For the typical American who might not have ever heard of around-about.....it's basically where an intersection should exist, but you've put a traffic circle there instead (no light, no yield sign, no stop sign).
As a 19-year old who'd arrived in West Germany in 1978....the driver's manual that you had to study.....had a simple description, and the various drawings to explain the scenarios. To me, it meant that you just drove right out without stopping, unless someone was approaching on the left, and you'd make this circle (maybe even a three-quarters circle), before you entered the next road. In theory, it was simple. On the entire base at Rhein Main....there was not a single circle. You had to leave the base....to find such circles.
Around the Frankfurt region in 1978-1979....when driving off-base....I probably encountered a total of six circles, and they were all one-lane round-abouts. I admit....I felt tension and unease, but you'd pay attention....make the circle, and things felt fine.
It was when I returned in 1992 (Bitburg), that I started to encounter round-abouts on almost a daily basis....always in a one-lane situation.
So the day finally came when on Ramstein Air Base.....they decided to give us the ultimate challenge....a two-lane round-about.
This is something rather unique and requires you to think prior to the entry point. If you are in the right lane of your street.....you have to (MUST) exit on the first available street. So you need to calculate this at least a hundred feet prior and put yourself into the correct point.
But if you are going onto the 2nd exit or 3rd exit.....then there's going to be a lane change in the middle of this circle. You are in effect....twisting and turning your head....thumping on the blinker....gauging traffic....then trying to move to the correct lane, at the right moment.
I suspect if you put a stress-test device on people.....two-lane round-abouts scare the crap out of folks. In the whole of Wiesbaden (a city of 285,000)....round-abouts are rare, and most people can only list the one single one at the river prior to reaching Mainz.
Do German planners avoid them? I think you will find some cities who make an effort to avoid them because it just begs for accidents. On the other hand, if you ever go over to Idstein (a town ten miles NW of Wiesbaden).....you will find around twenty-five traffic round-abouts or circles in a city with 25,000 residents. The city planner? It has to be some young guy with a sense of humor to tempt fate and challenge the public.
I've often wondered if you'd spoken to Henry Ford in this early era of automotive design and suggested that round-abouts would be developed.....he might have freaked out and gone to drinking heavy.
1 comment:
You've probably been away a while. Anyways most towns in the US will have at least one rotary/roundabout/traffic circle now, especially if they built a new elementary or middle school in the last ten/fifteen years. Well, that's where you'll find them at any rate.
But that's all old school because now there are these "Michigan Left Turns" popping up all over the place. I'm sorry, I don't know how to describe them in words. Perhaps it's because it's an opportunity to sell three times the amount of traffic lights. Perhaps it's because they must be statistically safer than all other intersections because no one has ever been killed or injured in a Michigan Left Turn. Bet the same can be said for Germany. So, I'd like to see a German navigate one of those things.
Here in Ohio the interstate clover leafs are going away. There are still some, but not many.
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