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  #41  
Old Posted Oct 15, 2019, 2:59 PM
OldDartmouthMark OldDartmouthMark is offline
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Originally Posted by Haliguy View Post
I have no problem with roundabouts. I think they work very well. I love the ones next to the Common. They work fantastic!
I'm OK with them as well, but I'm not going to pretend that they do not have faults. That's all. I think they are the best alternative for some situations, but not all situations, and also that some iterations are better than others. I can only hope that the city traffic people are paying attention and decide to integrate the best features into future designs - and avoid the troublesome ones. Presumably they will, after all that's their job.

I agree with your opinion on the downtown ones - I think they are the best of all that I've experienced, but admittedly I haven't been on them during rush hour, and don't know whether they are even affected by rush hour, actually.
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  #42  
Old Posted Oct 15, 2019, 4:16 PM
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Originally Posted by OldDartmouthMark View Post
I'm OK with them as well, but I'm not going to pretend that they do not have faults. That's all. I think they are the best alternative for some situations, but not all situations, and also that some iterations are better than others. I can only hope that the city traffic people are paying attention and decide to integrate the best features into future designs - and avoid the troublesome ones. Presumably they will, after all that's their job.

I agree with your opinion on the downtown ones - I think they are the best of all that I've experienced, but admittedly I haven't been on them during rush hour, and don't know whether they are even affected by rush hour, actually.
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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  #43  
Old Posted Oct 15, 2019, 5:54 PM
OldDartmouthMark OldDartmouthMark is offline
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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.
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.
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  #44  
Old Posted Oct 15, 2019, 6:06 PM
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Honestly, I found the ones that are designed well, like the downtown circles near the armories seem to work pretty well.
I would have said the same thing myself, except that last week I had a near-incident there and still am not sure whether it was my fault or that of the other driver.

I was heading east on Cunard towards the Armories, with an intent to head north on Agricola. My path was the yellow line:



A driver on North Park approached the circle and since he had a lane on the right in the circle that suddenly materializes right there, he entered next to me. But he was where I intended to go because the design there is a mess, forcing you to merge right into that newly-created lane if you are following the signs. Having a roundabout that is a single lane become multi-lane partway around does not seem to me to be good design.
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  #45  
Old Posted Oct 15, 2019, 6:44 PM
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Originally Posted by Keith P. View Post
I would have said the same thing myself, except that last week I had a near-incident there and still am not sure whether it was my fault or that of the other driver.

I was heading east on Cunard towards the Armories, with an intent to head north on Agricola. My path was the yellow line:



A driver on North Park approached the circle and since he had a lane on the right in the circle that suddenly materializes right there, he entered next to me. But he was where I intended to go because the design there is a mess, forcing you to merge right into that newly-created lane if you are following the signs. Having a roundabout that is a single lane become multi-lane partway around does not seem to me to be good design.
He should not have entered the circle with you coming around in the circle.
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  #46  
Old Posted Oct 15, 2019, 6:49 PM
OldDartmouthMark OldDartmouthMark is offline
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I would say that technically you were in the right, as he is not supposed to enter the circle if it's not clear. However, you are right - I can see how he would be confused by the multiple lanes and perhaps assume that you were in the left lane and thus the right lane was open to him.

I think that it should have been obvious to him by the dashed lines at the entrance that your lane extended over to the right side, though. It might have been, like MonctonRad suggested, that this person could have been from out of town, and thus was unfamiliar with them and had to make a snap decision based on all of the visual stimuli suddenly presented to him by the roundabout.

I also worry about pedestrians in that drivers may focus on vehicles in the circles and could forget to look for pedestrians until it's too late. Not sure what the statistics say, though.
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  #47  
Old Posted Oct 15, 2019, 8:32 PM
ILoveHalifax ILoveHalifax is offline
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He should not have entered the circle with you coming around in the circle.
That looks tragic BUT you still had a quarter of the circle to either speed up and merge into your lane in front of him or slow slightly to merge behind him. Of course when that fails you simply go all around the circle again and hope you can get into your preferred lane - NO PROBLEM
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  #48  
Old Posted Oct 16, 2019, 12:44 AM
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I fail to understand why that new lane appears in that spot. It seems to serve little purpose except to cause problems.
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  #49  
Old Posted Oct 16, 2019, 2:25 PM
OldDartmouthMark OldDartmouthMark is offline
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Originally Posted by Keith P. View Post
I fail to understand why that new lane appears in that spot. It seems to serve little purpose except to cause problems.
Probably to provide a dedicated lane for the heavier traffic routes served by the roundabout. Traffic studies would have been done leading up to the design.
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  #50  
Old Posted Oct 16, 2019, 6:33 PM
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HRM's motto is "Poor design costs no more!".
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  #51  
Old Posted Oct 18, 2019, 12:10 AM
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I don't see a problem with it. The other car should not have entered the circle with you coming around it.
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  #52  
Old Posted Oct 21, 2019, 12:15 AM
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Ground view perspective from the only accessible viewing location on Geizer's Hill


Halifax Developments Blog (Photo by David Jackson)
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  #53  
Old Posted Dec 3, 2019, 11:36 PM
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No photo but I did pass through here last weekend. Both directions are now using the new structure. The old structure will be demolished this weekend aided by a 48-hour highway closure starting at 10pm on Friday. The tunnel is visible from 102 inbound now as well.
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  #54  
Old Posted Dec 6, 2019, 4:24 PM
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  #55  
Old Posted Dec 6, 2019, 7:42 PM
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Doesn't look very tall. Will trucks fit I wonder?
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  #56  
Old Posted Dec 6, 2019, 9:28 PM
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Doesn't look very tall. Will trucks fit I wonder?
Looks very tall to me, compare the clearance with the truck above, lots of room to spare.
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  #57  
Old Posted Dec 6, 2019, 10:29 PM
OldDartmouthMark OldDartmouthMark is offline
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Yes, plenty of clearance.
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  #58  
Old Posted Dec 7, 2019, 1:44 AM
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I'm not talking about pickups. Large commercial trucks usually need 12'-13' of clearance. That might have it in the center but you can't always drive there.
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  #59  
Old Posted Dec 7, 2019, 3:15 AM
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Originally Posted by Keith P. View Post
I'm not talking about pickups. Large commercial trucks usually need 12'-13' of clearance. That might have it in the center but you can't always drive there.
I think it is only one or two lanes when complete, I am sure there will be a barrier of some sort to ensure no high sided vehicle inadvertently drifts to a low part of the arch.
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  #60  
Old Posted Dec 7, 2019, 12:54 PM
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I think it is only one or two lanes when complete, I am sure there will be a barrier of some sort to ensure no high sided vehicle inadvertently drifts to a low part of the arch.
Yeah the tunnel is only one lane as it is a collector section of the 102 that merges with the 103 traffic exclusively to exit to Dunbrack St.



Should be interesting to see how this affects morning traffic once complete in a month or two.
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