Why Don't We Just Use Roundabouts Everywhere?
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- Опубликовано: 10 июн 2024
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Speaking of roundabouts, if you want to know how to survive a bear attack, consult this handy guide. ruclips.net/video/JE5MA1bt9A4/видео.html
Wow when i see a bear in a roundabout I’ll have all the knowledge i need
thank you now i am prepared for bear attacks.
Very helpful indeed, kind sir
Yeah but what about squareabouts?
Finally, the real knowledge that we all need. Also I was born in Springfield, sadly I moved
When i was stationed in England, I loved roundabouts. Not for the safety factor, but cause if I miss an exit I just go around again lol
yee I get that but you won't miss an exit if there are no exits - so traffic lights. If you turn left instead of right that sounds like a personal problem.
What kills me is when people miss their turn, but then veer across 3 lanes to try to turn. Instead of turning around at the next light or turning into an off street lmao
@@mustachio2 the kind of roundabout i mention is that of a highway/freeway type nature. There have been times here in the US where I'll be in a new city and miss an exit, alot of times it's cause I'll have just exited and the GPS will tell me to exit again three lanes over, so it ends up adding another 10-15 min detour onto the journey. The UK will usually have a roundabout that shoots off into different cities. If you miss it you just drive around again and it takes all but a few seconds. UK still has traffic lights on some basic turns.
@@TreeeSon34 oh ok. I hate multi lane roundabouts, in theory they're great but in practice everyone ignores the lanes and just drives wherever they please. Fucking scary as shit having a 2 lane roundabout on a road with a 55mph speed limit. There's one near me and I hate it.
@@mustachio2 i understand. Is this in the US cause I'll be honest if it is we have some of the most inconsiderate drivers. I know the cops in the UK will tend to actually enforce certain traffic laws that almost seem negligible here in the US. For instance, we have passing lanes here, but alot of the times people will just use it as a regular lane and drive on it constantly. I know in the UK, at least when i was there, if you spent too much time on there it's likely you'd get pulled over and explained to that the lane is for passing exclusively.
I feel like people don't understand that we should just build one really long road, it worked for RTgame in cities: skylines.
It worked great with blimps, though. Are we gonna have to include those in every city's public transport?
'Cause frankly, I'm down for that.
"Worked"
Sauce?
“Country Road, not Roads”
And put a toll station down every 100 meters
in italy we have a city made out of roundabouts, there are so many that exiting one means entering anotherone. the situation is so intricate that most of the traffic is caused by confused people. it became a meme: "le rotonde di Ravenna" or "the roundabouts of Ravenna". a legend say that in 1970 a bus of german tourists got lost in ravenna, and that they are still there searcing for a way out.
True, i can confirm it.
An example of when a good idea becomes a bad idea
Same in the uk. And it is quite possibly the worst place. They have this ridiculous thing called a magic roundabout which is just 5 small roundabouts around one bigger roundabout
All roads in Ravenna lead to Ravenna :D
I just looked it up on google maps. There are barely any roundabouts in the city. Only a few closer to the ends of the city. There's still 99 crossroads for each roundabout.
The guy from strongtowns isn’t necessarily wrong. Making it easier to drive does create induced demand, and even more so when a city lacks public transit, walkability, or cycling infrastructure. The issue with the diverging diamond interchanges is that they aren’t equipped for cycling, walking, and they’re attached to stroads which are another nightmare.
1:05 Why does fhwa symbol looks like sasuke dads sharigan
@@johnlawful2272holy f.. it really does
True Story: Our Town got it first roundabout last year, but they put all the yield signs in facing the wrong way.
Jolon Dann that sounds like an actual nightmare
I hope drivers in your town master the art of the blɘiY.
Even the people that build them don't know how to use them. They're stressful
@@imveryangryitsnotbutter ...so THAT'S what all those blɘiY signs mean!
I saw someone stop in the middle of a roundabout, turn on their turn signal, then take the turn.
Okay sure but have you heard of a “diverging diamond”
Seriously. It's such a viable option. I don't know why someone so knowledgeable about roads and traffic wouldn't devote a video about such an important topic. ;)
😂
lmaoo
flying cars
agrofindastation is a winky face the only thing needed to call it a joke
Even if you ignore the the cost issue entirely, roundabouts can still lock up if there is an uneven amount of traffic. There is one near my house that is infamous for causing a massive uneven backup of cars because traffic is only coming in from two of the three entrances.
As a semi driver, I have to say that roundabouts are as much of a curse as a blessing. The removal of traditional intersections greatly increase the danger involved with semi cross traffic. Typically I'm pulling in to the roundabout and some dimwit decides to us the opportunity to cut in front me. I have to be far more vigilant in a Roundy. Additoonally they often aren't big enough to accommodate semis in a single lane.
Semi truck drivers like you are some real saints. I would have the temptation just to blow through the bastard
Well trucks and normal cars shouldn't even be next to each other in the first place truck routes should be just that truck routes I can't remember the statistic because there is so many these days but I think it was upwards of 50% of deadly crashes are with a semi they should not be on the same road also trucking should only be distributing in a local area from a TRAIN which should also not intersect with roads unfortunately we're still living in an archaic country but one day we'll get around to more efficiency and safety it's just too expensive like he said so waiting for the FUTURE is the only option!
@mamascookin that's absolutely t e nonsense. If trucks and cars didn't share road nothing would be able to be delivered. Now there are truck restrictions on certain roads but not all of them. Not even the majority of them. And in those accidents it is typically not the truck that's at fault.
@@davidedgar5923 I'm saying in the hypothetical we could prevent all of that even if the trucks are not at fault by having sperate roads for each I never said anything nonsensical I'm just trying to remedy the issue sorry for getting your knickers in a twist with my utopian brainstorm
@@mamascookin you know Utopia means "no place", right. Suggestions that are impossible or unrealistic are useless.
why don’t they just use diverging diamonds lol
good one
umm
diverging diamonds.
I was gonna comment that
Yooo its robokast
omxls eeee i was going to do that
alternative title: Why Life Is "Not" A Game Of Cities Skylines.
A METEOR HAS STRUCK THE CITY
tbh building a roundabout in C:S brings perspective of how much investments does a roundabout need, also space, planning, destruction. At the end you will most likely find another lock somehwhere else :D
@@erixon2012 yeah i play cs and trying to build a roundabout in an already existing city made me understand why we dont build roundabouts
You mean I can't just demolish 50 buildings on a whim to construct a roundabout in real life? :\
you’re telling me I can’t make a one street city?
One factor I don't often hear but needs to be more widely considered is that roundabouts and ice don't mix. It's very hard to make a continuous turn while on ice.
As a person who's from a state that gets slick roads, I can agree making consistent turns is very hard to make in the winter when your driving over ice
So is starting and stopping
As long as you have tires made for snow and drive carefully there’s no problem using roundabouts when it’s icy. There’s snow and ice every year here in sweden but we still use roundabouts everywhere
Dumbest thing I have ever heard. Doesn’t the road turn or what? Lmao
@@jdwest34 ABS and TC exists
To give an example of how expensive it can be to make a roundabout: they made one in my hometown of Issaquah, WA about a decade ago. There's a two mile or so long road called Gilman Blvd parallel to the freeway, with only three cut throughs to the other side of the freeway. They put the roundabout in the middle one. It took about three years to build. No joke. During that time, the other two routes were just busier for three years. Also keep in mind that this is an area where rush hour can be like four hours long.
According to Wikipedia, France has half of the world's roundabouts.
The other half are in Milton Keynes
@@imhotep2223 Harlow and Stevenage can claim a share too
The roundabout at Euro Disney is phenomenal
france is also 18 times smaller than the us
And Spain has the other half.
Re: "it should only take a couple months"
Last year, in my tiny-ass suburban town of about 2,000 people, they announced that they'd be replacing a very minor intersection that's only controlled by two-way stop signs with a roundabout. Its projected completion date isn't until 2024.
To be fair, your tiny town may not have many available construction workers to actively work on the job. In larger cities it may take over a couple months, but I think 4 years is a bit of a manpower and logistical issue.
you cant compare that shithole with new york
@@marcowulliampopirers2216 Someone needs some coffee
@@marcowulliampopirers2216 new york is kind of a shithole too
@@zeppkfw kind of? 😂
My town got a few roundabouts recently. Nobody was really confused, but the roundabouts were in odd places that didn't really need one. But we also have a lot of stroads, so there needs to be a much larger infrastructure change before 'more roundabouts!' implemented.
One thing to note, Just completely revamping an intersection just because it's not quite ideal isn't very cost efficient. What they will usually do, (at least where i'm from), is change an intersection at a time when it would normally need maintenance anyway. that'll reduce the overall cost alot. Being tactical like this is very important.
I live in Croatia, and few years ago my town replaced almost ALL intersections with roundabouts. Before that we had none. It was quite the undertaking, and several buildings had to be demolished to make space. The thing is, this wasn't done for safety reasons. The main reason was to stop the increasing number of traffic jams that happened because of our seasonal tourism.
It worked. No more traffic jams.
Pog
Thing about it is, Croatia is a significantly smaller country than the US and trying to do that here wouldn't work, it would cost too much, take too much time, cause very many problems, and most importantly, most people probably aren't gonna like it either, we've had 4 way stoplight intersections as long as roads have existed, thats not to say they are better, but getting 350+ million people used to having a roundabout at every intersection is gonna be near impossible.
@@SuperBuildsInMCYes, obviously. To clarify, I didn't argue about that in my comment. I just wrote about my personal experience of such a transition.
@@SuperBuildsInMC Carmel Indiana would like to chat with you. Has 125 roundabouts in the city. Roundabouts are a solution many large suburbs are building many of right now. My area of ohio has around 15 or so that I know of
Where in Croatia do you live? I had the chance to drive from Zagreb to Kotor, Montenegro in 2017 just before the tourist season really kicked off and I don't think I've ever had that much fun driving in my life.
Lol I live in Canada and they're building a roundabout in my city. A single roundabout. It's been 2 years and the road is still closed and the roundabout is still under construction.
My town tried building a roundabout in one of the two entrances to my neighborhood. It took them 8 months and made leaving the neighborhood a pain in the ass for a while.
My city just replaced every intersection in the city with roundabouts in like 6-8 years. Now traffic flows smoothly and we are known as the roundabout capital of the US. Look up Carmel, Indiana
Construction is a racket in Canada.
@@PhotonBread I live in Muncie and yes Carmel has a shit ton of round a bouts
i live in the uk and they built one on our nearby highway and it was completed in 3 months
Everyone thinks they're a traffic engineer. And everyone thinks it's the other guy that can't drive.
I have been in Wisconsin my entire life and we have TONS of roundabouts, at least by my house. it blew my mind when I learned that it wasn't the norm in America
"Why don't we just put roundabouts everywhere?"
These people clearly haven't seen drivers in Florida
*No one is safe in Florida*
*NO ONE*
No one, brother.
Not a single man is safe from the people down here.
@@briandavidgilbertclips7223 haha they can put on all the neon they want. Drivers would think it's just another stop sign to run over
I Live in FL and got my learner’s permit a couple months ago 😬😬
Floridaman is always watching
@@MikeOTR "Tonight at 9: Florida man dresses as the dark night and destroys bad driver's vehicles to make the roads safer"
Arguments here are (for the most part) not great, as it does nothing to answer the most potent counterpoint: it's already used with wide success in other 1st-world countries.
If these countries routinely launch roundabouts, there's no (obvious) compelling reason why the US can't do the same.
------
His best points are about cost and re-routing traffic. I will answer both of these:
1) Cost is only an issue if we are short-sighted. By planning ahead and prioritizing long-term results, we can have roundabouts with the only downside being it will take longer to implement them. However, once the city plan catches up, there will no longer be any time downside.
2) Traffic is re-routed for ANY road construction project. Civil engineers routinely provide solutions to this exact problem, and roundabout implementation is no different
Rememeber when i was a kid on holliday in southern france (near Frejus) and in order to reach the freeway we had to go a through a commercial/industrial area and there was like 9 roundabouts on the way, and i commented that it was a stupid amount of reoundabouts, especialy with the GPS constantly telling to take the 2nd exit. But my dad answered by, : "imagine if those were all traffic lights". It sudenly made sense.
About Roundabouts. As a friend of mine in IT once said: "You can spend all your money trying to improve your idiot proofing, they go an end up improving the idiot."
Great saying, not applicable here.
Joseph G Very much applicable here. Have you ever used google maps and took a wrong turn, only to have maps tell you to make a U-Turn on the next Emergency Vehical Median Pass? I have, and that would only ever happen if someone taught google that path existed, meaning som idiot jumped the median because it was easyer than traveling 0.2 miles to the nearest legal U-Turn light.
What I'm saying is people are stupid, and give the drunk or idiot a challenge, you'd better believe they'll find the dumbest way to fail it.
Note: Emergency Vehical Median Pass is mainly for Fire Trucks and the people that keep the bushes cut, not to turn around.
It's a political issue, not a practical one. Replacing all the highway intersections across the US with roundabouts would cost billions upon billions of dollars. Unfortunately at this time Americans value the illusion that "lower taxes = more prosperity and freedom" greater than they value the saving of lives. It's a selfish culture, and, as with most political issues, culture is the underlying problem.
@@TheRealFlenuan I'm sorry did you watch the video? it was entirely about how its a practical issue.
@@josephg9249 Watch some dash cam compilations. People find a way to crash in all kinds of stupid situations that an average person would assume were nearly impossible to do. I particularly prefer the Australian Dash cam ones for the bonus swearing.
"Why don't we put roundabout every where?" So you just mean *France*
People say that, but if you actually look at European towns roundabouts make up a small fraction of intersections.
Owen Major my local town of about 12 thousand people in Ireland has 6 roundabouts in a 3-4km stretch of road
@@cd1051 And so does my suburb.
My point being if you actually look at were Roundabouts are located in Europe they are not simply placed everywere. There are not some magic intersection and have limitiations.
UK more like
New Zealand likes them too. Depending on who is on the city council, you'll either get them being added everywhere or roundabouts being taken out and replaced with traffic signals (which I think is stupid, except where you've got severely unbalanced traffic flows. Roundabouts let you do free u-turns, among other advantages such as safety).
Important to note, if you are installing a roundabout, have a good idea of the traffic patterns current and future businesses will create. Roundabouts can create Starvation Scenarios where one path has a constant stream of cars which totally block access to all other paths into the roundabout. If a movie theater or sports arena etc is built by your roundabout, 3 of the 4 directions are going to be gridlocked for about a half hour or hour or more every time a movie ends, game finishes, or otherwise the flood gates open.
4-way stops and traffic lights are fair: they at least allow the other traffic a chance to get through the light. A roundabout improperly built to handle the load is a regular disaster, and lets one traffic flow dominate everyone else until it dries up.
A small intersection in my neighborhood was turned into a roundabout recently. Took about a month for a single lane 4-way intersection with no traffic lights on a flat road that was never popular in the first place.
America : roundabouts are expensive
My country : we are poor but let's just put a roundabout on a straight road with no intersections for no particular reason
That's probably why your country is poor
My country does that too, it's to slow people down. When you have a long straight stretch of road people tend to go too fast, having a roundabout in the middle will make people slow down. It makes the roads safer.
@@norma8686 Doesn't a road bump achieve the same effect?
@@theflaminglionhotlionfox2140 It depends on the speed people are driving on that road. In city centers sure they'd work but on long roads outside of towns and cities people drive fast and a bump isn't as visible as a roundabout. Driving at let's say 80km/h and seeing a bump would make drivers brake suddenly. That could cause a chain collision as no one expects a bump in a long straight road.
@@norma8686 well bumps have road signs supposedly
MoDot: “our 3 pillars are safety service and stability”
New York DOT: “pick one”
Well already service is out of the question, it's NY. And in the same vein, it's NY, so you can never completely guarantee safety. This leaves us with stability. I guess it's nice to know the roads aren't going to fall into a bottomless void. Thanks NYDOT!
@@josephgilboy6259 Stability? Have you ever driven on Long Island? lol
@@osclopez122 hey NY state is more than one city and its outskirt rmb?
@@osclopez122 that's funny. Driving around Brooklyn itself your car will need a realignment by the time you leave.
Stability doesn’t exist in NYC metro. The northern suburbs are also ridden with potholes.
But the rest of the state needs to realize that at least half of NYS population are in the 12 county region of NYC metro. That’s not a ton of land for that many people. More cars and hella more aggressive driving drives the stability of our roads way down.
Roads in the rest of the state are significantly better. Granted they have fewer drivers that are much less aggressive.
I experienced a diverging diamond in Florida and it was awesome! Our roundabouts here almost always feel less safe than a standard intersection because nobody seems to understand what lane they should be in.
That's normal as long as you have people with little experience using them. Even once you have lots of them, older people will still find them weird to use for decades. But eventually it becomes normal.
Here in Switzerland, we've been building them for over half a century. They where already a normal part of traffic for me as a child, but people where still talking about them regularly, discussing things that happened on these damn roundabouts. Then it just stopped being an issue. The last time I heard someone bring up roundabout problems was a decade ago.
I had to do a roundabout correctly to pass my drivers test
There is a driver license test that is supposed to teach drivers to use the easiest type of intersection, but somehow in the US it just fails to deliver.
@@nimrod06Roundabouts shouldn’t have lanes.
When my state went to replace an intersection with a roundabout on one of the 55mph state highways they had to first build a road for everyone to drive on that took them around the existing intersection while the work crews did their thing and built up the new roundabout, it approx. 2-3 months and the only reason no on had to take a detour was because of that little temporary route they built.
This is just a very roundabout way of saying "it's more complicated than that"
Edit: oMg sEnKs fOR sO meNi LAiks
I see what you did there with that pun
@@yaboi7773 tbf, youll need a dead man to not understand that pun
Yep, lots of word salad in this vid that says very little. It sounds like he works in the sector which likely makes him a suffered from bureaucratic brain disease. Aas mistakes in a system build up over time people will allow their thinking to go through all sorts of convolutions to avoid noticing the fact that themselves and their friends, with all their training and years of experience are acting like a total bunch of idiots. So applying Occams Razor to the issue on the one hand with a lot of waffle and on the other we have a much simpler explanation: Americans are idiots!
God damnit,
Tobías. 😂
MrMonkeybat sorry mate, as much as I agree that Americans are idiots - this video (while occasionally a touch waffly), he does address the issue and explain why at so many different angles. It's always more complicated. It's easier said than done
"just put roundabout everywhere"
- Cities: Skylines player
Biffa has a lot to answer for, he should be forced now to build a Megalopolis from scratch using only traffic light intersections.
That dude wasn't a troll, just your average internet user who thinks his day to day average opinion he has come to, is better than the decades upon decades and generations of people before him that specializes in traffic has come up with
Literally everyone who thinks something is so easy to do they don't know why it hasn't been done yet.
@@myhearn nah, the considerations in real life are just different than in Cities: Skylines, Biffa doesn't need to worry about the roads being shut of for an extended period of time whilst he updates the roads with all the consequences thereof, doesn't have any cost for demolishing a road, and doesn't even really need to care about safety; all he needs to care about is how efficient the traffic flows, and maybe to some extent the amount of space available, but even that doesn't matter as much as in real life.
@@myhearn not biffa, but challenge accepted.
Honestly in c:s it's not nearly as expensive as irl so it's completely reasonable to out roundabouts on most places
a classic American tradition of "we slept on it when it was new and now we have to deal with the consequences"
One thing that I hate about the diverging diamond design (that I had to deal with recently), is that when power is out and the lights are blinking red, it's absolute chaos
My city installed one down the road from where I live. It’s all fun and games until people start ramping through the middle
edit: it's been years, and yesterday, they finally put road signs up to block cars. Now we wait for them to be ran over too.
edit 2: they were ran over.
Wow
This is a strong message.
I don’t get the joke.
I disagree. I think it’s not fun and games UNTIL people start ramping the middle.
@@disrespecc9678 There’s videos all over the internet where someone is speeding and goes straight through a roundabout where there’s often a raised center section causing them to jump the middle section.
When Austin helps me play cities: skylines
I was literally just thinking this!
Do you play CS with the 'ROUNDABOUTS EVERYWHERE' philosophy? 🤔
Can't you just plop down roundabouts as you please in that game?
@@Nikolaj11 yes, but you need mods for them to actually be correct because CS likes to automatically place down traffic lights or stop signs at intersections.
I was playing c:s when I started watching
The real solution is to focus cities less around cars and more around public transit and biking or walk ability.
This reduces traffic which makes the roads safer for everyone, and it means that a road being down for a bit doesnt cause people's ability to get around to completely halt.
Changes to housing requirements also helps. More mixed density housing plans can allow for more high and medium density housing near city centers, and allowing high and meidum density housing in city outskirts also helps this issue as well. You can fit more people closer to the city center reducing the need for people to use cars leading to less traffic as well.
Plus, if you design cities around hte concept of being walkable or bikable, it means most shopping locations are going to be within a 20 ish minute walk of most people's places of residency which can help them stay open even if construction is happening nearby.
So yea, the real solution is to slowly transition cities away from car focused infrastructure, and move more and more towards public transit and walkability/biking wherever possible.
Fuck yah someone gets it!
I'll just also add that contrary to memes, roundabouts are NOT actually always more efficient than signalized intersections. They are with low traffic volume between small roads, but four six-lane roads are going to fill up a roundabout real fast.
I find it funny that most of these roundabouts are massive. I’ve seen some that are so small it’s literally a circle painted on the pavement (maybe even with a slight elevation) 😂
And even that they work perfectly (bus driver)
Yah you’ll see a lot of these in small towns in America. Usually where we can do them we do
And those we drive just straight over in Denmark 🤣 i did my trailer license test where i had to go through one that tiny, and i had to do it like a roundabout without touches any of the sides. My god i was going so slow, literally just driving on the clutch 🤣
And those work pretty well for small roads. The East/West arterial or the satellite city I'm in now would probably benefit a lot. The North/South of my old one was 4 lanes each side, so it has to be relatively big
Because they’re for minor roads. You can’t do that for a major intersection with 6 lane roads. You need a properly designed roundabout
Denton, Texas is a perfect case study for how mismanagement can screw with people's lives.
There's a roundabout that was recently added at the intersection of Bonnie Brae and Scripture that I happen to pass often. The construction closed the two roads for about a year, and prior to its construction, I used the mediocre, but functional public transportation available to get around. Once construction started, the busses completely avoided that intersection and went far away from the places I need to go. It was so bad that it was the impetus for getting a car. Now that it's open, the intersection sees less traffic overall than it used to, though it might still take another year for the traffic volume to return, but it doesn't change the public transit issues.
Just a few miles away at the I-35E/Loop 288 junction, there was construction for several years to widen the interstate. It had been going on for a few years before I moved here, and didn't finish until February of this year. Throughout the last year of the project, you would constantly hear of places closing or moving due to a lack of traffic.
One other point I want to add is that both projects took much longer than planned to be complete. The roundabout was supposed to take from May to August 2019 to be built. It wasn't done until mid April 2020, almost 8 months behind schedule.
Smaller roads are now being worked on that are much less problematic overall, but those two projects are what not to do when improving traffic flow.
I am a construction inspector for a municipality I can tell you right now no construction project is identical to another. Every single project has setbacks and obstacles that can completely change a project.
That always means money and time which equals more money and usually more time.
Which is the reason why large projects must be planned for accordingly.
Good thing I never go through there on my way to UNT
I happen to work for Denton Transit, and drove the route in question during this time. It was an absolute mess. We were told by the city, (as you noted), that construction would be completed before UNT's fall semester, and so I informed customers accordingly. When it became apparent construction would take much longer than anticipated, we had to introduce a new route to shuttle passengers to their appointments in the Medical District along Scripture St. The new route hardly had any passengers, but did experience a rush at lunch time, which also happened to coincide with our shift change. This made transferring buses exceedingly difficult. Understandably, we had numerous complaints.
Then we were told it would be finished by the new year. Wrong again. It wasn't until the middle of March before Bonnie Brae opened back up, and by then we had to restructure things because of Covid-19, effectively cutting our service in half. But at least we have a new roundabout. Even though that section of Bonnie Brae was hardly ever congested.
Denton has poorly managed street construction.
@@dimesonhiseyes9134 This is why whenever someone asks me a timeline for a project whatever it is I always increase the time I think it will take by double Most of the time I have it done "early" but for those times it takes longer I don't have to explain why its taking longer than expected
@@shawno8253 with private jobs that's very doable. With government jobs, the timeline is usually already stated with a drop dead date or "X" amount of calendar days and an agreement that the agency can go after liquidated damages in the contract.
Now realistically most jobs go longer and liquidated damages isn't usually enforced unless the contractor just drags their feet or is constantly working on other jobs and every project I have had has gone over at least a tiny bit but only a few times has anyone ever tried to go after the contractor.
It amazes me how often people underestimate the scope and scale of the US, its population, and its roadways. It's the size of the EU with nearly 1/3 of a billion people. It's apparently not unheard of for tourists to ask how long it will take to drive to another part of the country and be surprised when they find out that Miama and New York are about two days travel if you rest on the way.
Nah, we're just really over America's two favourite excuses for sucking at infrastructure
1. We're too big and spaced out!
2. We're have a lot more people than you!
There's a reason China points and laughs at you.
@@SuperDoNotWant China's government does not work the same as the US's. For one, roadway construction isn't handled by the central government. It's handled by each individual state. And China is more densely populated, meaning there's more reason to address it. But China also avoided many of the same mistakes because their infrastructure is MUCH newer. US roads still in use today were constructed as far back as the mid 1700's, while China's modernization efforts took place in the 20th century. There are a lot of factors at play, not least of which is the decentralization of power.
What you are saying is its the size of the EU but with less people. And these people are highly concentrated in urban areas. Doesn't sound so difficult. Not to forget America has literally no rail system and always brags about higher GDP so in theory there should be more money for this kind of stuff.
But I guess embezzlement is one hell of a drug
ah yes. I’d love to go to the famous us city like MIAMA and New York City.
@@mistermist634 im pretty sure that it does have a rail system, but sadly that rail system isn't entirely for the common public, but rail systems like Amtrak as far as I'm aware are for the common public and they do exist. But sadly they're starting to become a little bit more defunct
Mini-roundabouts are used in the UK where a full sized one can't be built, they effectively put a small bump similar to just paint really and anyone like HGVs who can't go round it goes over it but otherwise priority and use is just the same as a normal roundabout.
And many people just drive over the middle anyway. Most mini-roundabouts don't even have a raised hump, just a painted circle. And boy, accidents happen there quite a bit.
Mini-roundabouts with a painted circle somehow manage to be worse than four way stop signs
@@frafraplanner9277 Really? Please can I get a source on this, I find it highly doubtful.
There’s no way to not sound sarcastic when I say this, but I’ve actually been DYING for another infrastructure video from you
Felt that.
Felt that.
Felt that.
Felt that.
Felt that
Pretty sure Austin is the only person I'll listen to talking about directing traffic for several minutes
I'd also listen to 'Half as Interesting' talk about the subject for several minutes.
And CGP Grey
You'd love City Beautiful
Tom Scott doesn't usually talk about road infrastructure, but he did recently and it was excellent.
Came to recommend a few other channels. I see they've already all been mentioned, so uh yeah consider this a strong +1 to all the other replies.
The sponsored ad is hilarious. "Have trouble completing tasks? Try this ten part course in how to complete things." :D
Even in the video game Cities: Skylines I'm very un keen on converting my major roads to roundabouts, mostly because of how many people and services i would have to re-locate, to the point where it really isn't worth it, and while it is a video game, the problems that I have in it probably apply to the real world, and more.
To be fair, making any kind of roundabout or major intersection is convoluted beyond reason in Cities.
Cities skylines traffic simulation doesn't really understand roundabouts sadly
When there is no space beyond the road even a mini roundabout will work, and in many cases be an improvement
they should have intelligence stats affect people’s ability to use roundabouts in Cities Skylines :p
In Sweden, they put a tire with a sign in the middle of an intersection, remove the traffic lights and the roundabout is ready.
Too bad that would probably only work in a country with a small population :/
@Jericho Kilmanja he’s talking about tire sized roundabouts
@Jericho Kilmanja the tire itself would be stolen/run over in like 10 minutes tops if it was put down in the US
@Jericho Kilmanja hopefully that will come in 2055 praying 🙏
@@ravinichols3504 u
The usa have a small population density on a big part of it's territory.
So it seems like the solution is to continue to create roundabouts where possible on new roads
I think the counter to this is that if it's a new road (say a suburban development where there aren't currently a lot of houses), they might not expect it to have heavy traffic flow for some time, so the cost of a roundabout still might not be acceptable to the DOT putting the intersection in.
@@RSIxidor funny to say, in my city, we actually built roundabouts when making the suburbs. then again, this suburb is literally only a couple years old
@@JerEditz That's great! I was really just guessing. I see that the US has installed more DDI than any other country but has always seemed like we refuse roundabouts. I was just guessing that might be the argument some places use. I think we are slowly coming around to it and some states use them a lot more than others. There's a handful even here in DFW but they're almost always tucked away in neighborhoods rather than in higher traffic areas.
Yea basically that’s what my city has been doing. Especially in suburban areas
In my city there are non stop roundabouts at new roads. Not a joke
Recently took a trip to Sedona. There isn't a single stop light in Sedona, they have roundabouts everywhere. They have also eliminated a lot of unprotected left turns as well. Very safe city.
It was wonderful to be able to drive without having to stop and watch others stopped and waiting as well. The traffic just flowed.
That's one of my favourite parts about Sedona
"Or just put a roundabout on each side"
That interchange actually exists. It's called a dumbbell and it's much less efficient than a Diverging Diamond.
Indeed. At low traffic exchanges it works fine, but on high traffic ones (like the M25) you'll find them signalised, which basically isn't that much better than a standard four way signal.
Thought it was awkward when my hometown reworked the entire main street to put in a total of 8 round abouts but it made getting from one side to the other side of town so much more efficient
Roundabouts sort of work in medium to light traffic intersections that have near equal traffic from all approaches. They're terrible for fuel economy compared to smart traffic lights keeping flow on main thoroughfares.
So it was worth it?
Roundabouts works best for one line traffic. I found it significantly harder driving through 2 lanes with even more traffic. The example on the video looked like it would need like 3 at least...
My town also have several of roundabouts and traffic flow is much better at them then at crossroads with signals. There are plans in motion to set a new one in a year or two at one really bad section where one direction has to yield traffic from pretty much every direction causing traffic jams every time at morning and evening right at most job start and end. People are literally taking longer and more obscure routes just to avoid that spot at specific times of the day.
@@briank10101 If what you are saying is that 'One SIze Fits all' does not apply with traffic controls, I would totally agree with that.
AMerica is weird because it over relies on traffic lights for intersections where control is needed.
How much stock footage do you need?
Austin: "yes"
This video is sponsored by storyblocks...
Id like to know how much of the footage was stock and how much was created for this video. And where to find it.
@@Knightmessenger all stock bro literally
Ironically, it's only the more rural roads south of my city that have roundabouts. It makes sense, since most of those issues are non-existent in that area. Flat land means construction costs are lower, farm land means they don't have to buy and demolish buildings to make space, and a consistent grid pattern makes detouring super easy.
I applaud your simple and accurate presentation of this very complex and important subject. I am impressed with how interesting you make these videos!
As someone who has played mini motorways, I can say that while roundabouts are faster, retrofitting them into tight areas can be impossible because of the space they need
Indeed. Using them is great but finding the right spot is tough
@Andrei Salvaleon Would that mean we need a hospital and a police office connecting to all roads?
Here in Europe even some villages have roundabouts, which by the way don't require a lot of space, not every roundabout needs to be massive, I have even seen roundabouts which were 3 meters in diameter, but still did the job.
@@albnorragibi Well yeah, emphasis on villages. A roundabouts size is relative to the traffic throughput that goes through it, a 3m roundabout wouldn't be able to handle 100 cars a minute. Their safety is offset by the size it requires.
@@andreeacat7071 oh god, if you need to connect all roads, then we can't segregate them by colour then
1:50 "There no chance of getting T-boned, or hit another car head-on"
*laughs in Russian dashcam*
This is exactly what I thought when I saw that part!
Well we weren't talking about Russia,Russia is a different story
@@bobking8101 Funny enough, people in California can’t use roundabouts
I like roundabouts. They greatly reduce traffic backup where the traffic light used to be.
True 😊
Astin and his friends like lights and stop signs because they don't want to think on their own while driving. Let's not even talk about every average murican's nightmare: actually paying attention while driving.
When I need to go left on a roundabout but the left lane is jammed I go up the right lane and go all the way round skipping to the front of the que
Too bad America is too stupid to use FLYING CARS. It's 2020 people, we should all be driving DeLoreans at this point.
They exist but they take too much gas
Or they could just get a virus that causes a pandemic so people would stay home! Oh wait....
Flying cars is one of the stupiest ideas ever
Well... as someone who actually is driving a DeLorean... its not all it was made out to be. Fucking thing can't even hit 70mph let alone 88 >:(
planes exist. they can also taxi.
"why don't we use roundabouts everywhere?"
Is this some sort of American joke I'm too British to understand?
idk man
According to the human factor issue from the video...
yes
It's not a joke, there are some people out there who really think it's that simple. I'm willing to bet the person who said "Americans are too dumb" is American. (TBH we are really fuckin dumb.)
From an earlier vid:
Traffic Circles (Place de la Concorde style). Done that, didn't work. And it soured American civil engineers to circles for all eternity.
Since they have the right of way, drivers would slam into the intersection at full speed. Causing major t-bone collisions.
IS THIS VIDEO A JOJO REFERENCE
In Spain, they build roundabouts and then teach drivers to use them incorrectly, thus rendering their construction a pointless and very expensive waste of time. They actually slow down the flow of traffic, if anything.
I have a roundabout in my intersection to get to my house and it's caused absolutely nothing but havoc in the community. Multiple neighbors have gotten in an accident. Had a neighbor get their car completely totaled
@@Nightzero86 roundabouts aren’t the magical solution to every traffic problem to ever arise. They don’t work well on busy roads. It’s been tested many times
>me after reading title:
man people cant drive on straight roads and you wanna add circles?
That actually made me laugh thanks
Honestly
I mean if they can't go straight maybe it's the way to go
Really though
*americans can't drive in a straight line
I live in Michigan, where everybody on my Facebook feed complains about too much construction while at the same time complaining about how all of our governors new taxes aren't fixing the roads quick enough. People would never get behind changing intersections to roundabouts in my state
@Noiseless Sounds pretty much lol
They are over here, right outside my house. Yes people are complaining a lot lol.
Hello fellow Michiganians.
We don’t need roundabouts Michigan lefts fix everything.
We're stubborn, lazy, and spoiled. We complain about the way things are but whine and resist change. Nobody wants to pay for anything, no one wants to adapt, they just want to play first-world pretend until it all crashes down around them.
At first, they're annoying and counterproductive. Then everyone gets used to them and they're great for traffic - with one notable exception. When traffic is very heavy going two directions, but not the other two (like N/S is busy, E/W is slow), they're super ineffective and eventually back up traffic on the slower side. Lights are needed sometimes too.
3:45 “They aren’t just filling pot holes.”
You guys are getting potholes filled?
Three words: diverging diamonds everywhere. Duh Austin
not everyone has average IQ to use them
How about square-abouts?
[REDACTED] that sounds fair... and square
Replace highways with diverging diamonds
@[REDACTED] Actually, where i used to live in london, there _was_ a square-about.
4:41 "only a few months"
Oh... Wow... I don't even know how to respond to that. This person has clearly never paid attention to how long it takes their city to do anything...
generic username :v oh my that really sounds like my little Caribbean country Guyana 😂😂
No it's a Union Problem, the US has never just made what Unions demanded into a standardised minimum pass requirements for Health and Safety. So Unions still act like every Company wants to beat it's workers to death so they extort and beat companies into the ground the minute they get a toehold out of line. Like the Praetorian Guard, you either cave to them or get killed by them.
I live in England and they put a cut through in the roundabout to ease congestion and it took a year to dig up some dirt and then re-tarmac the road into the roundabout
I agree with u, road construction takes a long time, my city Cincinnati is redo the bridges between Ohio and Kentucky ands going to take about 4 years, they have been at it for about 1
If I remember correctly the roundabout that got built at the entrance to my neighborhood was finished very quickly. But to be honest tagaus probably because the street is one of the most used truck roads every trucker that has been to my town at least once will always drive that road because it’s faster and is almost completely dead during working hours.
They require a lot more room. The only thing holding my home town back from putting them in is they’d have to demolish like two historic buildings.
the real fix to most of traffic issues is to implement safe cheap and reliable public transit and to build both buffered bike lanes and separated bike lanes.
Me: *Sees 'Roundabout' in notifications*
My Brain: *"I'LL BE THE ROUNDABOUT"*
THE WORDS WILL MAKE YOU OUT N OUT
Yes!
@@battsiii Call it morning driving through the sound and in and out the valley
was waiting for this
@@Dagger-th2ik The music dance and sing
"... so that the comments will STOP."
Oh, Austin. You poor man. They'll never stop. Nothing you ever do will stop them, aside from maybe filtering the word "roundabout" out of your comments.
Roundy bouty
Circly traffic bois
It is clearly the work of an Enemy Stand User.
Round-a-bout
Spherical turntable
I think roundabouts could be a great way to improve road safety and make traffic flow more efficiently, but there may be certain situations where they aren't the best option.
"Just make every intersection a roundabout! It's _so fucking easy!"_
Everything is the easiest thing in the world to those that don't have to do it.
Especially if you a European with such a high superiority complex
I'm confused what this comment is trying to say.
@@Qreamey that people complaining about a lack of roundabouts in the United States of America assume it's easy to do
swiss person here: we've replaced all roads with roundabouts
We also have a lot of money for roads ^^
You have a lot of money.
considering the fact the usa is the richest country it shouldn't be that hard, but you also have to consider that USA is a highly populated country and very big with lots of roads
@@a.wadderphiltyr1559 totally worth it, now we have roundabouts :)
Ya but michigan is bigger then your country
Re: the Human factor:
We had to widen an intersection in my town, and the cheaper option actually was the roundabout. They put one in and folks had a huge fit about muh tax dollars, etc. Then no one bothered to figure out how to properly drive through one and they blamed the Mayor for the frequent fender benders. It's only two lanes. I saw someone drive in the opposite direction on it. I'm glad we have it because it is truly better then what we had. But if you put in a roundabout at the intersection in the US be prepared to for stupidity and dumb takes on it.
I live right next to a roundabout that was only put in about 6 or 7 years ago. When they announced that they were going to put it in, a LOT of people complained.
(To be fair, I know that the roundabout was the best option for this intersection because they originally had stop signs, then bumped it up to traffic lights, and STILL had Accidents all over the place) Now people drive it like it's been there forever and it Really does help with traffic flow for this street.
I do know that the only reason they did put one in here was because they needed to rebuild the bridge leading to it (the thing was Literally falling apart and was no longer safe to drive on) and because of that they had to rip up a lot of the pavement anyway so that the new bridge would work better. Plus, they had just torn down the projects that were right next to the street so they had plenty of space to put in the roundabout without disturbing the nearby businesses.
There have been some incredibly stupid people who drive the roundabout here as well, but it's far less because this one is used by ambulances as the straight route to the nearby hospital so police frequently drive it.
Sorry about the rant, I just wanted to add a comment to someone who actually lived in the US who experienced a roundabout being put in like I did ^_^
It's worth noting that US driving courses don't teach the rules for using a roundabout -- at least not in my state. I've only run into one in my life, and I was utterly confused. Even today, after watching videos on the subject, I know if I ever see another one I'll be dumbfounded again. It's just so visually unfamiliar, it doesn't surprise me that people struggle with them
Weird, in my country they teach you how to use a roundabout when getting your driver's license and our roads often have roundabouts
@@yosbo9060 You make a good point about education. Objectively, a roundabout is actually simpler to use than many other intersections (I an yet to have anyone explain to me how a 4-way stop sign is supposed to work - including US drivers who used them all the time!) On a roundabout, you simply look at who is approaching from your left (or right if driving on the left hand side) and give way (yield) to that traffic. When you see a gap, you can go. Multi-lane roundabouts are more complicated, but even there the rules are relatively simple. I think the problem people have is that they attempt to understand everything at once and freeze, rather than only focusing on what directly affects you (I assume this anyway; I can work out what everyone needs to be doing on the entire roundabout out to three cars back on all approaches in about half a second, which is why I don't understand when people get stressed about them, but I've learned that's not something everyone can do).
@@yosbo9060 I've never seen a round about before driving one and I found it relatively easy to drive. There were massive arrows pointing in the direction I'm supposed to go and the flow of traffic was in a circle. Didn't see where this would be confusing at all.
Most of the safety improvement by me is that the intersections were dark before or with one high pressure lamppost. Now there's a ring of many led lights and a few in the center. Everyone can see and can see you. Its almost self-regulation.
When my hometown built their first major roundabout the city tried to use eminent domain to take a guy's parking lot but leave the building. According to the city plan, his business would be left with ZERO parking and the entrance would be a couple feet from traffic. He filed suit. The court ruled the city had to either leave the parking lot or buy the building at fair cost... The final roundabout is much smaller than planned and the guy's business is doing very well. The city hasn't tried another major roundabout.
Funny thing is; if they'd placed the roundabout a few yards further southwest, they could have kept the original design and saved court fees...
Are... are you expecting the government to think before it makes a move?
you poor fool
"It'll only take a few months..."
It took my state 6 years to do 3 miles of a highway expansion. They were over budget. It's not quick to make or fix roads lol.
Less then one year for a almost 2 kilometers of city road with multiple intersection and two new roundabouts
The roundabout they put in by my neighborhood took 3-4 months.
@@denimchicken104 slow workers
@@paxundpeace9970 sure seemed like it
My town literally replaced an already existing intersection with a roundabout in 3 weeks. But they’ve also built 2 new highways (10 and 20 miles) in only about a year.
Gosh, I love Dutch infrastructure
I searched for Roundabout the JoJo ending song but I found your video. Don't regret clicking.
I searched roundabout for this video and found the JoJo song.
Please listen to more from YES as well.
@@Cheezmonka YES. I really loved Roundabout when I started JoJo, so I checked out the whole Fragile album, and I liked/loved every song.
Roundabouts are Jojo references ⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️
@@Caleonn they're YES references. YES is referenced in JoJo
Scrolling through all the comments on the other video was so painful because my parents helped design a major highway and their budget didn’t get enough to put in roundabouts everywhere so thank you for cleaning that up
"Why dont we use round-abouts?"
Meanwhile in Gabarone, Botswana when u ask for directions:
*drive passed 3 robots, left on the roundabout, then one robot, then straight through the roundabout, then left at the second robot. The destination is after the roundabout on your right*
"Bring your vehicle to a complete stop before proceeding"
I like this part 10:11
And here I thought they were decorations!
Any chance he'll tell us what those blinky lights on cars do next? I’m assuming they're only supposed to be used at Christmas... They're portable Christmas lights, right?
@@nadinewesterveld5597 I thought they were meant to be used to make light shows at night
@@weepingdalek2568 Weren't they meant to say "pls dont ram into me I have cats aboard"?
As somebody who doesn't drive I find it fascinating that that diverging diamond video elicited such a reaction for just being a somewhat informative piece of free entertainment that I remember fairly fondly.
Thank you for posting this roundabout video… and the stop sign trailer!
Thank you very much, I am now way more open minded and I will spread the word!
Re: "it should only take a couple months"
Everyone thought that when my (pretty big) town's library had to be rebuilt it would only take a couple months. It started in 2012, and just barely ended. and we're only a short drive away from one of the biggest cities on the West Coast.
I'm worried about my public library who had to tear down the main branch a little over a year ago. They said that the building would be finished in like 2024 but who knows if that's true?
It took a town in my area almost two years to implement a roundabout where two very busy roads meet.
It’s still not done, as of writing this comment.
"Roads are just a suggestion"
-one of my family members when they think they've found a "shortcut"
Did you know it's faster to go through the roundabout than around it?
@@mikezheng33
Yeah i understand how circles work
@@mikezheng33 It is atleast pi times faster in fact
@@gabemerritt3139 Yeah dude we've learned that in 6th grade
@@mikezheng33 I unironically know a guy who does that
I just entered a Roundabout, and a driver was driving around in the wrong direction. We stopped. I used my right arm to signal a left rotation movement, and the other driver did a K turn in the roundabout, and went the correct direction. I realized that Roundabouts need entrance and exit arrows ( Right curving only ). There are still 68 countries that have left hand traffic that go around roundabouts in the opposite direction than the rest of the 241 countries that have right hand traffic.
If you want an example on how converting all intersections to roundabouts effects not only traffic flow while building but also public opinion, look no further than Carmel IN. The mayor visited Europe and fell so in love with roundabouts that the entire city uses almost exclusively roundabouts. It also happens to be one of the richer cities in Indiana so the cost, while still high, was able to be mitigated by the higher taxes of the higher paid workers. The history of how and more importantly how long is documented. And as for public opinion, while I know this is anecdotal, most people I know avoid Carmel at all cost.
Austin is correct on the economical impact of road construction. My mom had a small massage/aesthetician studio on a one direction, two lane road in our downtown area and it killed her and some of the neighboring businesses as well. The city gave no help to their businesses for shutting them down past the due date either.
Austin could do a similar video on why two way street conversions is also a bad thing
F
This guy: there's no traffic lights on roundabouts
Me: *cries in British*
And sometimes we only have traffic lights on half the roundabout, or we have part time signals...
D.C. says hello..............
@@MaddJakd Oh dear lord, I forgot how bad DC traffic is. 7 roads to pull onto in one intersection, stop signs only used at certain times of day,..
I don't want to be too technical, but if it has a traffic light it is not called a "roundabout" but a "traffic circle"
That's because roundabouts have a relatively low traffic throughput. If you put too many cars on them they will choke, and then you need traffic lights to enable the flow again.
The fact is that roundabouts have advantages and disadvantages; they will work well in some intersections and poorly in others.
I really like the double teardrop intersection. They take marginally more room than a traditional on/off ramp setup and make if faster and safer.
The one thing I don’t like about roundabouts is, if the traffic flow is heavy, there are limited breaks in between cars. Traffic lights inherently put cars into “packs” which allows for breaks in the flow. I ran into this when I visited New Zealand, I was trying to take an unprotected turn across traffic but there was a roundabout 100 yard away. I sat and waited for a break in the flow to cross but it took forever since roundabouts don’t stop the flow. I had about 4 cars behind me waiting to turn as well. After waiting for way too long I finally had to gun it and make a semi-unsafe turn. Whereas a traffic light would have stopped the traffic 100 yards away and allowed a break long enough for me to cross and maybe the other people behind me as well. But other than that, I really like roundabouts.
Never really gave it that much thought.
Roundabouts are easy
There's still way too much new construction that *doesn't* include roundabouts, though.
i mean if you heard some cases roundabouts arent better
@@makuu-hita almost all of the video was talking about how changing into them would be expensive but rrally only reason to not use roundabout more often in new stuff is that yall too stupid to around a circle
Isn't it weird how the focus of the video is roundabouts?
Hmmm... Big think... 🤔
Moral of the story:
Don’t challenge Austin because he knows his stuff.
MasterOwl45 I don’t think that’s what he wants you to take away. If I remember correctly he made a video just about stuff he’s gotten wrong because everyone get some stuff wrong. Though he obviously puts a lot of time in his video.
I think if anything the moral is, if there’s an obvious fix that hasn’t been implemented for a while, there is probably a reason why.
The card game video exists
He just does research. I could make a video that makes me look just as educated in a couple of days.
Ok just for the record I understand he's not perfect and that it's easy to sound educated. It's was just supposed to be a joke and a compliment to the research he did.
@@brennanperry8001 you act like doing research only makes you seem like you're educated
In Holland we make roundaboubts very often without closing the street. Doing this is difficult but it pays off. They either make it in parts and finish it up in a weekend. Or they make the new roundabout next to the existing road and connect the roads weken its finished when they demolish the old junction.
And roundabouts are cheaper to maintain in the end. Decrease traffic jams and are safer. You make them when the road needs maintenance (not when it's still brand new). We have been doing it gradually over the last 30 years. So the whole budget thing you mentioned is just not a issue with planning ...... also, you can make roads smaller when you use roundabouts ( = cheaper)
And I'm convinced even Americans could get used to it if America would actually try.
Anyway, have fun with your traffic lights! Was a entertaining video!
My city recently installed a roundabout but there are a few problems with it. The first one is people just seem to not know how to use a roundabout. The second is the city made it's so small that the buses aren't able to go around it so they have to go over the center instead Which makes it unpleasant to ride in one of the buses.