How to deal with a roundabout... NOT!

D-Fence said:
This whole situation can be fixed with a SLIGHT elevation in the middle, or at least paint the middle and add some signs.
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..or build an arc de triomphe in the middle.. :lol:

Well, to be honest, if there wasn't anything in the middle of roundabout like in that video, I'd go straight through as well.. Especially if there's rare traffic.. Good thing all roundabouts here have some sort of garden in the middle.. :lol:
 
Spectre said:
Roundabouts suck - especially for motorcyclists, and especially when it rains. I say that as someone who understands how they work and has had to deal with them for years, too.
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Only if the center of gravity is way higher than it should be on a motorcycle you might fall over.....

https://pic.armedcats.net/d/d-/d-fence/2011/01/11/spectre.JPG
 
Spectre said:
Roundabouts suck - especially for motorcyclists, and especially when it rains. I say that as someone who understands how they work and has had to deal with them for years, too.
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they rule if you drive a quad

DRIFTING!!!! :lol:
 
D-Fence said:
Only if the center of gravity is way higher than it should be on a motorcycle you might fall over.....

https://pic.armedcats.net/d/d-/d-fence/2011/01/11/spectre.JPG
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Heh.

That's not why, though. Bike contact patches are reduced when they bank over; if you then add rain and the need to 'stay at speed' like many roundabouts require, then you have a problem - you may not be able to go slow enough to maintain a suitable traction reserve without getting arse-ended by some schnitzel-muncher in an Opel. :p

Other thing is that for some idiot reason, a lot of roundabouts are constructed using brick or cobbles to contrast with the surrounding roads. This becomes slicker than hell when wet, and such things have claimed a lot of bikes. There is one particularly bad one around here, I'll see if I can get video of it.
 
D-Fence said:
allthough..

[video=youtube;lUCH4fpUo-Y]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUCH4fpUo-Y&feature=related[/video]


BTW: I love these roundabouts with a slight bump in the middle, used to jump them at night with my old car ;)
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Why does this video not end with a bunch of ?&??!?)^$ cyclist getting pancaked under that bus? And this was in Germany? Don't your cops carry guns? Shoot a few of em and the rest will run like rabbits :p


What?
 
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Cowboy said:
Why does this video not end with a bunch of ?&??!?)^$ cyclist getting pancaked under that bus? And this was in Germany? Don't your cops carry guns? Shoot a few of em and the rest will run like rabbits :p


What?
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Yeah, those people remained way too calm. Just let your foot off the brake and start creeping forwards. Cyclists as a species have a fairly strong sense of self-preservation and will move when faced with imminent destruction.
 
Crazyjeeper said:
Yeah, those people remained way too calm. Just let your foot off the brake and start creeping forwards. Cyclists as a species have a fairly strong sense of self-preservation and will move when faced with imminent destruction.
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They share that with cockroaches and rats........although that might be an insult to rats.
 
The problem with roundabouts is when they are used in inappropriate places - that makes you go Grrrrrrr. Sometimes they do the job better than traffic lights which is the only real alternative in Ukania (we do not have houses in blocks generally so 4 way stops would almost never be applicable). Anyway BMW drivers would not stop at a 4 way stop.
 
Matt2000 said:
Am I right in thinking that people entering the 'roundabout' should give way to people already on it, or is this a funny case where that's the other way around?
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Rule over here is that, but also yield to your right (so people going onto the roundabout have to yield to those who will be on their right on the roundabout, even if they both reach the roundabout at the same time). Dunno what it is in the UK, but over here on big roundabouts those rules clash to cause some really shitty situations.

Spectre said:
Roundabouts suck - especially for motorcyclists, and especially when it rains. I say that as someone who understands how they work and has had to deal with them for years, too.
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I don't find roundabouts on bikes that bad, but then again I have to go around 2 of them just to get onto the main road here, so I have some practice at them. But I haven't ridden in the rain yet, so no comment on that one. If anything, I prefer to go on some roundabouts in my area on the scooter as opposed to the car because I can fit into gaps quicker, go arround the damn thing quicker and generally avoid the wrath of those behind me.

Cobol74 said:
The problem with roundabouts is when they are used in inappropriate places - that makes you go Grrrrrrr. Sometimes they do the job better than traffic lights which is the only real alternative in Ukania (we do not have houses in blocks generally so 4 way stops would almost never be applicable). Anyway BMW drivers would not stop at a 4 way stop.
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This. Problem is with most "main" roundabout in Newcastle, Aus is that the roads were badly designed in the first place, so lights would make them worse. So we are stuck with the roundabouts until they inprove the roads themselves in the area. Which, given there are jobs 30+ years old on the council job sheet for road improvements, is not gonna happen any time soon....
 
They are building more roundabouts in my area. I love them. One intersection in particular used to have a traffic light. It wasn't a particularly busy intersection so you'd pull up to it to go straight and have to wait a minute or two before it would change to green. Now you can just buzz right through it.
 
they put roundabouts in my friends neighborhood in like 2003 to try and stop people from speeding. oddly it just invented the game of "who can go through the roundabout the fastest" instead. lol.

there is also one on the back roads on the way to my sisters house that is fun as hell to drift. its after you leave a neighborhood and exits to farm roads.
 
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CraigB said:
They are building more roundabouts in my area. I love them. One intersection in particular used to have a traffic light. It wasn't a particularly busy intersection so you'd pull up to it to go straight and have to wait a minute or two before it would change to green. Now you can just buzz right through it.
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And then there are the roundabouts that have added traffic lights at every enterence to them. Kinda defeating the purpose.

And of course, as has been noted elswhere, if there is a specific route that goes through the roundabout that is heavily congested, once the "train effect" starts, any other routes that have to enter in the middle of that train are screwed, even if they only need to cross that busy route. I've seen people wait almost 5 minutes to get through the line of cars, and most of the time it's just 1-3 cars that get through, meanwhile 7-10 cars have stacked up waiting to get through, since you have to yield to cars already in the circle from your left (or right in the UK and Aus). And when the one route in is the heavily congested one, the drivers in that route have no one to yield to on thei left when entering so they just form a train that completely dominates the next couple entrances.
 
Runs_And_Drives said:
Something tells me that the local traffic authority changed a traffic-light to a roundabout without telling anyone. This is the result.
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... indeed. The videodescription says so.

Video was taken 3 Months ago, this is how the roundabout looks now.


They?ve changed it quite a bit, added some signs, build a high spot in the middle ...
 
Interrobang said:
... indeed. The videodescription says so.

Video was taken 3 Months ago, this is how the roundabout looks now.


They?ve changed it quite a bit, added some signs, build a high spot in the middle ...
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That's not showing us anything about the intersection, just some horrifyingly poor accident scene management. Get the humans out of the cars, and clear the travel lanes ASAP - or go down the block and start waving a detour. Only if you physically can't push the damned cars should they be blocking travel lanes. I guess your H+S regulations prevent taking such "risks" with the police and firemen's lower backs, however - and prefers poorly controlled contraflow operations that are only putting uninvolved, innocent people in the dangerous spots.
 
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