What a zoo - from the Argus
Fifth accident at double roundabout site
Police said there was a minor accident this morning at the controversial new double roundabout in Green Oak Township. It's the fifth recorded accident since the controversial system of traffice circles opened last month. All have been relatively minor, say police, and all have been caused by a failure to yield.
2 comments:
Friends who live in Brighton showed me their "new" traffic controls. I haven't researched this, but I seem to recall many states had these "roundabouts" when I was a kid. They don't now. Even New England seemed to be getting rid of them when I was last there. So, why is MI now using them? It must be $$$. Everything today boils down to that.
The "confusion" factor gets my vote for the accident rates. When in New England, trying to determine where your route exited from a 5 or 6 spoke roundabout was almost suicidal during a rush hour. Thank God I had a copilot who could watch route signs while I watched the local crazies ignoring "YIELD" signs as I struggled to get or stay in the proper lane to exit where I wanted.
Roundabouts are Excedrin headache no. 29!
It is all what people are used to. When visiting England a few years ago a friend told me that a lot of Americans get run over while crossing streets in England because they look the wrong way before crossing - since the English drive on the opposite side of the road compared to Americans, the order of searching for oncoming traffic is reversed.
But English pedestrians have no trouble because they grew up with the system, and I would imagine they have the same problems when visiting North America.
So it goes with roundabouts. They probably work OK when drivers are raised around them and encounter them frequently, but they are a tough nut to crack for drivers used to conventional 4-way intersections.
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