}

Sunday, November 17, 2013

The roundabout wins


In the video above, the Mythbusters looked at the American 4-way stop v. the roundabout to see which was more efficient at moving traffic. Yes, there is a clear winner.

When I first started driving in New Zealand, I found roundabouts challenging—I’d never encountered them before, though before I left, Chicago was starting to introduce some on a few residential streets. Now, I find them an incredibly easy way to get around and I prefer them to traffic lights/stop signs.

I’ve had some Americans tell me that they can’t imagine how they could ever adapt to roundabouts, but I can attest to the fact that it’s surprisingly easy. However, I don’t like BIG roundabouts, ones controlling three or more roads. But for two roads, I think they’re pretty much ideal.

The YouTube description says this “only Aired in Australia on SBS One, August 3, 2013”, but I hope that’s not true: It would be a shame if Americans never got to see it and learn that sometimes people in other parts of the word do things better.

2 comments:

rogerogreen said...

They give me the hiccups. There are three, pretty much in a row, on a local road.

Arthur (AmeriNZ) said...

The funny thing is, while I'm used to them—and quite like them—in New Zealand, I think I'd have the vapours if I tried to drive through one in the US because of driving on the other side of the road.