On Fri, Nov 9, 2012 at 4:06 PM, MICHAEL H <vwdash80@yahoo.com> wrote:

> ... still applies today. first come, first go. except at rotaries
> (roundabouts, etc.) where American vehicle operators who don't know how to
> use them get in the way of drivers who do ...
>

  Boy Howdy!  That is a truth, for sure.

   The nearby town of The Dalles, Oregon just  recently built a really
fancy roundabout where there was an oddball intersection with stopsigns.
They made it look real good with a fancy statue in the center, cobblestones
and iron street light posts, etc etc.  Took them almost a whole year to do
it....But they did it really wrong...it is 4 lanes entering from two sides
and a two lane leaving at an angle but the round a bout is so narrow and
the circle so small with all that "traffic furniture" that the vehicles
must go round it in single file...And they put a bunch of negative camber
in it so that during the winter, people spin out all the time when there is
black ice, which is frequent because the whole circle is shaded most of the
winter day...
   When you come upon this roundabout you will often  (almost always, at
least one, sometimes 3, blocking all the entrances to the roundabout) find
a freaked-out driver just sitting there, blocking the road, trying to
figure it out....Now the local city cops have taken to collecting revenue
there, citing people for not using their directional signals as they
negotiate this 'marvel of engineering'   It is so tight and so off camber
that you risk losing control if you start messing with your signals as you
fight the wheel around the circle....
   I sometimes just ride my bicycle down there and watch for a
while....amusing...

  When done properly and negotiated by knowledgeable drivers, traffic
circles are ever so much more efficient than stop signals and turn
lanes....We in the United States could certainly use a lot more of them if
our drivers would learn how to drive them...