Traffic Circles: Love at First Drive

Decatur Metro | May 24, 2011

What can I say?  Thanks to Emory Village, I’ve got traffic circles on the brain.

An interesting stat from an ancient (read: November 2010) New York Times article about roundabouts…

Three years ago, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety published a study titled “Long-Term Trends in Public Opinion Following Construction of Roundabouts.” After interviewing 1,802 drivers in six communities, the researchers reported that, on average, only 34 percent had supported roundabouts in their communities before construction. But shortly after the roundabouts were in place, the number rose to 57 percent. After a year or more, the number increased to 69 percent.

h/t: Alliance to Improve Emory Village

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14 Responses to “Traffic Circles: Love at First Drive”

  1. Bobby says:
    May 24, 2011 at 8:35 pm

    No, sir. No stop light… no stop sign… no roundabout expected… the first encounter might give you a heart attack.

    http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=36.006587,-80.44212&spn=0.001089,0.003471&t=h&z=18&layer=c&cbll=36.006243,-80.44173&panoid=mguA20TLuWy9l57KvsDZIg&cbp=11,67.6,,0,10.71

    • Decatur Metro says:
      May 24, 2011 at 9:27 pm

      Ha! Looks like the Google cam car navigated it OK. I was hoping to see the road “line” trail off into a ditch!

      • Bobby says:
        May 24, 2011 at 11:16 pm

        Street view isn’t representative of darkness, bad weather, or a stormy night combo. Besides, the navigator called it out. Seriously, didn’t we all learn about how driving on – SURPRISE! It’s an exit ramp roundabout – the highway tweaks your senses?

        (Street view Easter eggs… that’s an interesting idea… no, on second thought, let’s not spend human capital on that.)

    • Frances says:
      May 24, 2011 at 9:58 pm

      I wholeheartedly agree with you Bobby. I just posted to my Facebook today that the first times going through, one will need to pay attention to details. It was totally unexpected but I’ll take it over that light that seemed to stay red FOREVER.

  2. AlN says:
    May 25, 2011 at 8:22 am

    Having spent most of my life in the Northeast, I take roundabouts (or rotaries) for granted, but oddly enough, people in the Atlant area seem to do much better with them, with drivers entering the roundabout always giving right of way to people in it. In New England, drivers know they’re supposed to do it, but to them, ceding the right of way is a sign of weakness, so they don’t give in.

  3. baldat28 says:
    May 25, 2011 at 10:56 am

    Roundabouts force a drive to pay attention to others, to be a bigger person, in a way that stop lights don’t. Those who hate roundabouts are more selfish. Those who love them will have lower blood pressure and will live longer.

  4. LovesDogsDecatur says:
    May 25, 2011 at 1:54 pm

    Hate lowers my blood pressure.

  5. Tommy says:
    May 25, 2011 at 2:37 pm

    it just makes too much sense to use them when possible. let’s teach the old dog some new tricks.

  6. MC says:
    May 25, 2011 at 2:44 pm

    We need a roundabout at the intersection of W. Ponce, Northern, and Nelson Ferry (right there between the Marlay and the Post Office). Who can make this happen?