Can't agree more. Traffic lights on r'bouts is crazy.
Twickenham is a classic example - used to be sticky through there but now it is one big jam
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Don't get me started on that, there is a roundabout where I used to live (End of the Polegate bypass in Sussex) which functioned really well. Then one day, Mr Council decides they will put some traffic lights on this roundabout. Traffic congestion increased, but at least they then had the good grace to admit they had it wrong and disabled the lights. Now they said they will alter the software controlling these lights. Why springs to mind, the junction worked perfectly well without the lights in the firstplace!!
I see they are doing this more and more now, there are traffic lights springing up on roundabouts everywhere causing increased congestion. Whats the thinking behind this?!
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The thinking is as mentioned above - saturation on a particular entry point. I use a light controlled roundabout every day, using one of the quiet approaches. If there were no signals I'd be sat there until lunchtime trying to exit.
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I was really making the point that the whole issue of carbon emissions from motor vehicles is very complicated and that the govts. simplistic knee jerk "tax them off the roads" approach is entirely to do with raising revenue and nothing whatsoever to do with global warming.
Rather like the lack of connection between road safety and "scameras".
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Sorry, but I do see the logic behind fences obstructing the view at roundabouts.
The whole point of roundabouts is that they slow traffic at junctions, so that if there is an accident, the impact speeds are lower and injuries are reduced. 'Conventional' roundabouts (i.e. crossroads) work fine like this. The problem has arisen where traffic planners have installed roundabouts over junctions that are not your conventional crossroads. In some cases the road goes straight on with no deviation at all. In cases like this, you and I will, given good visiblity, check to see if its clear, whilst slowing down as little as possible (given a clear road, natch).
So you then have cars approaching and going through junctions ate high speed, and if some fool on the roundabout doesn't indicate (it happens!) or changes their mind, you have all the ingredients for a high speed impact.
So, fences are installed to force us to slow down. A prime example of this is the M25 Leatherhead junction. I too, was frustrated when these first appeared, but if you think it through, they are safer.
Of course, slowing down and speeding up again does increase pollution, but the very small extra CO2, etc. is, I would venture, preferable to high speed crashes, which would doubtless lead to more speed cameras, or traffic lights on the roundabouts.
Given the choice between traffic lights and roundabouts, I much prefer roundabouts, even if they do have fences.
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The whole point of roundabouts is that they slow traffic at junctions, so that if there is an accident, the impact speeds are lower and injuries are reduced.
Poppycock.
The point of roundabouts is to ease the traffic flow at junctions by making priority obvious. In other words, to speed the traffic up at junctions.
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I too know those Leatherhead M25 roundabouts, and they are among the very ones I am complaining about. I don't remember any high-speed crashes on them before the ghastly fences were built. What I notice is that they now force one to slow down more than necessary.
I agree though that pollution is a minor concern here. What matters is frustration. And congestion.
Choke!
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>> The whole point of roundabouts is that they slow traffic at >> junctions, so that if there is an accident, the impact speeds >> are lower and injuries are reduced. >> Poppycock. The point of roundabouts is to ease the traffic flow at junctions by making priority obvious. In other words, to speed the traffic up at junctions.
No, it's not poppycock.
I will have to trawl through many volumes to find it, but I know it was written somewhere that roundabouts were introduced to slow the speed of traffic at junctions (making the junction safer), whilst at the same time assisting the flow of traffic (reducing congestion). In this regard they infinitely superior to traffic lights, where red-light runners can cause horrendous crashes, and where we all sit waiting for no traffic to pass in the opposite direction. Roundabouts never break down either, and the traffic is always flowing in the same direction.
Excellent inventions all round, really, so long as they are not corrupted by traffic lights.
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Roundabouts never break down either, and the traffic is always flowing in the same direction. Excellent inventions all round, really, so long as they are not corrupted by traffic lights.
... or silly fences! But I agree that they are a wonderful invention.
We will have to agree to disagree on whether they are there to speed traffic up or slow it down.
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Better system than eith lights or roundabouts is the system they use in Canada called a four way stop, absolutley brilliant once you know how they work.
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