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Originally Posted by Haliguy
I do think the ones out at Larry Uteck could have been designed a bit better, but overall I find them pretty good. That common ones do get a bit backed up at rush hour but they seem to run very smoothly.
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Fair enough. Thanks for the info on the commons ones.
For the Uteck ones, my main quibbles are situations such as people continuing around the circle in the right lane when the rules say they have to exit and that the left lane can exit too. Or people entering in the right lane and crossing over to the left lane directly in front of another vehicle. Or approaching quickly and entering the circle when it's not clear, cutting off the vehicle within the circle... etc etc
Admittedly, most of this is 'bad driver' stuff and the small, tight, 2-lane roundabouts tend to be less forgiving than most other road structures for these kind of mistakes.
To be fair, other road systems have their problems too. 99% of the time the Uteck circles are fine but they can be nerve wracking when you see people overdriving their capabilities based presumably on overconfidence. Most people probably wouldn't notice anyhow... I tend to be a little overanalytical when it comes to driving, as it's a thing for which I have fairly high standards... but I know people who happily flirt with disaster each and every day who are gleefully unaware of it, until the planets line up and then they can't understand what happened as they always did it that way before...
Regardless, the circles are out there, may as well use them. I think they are generally more efficient than lighted intersections, and one would think they are better economically in that there are no traffic lights which require power, maintenance and replacement, eventually.
And those who can't or don't want to bother can avoid them if they want to.