Quote:
Originally Posted by ppppenguin
In France until fairly recently the rule on roundabouts was for traffic on the roundabout to give way to entering traffic. Sheer madness. In the UK we've had loads of roundabouts for years and we're well used to them. Of course we drive round them the correct way. Unless those in the USA 
but we've got some really special ones too. I'm most familiar with this one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_...emel_Hempstead)
I don't know what the guy who designed it was smoking but it must have been some seriously nasty stuff.
What confuses us in the USA is the 4 way stop. We get a little taste of it on very small roundabouts here in the UK (usually 3 way rather than 4) where everyone is stopped and wondering who should move first. |
The 4 way stop is basically a turn based system. On paper only one car at a time is supposed to through and on a first come first serve basis. Approach stop wait your turn and go....there are many with so little traffic that some do a rolling stop (almost stop fully but don't since nobody is close enough to the intersection to blow the sign and hit you)... sometimes if nobody is behind someone they will skip their turn and let someone go first when timing of coming to a stop is similar.
Around here a common but not necessarily legal practice is to double the bandwidth of a 4 way intersection...if the intersection has several cars lined up at each sign and it is the turn of say one the north driver to go north south and if the south driver wants to go south to north they may start to go once the first car who's turn it is is half way through (thus ruling out failure to signal or burnt out signal)... Some times someone will go straight and someone else will turn on a non-interfering path. Or in some cases 2 non interfering turns will happen almost simultaneously...as long as everyone signals properly and the second car watches for a vehicle from the usually one non-interfering path that a car other than the person who's turn it is could come from it works fine...If it doesn't work legal ground is shaky for the car(s) who's turn it wasn't. Most busy intersections have stop lights that control straight and left turns and many allow right Turners to yield (remember traffic is reversed in the UK
).... Double bandwith driving on 4 way stop signs is similar flow to lights.... several signs close to home tend to opperate double bandwith on rush hour so I often follow the when in Rome guide line.
A lot of people in the states suck at judging distance and speed as well as adjusting speed to properly merge so something like a roundabout or the ramp lane of a highway are places we don't like to be.
I don't think I saw a roundabout till I was 20 years old....they were basically non-existent till dot engineers suddenly started putting them everywhere.