Whatcha Think? The “Take Turns” Sign
Decatur Metro | March 17, 2010I know Georgia isn’t the most progressive of states when it comes to things like “the transportation of peoples”, but it rarely hurts to dream.
Check out this video from this year’s TED conference. Gary Lauder proposes we would use less gas and create smoother traffic patterns if we could just break free of STOP and Yield signs. He calls it the “Take Turns” sign, and the idea is essentially taking the traffic rules of a roundabout and applying them to three-way intersections.
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This is a cool idea, but it’s based on the assumption that only cars are negotiating the street (probably true in most places). In a place like Decatur, it could just as easily be pedestrians crossing, which complicates his definition. As he describes it, you only take turns if a car is waiting.
In more rural areas, though, seems like a no-brainer.
I also wonder about the severity of accidents when comparing roundabouts to this sort of sign.
In a roundabout, the worst accident is most likely two vehicles side-swiping each other. Here the most common accident would most likely be a T-bone. That’s quite a trade-off.
I come across fewer than half a dozen roundabouts in my daily commutes. The two I take most often is in the Super Target shopping center near Perimeter Mall and just in front of the Barnes & Noble at the Forum off of 141. The drivers at the Forum seem to know the logic behind a roundabout. There is a much stronger sense of taking turns.
The drivers at the Target, on the other hand, don’t seem to understand that you can’t make your way into a roundabout if a car is coming at you on your left.
In a roundabout, the worst accident is most likely two vehicles side-swiping each other
The Target roundabout is wide enough for that kind of thing to happen.
see earlier thread on “new” higher speed limit on w. howard. how polite are we now?
Ever noticed how people negotiate the roundabouts at Lullwater/N. Decatur Rd. and the one on East Rock Springs between Morningside and Piedmont? It’s comical, more often than not (unless you are actually trying to get somewhere, then it’s just aggravating).
I have to chime in here regarding the roundabouts mentioned by smalltown…
I was born to drive. I just was. Yes, I drive fast. Sometimes too fast. However, I also know the rules of the road. I never talk on my phone while driving. Why? Cause when I did, I drove like a freaking moron. In other words, I drove like the majority of people who CWD (Cell While Driving). Someone laying on the horn while your 2 seconds late moving while CWD? Thats me.
Anywhoo…this gets me to the roundabouts. I need three hands to count the number of times idiot drivers coming from Emory on N Decatur just blow right on through without even looking to the left to see if a car is in the Roundabout coming off Lullwater. It’s amazing. And each and every time, the person was on their cell.
Phew….I’m spent.
“idiot drivers coming from Emory on N Decatur just blow right on through without even looking to the left to see if a car is in the Roundabout coming off Lullwater.”
Combine those with the ignoramus drivers who pull up to a roundabout and stop to look both ways before proceeding, and you have a genuine, one-ring circus.
May I ask you something about that horn, Left Wing? (This interests me because I dislike horns.) If you were in Kroger, and someone was blocking the aisle with his cart, would you yell, “Get outta my way?”
If they were on a cell phone, yes.
I totally agree with Left Wing on this one. Cell phones are a menace. And not just for drivers, I read just the other day saying that injuries incurred by cell-while-pedestrianizing (:^)) folks are up 100% year-over-year for the last 3 or 4 years.
My wife and I play this game “drunk driving” or “cellphone driving.” Usually, it’s obvious, and I can always tell the cellphone driver because their driving is much, much worse than if they were merely drunk.
Cellphone use in an automobile just needs to stop. I’m so sick of it and the folks who do it. Especially the ones who think that it’s ok for THEM to do it, they’re paying attention, it’s those OTHER people who are a risk So, I’m with you – horns all the way. And if that doesn’t work, then tickets, tickets, tickets (I hate the idea of having to make laws to tell people common sense ways to behave, but, well, when ya gotta, ya gotta).
And I’m also with smalltown re: the people who pull up and /stop/ at that roundabout. Of all the stupefying, moronic things to do.
To complete the driving peeve trifecta, I’d add the “left turn yield darters”… you know, you’re sitting at the red light… oncoming folks have left arrow and are turning… you see a car lurch as the driver stomps it to get thru before the yellow arrow turns to a solid green… and then your light turns green, the one car completing their turn goes thru and then *2 or sometimes more self-important people – sometimes on cellphones* dart thru … and why not, they’re special, it’s just this once, after all….
Sigh. It’s so sad how people drive so inconsiderately.
If the left turn thing bugs you–be VERY glad you don’t live in Miami.
Oh.
I remember the longest drive in the world because of the fifty odd roundabouts in England we had to take to get from point A to point B, so I automatically hate the word and everything that is associated with it.
That being said, the liability issues from a legal standpoint with regard to car wrecks would be a nightmare. As much as I would love to say this would work out, I really don’t think it would.
This is how drivers downtown handled the lack of signals following the March 2008 tornado. Seemed to work fine. It was a sweet kind of anarchy. Nobody got hurt but it was scary.
For a while some who became accustomed to this method of handling intersections failed to notice when the signals became operational again.
Great idea in theory but we can’t even get people to put on blinkers to change lanes, have other drivers let people change lanes or even wave a thank you. Then there is the whole traffic lights out and taking turns going through the intersect that sometimes works. Can’t imagine majority of drivers actually yielding till their turn.
Reminds me of a great bumper sticker: I bet Jesus would use his turn signals.
Seriously. What WILL it take to get people to use their turn signals? Cops giving them big fat tickets? I’m apparently a safe driver, because I AUTOMATICALLY use my turn signals when I turn. I’m also one of those people who try to let other cars ahead of me if they’re trying to pull into traffic, etc. But I won’t be kind to someone who is turning without a turn signal.
Seriously. What works to get people to use their turn signal? I’ve never heard or seen anyone penalized for not doing this. I’m also a death penalty opponent, except in the case of those cars who zip past a long line of traffic waiting to exit or merge, and then try to slip in at the head of the line. And usually do so successfully, with impugnity.
What can make people drive politely, instead of like self-centered jerks?
Sadly, I think they are self-centered jerks long before they get into their cars.
Start by removing their tinted windows? Everyone required to drive a convertible? Bikes? Naw, even that wouldn’t help.
It’s culture and environment. In the NY/NJ metropolitan area, it’s standard procedure to drive on the shoulder, honk, butt in line, yell out the window with strong NY accents, etc. whenever traffic gets stop and go, e.g. beach traffic or holiday weekend traffic. In Los Angeles, no one ever drives on the shoulder, no matter how backed up traffic is, not teenagers, not criminals, not illegal aliens, not commuters, not anyone. The same person in one city would drive differently when they moved to the other. Atlanta driving culture is particularly disappointing–neither polite nor skilled. I would say that Decatur driving culture is slightly better. My guess it’s all those Decatur logo license plates–when we see one behind us or coming at us, we figure we may know that person so we better not embarrass ourselves. And getting a ticket in Decatur is one of the most humiliating experiences on earth–not only do you likely know the officer who stops you but all of your neighbors and children’s friends’ parents drive by and yell yoo hoo! (Not that I would know, of course).
I know I’d certainly heed a sign that’s shaped like an ice-cream cone.
Isn’t Take Turns taught in Pre-K? Problem solved in thirteen or fourteen years!
Shoot– I had to learn it way before Pre-K. I had two older sisters!
This will really put a damper on the impact of my “war” and “eating animals” stickers.
Don’t tell me you have one of those “Imagine Whirled Peas” stickers…
Good idea,imo. Also cuts down on the wear and tear on your car.
Speaking of round-abouts…look for a fatality in the future from the one at McClendon and Rocky Ford. That intersection is very dangerous and should be re-examined.
I personally like roundabouts but as someone who drove the N Decatur / Lullwatter roundabout daily many people have not clue. Many times people in the roundabout stop to let another person in front of them. This causes the whole “system” to jam and a backup ensues. I can only imagine the chaos at the new Emory roundabout. Hopefully people will figure it out.
On an unrelated traffic note. Blinking yellow means caution, not stop! Blinking red means stop! It doesn’t matter if someone at the cross intersection is waiting or not. Do not stop at blinking yellow unless you’re about to hit something or someone. Getting that wrong on the drivers test should be automatic failure and I believe you should be tested every time you renew. End of Rant.