A nearby town has been putting these things up pretty much everywhere. It seems they're intending to put roundabouts at every single corner. In most cases they're two lane, when they've only room for one lane and nobody has a clue how to navigate any of them. The Mrs. won't even drive over there because roundabouts seem to make all of the other drivers even dumber than normal. This one even has turn lanes to keep people from going through the roundabouts! Even the low traffic back roads into town aren't safe. This road used to have two two-way stop intersections, and now it has roundabouts...out amongst farm fields! If you look closely you can see that the roundabout also has sidewalks installed for about 60 feet in each direction for some inexplicable reason.
The sidewalks are there for two reasons. #1 It's where you stand safely while calling and waiting for a wrecker. #2 It's where you go to read a map to figure out where you are and how to get far away.
We have several roundabouts like Cyber's last pic, one rite in the heart of our main strip they added cross walks witch helps the confused. Yes you are to yield to a vehicle in one, that's plain common sense and if you are driving straight through there 'should' be no problem. My main beef is having to take that extra second or 2 to figure out if the car coming at you is going to turn left cutting you off. I mean if there is no roundabout and you are turning left you would use your signal, but nobody does in a roundabout.
Ever sice I was young, at least two years ago, I remember the city and state making plans to turn an obscure E.-W. narrow county road into an interstate bpass to get heavy truck traffic out of down town. The town back when I was a kid was around 32,000. Now we've moved back and I'm a big kid the population is still around 32,000 because most people now live outside the city limits like we do. Eventually the interstate came north of our city and ran right through the big city north of us. Then a by-pass south around the big city. Eventually another west to north by-pass was added. This is the midwest. No round abouts! Finally after many years the bypass on the south edge of town opened. We are about 1/4 mile south of that narrow county road which for years has slowly turned into a seven lane bypass bypassing the main highway bypass. In reality it's two wide lanes each way, a wide center turn lane, and a wide shoulder on each side. About two miles west on the new bypass is another dangerous cross county road and a RR track with only red blinking lights when a train passes. People going N-S must stop at this other county road. Before, there were flashing amber warning lights. Now they got fancy after several accidents already on both cross roads. They put blinking red lights around the octagon stop signs. The two lane county road that goes N-S is 300' from our property. It crosses that new highway bypass. We must stop both ways before crossing seven lanes which four are active. They reduced the bypass speed limit to 45 MPH after many acidents already and also added the red blinking lights on the stop signs. Sadly that short new highway has a small section that is 65MPH. Once people get up to speed they fail to slow going down the hill to the cross road at the bottom. For now the corn fields on the corner are empty. So altho the new highway saves us a lot of time and fuel, we often have to turn and go thru county roads because of accidents blocking the intersections. I dislike round abouts but on these two intersections it may help. Strangely all the planning and years of building and rebuilding that bypass round abouts were not incorperated where they actually might help. .
I mean if there is no roundabout and you are turning left you would use your signal, but nobody does in a roundabout. Do all newer cars have signal levers yet? I know most no longer have cigar lighters or ash trays. Maybe since fewer use signal lights cars no longer have them. Seeing people signal here in the midwest is rare! I feel so out of place using mine and it is so much work having to think then flip it. Altho when we lived in Florida quit a few drove forever with the left blinker on.
Actually, you signal "RIGHT" when you leave the roundabout. Otherwise, signalling for left turning is redundant, as you treat the roundabout lane as an extension of your road until you signal your exit.
We got them popping up in Nashville everywhere! The biggest one outside of downtown circles around an enormous statue of giant, graphically anatomically correct, well stacked, people of both genders all dancing and grabbing each other! Imagine the Excitement at that intersection. Hell some people just keep driving around and around and around....
