Should Tulsa create more Roundabouts?

[TheArtist]

   Despite the unfortunate circumstances of the "traffic circle" main street fountain, perhaps we should include more roundabouts in the Comprehensive Plan and Small Planning areas.  

Here is an excerpt from a BBC News article....


                      IS THE BRITISH ROUNDABOUT CONQUERING THE US?

A roundabout revolution is slowly sweeping the US. The land of the car, where the stop sign and traffic light have ruled for decades, has started to embrace the free-flowing British circular....

The Mayor of Carmel, Jim Brainard, has become America's evangelist-in-chief on the matter, demolishing 78 sets of traffic lights and replacing them with those round islands so familiar to drivers in the UK. Four more will be finished in the coming months.

"We have more than any other city in the US," he says, standing proudly in front of one. "It's a trend now in the United States. There are more and more roundabouts being built every day because of the expense saved and more importantly the safety."

He quotes a study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety which suggests there is on average a 40% decrease in all accidents and a 90% drop in fatal ones when a traffic intersection is replaced by a roundabout.

The long-term financial saving is about £150,000, he says, due to reduced maintenance costs, and there are also fuel savings.

"Not just the cars that aren't idling at traffic lights, but starting from a dead stop takes up more fuel also, so we are saving thousands of gallons of fuel per roundabout per year," says the Republican mayor.

"And aesthetically, we think they're much nicer. If one is looking out their living room window, would you prefer to see a blinking traffic light all night or a beautifully landscaped roundabout with a fountain and flowers?"



More in the article here....  

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-13863498

[Townsend]

Absolutely.  They're so much nicer and work so much better.  Drove for days in Ireland with some friends recently and came back hating the start stop traffic lights.

[Hoss]

Absolutely.  They're so much nicer and work so much better.  Drove for days in Ireland with some friends recently and came back hating the start stop traffic lights.

So, if I'm reading correctly in this article, the Admiral/Mingo Circle is technically a roundabout, because it gives traffic priority to those in the circle already, and entering traffic must yield...although you can't seem to get many Tulsans to understand that concept.

[Townsend]

So, if I'm reading correctly in this article, the Admiral/Mingo Circle is technically a roundabout, because it gives traffic priority to those in the circle already, and entering traffic must yield...although you can't seem to get many Tulsans to understand that concept.

And you signal to leave the circle.

Getting Tulsan's to understand many reasonable concepts is p'ert near impossible.

[Hoss]

And you signal to leave the circle.

Getting Tulsan's to understand many reasonable concepts is p'ert near impossible.

I drive it every day, and I wind up having to yield to some moron at least four times a week who blows past the yield sign (in the twice-daily .. at least .. I must navigate it).

And on the weekend during the flea market?  fugedaboutit!

[TheArtist]

  From what I gather, thats an old style roundabout?  But regardless, I am sure once there were more, people would get used to them. Course your always going to have people, that you wonder how they even got a drivers licence in the first place. Heck I run into (figuratively thank goodness but sometimes its been close) people all the time that can't figure out how to use a highway on ramp. Perhaps there again its people not understanding the concept of "Yield".  I have seen people suddenly come to a dead stop right in front of me when there is NO car around to yield to?  So you will always likely have someone that will stop when they are not supposed to on the on ramps and go when they are not supposed to on the roundabout lol.

[dbacks fan]

They have been installing round abouts in Sedona and Cottonwod AZ on the state highways that go through them and it has greatly eased the congestion in these towns.  Here is one in Cottonwood......

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=89A+%26+Cement+Plant+Road+Cottonwood,+AZ&hl=en&sll=34.763051,-112.066898&sspn=0.017311,0.027509&t=h&z=16

[dbacks fan]

I also like this roundabout as well.

[nathanm]

The traffic circle is a relatively high speed roundabout. What we need are some smaller, lower speed roundabouts scattered about to get people used to the concept before building more of the big ones.

[Red Arrow]

A Yield sign means that other traffic will yield to you.  At least that's the way it seems.

If I am following someone on an entrance ramp and they continue to accelerate but not at the rate I want, I assume they have a wimpy car or are just unaware of merging speeds and physics.  If someone accelerates to about 35 or 40 mph and holds that, I assume they are mentally challenged.  I go around them after entering the highway.  About a half mile later, they pass me (at the speed limit) like I'm crawling.

[Red Arrow]

My mother claims to have "rescued" my father from NJ traffic circles by marrying him and taking up residence in PA.

[OurTulsa]

I like the roundabout or traffic circles on a few fronts.

They tend to provide traffic control without the need for stop/start or traffic signalization (unless you get super-heavy flows though the purists will maintain even then they're not necessary).

They calm traffic/ slow traffic in neighborhoods or on minor streets.

They can be used to beautify streets/ places.

If part of a street redesign they can also catch storm water.

I was just in a city where little landscaped islands were heavily utilized to calm and beautify vehicular traffic.  Some islands were extravagantly decorated some contained merely ground cover.  In some neighborhoods it looked as though it was the effort of one organizing pavers near the center of the street and filling with dirt and flowers.  Some well done, some not, but most if not all were eye catching and did the job of slowing me down and others i observed.

Traffic circles/ roundabouts in a neighborhood or on a city street can make a place really nice looking while serving a utilitarian function.

[Red Arrow]

Round-about... looks like a skid pad to me.

[Hoss]

Round-about... looks like a skid pad to me.

I'd like to get out there after a moderate rain and see how well the Avenger can drift...

[Red Arrow]

I'd like to get out there after a moderate rain and see how well the Avenger can drift...

Especially if they put them in the neighborhoods where the police won't generally be patrolling.  They would be small so you wouldn't have to go that fast to make some Gs.  Do you have a source for a lateral accelerometer?  Aircraft stuff is mostly vertical and I don't believe they would be accurate if turned on their side.