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The American 4 Way Stop Sign Vs The European Roundabout
Mythbusters
Posted 11 years ago by stitch in category: interesting
Comments (11)
NDF - 11 years ago [ Reply ]
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There's a factor that isn't considered in the show: roundabouts weren't build to make faster a 2 street intersection; they were build to solve 3, 4 or even 5 street intersection... American solution to a 3 or 4 street intersection i think is better with an underground tunnel or a ramp. I've never seen a 2 street intersection roundabout... minimum 3. So i guess they discovered something new!

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Tim (guest) - 11 years ago
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  Actually that was a four way intersection, i.e. there were four entrances and exits to the roundabout. It is the most efficient for intersections with 3 or more joining streets, and if the traffic volume is higher then you can just add more lanes to the roundabout. Grade separation as you mentioned is only used for very high volume routes (50,000 veh/day+)such as highway off and on ramps near cities. One thing they didn't consider in this test is removing the stop signs on the two highest volume joining streets, so that vehicles would pass right through, with vehicles from the other two streets joining the through road.  

Niklas �hrberg (guest) - 11 years ago [ Reply ]
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NDF: There is a lot of "2 way intersection-roundabouts" here in Sweden (don't know about the rest of Europe), so there is nothing new about that. =)

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Martin (guest) - 11 years ago [ Reply ]
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I think its smoother and safer to enter a roundabout too, you only need to check one direction

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ehr (guest) - 11 years ago [ Reply ]
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You could clearly see they even had too few cars for the roundabout test. The cars passed through "too quickly" which left empty lanes for long periods of time. (then again I guess I'm biased in favour of roundabouts, haha)

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njbartlett - 11 years ago [ Reply ]
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Another plus for the roundabout is that it is safer. There are fewer points at which cars cross each other's paths, and therefore fewer opportunities for collisions. If they had run the tests for much longer, then they might have been able to measure this as well.

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Mananaman - 11 years ago [ Reply ]
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Why are they calling it the "american" 4 way stop sign? There not only roundabouts in Europe ^^

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causeby - 11 years ago [ Reply ]
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I hate four-way stops. You couldn't possibly design a dumber traffic pattern if you tried. What, every single car must come to a complete stop every single time? There is never any opportunity to just keep going? So, there is literally no way to make it slower than a four way stop, right? In my opinion half of the stop signs in America should be replaced with yield signs. Another quarter of them should be totally removed, allowing four-way stops to become two-way stops.

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jimbo (guest) - 11 years ago [ Reply ]
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The biggest drawback with roundabouts is when there are dominant roads that travel 'straight over' thus preventing the non dominant intersections from joining and backing up. Unless thesis the case, the roundabout wins hands down. It allows you to approach at significant speed and 'filter in' ias long as you observe the roundabout as far ahead as possible. Unfortunately in the UK roundabout are being replaced by traffic lights, making intersections far less efficient but in the interests of 'safety'. Unfortunately government policy assumes that drivers are incapable of independent thought and forward thinking. What's scary is it may be true...

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HoraceSPatoot - 11 years ago [ Reply ]
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Driving tip for my American compatriots: ALWAYS signal right before you LEAVE a roundabout so the guy at the next entrance knows he can take your place.

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Bambino (guest) - 10 years ago [ Reply ]
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Always signal right before entering the roundabout if you're about to take the first exit. Signal left if you're going to take the last exit.

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