. It then causes massive tailbacks. Roundabouts are fine when there's low amounts of traffic or the flow of the traffic is such that the roundabout is evenly used. At other times, it causes congestion. That's what I've observed as a driver.
Crossroads wouldn't be able to handle more traffic there. The roundabout is probably there because the road is so busy. The solution isn't to remove the roundabout, but to increase it's capacity.
Yeah, but you can't do that by simply increasing its size. Traffic-light-controlled roundabouts help. The problem isn't how many cars can be on a roundabout at a given time, it's the fact that when you have a lot of traffic going one route through the roundabout, it prevents people on the roads between the entrance and exit from joining the roundabout.
We're not talking about increasing the capacity of the roundabout, we're talking about increasing the efficiency. Increasing the capacity of a roundabout where everybody is going in one direction doesn't help anyone. Yes, you will cause traffic to stop, but at least everybody gets a chance at using the roundabout. It's not the same situation at all! Look at the roundabout between Tongwell Street and Childs way in Milton Keynes for an example of where this is useful.
possessedllama If there are too many cars on the roundabout, causing no one to get through, it's a capacity problem. If you stop those cars, you just move the spot where people are waiting to the spot those cars came from. You need to increase the capacity so more people can use the roundabout, so people don't have to wait.
Yes, the Magic Roundabout (I have a problem with the name, but that's my problem only) is wrong. But only in the fact you must really be alert and know EXACTLY where you need to go. Especially if you consider no matter where you want to go your path would be 1) A roundabout to enter the roundabout 2) To get to middle roundabout 3) then another roundabout to exit. I can only wonder how many people leaving it would be saying 'I got off at the wrong exit' Then it dawned on me that it's not a fault of roundabout design but more of too many roads coming to one point. I now live in England and with the bad sign posting on normal roundabouts, I can only imagine how detailed the sign posting would have to be on that roundabout.
I actually quite like roundabouts. I don't know why anyone would want to wait in mind-numbing boredom at a traffic light when they could just slow down, merge and turn at a roundabout.
Also, what a lot of people don't realise is that the Magic Roundabout was inspired by a roundabout at High Wycome which was also converted to 5 mini roundabouts to counteract a problem. www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.6268734,-0.7504605,213m/data=!3m1!1e3
it would be cool if all 4 way intersections were replace with 3 way roundabouts, but roads have a nature of forming crosses :( we need hexagonal city blocks with roundabouts on all 6 points, not square grids :( but we'll have self driving cars soon, so it doesn't matter :)
This had a lot of explanation that was not needed... Typically in England we have 3 kinds of traffic systems - no traffic light junctions, traffic controlled junctions, and roundabout controlled junctions... In small traffic areas you don't need a roundabout or traffic lights -- we only use mini roundabout to slow traffic (just like speed bumps) or we just traffic lights for crossings... In medium traffic areas we will often use traffic lights -- these work best for busy junctions... or to help control the traffic to allow traffic from quiet side roads enter onto a very busy main road... roundabouts have nothing to do with city blocks -- they are used as a means to keep traffic flowing in a safer manner... in some extreme cases they will combine traffic lights with roundabouts... BUT - it is very rare we will use a round about on a crossroad junction - traffic lights a way more common... The round about will be used only on a crossroad IF it is two major roads meeting and we want to keep the traffic flowing... Often roundabouts are used on junctions that have 5 or more junctions -- for example coming off a motor way to join another motorway, a main road, a minor road, or go to services -- traffic lights would cause a build up of too much traffic on the exiting motorway In the case of swindons roundabout system... the mini roundabout act as traffic lights -- 3 line roundabouts are common (right lane go right and sometimes straight as well, centre lane is straight only, left lane is left only)... Having mini roundabout control the speed system works much better than traffic lights because traffic lights make you stop longer and build up traffic more -- so by using lights on a round about you defeat the purpose of having a roundabout (that is there to KEEP traffic moving)... I'm not sure if you have ever driven in England - but most areas don't have a block system -- i've driven in america and as my american friends have told me that if you cant do a U-turn, just keep taking the next right or next left and you will end up back where you started ... this is rarely possible in England We also have many areas that are very 'close' together, therefore a roundabout can't be used...the system has nothing to do with blocks - you've over thought this...it's just a means for traffic to keep moving... after all, how many drivers actually want to do a U-turn??? most just want to go straight and sometimes turn left or right...very rarely do they want to go back in the direct they came...
It freaks me out that there are roundabouts (like, all shown in the video) where people have to stop inside the roundabout to get out instead of people outside having to stop to get in.
The worst roundabout in England was the Runnymede Roundabout that caused a lorry to crash into me. Unfortunately it was a couple of miles from Heathrow on the way to Windsor, exactly where American tourists who hire cars travel. I'm sure this put off Americans. Thankfully this has been totally resigned in the last couple of years.
In the U.S. when neighborhoods reach a certain level of affluence they put in a lot of signs, "No U-Turn" signs at intersections are often first. (When any city landscapes along a road they usually put up No U-turn signs. Island in the middle? No U-Turn signs at the intersections. You have to do some time consuming and weird stuff in order to legally turn around. ) You're more likely to find speed bumps (in less affluent communities what happens when you ask for them? About 5 variations of No.) There are more 'Don't do this' 'Don't park here' signs. Beverly Hills often has 3 no parking signs on each pole: based on time of day, day of the week, permits etc. My very cool working class neighborhood has very few signs, a lot of narrow (hillside) one way streets that we sometimes drive the wrong way on. I chose to move here because I came by at night to check it out and noticed that the center of a cul de sac was neatly parked up, but there were no lines, no signs. As a middle class American from a suburb I found this remarkable and wanted to live here. I love my neighbors, if you don't think anarchism is the most peaceful best way to live stop by. We do everything by consensus. Long Beach had a wonderful round-a-bout. I loved driving through it. This year they 'fixed' it. lane markers, signs. The entrances are now divided; I think into "I'd like to be side swiped on my right" and "No, I'd rather be side swiped on my left" options. I traveled in the UK and Scotland for a couple of months, rented cars and enjoyed ever roundabout. Had I known about this one I'd have driven across England to experience it. I've got a few locations in southern California where there could be round-a-bouts but there aren't. Instead there's interminable traffic signals, left turn lanes, right turn lanes, delay, delay. A lot of the engineers who got us to the moon in 1968 have been driving through this one impossible intersection on Palos Verdes since airliners had propellers and not once have any of them realized, "This stupid mess could easily be a round-a-bout." There's plenty of room. Maybe it they had, we'd have already occupied Mars.
The reason counter flow is no good in NYC is it is all traffic light controlled. Having on way roads means you can turn left or right with out having to wait for oncoming traffic, allowing more traffic to flow across the junction with less waiting time in between greens. I suggest you get Cities Skylines with advanced traffic mods, demonstrates well what you can do. Also demonstrates bus lanes are unnecessary if you fix the cause of your congestion.
It depends on what is is, if its a bunch of houses, it's an estate, if there is shops,Shops, maybe a park, a bike path , or dying smack addict (if you are in Edinburgh lol) If you know the place you may use the street name .IE The 2nd exit on the left is Lumbard Street but carry on straight for Mallden square
If any of the UK Councils had their say they would say "That's council property" over here we don't usually generalise things around the road and or roundabouts into one term, so it's kinda hard to say, depends on what you want either side of the road mate, like i said before I.E Shops, Estates, a bunch of chavs lingering by that street light, We usually the term blocks when referring to inner city residential skyscrapers
Swindon has 2 Magic Roũdabouts. Þ oѳer one's at 51.568650, -1.801478. "English" city blocks are irregular-shaped & are rarely surrounded by busy streets.
found this video totally bewildering and confusing but that is why I liked it. It explores a way of thinking and topic that is totally alien to me. (actually have little or no ability to visualise maps and road layouts). The video goes very deep into the opposite end of the spectrum of my mind so it is defacto mind expanding, potentially psychedelic if I focus hard enough. I still don't get it yet though.
Howdy- the first minute where the stuff is being hand-drawn might be confusing, but the rest should be clearer... crazy though that if you expanded roundabouts until they touch each other, and shrank the city blocks down, america would become england (and vice versa) !
@@nick2ny thanks for the reply. I think you are overestimating my ability to imagine environmental space and road layouts. It is something I cannot do. I could not explain directions around a town I have lived in for most of my life. I only make decisions about routes when I am in the space / junction in question, where I vaguely remember which way to go but nothing more. So your video was way way 'out there' for me. It would take me many hours over many days, drawing it out on paper myself and walking around imaging I am a vehicle on the roundabouts you are talking about for me to get it.
+Hide and Tweak Great username. What about it? A roundabout is a circular one-way street, and a one-way street should theoretically be easier for a pedestrian to cross than a two-way street. However, drivers have a lot to process when they are approaching or in a roundabout, so some sort of mid-roundabout crosswalk would be ideal for protecting pedestrians. But to answer your question, see 4:20, where lots of pedestrians cross into Charles de Gaulle Etoile to get to the Arc de Triomphe.
It depends. On larger roundabouts, each road touching the roundabout is split as it approaches, with a small triangular island in between the two lanes. Then, although cars never have to yield to pedestrians, the pedestrian only has to cross one lane of traffic at a time, which works out well. There are often then conventional crossings on the roads in between roundabouts where the traffic on just that road must stop for pedestrians. On very small roundabouts, cars usually yield to pedestrians. Traffic speed and density are low enough that it works fine. On very big roundabouts, you usually see a system of subways for people to walk under the roundabout and across the middle.
+Hide and Tweak Larger roundabouts tend to have grade-separated footpaths across them, either bridges or underpasses. At smaller junctions, pedestrians cross at grade.
Excellent video yet I'm still oddly confused :p I guess the way you use the terms "city block" and "roundabout" as broader than what I'm accustomed to trips me up. Also, you said we already live in the center of a roundabout, surrounded by a one way street. But in my apt. complex you enter and can turn right or left to circle around the buildings. There doesn't seem to be a proper or intended direction. You just go whichever way that's closer to your building.
Roundabouts are great until you get a driver that wants to wait until there are no cars in it and holds up all traffic behind them... here in the UK we have now started to see some roundabouts being removed and a simple traffic light junction replace them due to the human driver...
It would help nonBritish drivers understand the graphics easier if the British videos were just flipped left to right like mirror image. (Philadelphia has a huge roundabout around its' art museum and nearby park with a road between the 2. Having all those cars orbiting around you as you visit can get monotonous. I've wished they had counter rotation just for a balancing force.)
In the US, two way streets are the most common overall. Dense downtown districts tend to have one-way streets, because they allow both left and right turns to be free-flowing (not waiting for a break in oncoming traffic, or having a dedicated turn arrow). That works when the street density is high (small blocks) so that going around the block is not a big penalty.
I didn't know it was so easy to needlessly complicate something so simple.
6.43 If A roundabout is going reverse than it is not a roundabout at all, wtf!!!
For some reason I found this really hypnotic.
Oh my God, I've never had an epiphany as much as I just watching this! As an American, imagining a roundabout inside a roundabout was tough, but this explanation of roundabouts and city blocks and "streets" connecting inner roundabouts.... wow it makes so much sense now.
For me (an American), single lane roundabouts make perfect sense, but multi - lane ones are scary. The single lane case is simply turn right and merge. However, the multi-lane feeder road case involves "merging" across multiple lanes. The magic roundabout has people completely cutting across traffic! If Americans are going to embrace roundabouts, there needs to be better training about how to handle the multi-lane cases.
www.gov.uk/guidance/the-highway-code/using-the-road-159-to-203
+nick2ny If you're going to quote UK driving reg, you're basically proving my point about needing more training in the US :-) The CA DMV is here: www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/dmv/detail/pubs/hdbk/right_of_way
I don't find either adequate for teaching people how this really works. I think the word "merge" is the heart of the problem. We are used to merging into freeway traffic at speed, but roundabouts may require a stop. It's more like a right turn on red, but with no (often ignored) requirement to stop.
They istalled the fear of death in me when I was learning. There is a general rule for roundabouts of seeing them like a clock but it often varies depending on roundabout. The worst was juddering and then stalling when entering a multi lane roundabout and ending up a sitting duck, sideways, with a stalled engine, in a stationary car with shitloads of cars heading towards your door. Think of being stuck in the middle of a busy intersection with no engine and all lights on green.
Multi lane ones are fine, just be in the lane you're supposed to be in approaching them so you don't have to change lanes or merge on the roundabout. Changing lanes on a roundabout will lead to a lot of abuse here in Australia.
Magic raoundabout is pretty easy in real life
5:45 "A roundabout with no exits is just.. NASCAR!" - lol
That was really interesting. I'm from Swindon and it really isn't as complicated as it looks. And there's never a jam. You just go where you want to go. One of the interesting things about it is that there is two routes you can take to each exit, so if one route is busier, you can take the other way round.
+Kevan Murtagh I would imagine that like most roads if you're local and you know your route, it's easy and efficient but if you're not from around there it's quite daunting. Do you often see people doing the wrong thing there? or are there many accidents or near misses?
Leeds has a one way loop system in the city centre, outside that is an "inner ring road" very short motorway, A58(M), which is not a complete loop, then there are discontinuous patches of "ring road" beyond that which have nothing to do with a ring, they're just A roads really. If you know where you're going it's easy enough, but you have to get in the right lane 10 minutes before the junction because it will be very difficult to change lanes once you're in heavy traffic on the loop road and 2 signs for lanes can contradict each other within 100 yards, and if you don't realise that the one way system is a loop and where it goes (it's not clear without looking at a map), it's hard to navigate.
What I really hate is say you have 4 lanes approaching a roundabout and lets say the road markings painted on the road show M62 in the left 2 lanes and not the right 2 lanes, then as soon as you're on the roundabout the markings painted on the road show M62 as the far right/inner lane of the roundabout and you have to cross 3-4 lanes of traffic, then when you exit it turned out lane 3 would have been fine. It was all much more intuitive when I lived in Surrey.
+Kevan Murtagh I think a truck-driver from Romania may have his problems
American roundabouts would be easy if people would not drive through them at 40 mph.
I don't know what your talking about, I drive through then at 39 mph
it's all about the lateral gs
what a wonderful, easy to understand, explaination
+ymer234 ikr
I know it’s 5 years after posting, this is really interesting and helped me realize some fundamental things concepts exist that I hadn’t even considered. (As a mathematician, it’s itching that part of my brain)
looking at the magic roundabout for the first time makes it seem complicated, but after looking at it for a few moments you begin to realize it's actual simplicity and genius design. them Brits have a certain panache when it comes to problem solving that I've always found endearing.
Wow I just watched that entire video and now I like roundabouts a lot more.
i grew up right near the shepherd and flock roundabout. It's a good little pub. Relatively expensive though.
Roundabouts are easy as long as there are rules about when you can enter, which lane to be in and when you indicate left or right. In the UK, assuming a simple 2 lane roundabout with each road running into it being a single lane in each direction:
-You only enter when there is no oncomming traffic on the roundabout.
-If you're going to an exit before or including straight on (according to the simple diagram on the road sign), you stay in the outside lane and don't indicate except to exit. Of course that means if you're taking the first exit you'll be indicating left to exit before you enter.
-If you're exiting after straight on, you go in the inside lane you indicate right for the entire time except when you're about to exit you indicate left.
-Whenever you exit, you always indicate left from the last junction before the exit.
-You should look in your left mirror before exiting but *if everyone is following the rules there won't ever be anything blocking your exit from the inner lane and that's what most americans seem to fear.*
It seems there are different rules in different countries though. If you get into a situation where traffic entering has priority over that already on the roundabout which seems to be the case in the right hand drive clips in this video, that would cause chaos unless there are traffic lights.
I should note though that at least where I live in UK, about 2/3 of people don't indicate at all on the roundabout.
KX36 i live near the shepherd and flock roundabout as well!
What if i am a roundabout?
+iRider than you will be Magical.
Then your words will make me out and out
You are.
iRider the roundabout is us.
Nice Yes reference, Tony Walos
Because of this video, I appreciate how driving in Australia is so easy.
America needs more roundabouts. I hate sitting at traffic lights, especially at night
The most genius explanation of a magic roundabout.
I love the eccentricities of human beings :). Thanks for the video.
I thought you were playing cities skylines :P it is applicable nevertheless! Thanks
+Yud Peace Can't wait to get more traffic on these highways! Even with few cars, it's pretty awesome. images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/358399892792180163/9705CDEB0B585B4CEEA7D3DC51DDE0EC73EECCCF/
+Laurentiu D you just make more intersections on the roundabout
+FSXgta It works fine. I used highways so there isn't any red light.
the magic roundabout is talked about all over the world and I for one am very proud to be connected to this magical town in England
I am a 48-year-old American driver, and roundabouts have always confused me. This video was a very good explanation, and I thank you for it.
That being said, I would still likely cause a traffic incident, due to a life-long habit of driving on the opposite side of the road from pretty much the rest of the world. I think that if I ever visit Europe, I would have to use public transportation, in the interest of preserving the safety of everyone around me!
You do realise that only UK in the entire Europe drives in left side?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-_and_left-hand_traffic
You'd be perfectly safe driving in most of Europe, let alone most of the world.
Link for reference, I assume you know where Europe is on it =)
I do indeed know this.
Simon Robbins Cyprus isn't really European (even with the EU membership and the Greek influence).
Yeah I suppose in most EU countries you have to know the signs. Where in US it's normally written.
CacheRAM how are they confusing? Slow down, yield to traffic in the circle, get out at your exit. So much easier than all the lanes and combos and decisions you have to make in a traffic light
The problem is you're driving in Manhattan.
4:34.. Why does the traffic already in the roundabout not have right of way?? Makes the flow much smoother
I live here, I never realised that it had 5 mini roundabouts!
I am a traffic engineer. This video is wonderful. Thanks!
"Hey look kids, there's Big Ben, and there's Parliament... again."
I'll be the roundabout...
You can take our intersections...but you can never take...our freedom!
Horrible drinking game: Always drink a shot when he says "roundabout"....
OH SHI-OOOH OOH OOF
hahaha I didn't expect that thought to even be possible when I woke up this morning! :D
Of course he's gonna say "roundabout" a lot of times because it's the topic of the video.
I live in Swindon (as a kid) and I used to go on the magic roundabout when my dad had a car. loved those old days. If you think that it is scary it's not that much. My dad thinks so to. Thanks for reading.
Your first mistake is driving in NYC to begin with :-)
This massively overcomplicated explanation is the reason Americans don't have or understand roundabouts. Also, the magic roundabout works because when your on it you only deal with the bit your on, you don't see the big picture
someone just throw up a drone for 20 mins at rush hour and lets see it in action for real
Great video and great deductions!!
so its just basically a giant roadway where you just drive the direction you want and slowly avoid everyone.
Being in the UK I'm surprised to discover you have roundabouts in the USA, I can't say I've ever seen one depicted in a film, all I ever see are lots of very wide cross roads usually controlled by overhead traffic lights.
That's because most of our major cities were designed around roadways and property rather than being paved walkways.
7:10 start of the explanation 7:42 end. idk what the remaining 10 minutes are for
I'm in that weird part of TH-cam again.
"English city blocks" Aren't a thing
SolarPolarMan Well then, think of them as whatever bits of england aren't roads or roundabouts.
Yes they are, we just don't use that terminology to describe them. He takes care to define exactly what he means by "city block", and his definition applies to British cities.
My city's not built on a grid system so ...
+SolarPolarMan That's beside the point. Every part of the city which is not a road will still be surrounded by roads, making it a "block" the way he describes them. It's just that some of our blocks are large and have other roads inside them. In terms of his definition and discussion, they're still "blocks"
***** Milton Keynes doesn't count :P
Uturns are illegal in most states at intersections in the us, thats why you don't do it.
Also the cost in land value lost from the magic round about is crazy, no way NewYork would destroy multi-million dollar buildings to have better traffic flow.
I love roundabouts.
If there are no cars on it when you approach you can fly straight through, only slowing enough to corner safely.
If there are a few cars on it you can just get your timing right and quite safely punch through a gap in the cars. Still only slowing down just enough to corner.
I especially love going straight through a small 2 lane roundabout when there's no traffic. Because you can drive in a straight line if you start in the outer most lane, cross to the centre lane of the roundabout, then exit back onto the outer lane. It's not legal but that's why you do it when there's no traffic.
The magic roundabout at 7:44 is at Heathrow Airport, situated between terminal 3 and terminal 4,
👍🏼
Good explanation!
Thanks.
Great explanation, thanks!
Explanation was WAY too complicated. I don't see what's so confusing about roundabouts.
Yeah but like think about WHY we have roundabouts and not intersections. A roundabout isn't like, the first thing you'd think of when creating traffic flow... that's why there's a long discussion of it in the video.
@@babaganoujband Why aren't there more roundabouts in America?
Because people are afraid. This video clearly aims to reduce that fear.
Very good video. It would be pretty nice to have a similar one explaining the Highway system, a no intersection street.
Good sir I am a British person and I am here to inform you that England’s fellow nation also use roundabouts such as Scotland,Wales and Northern Ireland and not only England.
GREAT video!!!
Honestly roundabouts are just as easy as intersections. It's only when they get really huge with tons of lanes that it starts to get confusing with all the cars everywhere
Our roundabouts are clockwise not anti-clockwise......
Further more, if you resize the roundabouts so that they're the same size and side by side , you get a new york one way layout again...
But we definitely need more magic roundabouts and less part-time traffic lights.
Traffic circles work great if people knew how to use them (In America people stop to let someone into a traffic circle all the time even though traffic inside the circle usually has right-of-way.
Stanford University has a whole set of pages devoted to roundabout training and awareness:
transportation.stanford.edu/roundabout/
You're right though, too many people at the moment don't quite understand how they work I the US
:o)) I'm very glad to see an American at least attempting to appreciate the worth of the humble roundabout! They are actually the most awesome, time-saving, fuel-saving, vehicle wear and tear saving and stress-saving traffic-flow inventions of all time! Your explanation, however, was waaay too complicated, and I'm pretty sure it only served to confirm the idea that roundabouts were only for the weird 'other brainers from across the water'! Really, there are about four, basic rules to navigating a roundabout correctly and safely, and that's it - stick to them and Bob's your Uncle, Fanny's your Aunt! I'm a native of Wiltshire, home to the 'Magic Roundabout', Stonehenge and the Milk Hill Crop Circles - all, obviously, evidence of superior intelligence. Thank you for trying. xxx
p.s. Oh! Gautier, Mississippi, where it's now my joy to reside, has recently constructed a roundabout, mostly, I believe, to contain an extremely large water feature. It's a very small roundabout, but very well signposted - I use it for the feelings of nostalgia, but have yet to meet another vehicle en route!!
This makes me really anxious!
Error: Etoile in Paris is definitely NOT a roundabout in the French definition. True French roundabouts have a priority "giveway to the left for vehicles that want to exit the circle, then those that want to stay in them, then those that want to enter". Normally they don't have any traffic lights on entry or exit: once you have entered the roundabout, you normally don't stop to exit on the next right turn (but eventually you may have to stop to give way to vahicles in the inner circular lane that want to get back to the outer circular lane for exiting, so drivers only look at their left side (the driver's side)
This is absolutely not the case at Etoile: you have trafic lights at BOTH entry and exit, and no single priority, you still have to look on both sides, when the trafic light passes to green, and also in front of you because there are ALSO trafic lights just at the exit, so exists may be jammed. Jams will typically occur on the outer ring, and then people have to get to inner rings to avoid them. But it's complicate to do that because you also need to look behind you.
Crossing Etoile may be scaring for many drivers including French drivers living elsewhere. Etoile is an exception in France. But it was never converted to a real normal roundabouts because of its heavy trafic and many lanes: most roundabouts in France have two lanes on the ring, and small roundabouts connecting residential streets have only one: they are easy to build.
Well Paris is an exception for many things: it is unique by the fact it has NO stops, it has tricolor traffic lights everywhere.
Even in another very busy city in France such as Marseille (with more jams than Paris), you won't find something like in Paris: you have real roundabouts upgrading older crossings with traffic lights, and you find stops or giveways everywhere between streets with very different trafic rates, plus some large corssing using stacked ways with bridges/tunnels (Marseille is not as falt as Paris, it has mountains bordering the sea and the trafic is congestioned along the coast with many curves and tunnels. Crossings occu in the middle of the city, within valleys where streets are packed and there are few large boulevards.
Paris is different because of its many large boulevards with leteral alleys, and trees, and it's not simple to create tunnels except along the Seine River.
Etoile remains very different: it is in fact not a single crossing but a series of conventional crossings around the monument block, but occuring at low distance between each other (their distance is smalller than the total width of lanes. You have vehicles everywhere around you in all directions! That why you find traffic lights BOTH on entry and exit to reduce the complexity. Accidents are common, but Parisians rarely have accidents there: only tourists and other French people have difficulties (most accidents occur when people want to exit from an inner ring lane to an outer right, as they are shocked behind them on their right side. Frontal shocks also occur when another vehicle exits the roundabout: the driver on the outer ring is directly exposed in front of him on its right side.
Pedestrians and cyclists also can't cross Etoile easily: but there are some tunnels to reach the monument, and most pedestrian trafic occur in concentric circular streets around the roundabouts, but not directly in the roundabout.
As well driving on the circular motorway around Paris (boulevard périphérique) is much more dangerous: there are no roundabouts, but entry (turn right and merge to left) and exists (unmerge to right then turn right) are causing many accidents, because unmerge/merge lanes on the motorway are very short and it was not easy to reach the needed speed to enter, or to brake when exiting. For this reason the speed on this urban motrway has been slowed down and is now very severely controled.
He lost me in the first minute.
LOL me too. All those spinning city blocks going in different directions in different countries. All I know is I hate the damn things.
What he was saying was that essentially city blocks are roundabouts when you think about how the traffic closest to them flows.
Undoubtedly and engineer.
Watch the part with the lake and it makes sense.
the magic roundabout at Hatton Cross does have 5 roads. even if 2 of them are service access roads.
“Spins to the right” does the top or the bottom spin to the right though?
I'm fine with turning right 3 times around a block instead of every other building in Manhatten getting demolished.
You forgot to mention some of the other reasons why roundabouts are used. In the UK, roundabouts are sometimes used in lieu of traffic lights, particularly if there is a joining traffic on the right hand side. Because of the automatic 'give way to the right' rule, any car on the main road, would have to stop and let any traffic wishing to join from the side road. Of course, you could control that intersection with traffic lights, but traffic lights are expensive, and may not have any effect on certain types of traffic patterns. This roundabout for instance, is located in Kinmel Bay, North Wales:
www.instantstreetview.com/@53.298695,-3.51547,334.24h,-4.21p,1z
Kinmel Bay is located on the North Wales coast, and the road that this roundabout is on, is part of a filter from a dual carriageway a few miles away. During the summer season this road can become very busy, with tourists and holiday makers filtering off the dual carriageway, as they head towards the local caravan parks, or visit the beach. Because of the volume of traffic, Traffic lights would be impractical and probably cause more congestion. A simple remedy is to paint roundabouts on the road, which will by default, provides an opportunity for joining traffic to advance. A quite ingenious method, and, because the roundabout is painted, rather than an actual defined structure, you are legally allowed to drive straight over it, if there are no vehicles waiting to join.
I'm dizzy just watching this. God help the motorists. As for pedestrians trying to cross over to the other side (on some of these so called "magic round-abouts)? I'd advise to say a prayer before you attempt the crossing. It may be your last! :) Have the Road Traffic Authorities not heard of pedestrian (fly-over crossings?) LOL
You are not allowed to drive over mini roundabouts according to the highway code, unless you are driving a bus or something similar.
Skip ahead to 6:00 and watch that. Sorry, but I find the first 6 minutes to be useless, but the rest VERY enlightening. Especially at about 7:10.
This roundabout looks daunting at first but it's easy all Swindon people know how to use it most people out of Swindon have no idea how to use it I myself am from Swindon :)
As a Brit, I'll tell you why roundabouts can be bad. If you get a lot of traffic joining from one direction and going straight or right, it becomes very difficult for people giving way to the on-roundabout traffic to then join the roundabout. It then causes massive tailbacks.
Roundabouts are fine when there's low amounts of traffic or the flow of the traffic is such that the roundabout is evenly used. At other times, it causes congestion. That's what I've observed as a driver.
Crossroads wouldn't be able to handle more traffic there. The roundabout is probably there because the road is so busy. The solution isn't to remove the roundabout, but to increase it's capacity.
Yeah, but you can't do that by simply increasing its size. Traffic-light-controlled roundabouts help.
The problem isn't how many cars can be on a roundabout at a given time, it's the fact that when you have a lot of traffic going one route through the roundabout, it prevents people on the roads between the entrance and exit from joining the roundabout.
possessedllama
With traffic lights you have the same issue, only you force people to stop. The capacity won't increase.
We're not talking about increasing the capacity of the roundabout, we're talking about increasing the efficiency. Increasing the capacity of a roundabout where everybody is going in one direction doesn't help anyone. Yes, you will cause traffic to stop, but at least everybody gets a chance at using the roundabout. It's not the same situation at all! Look at the roundabout between Tongwell Street and Childs way in Milton Keynes for an example of where this is useful.
possessedllama
If there are too many cars on the roundabout, causing no one to get through, it's a capacity problem. If you stop those cars, you just move the spot where people are waiting to the spot those cars came from. You need to increase the capacity so more people can use the roundabout, so people don't have to wait.
Yes, the Magic Roundabout (I have a problem with the name, but that's my problem only) is wrong. But only in the fact you must really be alert and know EXACTLY where you need to go. Especially if you consider no matter where you want to go your path would be
1) A roundabout to enter the roundabout
2) To get to middle roundabout
3) then another roundabout to exit.
I can only wonder how many people leaving it would be saying 'I got off at the wrong exit' Then it dawned on me that it's not a fault of roundabout design but more of too many roads coming to one point.
I now live in England and with the bad sign posting on normal roundabouts, I can only imagine how detailed the sign posting would have to be on that roundabout.
I actually quite like roundabouts. I don't know why anyone would want to wait in mind-numbing boredom at a traffic light when they could just slow down, merge and turn at a roundabout.
So... if they make the center 'roundabout' pentagonal in shape instead of circle, will it make driver understnad better thus not so scary?
Also, what a lot of people don't realise is that the Magic Roundabout was inspired by a roundabout at High Wycome which was also converted to 5 mini roundabouts to counteract a problem.
www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.6268734,-0.7504605,213m/data=!3m1!1e3
I was lost at first, but by the end it all made sense.
I wish you would have used clockwise and counterclockwise because it was very confusing with right and left until I figured out what you meant
it would be cool if all 4 way intersections were replace with 3 way roundabouts, but roads have a nature of forming crosses :( we need hexagonal city blocks with roundabouts on all 6 points, not square grids :( but we'll have self driving cars soon, so it doesn't matter :)
That would be an inefficient use of space for the buildings.
its like listining to doctor who talk about trafic instead of wibly wobly timey wimy stuff
+awsomenamehere In other words, it's opaque as fuck!
Jamie Dawkins
yup
This had a lot of explanation that was not needed...
Typically in England we have 3 kinds of traffic systems - no traffic light junctions, traffic controlled junctions, and roundabout controlled junctions...
In small traffic areas you don't need a roundabout or traffic lights -- we only use mini roundabout to slow traffic (just like speed bumps) or we just traffic lights for crossings...
In medium traffic areas we will often use traffic lights -- these work best for busy junctions... or to help control the traffic to allow traffic from quiet side roads enter onto a very busy main road...
roundabouts have nothing to do with city blocks -- they are used as a means to keep traffic flowing in a safer manner... in some extreme cases they will combine traffic lights with roundabouts...
BUT - it is very rare we will use a round about on a crossroad junction - traffic lights a way more common...
The round about will be used only on a crossroad IF it is two major roads meeting and we want to keep the traffic flowing...
Often roundabouts are used on junctions that have 5 or more junctions -- for example coming off a motor way to join another motorway, a main road, a minor road, or go to services -- traffic lights would cause a build up of too much traffic on the exiting motorway
In the case of swindons roundabout system... the mini roundabout act as traffic lights -- 3 line roundabouts are common (right lane go right and sometimes straight as well, centre lane is straight only, left lane is left only)...
Having mini roundabout control the speed system works much better than traffic lights because traffic lights make you stop longer and build up traffic more -- so by using lights on a round about you defeat the purpose of having a roundabout (that is there to KEEP traffic moving)...
I'm not sure if you have ever driven in England - but most areas don't have a block system -- i've driven in america and as my american friends have told me that if you cant do a U-turn, just keep taking the next right or next left and you will end up back where you started ... this is rarely possible in England
We also have many areas that are very 'close' together, therefore a roundabout can't be used...the system has nothing to do with blocks - you've over thought this...it's just a means for traffic to keep moving...
after all, how many drivers actually want to do a U-turn??? most just want to go straight and sometimes turn left or right...very rarely do they want to go back in the direct they came...
It freaks me out that there are roundabouts (like, all shown in the video) where people have to stop inside the roundabout to get out instead of people outside having to stop to get in.
The worst roundabout in England was the Runnymede Roundabout that caused a lorry to crash into me. Unfortunately it was a couple of miles from Heathrow on the way to Windsor, exactly where American tourists who hire cars travel. I'm sure this put off Americans. Thankfully this has been totally resigned in the last couple of years.
What is the traffic simulator that you use at 7:00? I'd like to play with it.
I think it's 3dsmax running city traffic 2 plugin
In the U.S. when neighborhoods reach a certain level of affluence they put in a lot of signs, "No U-Turn" signs at intersections are often first. (When any city landscapes along a road they usually put up No U-turn signs. Island in the middle? No U-Turn signs at the intersections. You have to do some time consuming and weird stuff in order to legally turn around. )
You're more likely to find speed bumps (in less affluent communities what happens when you ask for them? About 5 variations of No.) There are more 'Don't do this' 'Don't park here' signs. Beverly Hills often has 3 no parking signs on each pole: based on time of day, day of the week, permits etc. My very cool working class neighborhood has very few signs, a lot of narrow (hillside) one way streets that we sometimes drive the wrong way on. I chose to move here because I came by at night to check it out and noticed that the center of a cul de sac was neatly parked up, but there were no lines, no signs. As a middle class American from a suburb I found this remarkable and wanted to live here. I love my neighbors, if you don't think anarchism is the most peaceful best way to live stop by. We do everything by consensus.
Long Beach had a wonderful round-a-bout. I loved driving through it. This year they 'fixed' it. lane markers, signs. The entrances are now divided; I think into "I'd like to be side swiped on my right" and "No, I'd rather be side swiped on my left" options.
I traveled in the UK and Scotland for a couple of months, rented cars and enjoyed ever roundabout. Had I known about this one I'd have driven across England to experience it.
I've got a few locations in southern California where there could be round-a-bouts but there aren't. Instead there's interminable traffic signals, left turn lanes, right turn lanes, delay, delay. A lot of the engineers who got us to the moon in 1968 have been driving through this one impossible intersection on Palos Verdes since airliners had propellers and not once have any of them realized, "This stupid mess could easily be a round-a-bout." There's plenty of room. Maybe it they had, we'd have already occupied Mars.
I don't know if its because I grew up living near the Magic Roundabout, but I do not understand what the fear and confusion is with it.
The reason counter flow is no good in NYC is it is all traffic light controlled. Having on way roads means you can turn left or right with out having to wait for oncoming traffic, allowing more traffic to flow across the junction with less waiting time in between greens.
I suggest you get Cities Skylines with advanced traffic mods, demonstrates well what you can do.
Also demonstrates bus lanes are unnecessary if you fix the cause of your congestion.
Also...why the hell are you referring to everything as a 'city blocks'
what do you call everything other than a road or roundabout ? the world? land? places ?
It depends on what is is, if its a bunch of houses, it's an estate, if there is shops,Shops, maybe a park, a bike path , or dying smack addict (if you are in Edinburgh lol) If you know the place you may use the street name .IE The 2nd exit on the left is Lumbard Street but carry on straight for Mallden square
For the purposes of this video what do you think is a better term?
If any of the UK Councils had their say they would say "That's council property" over here we don't usually generalise things around the road and or roundabouts into one term, so it's kinda hard to say, depends on what you want either side of the road mate, like i said before I.E Shops, Estates, a bunch of chavs lingering by that street light, We usually the term blocks when referring to inner city residential skyscrapers
+Jordan 'Dingus'Jones I guess pretend I'm saying "bunch of chavs" instead of "city blocks" when I'm referring to England.
Swindon has 2 Magic Roũdabouts. Þ oѳer one's at 51.568650, -1.801478.
"English" city blocks are irregular-shaped & are rarely surrounded by busy streets.
Shoutout to Detroit 🙌🏼
Your explanation was more complicated than the Swindon roundabout
EVERYTHING. IS. ROUNDABOUT.
They're versatile : www.reuters.com/article/us-norway-students-sex/no-to-sex-on-roundabouts-norway-tells-high-school-graduates-idUSKBN1HP26C
found this video totally bewildering and confusing but that is why I liked it. It explores a way of thinking and topic that is totally alien to me. (actually have little or no ability to visualise maps and road layouts). The video goes very deep into the opposite end of the spectrum of my mind so it is defacto mind expanding, potentially psychedelic if I focus hard enough. I still don't get it yet though.
Howdy- the first minute where the stuff is being hand-drawn might be confusing, but the rest should be clearer... crazy though that if you expanded roundabouts until they touch each other, and shrank the city blocks down, america would become england (and vice versa) !
@@nick2ny thanks for the reply. I think you are overestimating my ability to imagine environmental space and road layouts. It is something I cannot do. I could not explain directions around a town I have lived in for most of my life. I only make decisions about routes when I am in the space / junction in question, where I vaguely remember which way to go but nothing more. So your video was way way 'out there' for me. It would take me many hours over many days, drawing it out on paper myself and walking around imaging I am a vehicle on the roundabouts you are talking about for me to get it.
wow that blow my mind...
i most have some of the staff you are taking
Not all BRITISH (Not just England) roundabouts are multi lanes but not all have building on.
and what about pedestrians trying to cross roundabouts ?
+Hide and Tweak Great username. What about it? A roundabout is a circular one-way street, and a one-way street should theoretically be easier for a pedestrian to cross than a two-way street. However, drivers have a lot to process when they are approaching or in a roundabout, so some sort of mid-roundabout crosswalk would be ideal for protecting pedestrians. But to answer your question, see 4:20, where lots of pedestrians cross into Charles de Gaulle Etoile to get to the Arc de Triomphe.
It depends. On larger roundabouts, each road touching the roundabout is split as it approaches, with a small triangular island in between the two lanes. Then, although cars never have to yield to pedestrians, the pedestrian only has to cross one lane of traffic at a time, which works out well. There are often then conventional crossings on the roads in between roundabouts where the traffic on just that road must stop for pedestrians.
On very small roundabouts, cars usually yield to pedestrians. Traffic speed and density are low enough that it works fine.
On very big roundabouts, you usually see a system of subways for people to walk under the roundabout and across the middle.
+Hide and Tweak Larger roundabouts tend to have grade-separated footpaths across them, either bridges or underpasses. At smaller junctions, pedestrians cross at grade.
Excellent video yet I'm still oddly confused :p I guess the way you use the terms "city block" and "roundabout" as broader than what I'm accustomed to trips me up. Also, you said we already live in the center of a roundabout, surrounded by a one way street. But in my apt. complex you enter and can turn right or left to circle around the buildings. There doesn't seem to be a proper or intended direction. You just go whichever way that's closer to your building.
Diden't understand very much, great video anyway! now back to Cities Skylines with the magic roundabout! xD
Roundabouts are great until you get a driver that wants to wait until there are no cars in it and holds up all traffic behind them... here in the UK we have now started to see some roundabouts being removed and a simple traffic light junction replace them due to the human driver...
Thanks for this!
great explanation
Well played!
Didn't watch the video. I just came here to tell you: Be like America. Thank you.
It would help nonBritish drivers understand the graphics easier if the British videos were just flipped left to right like mirror image.
(Philadelphia has a huge roundabout around its' art museum and nearby park with a road between the 2. Having all those cars orbiting around you as you visit can get monotonous. I've wished they had counter rotation just for a balancing force.)
I grew up in a non New York American city. Are 2 way streets not the standard in most places?
In the US, two way streets are the most common overall. Dense downtown districts tend to have one-way streets, because they allow both left and right turns to be free-flowing (not waiting for a break in oncoming traffic, or having a dedicated turn arrow). That works when the street density is high (small blocks) so that going around the block is not a big penalty.
@@daleinaz1 that’s what I thought. I guess in an area as dense as Manhattan most streets would be 1 way
great cure for insomnia
roundabout is life
but i live in a german village they don't have blocks at all
08:52 “You know what ... I love roundabouts ... I want to live on one!” (I quickly close TH-cam) 😂😲🤪
How you get over?
Brave pedestrians!