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Most politicians will say what they think will get them elected. So, if they think a larger segment of people who can vote for them are "pro-car" than "anti-car", they'll obviously go for that segment. I'm simplifying the terms into pro-car and anti-car for the sake of brevity in the sentence.
First off, a lot of the debate is framed as how to get rid of cars, rather than how give people more high quality options. Second, a lot of cities have enacted straight up anti-car policies. Rather than improving alternatives, like walking, biking, light rail, etc. they’ve just made driving harder and more expensive.
I am a traffic engineer with my local municipality, focused on traffic calming and vulnerable roadway user connectivity and safety. This is the most concise yet well-articulated video I’ve seen and captures a wide variety of traffic calming solutions. I’m definitely saving this and sharing it with my colleagues and family alike. It will be tremendously useful as I communicate with the general public for its ease of understanding. I look forward to watching a lot more of your content. Thanks for making my job easier!!
One thing that is not mention about the last road, is how has it impact the traffic around. As there where so many issue on this road, I think it's was the greatest idea to do so. But, if you narrow and by any means make traffic capacity lower, it need to be able to redistribute itself somewhere else or you'll get some (more) traffic issue or move the issue somewhere else. I also understand that it's not the intend of this video to show the repercussion of years and years of "bad planning". I mean, I don't know any little village of 10k population that already have place for a full highway infrastructure plan in what is now farm fields for when they will grow to 100k population. And if money wasn't an issue, I'm pretty sure all big city would go destroying half of the infrastructure & building to remake it the "good" way. A little exemple of my city at Trois-Rivières, we have a high way coming from the west crossing a N to S highway on what was 50 years ago the "side" of the city. It's a T joinction. You need to go a little south and than you have another T section to get back on W to E highway. Mind that there is a bridge to the south. The E part of the high go in the heart of the city and countinue far away. So, two thing with that : first, the bridge has high traffic and as soon as there is an accident going south, it's jaming the highway over the two T section and so basically jam traffic all accross city (all the blvd that connect near one of these T intersection are block and they are also major road of traffic). The second thing, is that between the 2 T, it's basically a bottle neck as for 500 meters, you have 2 highway that are join together + a connection (on and off ramp) to a major blvd (because we all know that adding more access to a bottle neck is a good idea!). Of what I understand, they did this because in the "golden age" of the city, it was forcing traffic to go through the city and was bringing business! But, a little the same way, what is now one of the most use blvd of Trois-Rivières, there is a train track ... and the train often go through there on traffic hours. When it happens, it can be KMs of jam traffic. When it was there, it was more an access to some industrial part of the city and than the city expend and it has become in the middle of major commercial area and two big residential area (still have an industrual park too).
@@nicolasjoly6948 you're definitely right, it's urgent to consider the network that surrounds it, and also have a good understanding if demand will be constrained on the street in question. In the US, a lot of our streets were built in an era that expected sprawl to continue indefinitely. As a city we are working to restore and infill our existing areas of town, which in turn reduces traffic and frees up space. We now have a lot of streets where the demand is much lower than capacity; in these cases lane removal can occur without inducing diversion elsewhere. But as I said it's important to be sure of that, and if there is a risk of that happening, have a plan on how you'll address parallel routes. A key piece of that too is what connectivity is available, which as you mention, is often limited by railroads, rivers, streams, and what bridges exist or lack thereof.
Roundabouts actually make traffic faster. No need to completely stop, but also no need to hit the pedal to fit in. And no minute-long idling, waiting for traffic lights. Everybody wins.
@@svr5423 True. There are places were roudabout is the best solution. Everyone has to slow down and if there is traffic jam it's easier to drive the "zipper" style.
As a European, it is very strange to see that such basic traffic regulation tools are not widespread. But I have tried to be a pedestrian in the US. Remember one place, on very civilized Cape Cod. The place looked like two, quiet villages connected with leafy back streets. But walking 20 minutes or so from our accommodation down to a sea food restaurant by the canal was one of the most scary things I’ve ever done. No pavements, no zebra crossings, nothing. And the drivers were not even looking for pedestrians. Because there were none. The next day, I needed to buy some bread for breakfast. On the other side of the street, some 250 m away, there was a small shopping mall. Based on what I learned the last night, I took the car. Because walking was just too dangerous.
I live in the Midwest and it's super common to have rural highways that cut through the center of small towns. It will be a 55 for most of the road, but dip to like 25 in these towns with no change to the road design what so ever.
yeah, even the problem with blind spots when turning is not seen often because if there's a 4 lane road 99% of the time it's going to be signaled or has the left turn removed
There are still a lot of places in Europe that also use anti-human road design. Scandinavia and Central Europe are pretty good now with some notable exceptions, but Eastern & Southern Europe are not much different from some bad US areas.
@@Lolwutfordawinno, it’s small here we have enough space, not in your piss smelling cities in Europe, it will be quite satisfying to watch the European Union continue to become more and more irrelevant as the United States continues to grab their smartest people
@@Arzirhanobody would use photoshop for a video when specific software exists for motion graphics. Obviously after effects or even just premiere is the likely choice.
@@underballbutter what's stupid is a society built around the personal vehicle. I freaking hate driving but unless I have the money for ride shares I'm stuck driving as my only realistic option. Anything to make travelling more accessible to non-drivers is a plus.
For me, Dutchie, this kind of road design is just as normal as can be. I'm grateful for that. And it is great to see these design principles being applied in the USofA. Keep up the good work!
Nahh there's no bike lanes. Roundabouts are great but Dutch infrastructure is way more refined. From traffic calming to intuitive pathing, to smart traffic lights that minimizes or even eliminates "crossing paths sharing green". Even how zoning and road infrastructure interact. We're the masters of efficiency. The US has a long way to go if they want to catch up. In the Netherlands, they can replace an entire highway viaduct in 4 days. Which looks awesome by the way.
first they have to proof themselves, which is easy when facts are on your side. and then you can keep advancing them. lets just hope no big car companies comes out and says the roads become to narrow for their giant cyber trucks.
As a resident, the changes being implemented in Cincy are actually in lower socioeconomic areas including right next to the university. They're really not taking economic status into consideration with a lot of these changes.
Guys, he straight up finished the video with recommendations from the guest on how to get these projects in your own towns and neighborhoods! If you really are passionate about it, go make some noise. Remember people: Closed mouths don't get fed. Never attribute anything to malice you can attribute to laziness or ineptitude. Be the change you want to see in the world.
@@yogurt636 ...And some roundabouts are not "100% reliable". They're only reliable as the amenability of approaching traffic to actually following the rules. ([Very carefully] check out the series of US41 roundabouts in downtown Sarasota - there's always some collision debris near where 41 South enters at least one of the roundabouts at any given time, because nobody wants to stop!!)
Roundabouts really aren’t cheap. Cities that want roundabouts have to spend thousands of dollars on landscaping if they want to build a roundabout. That’s why there are as many roundabouts in America, because landscaping is expensive.
My family took a trip to England when I was a kid, and we loved the roundabouts so much that my sister wrote a little song we would sing whenever we came to one: Round and round and round we go Where we stop, I don't know. Round and round and round and round we go.
Here in the US, I picked up a man who has not 1 but 4 (FOUR) driving while intoxicated violations in 4 different states before he finally got his driver license revoked! And even then, he got minimal jail time. 🤦🏽♂️
From what I heard about the USA, the driver's license is often used as a replacement for identification. The only proper identification that Americans have is the social security number, which they can not risk showing to anyone without having their identity instantly stolen. As such, losing your driver's license means losing your means of identification.
@@TumbolisuThere are state IDs available for people who don't have driver's licenses, so not quite true. Most people with a car do use their license as their primary method of identification, but the same authority that issues them also issues non-driving identification cards. Otherwise, a lot of people who can't drive would have no way to identify themselves.
@@veelastnameIn most places in the U.S, losing your license means losing the ability to go anywhere, unless you have enough money to rely on Uber, or have a friend or family member willing to drive you around.
In Germany you would lose your drivers license, but only for three months and you had to pay 700 €. In my opinion that's far to low. I can't think of one single excuse why someone has to drive almost three time as fast as they were allowed to!
I live like 2 minutes away from the cicinnati road diet featured in this video. The road diet isn't even that long(only covering about a 1-3 miles) but it is in an area that sees more pedestrian traffic than other areas nearby because of it's proximity to a school, a library, and a lot of shops/resturants in walking distance. That road was super dangerous cause it cut right through that! It feels a lot safer now(and that's shown in the data too!) and I love it. Unfoutunatly though a lot of drivers hate it and are very vocal about it(my mom included). So much so that there is a chance that those changes will be reverted just based on the vocal opposition alone, but the safety data isn't on their side and with all the work that went into getting it approved I doubt those involved will just stand by and allow that effort go to waste. A big part of that opposition I feel comes from people who drove on that road being used to going down it at such high speeds and also having a second lane to pass people, which is exactly why the road was so dangerous.
One of the problems that many people overlook is that a lot of infrastructure can grow next to a road in a very short time. Expecting drivers to change for that. Even though they were there first. Why don't we build around the road instead of expecting the road (drivers) to have to change?
@@AdamStansbery Drivers adapt really fast when there's road work or even after a road gets widened. There's nothing that would make this different or harder other than spite. Regardless, driver's ability to adapt is not really a huge problem because people eventually get used to it. The only reason people haven't already is because it's all temporary infrastructure at the moment and there's a chance it'll go back to what it used to be ans some people are banking on that.
@@AdamStansbery That's exactly what makes stroads so dangerous. The side effect of that growth is that it's hampered by the reduction in pedestrians who don't feel as safe. The data shows that the more friendly a street is to people walking and biking rather than driving, the more businesses on that street benefit. This is largely due to how people behave when driving vs walking/biking. When someone drives to a place, they tend to only go to one particular business before driving somewhere else. They also tend to change their plans based on available parking, increasing the chance for lost business. Pedestrians/cyclists, on the other hand, are more likely to go to multiple businesses in the same area per trip. It's a no-brainer that changing priorities away from drivers is better overall, for both safety and economics.
Always shocking to see american roads that are lined with small businesses and homes yet have 2 or 3 lanes in each direction and a damn hard shoulder to boot.
@@guildrich Wrong, traffic jams are less likely because drivers will just become pedestrians or cyclists, so that means less cars and less traffic. If you add a lane, people that weren't driving because of traffic jam now start driving because they don't need to use public transportation. This means they go into cars and the more people do this, the more traffic is generated. Look at the Katy Freeway. 26 lanes yet still jammed.
89mph on a simple 4-lane road? How is that possible? I also wonder why those 4-lane roads are so common as ring roads around malls, which have a lot of traffic.
A lot of drivers in Cincinnati don't have a license, insurance, or a care in the world beyond themselves. 89 in a 35 is normal everyday driving for Cincinnatians. I'll admit I didn't realize how insane and dangerous this kind of driving is until I moved across the river into Kentucky where drivers generally seem to be better. Though in the past few years more Cincinnatians are moving over here and bringing their bad driving habits with them and it's becoming more normalized here too.
As someone from the UK, seeing the shock about a minirounabout is kinda crazy to me. They're everywhere here. True, not made of plastic but still strange that this roundabouts are such a foriegn concept to the USA.
To be fair UK roundabouts aren't all that great. They are often built with angled approach lanes to prioritise car traffic and often don't accommodate pedestrians at all. Still better than a 4 way stop though
@@lars7935 Compared to the USA tho, J-walking is legal in the UK and there are normally crosses nearby busy roundabouts if needed. There are also some roundabouts with crossings on the angled approaches.
Yeah this feels very much like another "Americans discover Europe" video, but I will say I prefer this design to ours. Our miniroundabouts are often so flat that people miss them; I've had a few close calls driving around them when another car just cuts across me by going the wrong way around or just right over the top; the slight kerb in this design might discourage that.
@@deyfuck there is a point i question why a mini roundabout if there size of a bike, like the flat one you mentioned , like you can only make it so small till point it doesn't make any sense
My city implemented a few "permanent" curb extensions. People were so unhappy the city removed them. I have to say that they were not great for cyclists but most people who complained were motorists. Also I really like the term "road diet". Where I live, I have no idea when the roads will go on a diet because we are still in the "road bloat" phase.
They may have not been designed very well. And if they're used somewhere that's too busy, it just reduces the efficiency of an intersection drastically. There has to still be a logic to where these things are used.
curb extensions kinda suck and make for a destructive barrier, these low profile bumps are a pretty great idea since theres more space to make mistakes without punishment!
That wasn’t my takeaway at all. There were very few physical preventions shown, but many signs shown, most of which were signs for our subconscious (e.g. shrubs and narrow lanes). I’d also say that signs alone don’t work for *humans*, not just drivers. You can subconsciously make someone feel safe when they aren’t, and they will end up getting hurt. That’s true for more than just drivers.
Trees also help to reduce the urban heat island effect by shading over impermeable surfaces and by evapotransporation which is a fancy way of saying plant sweating.
as Dutch citizen I was already surprised at the fast speeds people travel through neighbourhoods in this video. and then I realised I was looking at mph and not km/h! over a 100km/h in a neighbourhood is just insane! suicidal!
ya 35mph / 56 km/h is a common speed in pretty much all towns, although school zones drop to 20 mph / 32 km/h but rule of thumb is if it's 30 then you can do 35 or rural country it's 55mph but everyone goes 65 at most although some do 70mph.. anywhere thats 100km/h or close to is rare usually it's a town built around a main road but neighborhood i never seen one yet
While id agree with you, I don't really think there should be homes on a heavily traveled 4 lane road to begin with. When strodes come up, the knee jerk solution always seems to be to turn the stroad to a street and not the stroad to a road. If that street is better used as a road, why not remove the housing and pedestrians from the equation? If you reduce the lanes and slow traffic on a high volume stroad, you'll end up with increased congestion (which I'd find just as frustrating as speeding cars living on that street) or speeding traffic bypassing the congestion on a parallel street, shifting the pressure from one street to the next and so on.
I love how most of these solutions are just paint and pylon solutions and the rest would only take a week. Things that a city can move up on their to do list. I’m sad I live in a town of 8k so I won’t likely see any of these go into play.
Honestly it might be even easier to implement in a small town. A lot of these things are. I think we have this idea that things like this have to start in big cities. Personally I think a lot of it is easier to implement on a small scale first. Once that is done, scale up to implement in larger city centers.
As someone who lives next to a busy 4-lane stroad, this is very encouraging to me. Too many times I've noticed people driving by over 60mph, some people even go upwards to 80mph. I am enraged by this, the speed limit is only 45, but even that is too high. I've been wanting to get into a city planning career so I can help make some positive changes in my community.
Young men have very fast reflexes and great hand-to-eye coordination. I don't worry too much about fast drivers. I worry about marijuana. It's a chronic-use drug that has to be taken several times a day to have any effect at all. So marijuana users sit there for four seconds after the light has turned to green. I see it all the time. The failure to enforce federal prohibitions on marijuana puts millions on the road with very slow reflexes and terrible hand-to-eye coordination. Yet again, the law-abiding citizen is being punished for something the criminals do -- and with a punishment that doesn't affect those who don't give a damn if the bottom of their cars smack a traffic bump.
I overlaid a Scottish roundabout I was familiar with, at scale on various intersections in Southern California. Most fit, some would require nipping off a corner or two. They'd both calm traffic and eliminate delays. All these Advance Left turn lights all over the U.S. I've only seen overseas in the centers of very congested cities. I love roundabouts. What I've noticed is that I'd rather take a bit longer to get to my destination so long as I don't get stuck in congestion waiting for lights to cycle, the cross traffic minimal...
@@JorgeForgeRoundabouts don't eliminate that. You still have to wait, in this case for a gap in traffic, like at any other priority junction. In some cases they can actually make traffic worse, especially when the flows on the varying approaches are unbalanced, resulting in there being little to no gap for certain approaches. Traffic lights on the other hand give everyone a chance to go. Also they take up less space, and hence are more pedestrian-friendly (shorter crossing distance). And they can be coordinated to provide a green wave, which can reduce the number of stops to just one, in ideal conditions.
@@NewBuildmini1. Roundabouts do reduce the amount of time you are at a standstill and therefore reduce irritation. With a traffic light you are stopped for 30 seconds or longer. Whereas with a roundabout you continuously inch forward. The later one being much less irritating. 2. What layout are you thinking about that makes you think that traffic lights are more pedestrian friendly than roundabouts? Because that's generally not true. Either they are the same (crosswalk across two lanes). Or most of the times roundabouts are better because they have the space to have a "refugee island" between the two lanes. So you only have to cross one lane at a time instead of two lanes.
I noticed commenters (from Europe) saying "Oh, Americans discovered the mini roundabout!" We have mini roundabouts in the USA, the innovative part is the use of the plastic, not the concept itself.
Most chanel's about urbanism just rant about what's wrong with north american street design but offer or explain no solutions. Well done ! This is very informative ! 😊
@@jaycee330 Ranting? The video blames everybody and wants to punish everybody equally for the problems caused by a minority of stupid people, drunks, marijuana smokers, and others who should not be driving at all.
What an excellent way to try new road layouts while already improving the situation during the trial. It's so refreshing to see the US taking a second look at road design. I wish you all happy driving over there.
This video is perfectly done, congratulations! Such wonderful explanations of traffic calming design concepts, combined with proper visuals to further explain them. No notes, 10/10, I'll be sending a link out to this on a few platforms as well as passing it on to some of my city reps who are always willing to listen and learn.
it's still a lot safer than before, even without markings, due to the vastly reduced speeds, it can be better, yes, but we have to take that first towards better street design somewhere
@@imblackmagic1209cars are still able to do right turns at a high speed. The roundabout didn't change anything about that. (the problem portrait at 0:19 ) So crossing that road is still as dangerous for pedestrians as before.
@@Jehty_they can atill turn very fast, but if that intersection gets any traffic they have to watch & yield in the roundabout. It could be better im sure, but this was a temporary adjustment that they could make without adding more pavement.
The issue with stroads is that they generally started out as a highway through uninhabited areas between cities. Then, the cities grew and developers built subdivisions along the highway, then to service the homeowners businesses needed to be built nearby and start popping up all along the highway. Now the connecting highway built for high-speed traffic between cities is in the city.
Hey, it's OK to leave highways as highways. But it's definitely not OK to just place sidewalks and business entrances directly at a highway, not to mention homes. That's what secondary and tertiary local streets are for. There should be miles of highly walkable area until you encounter the next highway. I'm sure there's plenty of space for that, I've heard America is a large country :)
Really great video and primer on so many techniques - impressive not only to fit it all in 15 mins but to also keep things connected and not too overwhelming. Great job!
I watch a lot of these types of TH-cam channels and yours is becoming my #1 in only a few short videos. The "toolkit" visualization, etc. Wow. I would show this in/to a class. I'm actually learning things that could help my own city.
Somewhere in southern Germany, an intersection between 2 busy rural roads (with legal speed limits of 70-100km/h) that originally only had stop signs for the "lesser" road got the nickname of "death intersection" because there were fatal crashes every few months. Authorities tried a few variants of changing the intersection, and the only one that really worked (and has stayed for many years) was turning it into a roundabout. Since the conversion, there have (AFAIK) only been a few minor crashes and zero fatalities. So yeah, roundabouts work.
An alternative measure could be to stagger the intersection, turning it into two T-intersections, to force drivers to slow down. Or to put in speed bumps (which is cheaper, but worse for drivers' suspensions, and noise).
Amazing and highly informative video! You managed to show and explain a number of concepts and alternatives in a short and direct video. Thank you and keep the good work!
This is a really good video, all the individual tools are pretty basic and well known but having them all in one place with clear explanations is awesome. The only bit I noticed that's missing is *continuous sidewalks* in the raised crosswalk section. As the name indicates, the crosswalk is fully raised to the level of the sidewalk rather than meet the road somewhere in the middle (or worse at road level like a standard crosswalk). They are of unmatched comfort and accessiblity for pedestrians.
9:00 where I live we did this but it still resulted in collisions so now the left turning lane is a median with cut-out left-turns only at specific points where there are roads or driveways. The intersections are also roundabouts so if you have to turn left but can't, then you can turn right and do a u-turn.
Such a center turning lane has the name "suicide lane" for a reason. I don't get why this video portrait this as a good solution. It's a horrible solution.
When driving i love roundabouts. Wish they were more common. As a pedestrian theyre sometimes hard to navigate, but thats okay if its considered well with the design
I appreciate your channel so much. There are so many urbanist TH-camrs who all just spew hate towards car infrastructure, and just post borderline propaganda videos. I love both urban cities and rural countryside and suburban life, and IMO everyone can have their own preference on where to live. I love that you don’t focus on hating on existing infrastructure, but rather provide actual solutions which none of the other really seem to do other than the same talking points. Great channel, keep it up! I love seeing some actual sensible and educational content.
The big street I grew up on was altered from 4 lanes to 2 with a center turning lane. It has been that way now for decades. It has full proper signage and lane paint. Many drivers still do not pull into the turning lane to turn left, blocking their travel lane. other drivers pulling onto the street use the middle lane as an onramp almost colliding with car there waiting to turn left. I don't know if these are normal problems for turning lane roads or just our local dummies.
They are nicknamed suicide lanes for a reason. To fix the problem, through traffic needs to be separated from traffic that wants to turn. Using a parallel road on either side, that you can only access every half a mile or so. But I don't know if there's enough space for that.
The best of intentions. What could possibly go wrong! The US passed a rule many years ago to protect pedestrians that required that the bodywork on the front of vehicles had to be at least 10cm from the nearest hard part (engine, chassis, etc) which made the fronts of the vehicles instantly considerably higher. The thinking was that the people would be less likely to be injured by the car, the reality is that people are now less visible and they are more likely to be dramatically accelerated in the impact and more likely to go under rather than over. There is also the corporate average fuel economy rules that made larger vehicles more profitable for manufacturers to the point that they completely dominate sales. As long as I'm ranting ... Daytime running lights have resulted in a significant number of collisions after dusk with vehicles without their headlights on. The drivers think their headlights are on because their dash is lit up and they can see light coming from the front of their vehicle. But without headlights on the light from the front is far less, they can see less far ahead, and the back and sides of the vehicles have no light at all. If automatic headlights were included in the rule we wouldn't be here. And this one might just be personal ... who at GM thought it was a good idea to make the reverse lights come on when a vehicle was parked so anyone passing behind them can no longer know if it's parked or is actually going to move? And several companies are so cheap they don't have different LEDs for signals and marker lights so when a turn signal is on the brake light turns off.
These are great ideas. My city had the single goal to reduce lane width, to make cars go slower. One of the ways they did this was to convert 3 lane roads to 4 lane roads. The problem with simply making lanes narrower is that as a driver, I get nervous about hitting other cars (moving or parked) which makes me distracted and more difficult to also respond to bikes using the shared lane and pedestrians crossing at uncontrolled intersections. In my experience, it's far better to use some of these other traffic calming measures, but not narrow the lanes when the lanes are going to be next to other car lanes or parking. My ideal would be to reduce the number of lanes to create protected bike or pedestrian lanes, as I am also frequently a bicyclist and pedestrian.
Your videos are always brilliantly well made. You don't get opinionated, you just lay out the facts and create great recommendations. We need one of you at every city council meeting in America.
@@kailahmann1823 easy-peasy. Boulevard with over or under crossing like Moscow has it's boulevards and prospects. Intentionally separating fast road, slow road and pavement within one wide street. They can be over 100 m (300 ft) wide and incorporate a lot of foot traffic, car traffic, possibly tram or underground stop, park features like full-sized trees, benches, statues and fountains going on. No left turns except for specifically designed ones. In that case, the easiest may be to leave two ways in each side with a separator island in the middle, and add wide pavements protected by trees or something. This way - you cross two stripes going south, then the middle, then the two going north.
As a Cincinnati Resident, I love seeing our perspective shown. I think we have an interesting history, being an incredible example of urbanism during the early stages of development (e.g. Streetcar Suburbs, Price Hill Incline, Walkable German Neighborhoods), but then we literally bulldozed a lot of urban core downtown to focus on suburb and highway centric design. From what I've seen, there is a strong willingness towards urbanism, walkability, and pedestrian safety, and I thank all the people like Matt working hard to make improvements every day.
After years of activism, I've actually finally gotten through to the higher ups at my building and I'm working on drafting up proposals to make our wide gaps between sidewalks at our apartment building safer. The area near our building is cut in half by a parking lot so I'm trying to find a way to slow drivers down and make it safer for pedestrians to cross. I was thinking a raised crossing would do the job but I'm open to suggestions. I'm just not sure where to find good designs for safe sidewalks and crossing to a safe standard. We also don't have enough bike storage so I'll see if I can convince them to add more bike storage since we have less than 20 spots for bikes in a 11 story building.
It sounds like you should just make the gaps physically narrower. At least as a first step. You can also make the gap visually narrower by painting lines along the side of the street near the crossing but not in the part where it's not close to the crossing. A refuge in the middle depending on how wide the street is. Different pavement on the crossing itself. And then raised crossing as a last resort. The first steps should be implemented anyway if you want to go for a raised crossing later but this also allows you to go cheap first.
I got to say, as someone who's been on the city planning/walkability side of TH-cam for a bit, it's nice to see a video that doesn't make me furious, but optimistic
As a trucker, I've loved the low profile roundabouts. If there was no one in the immediate roundabout, is still just go straight, but slower because of the bumps. A lot of them like this were still too small for a B-train to clear even if the tractor "went around" even when they had more space for their construction
good question… far better solution would be to raise the bike lanes to sidewalk level, bend them slightly to the right and let the bus stop in the drive lane.
It does appear that the bus pulls into and blocks the bike lanes, or on the other side it pulls into the parking lane. Not ideal for sure, but this is a starter project. maps.app.goo.gl/5NN7qYkyX5m4wW5u5 In other parts of the city they narrow the bike lanes a bit and pour a concrete slab for the bus stop between the bike lanes and the travel lanes. Definitely better, but there does have to be room for it. maps.app.goo.gl/Au5tDzMvv2eczsUKA
This video is so professional, it feels like watching one of those news channels mini-documentaries. It's also just really nice to see practical real world changes being done successfully despite low budgets and beuracractic restraints, makes me feel like incremental progress really is achievable and worth doing.
As a Cincinnati commuter I actually have driven on North Bend Rd and got ran off the road from a speeder. The two lane road was so misplaced, like most of the roads around the area. The new changes are really welcome for a daily driver. Another road to mention in the Greater Cincinnati area is Harrison Ave in Harrison, OH right by the Marcos. Greater development has made the traffic move much more consistently, and protects left turn drivers going into the development. Great changes!!
@@jaycee330 Well theres roundabouts with stone bricks coming from the center area so semi trailers can still get around. over run areas arn't anything new and ngl should be used more on mini roundabouts to prevent people driving over the middle so much.
The 85% rule for establishing speed limits would have that residential road have a speed limit at or above 60mph. I think any sane person would agree having residential driveways unto a 60mph road doesn't make sense, so I can't imagine a traffic engineer agreeing to that, but it does really make you think about how useful the 85% rule is. BTW California used to dictate that speed limits must be updated to the 85% rule, and such a street in California would have had their speed limit go up to 55mph if not 60
Go to Texas! That’s a normal occurrence down there. I’ve driving down 281 into San Antonio and that road has a 70 mph speed limit on a road with no median, just 2 yellow lines separating the 2 lanes of 70+ mph traffic. Ohh I don’t mention that there also business and residential driveways all along that road. Someone needs to send this information down there.
The US is so interesting. Even within one city, there are projects expanding stroads and making them worse, while a couple miles over there are improvements for pedestrianizing streets and decreasing vehicle speeds.
I live in Texas and my city tried some of these. They went away after a few months because supposedly people took them as a challenge to their freedom and went FASTER. Love this state, the way you love someone elses snot covered toddler.
I like at 2:41 when said "in places where pedestrians are present such as residential streets" you showed arial video footage of a suburb with 0 pedestrians in view
Why walk when you can easily drive? You only walk if you are extremely poor, can't get a license (which we know doesn't stop a lot of people) or have severe anxiety around driving. I live in a small town. It's very walkable, fairly pleasant to do so in the summer too. But, if I'm going somewhere further than a quarter mile away. I'm just gonna drive there. I've got heat, air conditioning, a comfy chair to sit in and personal space in my car - which to use requires no effort on my part, I just sit, wiggle my toes and bend my elbows occasionally... Walking is for chumps.
I'm in the US for my first time. For a country that chose the car as a main form of transport it sure seems like not much thought was put on infrastructure. Shop exits at 90° directly onto a 55mph road EVERYWHERE, manouvers where you're forced to cut across 4 lanes that go 55mph, stop signs in idiotic places, haven't seen one traffic light that detects traffic and turns red and green based on the flow from different sides... But no wonder everyone drives, it feels awful walking along these huge stroads with all the fast cars passing by, looking for the barely existing sidewalks.
I have to say i HATE those bike-lanes that are often just painted onto existing roads. They are just a really unwelcoming and dangerous place to be as a cyclist. What would also help the US would be to removing those braindead zoning-laws. Those are not based on any data or lessons learned from the real world but instead come from reality detached bureaucrats in their ivory towers. Having just some small grocery and general stores close by, some small Inns, and all the small services you need nearby is incredibly convenient. You can walk or bike there, or even just use your car. Just by being way closer they reduce traffic a lot. With the big shopping centers with the insanely huge (often required by law) parking lots you have to drive a long way to get there - that costs you a lot of money just to grab a quick snack. Heck where i live i can have all the shops i need in walking-distance (luckily i got a really nicely connected place). In the time it took me in Georgia just to get to the shop by car i am already done with the groceries now.
The city of Milwaukee, WI has been implementing a lot of these things in the past year and I’ve seen a big difference in terms of speeding / insanity on the roads where they’ve made changes. 🙌🙌🙌
Why is there not more of this already?? Imagine being able to just about guarantee a return on investment greater than 10X? Based on the example of the 4-lane road conversion, if the infrastructure only lasted half of it's lower end estimate then based on $5M in a half a year that would be $25M total return for $500K initial investment in just 2 1/2 years. Correct me if my math is wrong, but it seems like a pretty quick win and there should be a nationwide push to install more of these simple, low-cost and extremely effective designs.
Because its not easy to convince people who make decisions. When everyone is clamoring for more road lanes, to say that less may be safer and not impede traffic is akin to Galileo claiming heliocentrism.
Many of these issues have already been fixed in the UK, crossings have lines that mean you cannot park or stop there to allow for visibility on the crossing
Our road standards are still far behind The Netherlands, though. Also, paint is not infrastructure. Those painted lines discourage parking near crossings, but don't prevent someone from doing so, especially as enforcement is so poor.
I can't speak for Ohio's roundabout education, but in my area of Virginia roundabouts used to be SO uncommon they were barely mentioned when I was in driving school about 15 years ago. I think I only got a summary like "yield when entering, always circle it to the right, follow any road markings and signs." I don't recall whether turn signals were mentioned or not. And it wasn't included in my license exam or driving test, so there was zero pressure to retain the info unless you lived near one. Things might have improved since then? I know we have several more roundabouts in my city than we used to, so hopefully it's been added to the standard driving curriculum... my hopes aren't super high, though. And we have a LOT of older folks who were probably also never taught what to do with them. I was out running errands with a non-driving friend the other day, and we went through a roundabout. She mentioned her mom was super confused the first time she drove through there after it was added.
People can also use the laws of physics to act in a way that is safe for those around them. But for some reason, less and less people do that these days.
That mini roundabout was brilliant, and the 4 day install time is enviable. There is a roundabout that's being built on my commute path and it's taking 2 years to build. It has added 20 minutes to my commute during construction.
As an Australian who uses roundabouts on the daily, YES. Yes it would help you road issues with intersections! Infact you can have multiple roads & roundabouts intersecting in an intersection! Look up Moorlbark Victoria Australia and you'll find a 3 roundabout intersection that works beautifully. I got my P plates (probation license) around there and was made to go through that intersection 6 times for my test. They're just really good design.
I like roundabouts as long as they are single lane. Once it gets to two lanes and up its basically ridiculous. Been on plenty of single lane roundabouts but the double lanes always have issues.
Turbo roundabouts discourage lane changing within them via physical barriers, fixing many of the issues with two lane roundabouts I’m starting to see popping up, which have many of the issues with monstrous multi-lane traffic circles: lane changing or cutting off other drivers, which disrupts the flow, drivers getting stuck in the inner lane, drivers cutting the shortest path through at high speed, ignoring painted markings, etc. Apparently, some traffic engineers are concerned about clearing snow from turbo roundabouts, but they seem to clear them fine in Nordic and Scandinavian countries that implement them. They typically only do at busy intersections of multi-lane roads, where single-lane roundabouts can’t support the throughput.
full double lane roundabouts are trash, they shouldn't exist anywhere. You either build a single lane (which works up to about 20,000 car per day) or a turbo roundabout for close to twice. For even more, you'd need to reroute traffic and REALLY need a train line…).
Two lines roundabout is nothing. In my city there's a three lines roundabout. And that's not all. You have to also pay attention to trams and pedestrian crossings going through the middle of that. Since it's a busy place quite a lot of cyclists also use it. My main issue is that there's space for a safe, seperated bicycle line there. Neither cars drivers nor pedestrians would lose anything if someone slightly intelligent decided to paint some lines. It's actually pretty rare in our city where usually you have to sacrifice something to make space for cyclists Two lines roundabouts are not that bad especially when you have to move more cars. Three lines roundabouts are "fun" to experience. Four lines, eh, at this point you have to ask yourself where did it all went wrong
Many roundabouts where I live are two lane and have zebra crossings (pedestrian) plus connect to bike lanes and major bus routes. They seem confusing or busy at first when you think about every mode of travel together but it’s so efficient.. In fact it’s the quickest, safest and most efficient intersection for most cases! Just gotta practice when cycling and driving bc they can be tricky at first
alot of roundabouts are 2 lane even if they don't show it. i have been on single lane roads with roundabouts that are 2 lanes for vehicles turning right.
these to me as a Dutch person are very interesting. for most my life beside me being very very young, I've only know design that intentionally slow cars down to the desired speeds, you look around you and have a feel for the maximum speed that being accurate 99 percent of the time. when road design is always like that and you come to different countries (i visited the US went from Washington DC to the west of Virginia) its a shocker, especially thinking bicycle minded and pedestrian minded, but also understood how it functions of just get the car to the parking lot and go from there. from seeing all that i know u cant just suddenly switch over on a whim, even its statistically proven to be safer and better for all kinds of traffic, as the car centric ideas are so engrained in people it also requires a societal change, but seeing these smaller scale solutions creep up finding a good ''middle ground'' while also being affordable seems like such a no brainer, working with those plastic bricks or curb extensions while keeping most of the road intact. so the only question remains, why didn't they do this on a slightly larger scale 5 years ago? is it politicians, is it the car-centric people being afraid? and what are the results of suddenly making a lot of bigger changes everywhere? will there be outrage or confusion? or will people understand good road design immediately? i think its interesting to ask Americans that drove in the Netherlands in a car what they thought and if they had much confusion to get extreme samples of that, as I'm very curious how that experience was/would be like.
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That is because in America we have been trained to believe that walking or jogging is "suspicious activity".
But this works.
What software did you use?
@@mfra959i want to know this too!
It's ridiculous how there are politicans who say that this is a war on motorists
They forgot that driving is not a right, it's a privilege
@@user-op8fg3ny3jdriving is a right idiot 😂😂😂
Most politicians will say what they think will get them elected.
So, if they think a larger segment of people who can vote for them are "pro-car" than "anti-car", they'll obviously go for that segment. I'm simplifying the terms into pro-car and anti-car for the sake of brevity in the sentence.
First off, a lot of the debate is framed as how to get rid of cars, rather than how give people more high quality options. Second, a lot of cities have enacted straight up anti-car policies. Rather than improving alternatives, like walking, biking, light rail, etc. they’ve just made driving harder and more expensive.
It's not them, it's the lobbyists from car companies who write their speeches
I am a traffic engineer with my local municipality, focused on traffic calming and vulnerable roadway user connectivity and safety. This is the most concise yet well-articulated video I’ve seen and captures a wide variety of traffic calming solutions. I’m definitely saving this and sharing it with my colleagues and family alike. It will be tremendously useful as I communicate with the general public for its ease of understanding. I look forward to watching a lot more of your content. Thanks for making my job easier!!
One thing that is not mention about the last road, is how has it impact the traffic around. As there where so many issue on this road, I think it's was the greatest idea to do so. But, if you narrow and by any means make traffic capacity lower, it need to be able to redistribute itself somewhere else or you'll get some (more) traffic issue or move the issue somewhere else. I also understand that it's not the intend of this video to show the repercussion of years and years of "bad planning". I mean, I don't know any little village of 10k population that already have place for a full highway infrastructure plan in what is now farm fields for when they will grow to 100k population. And if money wasn't an issue, I'm pretty sure all big city would go destroying half of the infrastructure & building to remake it the "good" way.
A little exemple of my city at Trois-Rivières, we have a high way coming from the west crossing a N to S highway on what was 50 years ago the "side" of the city. It's a T joinction. You need to go a little south and than you have another T section to get back on W to E highway. Mind that there is a bridge to the south. The E part of the high go in the heart of the city and countinue far away.
So, two thing with that : first, the bridge has high traffic and as soon as there is an accident going south, it's jaming the highway over the two T section and so basically jam traffic all accross city (all the blvd that connect near one of these T intersection are block and they are also major road of traffic). The second thing, is that between the 2 T, it's basically a bottle neck as for 500 meters, you have 2 highway that are join together + a connection (on and off ramp) to a major blvd (because we all know that adding more access to a bottle neck is a good idea!).
Of what I understand, they did this because in the "golden age" of the city, it was forcing traffic to go through the city and was bringing business!
But, a little the same way, what is now one of the most use blvd of Trois-Rivières, there is a train track ... and the train often go through there on traffic hours. When it happens, it can be KMs of jam traffic. When it was there, it was more an access to some industrial part of the city and than the city expend and it has become in the middle of major commercial area and two big residential area (still have an industrual park too).
@@nicolasjoly6948 you're definitely right, it's urgent to consider the network that surrounds it, and also have a good understanding if demand will be constrained on the street in question. In the US, a lot of our streets were built in an era that expected sprawl to continue indefinitely. As a city we are working to restore and infill our existing areas of town, which in turn reduces traffic and frees up space. We now have a lot of streets where the demand is much lower than capacity; in these cases lane removal can occur without inducing diversion elsewhere. But as I said it's important to be sure of that, and if there is a risk of that happening, have a plan on how you'll address parallel routes. A key piece of that too is what connectivity is available, which as you mention, is often limited by railroads, rivers, streams, and what bridges exist or lack thereof.
Roundabouts actually make traffic faster. No need to completely stop, but also no need to hit the pedal to fit in. And no minute-long idling, waiting for traffic lights. Everybody wins.
@@svr5423 True. There are places were roudabout is the best solution. Everyone has to slow down and if there is traffic jam it's easier to drive the "zipper" style.
@@jcwms17Ever think that the more you make cars have to stop the more they'll want to speed to beat the next red light?
As a European, it is very strange to see that such basic traffic regulation tools are not widespread. But I have tried to be a pedestrian in the US. Remember one place, on very civilized Cape Cod. The place looked like two, quiet villages connected with leafy back streets. But walking 20 minutes or so from our accommodation down to a sea food restaurant by the canal was one of the most scary things I’ve ever done. No pavements, no zebra crossings, nothing. And the drivers were not even looking for pedestrians. Because there were none. The next day, I needed to buy some bread for breakfast. On the other side of the street, some 250 m away, there was a small shopping mall. Based on what I learned the last night, I took the car. Because walking was just too dangerous.
I can't believe this is 'new' news. These are the basics of road design in Europe and have been for decades
I live in the Midwest and it's super common to have rural highways that cut through the center of small towns. It will be a 55 for most of the road, but dip to like 25 in these towns with no change to the road design what so ever.
yeah, even the problem with blind spots when turning is not seen often because if there's a 4 lane road 99% of the time it's going to be signaled or has the left turn removed
I live on an island which is modelled after the US and this is EXACTLY my life too
There are still a lot of places in Europe that also use anti-human road design. Scandinavia and Central Europe are pretty good now with some notable exceptions, but Eastern & Southern Europe are not much different from some bad US areas.
1:28 seeing those massive cars driving over that tiny roundabout is the single funniest thing I've seen today.
size of an m4 sherman tank hull 💀
The roundabout isn't even that small, the "cars" are just absurdly large.
Damn, I thought I was the only one to think that 😂😂
It also shows how ridiculously gigantic US vehicles are when put into scale.
There are roundabouts that are even tinier in the UK.
@@Lolwutfordawinno, it’s small here we have enough space, not in your piss smelling cities in Europe, it will be quite satisfying to watch the European Union continue to become more and more irrelevant as the United States continues to grab their smartest people
I love the overhead graphics laid over satellite imaging. Really neat editing tool. Great video.
I was thinking this too!
Yeah! what sofware is it?
@@Ziggster625 Photoshop
@@Arzirhanobody would use photoshop for a video when specific software exists for motion graphics. Obviously after effects or even just premiere is the likely choice.
@@underballbutter what's stupid is a society built around the personal vehicle. I freaking hate driving but unless I have the money for ride shares I'm stuck driving as my only realistic option. Anything to make travelling more accessible to non-drivers is a plus.
For me, Dutchie, this kind of road design is just as normal as can be. I'm grateful for that. And it is great to see these design principles being applied in the USofA. Keep up the good work!
"normal" or "wow, still extremely car centric"? ;)
Nahh there's no bike lanes. Roundabouts are great but Dutch infrastructure is way more refined. From traffic calming to intuitive pathing, to smart traffic lights that minimizes or even eliminates "crossing paths sharing green". Even how zoning and road infrastructure interact. We're the masters of efficiency. The US has a long way to go if they want to catch up. In the Netherlands, they can replace an entire highway viaduct in 4 days. Which looks awesome by the way.
dutch person not mention that they're dutch challenge (IMPOSSIBLE)
@@NLTops go back to notjustbikes
@@r0bz0rly Lol, how fragile is your ego? 🤣 I'm good here thanks.
I wish those changes happened nation-wide, not just in some rich suburban neighborhoods.
first they have to proof themselves, which is easy when facts are on your side. and then you can keep advancing them. lets just hope no big car companies comes out and says the roads become to narrow for their giant cyber trucks.
As a resident, the changes being implemented in Cincy are actually in lower socioeconomic areas including right next to the university. They're really not taking economic status into consideration with a lot of these changes.
COUGH COUGH Madison Wisconsin COUGH COUGH
@@benw.4661glad that's happening there! I wish that'd be the case for a lot of other places in America :(
Guys, he straight up finished the video with recommendations from the guest on how to get these projects in your own towns and neighborhoods!
If you really are passionate about it, go make some noise. Remember people: Closed mouths don't get fed. Never attribute anything to malice you can attribute to laziness or ineptitude. Be the change you want to see in the world.
The idea of using plastic to make road adjustments quickly and cheaply is really neat.
Good ability to try it out and reconfigure it pretty easily too, if a better solution exists
There are much cheaper alternatives that wouldn't be so bad for the environment though.
Didn't they say these were made from recycled materials?@@MegaLokopo
@@MegaLokopoEnh, the plastic is recycled
@@Brent-jj6qiplastic breaks down into micro plastics and is washed away into the environment. It’s a real problem.
I love roundabouts because they make so much sense - cheap to implement, cheap to maintain, and 100% reliable (no power or timing devices required)
Not always some roundabouts have signals on the approaches
@@yogurt636 ...And some roundabouts are not "100% reliable". They're only reliable as the amenability of approaching traffic to actually following the rules. ([Very carefully] check out the series of US41 roundabouts in downtown Sarasota - there's always some collision debris near where 41 South enters at least one of the roundabouts at any given time, because nobody wants to stop!!)
Roundabouts really aren’t cheap. Cities that want roundabouts have to spend thousands of dollars on landscaping if they want to build a roundabout. That’s why there are as many roundabouts in America, because landscaping is expensive.
My family took a trip to England when I was a kid, and we loved the roundabouts so much that my sister wrote a little song we would sing whenever we came to one:
Round and round and round we go
Where we stop, I don't know.
Round and round and round and round we go.
Not always maintainable... there are roundabouts where snow plows can't plow.
With current laws in Austria, if you were to be caught driving 143 km/h in a 50km/h area, you'd lose both your license and your car!
Here in the US, I picked up a man who has not 1 but 4 (FOUR) driving while intoxicated violations in 4 different states before he finally got his driver license revoked! And even then, he got minimal jail time. 🤦🏽♂️
From what I heard about the USA, the driver's license is often used as a replacement for identification. The only proper identification that Americans have is the social security number, which they can not risk showing to anyone without having their identity instantly stolen. As such, losing your driver's license means losing your means of identification.
@@TumbolisuThere are state IDs available for people who don't have driver's licenses, so not quite true. Most people with a car do use their license as their primary method of identification, but the same authority that issues them also issues non-driving identification cards. Otherwise, a lot of people who can't drive would have no way to identify themselves.
@@veelastnameIn most places in the U.S, losing your license means losing the ability to go anywhere, unless you have enough money to rely on Uber, or have a friend or family member willing to drive you around.
In Germany you would lose your drivers license, but only for three months and you had to pay 700 €.
In my opinion that's far to low.
I can't think of one single excuse why someone has to drive almost three time as fast as they were allowed to!
I live like 2 minutes away from the cicinnati road diet featured in this video. The road diet isn't even that long(only covering about a 1-3 miles) but it is in an area that sees more pedestrian traffic than other areas nearby because of it's proximity to a school, a library, and a lot of shops/resturants in walking distance. That road was super dangerous cause it cut right through that! It feels a lot safer now(and that's shown in the data too!) and I love it. Unfoutunatly though a lot of drivers hate it and are very vocal about it(my mom included). So much so that there is a chance that those changes will be reverted just based on the vocal opposition alone, but the safety data isn't on their side and with all the work that went into getting it approved I doubt those involved will just stand by and allow that effort go to waste. A big part of that opposition I feel comes from people who drove on that road being used to going down it at such high speeds and also having a second lane to pass people, which is exactly why the road was so dangerous.
One of the problems that many people overlook is that a lot of infrastructure can grow next to a road in a very short time.
Expecting drivers to change for that. Even though they were there first.
Why don't we build around the road instead of expecting the road (drivers) to have to change?
"Uhgh, come on slowpoke, step up the pace! Who drives 40 in a 35? Wish I had a passing lane."
@@randgrithr7387 That's basically what the naysayers sound like 😂
@@AdamStansbery Drivers adapt really fast when there's road work or even after a road gets widened. There's nothing that would make this different or harder other than spite. Regardless, driver's ability to adapt is not really a huge problem because people eventually get used to it. The only reason people haven't already is because it's all temporary infrastructure at the moment and there's a chance it'll go back to what it used to be ans some people are banking on that.
@@AdamStansbery That's exactly what makes stroads so dangerous. The side effect of that growth is that it's hampered by the reduction in pedestrians who don't feel as safe. The data shows that the more friendly a street is to people walking and biking rather than driving, the more businesses on that street benefit. This is largely due to how people behave when driving vs walking/biking. When someone drives to a place, they tend to only go to one particular business before driving somewhere else. They also tend to change their plans based on available parking, increasing the chance for lost business. Pedestrians/cyclists, on the other hand, are more likely to go to multiple businesses in the same area per trip. It's a no-brainer that changing priorities away from drivers is better overall, for both safety and economics.
Always shocking to see american roads that are lined with small businesses and homes yet have 2 or 3 lanes in each direction and a damn hard shoulder to boot.
Stroads are the worst.
I should send this to my city council. There's a 4 lane stroad that we've been trying to slim down for 3+ years. Quick build is the way.
Careful what you ask for. Sure, the streets may technically be "safer", but then traffic jams will become more common.
@@guildrich 🤪
@@aidanknight You know, it's amazing how people nowadays are quick to call others "delusional" for having even the slightest bit of skepticism.
@@guildrich Less Cars on the Road = Less Traffic Jams
@@guildrich Wrong, traffic jams are less likely because drivers will just become pedestrians or cyclists, so that means less cars and less traffic.
If you add a lane, people that weren't driving because of traffic jam now start driving because they don't need to use public transportation. This means they go into cars and the more people do this, the more traffic is generated. Look at the Katy Freeway. 26 lanes yet still jammed.
US engineers discover solution used en masse in Europe for decades
I have always said this! They make out like they're new inventions...
US people think otherwise. They think EU raads are too complicated, they need the road to be treated like a runway
Yes, obviously. The issue is getting politicians to listen to us.
Watched this and thought. Wait we've had this in the UK for over 15years. Not the plastic one though we use plastic paint for mini roundabouts.
Yes let's bad mouth the engineers and not the politicians, voters, and general lack of driver education
89mph on a simple 4-lane road? How is that possible? I also wonder why those 4-lane roads are so common as ring roads around malls, which have a lot of traffic.
Never met an American male motorist?
A lot of drivers in Cincinnati don't have a license, insurance, or a care in the world beyond themselves. 89 in a 35 is normal everyday driving for Cincinnatians. I'll admit I didn't realize how insane and dangerous this kind of driving is until I moved across the river into Kentucky where drivers generally seem to be better. Though in the past few years more Cincinnatians are moving over here and bringing their bad driving habits with them and it's becoming more normalized here too.
Driver was probably trying to set a high score
it's physically possible so I imagine the story behind that is a street racer taking it as a challenge. ordinary speeders aren't hitting those numbers
Don’t underestimate how fast people can go on roads like that.
As someone from the UK, seeing the shock about a minirounabout is kinda crazy to me. They're everywhere here. True, not made of plastic but still strange that this roundabouts are such a foriegn concept to the USA.
To be fair UK roundabouts aren't all that great. They are often built with angled approach lanes to prioritise car traffic and often don't accommodate pedestrians at all.
Still better than a 4 way stop though
@@lars7935 Compared to the USA tho, J-walking is legal in the UK and there are normally crosses nearby busy roundabouts if needed. There are also some roundabouts with crossings on the angled approaches.
they're just made from that paint on plastic instead of panels that are screwed on aren't they?
Yeah this feels very much like another "Americans discover Europe" video, but I will say I prefer this design to ours. Our miniroundabouts are often so flat that people miss them; I've had a few close calls driving around them when another car just cuts across me by going the wrong way around or just right over the top; the slight kerb in this design might discourage that.
@@deyfuck there is a point i question why a mini roundabout if there size of a bike, like the flat one you mentioned , like you can only make it so small till point it doesn't make any sense
I can't believe how high your production quality is. Keep up the good work and beautiful visuals
My city implemented a few "permanent" curb extensions. People were so unhappy the city removed them. I have to say that they were not great for cyclists but most people who complained were motorists.
Also I really like the term "road diet". Where I live, I have no idea when the roads will go on a diet because we are still in the "road bloat" phase.
Average motorist when they actually have to pay attention while driving:
Why thing on road? Me no likey. Have to put phone down 😢
They may have not been designed very well. And if they're used somewhere that's too busy, it just reduces the efficiency of an intersection drastically. There has to still be a logic to where these things are used.
@@JoePCool14 Like I said, it was not great for cyclists. I never actually used them as a pedestrian so I can't comment.
curb extensions kinda suck and make for a destructive barrier, these low profile bumps are a pretty great idea since theres more space to make mistakes without punishment!
Did you notice that signs alone don’t work with car drivers? You have to PHYSICALLY prevent them from doing dangerous things.
That wasn’t my takeaway at all. There were very few physical preventions shown, but many signs shown, most of which were signs for our subconscious (e.g. shrubs and narrow lanes). I’d also say that signs alone don’t work for *humans*, not just drivers. You can subconsciously make someone feel safe when they aren’t, and they will end up getting hurt. That’s true for more than just drivers.
Trees also help to reduce the urban heat island effect by shading over impermeable surfaces and by evapotransporation which is a fancy way of saying plant sweating.
as Dutch citizen I was already surprised at the fast speeds people travel through neighbourhoods in this video. and then I realised I was looking at mph and not km/h! over a 100km/h in a neighbourhood is just insane! suicidal!
I think the word is murderous not suicidal.
ya 35mph / 56 km/h is a common speed in pretty much all towns, although school zones drop to 20 mph / 32 km/h
but rule of thumb is if it's 30 then you can do 35 or rural country it's 55mph but everyone goes 65 at most although some do 70mph..
anywhere thats 100km/h or close to is rare usually it's a town built around a main road but neighborhood i never seen one yet
While id agree with you, I don't really think there should be homes on a heavily traveled 4 lane road to begin with. When strodes come up, the knee jerk solution always seems to be to turn the stroad to a street and not the stroad to a road. If that street is better used as a road, why not remove the housing and pedestrians from the equation?
If you reduce the lanes and slow traffic on a high volume stroad, you'll end up with increased congestion (which I'd find just as frustrating as speeding cars living on that street) or speeding traffic bypassing the congestion on a parallel street, shifting the pressure from one street to the next and so on.
@@MrGOLDENSHOT25bro did you seriously just suggest removing people from an area so that cars could have it easier? That's so fucked up
in romania that guy would likely get jail time
I love how most of these solutions are just paint and pylon solutions and the rest would only take a week. Things that a city can move up on their to do list. I’m sad I live in a town of 8k so I won’t likely see any of these go into play.
Honestly it might be even easier to implement in a small town. A lot of these things are. I think we have this idea that things like this have to start in big cities. Personally I think a lot of it is easier to implement on a small scale first. Once that is done, scale up to implement in larger city centers.
As someone who lives next to a busy 4-lane stroad, this is very encouraging to me. Too many times I've noticed people driving by over 60mph, some people even go upwards to 80mph. I am enraged by this, the speed limit is only 45, but even that is too high.
I've been wanting to get into a city planning career so I can help make some positive changes in my community.
Young men have very fast reflexes and great hand-to-eye coordination. I don't worry too much about fast drivers. I worry about marijuana. It's a chronic-use drug that has to be taken several times a day to have any effect at all. So marijuana users sit there for four seconds after the light has turned to green. I see it all the time. The failure to enforce federal prohibitions on marijuana puts millions on the road with very slow reflexes and terrible hand-to-eye coordination.
Yet again, the law-abiding citizen is being punished for something the criminals do -- and with a punishment that doesn't affect those who don't give a damn if the bottom of their cars smack a traffic bump.
I overlaid a Scottish roundabout I was familiar with, at scale on various intersections in Southern California. Most fit, some would require nipping off a corner or two. They'd both calm traffic and eliminate delays. All these Advance Left turn lights all over the U.S. I've only seen overseas in the centers of very congested cities. I love roundabouts. What I've noticed is that I'd rather take a bit longer to get to my destination so long as I don't get stuck in congestion waiting for lights to cycle, the cross traffic minimal...
I agree! I hate waiting on lights. I might be driving 20 kph, but at least I'm driving. Having to stop every intersection is what makes me irritated.
@@JorgeForgeRoundabouts don't eliminate that. You still have to wait, in this case for a gap in traffic, like at any other priority junction. In some cases they can actually make traffic worse, especially when the flows on the varying approaches are unbalanced, resulting in there being little to no gap for certain approaches.
Traffic lights on the other hand give everyone a chance to go. Also they take up less space, and hence are more pedestrian-friendly (shorter crossing distance). And they can be coordinated to provide a green wave, which can reduce the number of stops to just one, in ideal conditions.
@@NewBuildmini1. Roundabouts do reduce the amount of time you are at a standstill and therefore reduce irritation. With a traffic light you are stopped for 30 seconds or longer. Whereas with a roundabout you continuously inch forward. The later one being much less irritating.
2. What layout are you thinking about that makes you think that traffic lights are more pedestrian friendly than roundabouts?
Because that's generally not true. Either they are the same (crosswalk across two lanes). Or most of the times roundabouts are better because they have the space to have a "refugee island" between the two lanes. So you only have to cross one lane at a time instead of two lanes.
finally some good fucking news
I noticed commenters (from Europe) saying "Oh, Americans discovered the mini roundabout!" We have mini roundabouts in the USA, the innovative part is the use of the plastic, not the concept itself.
Another terrific video. Love how the animations and diagrams demonstrate the problems and how the solutions actually fix them.
I have been watching urbanist and street safety TH-cam for a long time. You are something very different and very good
Thank you!
Most chanel's about urbanism just rant about what's wrong with north american street design but offer or explain no solutions. Well done ! This is very informative ! 😊
The ranting is left to the comment peanut gallery instead.
@@jaycee330 Ranting? The video blames everybody and wants to punish everybody equally for the problems caused by a minority of stupid people, drunks, marijuana smokers, and others who should not be driving at all.
If we had a 35mph limit in the UK and you did 89, you'd lose your licence. (We have 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, if you're wondering.)
It's the same thing in the US, it's just that like everywhere else the police aren't looking most of the time.
One of the best videos I've seen on the subject. Well done!
What an excellent way to try new road layouts while already improving the situation during the trial.
It's so refreshing to see the US taking a second look at road design. I wish you all happy driving over there.
the animations on this video are insanely well done, and super simple too. Wonderful video!
mini roundabouts are great. String a bunch of them together and you get a magic roundabout!
This video is perfectly done, congratulations! Such wonderful explanations of traffic calming design concepts, combined with proper visuals to further explain them. No notes, 10/10, I'll be sending a link out to this on a few platforms as well as passing it on to some of my city reps who are always willing to listen and learn.
5:56 - I was not prepared for that van, hole crap 😂
suspension test.
I like how that dangerous intersection was changed, but they (again) left out protections for pedestrians or people riding bikes to cross it safely.
I was thinking the same thing. No labeled crosswalks.
it's still a lot safer than before, even without markings, due to the vastly reduced speeds, it can be better, yes, but we have to take that first towards better street design somewhere
I hope so, since it should be fairly quick to modify it.
@@imblackmagic1209cars are still able to do right turns at a high speed. The roundabout didn't change anything about that. (the problem portrait at 0:19 )
So crossing that road is still as dangerous for pedestrians as before.
@@Jehty_they can atill turn very fast, but if that intersection gets any traffic they have to watch & yield in the roundabout.
It could be better im sure, but this was a temporary adjustment that they could make without adding more pavement.
The issue with stroads is that they generally started out as a highway through uninhabited areas between cities. Then, the cities grew and developers built subdivisions along the highway, then to service the homeowners businesses needed to be built nearby and start popping up all along the highway. Now the connecting highway built for high-speed traffic between cities is in the city.
Hey, it's OK to leave highways as highways. But it's definitely not OK to just place sidewalks and business entrances directly at a highway, not to mention homes. That's what secondary and tertiary local streets are for. There should be miles of highly walkable area until you encounter the next highway. I'm sure there's plenty of space for that, I've heard America is a large country :)
@@Krymzonnetpeople cry that america is too big for high speed rail lmao
The whole country needs to see (and especially understand) this!!
Really enjoying this channel and the content you're putting out! Keep it up!
Me too. I especially like the positive tone of the videos and the focus on practical solutions.
That mini roundabout design is galaxy brain level
Really great video and primer on so many techniques - impressive not only to fit it all in 15 mins but to also keep things connected and not too overwhelming. Great job!
I watch a lot of these types of TH-cam channels and yours is becoming my #1 in only a few short videos. The "toolkit" visualization, etc. Wow. I would show this in/to a class. I'm actually learning things that could help my own city.
Somewhere in southern Germany, an intersection between 2 busy rural roads (with legal speed limits of 70-100km/h) that originally only had stop signs for the "lesser" road got the nickname of "death intersection" because there were fatal crashes every few months. Authorities tried a few variants of changing the intersection, and the only one that really worked (and has stayed for many years) was turning it into a roundabout. Since the conversion, there have (AFAIK) only been a few minor crashes and zero fatalities. So yeah, roundabouts work.
An alternative measure could be to stagger the intersection, turning it into two T-intersections, to force drivers to slow down.
Or to put in speed bumps (which is cheaper, but worse for drivers' suspensions, and noise).
Amazing and highly informative video! You managed to show and explain a number of concepts and alternatives in a short and direct video. Thank you and keep the good work!
Thanks!
7:56 yess I'd love to see that future video!
also your motion graphics really help me visually understand the topics covered. great job with those
This is a really good video, all the individual tools are pretty basic and well known but having them all in one place with clear explanations is awesome.
The only bit I noticed that's missing is *continuous sidewalks* in the raised crosswalk section. As the name indicates, the crosswalk is fully raised to the level of the sidewalk rather than meet the road somewhere in the middle (or worse at road level like a standard crosswalk). They are of unmatched comfort and accessiblity for pedestrians.
Great rundown on traffic calming measures. Loved the combo of visual graphics and real video!
9:00 where I live we did this but it still resulted in collisions so now the left turning lane is a median with cut-out left-turns only at specific points where there are roads or driveways. The intersections are also roundabouts so if you have to turn left but can't, then you can turn right and do a u-turn.
Such a center turning lane has the name "suicide lane" for a reason.
I don't get why this video portrait this as a good solution. It's a horrible solution.
When driving i love roundabouts. Wish they were more common. As a pedestrian theyre sometimes hard to navigate, but thats okay if its considered well with the design
I appreciate your channel so much. There are so many urbanist TH-camrs who all just spew hate towards car infrastructure, and just post borderline propaganda videos. I love both urban cities and rural countryside and suburban life, and IMO everyone can have their own preference on where to live. I love that you don’t focus on hating on existing infrastructure, but rather provide actual solutions which none of the other really seem to do other than the same talking points. Great channel, keep it up! I love seeing some actual sensible and educational content.
i LOVE this channel
The big street I grew up on was altered from 4 lanes to 2 with a center turning lane. It has been that way now for decades. It has full proper signage and lane paint. Many drivers still do not pull into the turning lane to turn left, blocking their travel lane. other drivers pulling onto the street use the middle lane as an onramp almost colliding with car there waiting to turn left. I don't know if these are normal problems for turning lane roads or just our local dummies.
They are nicknamed suicide lanes for a reason. To fix the problem, through traffic needs to be separated from traffic that wants to turn. Using a parallel road on either side, that you can only access every half a mile or so. But I don't know if there's enough space for that.
Watching this makes me realize how far behind the USA is on road design. Shocking. Great video!
The best of intentions. What could possibly go wrong!
The US passed a rule many years ago to protect pedestrians that required that the bodywork on the front of vehicles had to be at least 10cm from the nearest hard part (engine, chassis, etc) which made the fronts of the vehicles instantly considerably higher. The thinking was that the people would be less likely to be injured by the car, the reality is that people are now less visible and they are more likely to be dramatically accelerated in the impact and more likely to go under rather than over.
There is also the corporate average fuel economy rules that made larger vehicles more profitable for manufacturers to the point that they completely dominate sales.
As long as I'm ranting ... Daytime running lights have resulted in a significant number of collisions after dusk with vehicles without their headlights on. The drivers think their headlights are on because their dash is lit up and they can see light coming from the front of their vehicle. But without headlights on the light from the front is far less, they can see less far ahead, and the back and sides of the vehicles have no light at all. If automatic headlights were included in the rule we wouldn't be here.
And this one might just be personal ... who at GM thought it was a good idea to make the reverse lights come on when a vehicle was parked so anyone passing behind them can no longer know if it's parked or is actually going to move? And several companies are so cheap they don't have different LEDs for signals and marker lights so when a turn signal is on the brake light turns off.
excellent work again, great examples, interview, and ideas!
These are great ideas. My city had the single goal to reduce lane width, to make cars go slower. One of the ways they did this was to convert 3 lane roads to 4 lane roads. The problem with simply making lanes narrower is that as a driver, I get nervous about hitting other cars (moving or parked) which makes me distracted and more difficult to also respond to bikes using the shared lane and pedestrians crossing at uncontrolled intersections. In my experience, it's far better to use some of these other traffic calming measures, but not narrow the lanes when the lanes are going to be next to other car lanes or parking. My ideal would be to reduce the number of lanes to create protected bike or pedestrian lanes, as I am also frequently a bicyclist and pedestrian.
Great content, glad you're here🙂
Charlotte resident here. I drove to the chicane you used in your example earlier this afternoon just to check it out. Thanks for the great content!
Your videos are always brilliantly well made. You don't get opinionated, you just lay out the facts and create great recommendations. We need one of you at every city council meeting in America.
I discovered this channel when it first came out, with alerts on! I've not been disappointed at all. Great content. ♥
There is a 6 lane stroad close to where I live and it is absolutely awful to walk around. It needs this type of conversion
I'm skeptical, if a 6-lane stroad is even salvageable. Maybe down to 2 per direction and eliminating _all_ left turns…
@@kailahmann1823 easy-peasy. Boulevard with over or under crossing like Moscow has it's boulevards and prospects. Intentionally separating fast road, slow road and pavement within one wide street. They can be over 100 m (300 ft) wide and incorporate a lot of foot traffic, car traffic, possibly tram or underground stop, park features like full-sized trees, benches, statues and fountains going on.
No left turns except for specifically designed ones.
In that case, the easiest may be to leave two ways in each side with a separator island in the middle, and add wide pavements protected by trees or something. This way - you cross two stripes going south, then the middle, then the two going north.
@@kailahmann1823It's definitely not as simple. It doesn't help that two highways exit onto it right next to each other
As a Cincinnati Resident, I love seeing our perspective shown. I think we have an interesting history, being an incredible example of urbanism during the early stages of development (e.g. Streetcar Suburbs, Price Hill Incline, Walkable German Neighborhoods), but then we literally bulldozed a lot of urban core downtown to focus on suburb and highway centric design. From what I've seen, there is a strong willingness towards urbanism, walkability, and pedestrian safety, and I thank all the people like Matt working hard to make improvements every day.
Great video. Keep up the good work.
In Poland we have painted 4 ft circle on road and its works as runabout.
After years of activism, I've actually finally gotten through to the higher ups at my building and I'm working on drafting up proposals to make our wide gaps between sidewalks at our apartment building safer. The area near our building is cut in half by a parking lot so I'm trying to find a way to slow drivers down and make it safer for pedestrians to cross. I was thinking a raised crossing would do the job but I'm open to suggestions. I'm just not sure where to find good designs for safe sidewalks and crossing to a safe standard. We also don't have enough bike storage so I'll see if I can convince them to add more bike storage since we have less than 20 spots for bikes in a 11 story building.
It sounds like you should just make the gaps physically narrower. At least as a first step. You can also make the gap visually narrower by painting lines along the side of the street near the crossing but not in the part where it's not close to the crossing. A refuge in the middle depending on how wide the street is. Different pavement on the crossing itself. And then raised crossing as a last resort. The first steps should be implemented anyway if you want to go for a raised crossing later but this also allows you to go cheap first.
I got to say, as someone who's been on the city planning/walkability side of TH-cam for a bit, it's nice to see a video that doesn't make me furious, but optimistic
Another incredible video, well done!
As a trucker, I've loved the low profile roundabouts. If there was no one in the immediate roundabout, is still just go straight, but slower because of the bumps. A lot of them like this were still too small for a B-train to clear even if the tractor "went around" even when they had more space for their construction
12:45
Is there a Bus Stop on the two directional bike lane?
What is, when a bike comes from above, when a bus ist arriving in the Bus-stop?
good question… far better solution would be to raise the bike lanes to sidewalk level, bend them slightly to the right and let the bus stop in the drive lane.
@@kailahmann1823That would defeat the point of using inexpensive materials, but definitely something to consider in the future.
@@thegreenguy5555 the current design a point, where cheap might be to cheap…
It does appear that the bus pulls into and blocks the bike lanes, or on the other side it pulls into the parking lane. Not ideal for sure, but this is a starter project. maps.app.goo.gl/5NN7qYkyX5m4wW5u5
In other parts of the city they narrow the bike lanes a bit and pour a concrete slab for the bus stop between the bike lanes and the travel lanes. Definitely better, but there does have to be room for it. maps.app.goo.gl/Au5tDzMvv2eczsUKA
This video is so professional, it feels like watching one of those news channels mini-documentaries. It's also just really nice to see practical real world changes being done successfully despite low budgets and beuracractic restraints, makes me feel like incremental progress really is achievable and worth doing.
The size of cars driving by is just ridiculous
It is ridiculous when a 100lb woman needs a 3 ton vehicle to buy a pack of cigarettes.
As a Cincinnati commuter I actually have driven on North Bend Rd and got ran off the road from a speeder. The two lane road was so misplaced, like most of the roads around the area. The new changes are really welcome for a daily driver. Another road to mention in the Greater Cincinnati area is Harrison Ave in Harrison, OH right by the Marcos. Greater development has made the traffic move much more consistently, and protects left turn drivers going into the development. Great changes!!
We've been doing this stuff in the UK for decades.
Making mini roundabouts with plastic centres? I doubt it.
@jaycee330, well, if you considered thermoplastic paint to be plastic then yes
@@jaycee330who cares if its plastic or concrete, this isnt innovative at all.
@@jaycee330 Well theres roundabouts with stone bricks coming from the center area so semi trailers can still get around.
over run areas arn't anything new and ngl should be used more on mini roundabouts to prevent people driving over the middle so much.
@@jaycee330 What difference does it make what material they’re made out of? It’s the function of them that matters.
I am civil Engineer researching on traffic found a solution. Thanks for your valuable speech. ❤❤❤🎉🎉🎉
The 85% rule for establishing speed limits would have that residential road have a speed limit at or above 60mph. I think any sane person would agree having residential driveways unto a 60mph road doesn't make sense, so I can't imagine a traffic engineer agreeing to that, but it does really make you think about how useful the 85% rule is. BTW California used to dictate that speed limits must be updated to the 85% rule, and such a street in California would have had their speed limit go up to 55mph if not 60
what a silly way to abuse the 85%… In Germany we do the opposite: If more that 15% exceed the limit, the road needs more traffic calming.
Go to Texas! That’s a normal occurrence down there. I’ve driving down 281 into San Antonio and that road has a 70 mph speed limit on a road with no median, just 2 yellow lines separating the 2 lanes of 70+ mph traffic. Ohh I don’t mention that there also business and residential driveways all along that road. Someone needs to send this information down there.
The US is so interesting. Even within one city, there are projects expanding stroads and making them worse, while a couple miles over there are improvements for pedestrianizing streets and decreasing vehicle speeds.
"And if we perceive more risk, we'll drive slower"
Rally drivers: More risk, more fun.
I live in Texas and my city tried some of these. They went away after a few months because supposedly people took them as a challenge to their freedom and went FASTER. Love this state, the way you love someone elses snot covered toddler.
How tf a child like me know more than an adult living in god great America!!!. just fascinating to me that some people have zero self awareness.
I like at 2:41 when said "in places where pedestrians are present such as residential streets" you showed arial video footage of a suburb with 0 pedestrians in view
Why walk when you can easily drive? You only walk if you are extremely poor, can't get a license (which we know doesn't stop a lot of people) or have severe anxiety around driving.
I live in a small town. It's very walkable, fairly pleasant to do so in the summer too. But, if I'm going somewhere further than a quarter mile away. I'm just gonna drive there. I've got heat, air conditioning, a comfy chair to sit in and personal space in my car - which to use requires no effort on my part, I just sit, wiggle my toes and bend my elbows occasionally... Walking is for chumps.
I'm in the US for my first time. For a country that chose the car as a main form of transport it sure seems like not much thought was put on infrastructure. Shop exits at 90° directly onto a 55mph road EVERYWHERE, manouvers where you're forced to cut across 4 lanes that go 55mph, stop signs in idiotic places, haven't seen one traffic light that detects traffic and turns red and green based on the flow from different sides... But no wonder everyone drives, it feels awful walking along these huge stroads with all the fast cars passing by, looking for the barely existing sidewalks.
I have to say i HATE those bike-lanes that are often just painted onto existing roads. They are just a really unwelcoming and dangerous place to be as a cyclist.
What would also help the US would be to removing those braindead zoning-laws. Those are not based on any data or lessons learned from the real world but instead come from reality detached bureaucrats in their ivory towers. Having just some small grocery and general stores close by, some small Inns, and all the small services you need nearby is incredibly convenient. You can walk or bike there, or even just use your car. Just by being way closer they reduce traffic a lot. With the big shopping centers with the insanely huge (often required by law) parking lots you have to drive a long way to get there - that costs you a lot of money just to grab a quick snack.
Heck where i live i can have all the shops i need in walking-distance (luckily i got a really nicely connected place). In the time it took me in Georgia just to get to the shop by car i am already done with the groceries now.
Good work by the engineers, simple neat markings and a layout that communicates what you are meant to do.
Cool to see the US finally catching up to the 21st century!
The city of Milwaukee, WI has been implementing a lot of these things in the past year and I’ve seen a big difference in terms of speeding / insanity on the roads where they’ve made changes. 🙌🙌🙌
Why is there not more of this already?? Imagine being able to just about guarantee a return on investment greater than 10X? Based on the example of the 4-lane road conversion, if the infrastructure only lasted half of it's lower end estimate then based on $5M in a half a year that would be $25M total return for $500K initial investment in just 2 1/2 years. Correct me if my math is wrong, but it seems like a pretty quick win and there should be a nationwide push to install more of these simple, low-cost and extremely effective designs.
You would think so. I think many communities just aren't aware of how detrimental the cost of crashes can be to the local economy.
Because its not easy to convince people who make decisions. When everyone is clamoring for more road lanes, to say that less may be safer and not impede traffic is akin to Galileo claiming heliocentrism.
Many of these issues have already been fixed in the UK, crossings have lines that mean you cannot park or stop there to allow for visibility on the crossing
Our road standards are still far behind The Netherlands, though.
Also, paint is not infrastructure. Those painted lines discourage parking near crossings, but don't prevent someone from doing so, especially as enforcement is so poor.
those absurdly large cars looks so funny
This is great. Its cheap to build and after a while the materials can be upgraded.
Why does nobody in the video use their turn signals when leaving the roundabout?
Probably the same reason they don't most of the time in the UK, laziness.
mini roundabouts don't require a signal when leaving because they are too small.
Instead just signal like a regular junction.
I can't speak for Ohio's roundabout education, but in my area of Virginia roundabouts used to be SO uncommon they were barely mentioned when I was in driving school about 15 years ago. I think I only got a summary like "yield when entering, always circle it to the right, follow any road markings and signs." I don't recall whether turn signals were mentioned or not. And it wasn't included in my license exam or driving test, so there was zero pressure to retain the info unless you lived near one.
Things might have improved since then? I know we have several more roundabouts in my city than we used to, so hopefully it's been added to the standard driving curriculum... my hopes aren't super high, though. And we have a LOT of older folks who were probably also never taught what to do with them. I was out running errands with a non-driving friend the other day, and we went through a roundabout. She mentioned her mom was super confused the first time she drove through there after it was added.
They're anti-car people who forced to drive a car 😂
signs are not infrastructure. the laws of physics keep people safe, not signs! this was a great video.
People can also use the laws of physics to act in a way that is safe for those around them. But for some reason, less and less people do that these days.
That mini roundabout was brilliant, and the 4 day install time is enviable.
There is a roundabout that's being built on my commute path and it's taking 2 years to build. It has added 20 minutes to my commute during construction.
"innovative solution"
* builds a regular roundabout, just smaller *
*American moment*
As an Australian who uses roundabouts on the daily, YES. Yes it would help you road issues with intersections! Infact you can have multiple roads & roundabouts intersecting in an intersection! Look up Moorlbark Victoria Australia and you'll find a 3 roundabout intersection that works beautifully. I got my P plates (probation license) around there and was made to go through that intersection 6 times for my test. They're just really good design.
I like roundabouts as long as they are single lane. Once it gets to two lanes and up its basically ridiculous. Been on plenty of single lane roundabouts but the double lanes always have issues.
Turbo roundabouts discourage lane changing within them via physical barriers, fixing many of the issues with two lane roundabouts I’m starting to see popping up, which have many of the issues with monstrous multi-lane traffic circles: lane changing or cutting off other drivers, which disrupts the flow, drivers getting stuck in the inner lane, drivers cutting the shortest path through at high speed, ignoring painted markings, etc.
Apparently, some traffic engineers are concerned about clearing snow from turbo roundabouts, but they seem to clear them fine in Nordic and Scandinavian countries that implement them. They typically only do at busy intersections of multi-lane roads, where single-lane roundabouts can’t support the throughput.
full double lane roundabouts are trash, they shouldn't exist anywhere. You either build a single lane (which works up to about 20,000 car per day) or a turbo roundabout for close to twice. For even more, you'd need to reroute traffic and REALLY need a train line…).
Two lines roundabout is nothing. In my city there's a three lines roundabout. And that's not all. You have to also pay attention to trams and pedestrian crossings going through the middle of that. Since it's a busy place quite a lot of cyclists also use it. My main issue is that there's space for a safe, seperated bicycle line there. Neither cars drivers nor pedestrians would lose anything if someone slightly intelligent decided to paint some lines. It's actually pretty rare in our city where usually you have to sacrifice something to make space for cyclists
Two lines roundabouts are not that bad especially when you have to move more cars. Three lines roundabouts are "fun" to experience. Four lines, eh, at this point you have to ask yourself where did it all went wrong
Many roundabouts where I live are two lane and have zebra crossings (pedestrian) plus connect to bike lanes and major bus routes. They seem confusing or busy at first when you think about every mode of travel together but it’s so efficient.. In fact it’s the quickest, safest and most efficient intersection for most cases!
Just gotta practice when cycling and driving bc they can be tricky at first
alot of roundabouts are 2 lane even if they don't show it.
i have been on single lane roads with roundabouts that are 2 lanes for vehicles turning right.
these to me as a Dutch person are very interesting.
for most my life beside me being very very young, I've only know design that intentionally slow cars down to the desired speeds, you look around you and have a feel for the maximum speed that being accurate 99 percent of the time. when road design is always like that and you come to different countries (i visited the US went from Washington DC to the west of Virginia) its a shocker, especially thinking bicycle minded and pedestrian minded, but also understood how it functions of just get the car to the parking lot and go from there.
from seeing all that i know u cant just suddenly switch over on a whim, even its statistically proven to be safer and better for all kinds of traffic, as the car centric ideas are so engrained in people it also requires a societal change, but seeing these smaller scale solutions creep up finding a good ''middle ground'' while also being affordable seems like such a no brainer, working with those plastic bricks or curb extensions while keeping most of the road intact. so the only question remains, why didn't they do this on a slightly larger scale 5 years ago? is it politicians, is it the car-centric people being afraid? and what are the results of suddenly making a lot of bigger changes everywhere? will there be outrage or confusion? or will people understand good road design immediately?
i think its interesting to ask Americans that drove in the Netherlands in a car what they thought and if they had much confusion to get extreme samples of that, as I'm very curious how that experience was/would be like.
Perceiving risk could cause drivers to slow down. Hunh.
Great video!! I hope my city can get on board with safer streets and more bike lanes!