Roads: Roundabouts

[innsertnamehere]

Yield markings are now in the ontario handbook for road design - and some municipalities have started to implement them now. I know Ottawa has them all over, and can think of this example in Uxbridge off the top of my head:

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[Admiral Beez]

When the "Driver's Handbook" was free, I would always pick one up when renewing my family's license plates. They now charge for them. The result is updates and and refreshers are not available in hardcopy. We have to go online to check them out, which many do not.

With online access, why need a hard cover?

 

[Admiral Beez]

I never received any training on roundabouts, but quickly figured them when driving both in UK and mainland Europe. How hard can it be. If you're entering you yield to anyone already in the roundabout. If it's a two lane roundabout, move to the centre lane unless you're exiting at the next immediate exit. Signal when you're moving from the centre to the outside lane and when about to exit the roundabout.

Now the combo ones might be too much for the average Torontonian.

 

[lenaitch]

I never received any training on roundabouts, but quickly figured them when driving both in UK and mainland Europe. How hard can it be. If you're entering you yield to anyone already in the roundabout. If it's a two lane roundabout, move to the centre lane unless you're exiting at the next immediate exit. Signal when you're moving from the centre to the outside lane and when about to exit the roundabout.

Now the combo ones might be too much for the average Torontonian.

Wow. Can you imagine one of these in the GTA? I'd buy a spectator seat.

 

[11th]

I never received any training on roundabouts, but quickly figured them when driving both in UK and mainland Europe. How hard can it be. If you're entering you yield to anyone already in the roundabout. If it's a two lane roundabout, move to the centre lane unless you're exiting at the next immediate exit. Signal when you're moving from the centre to the outside lane and when about to exit the roundabout.

Now the combo ones might be too much for the average Torontonian.

There is something similar down at Buffalo.

 

[W. K. Lis]

With roundabouts, generally drivers are FORCED to slow down.

 

[lead82]

We need more of them in the GTA and Ontario. Rural areas where we have country roads and traffic lights are just non-sensical when a simple round-about would have done the job. In the city, I'd get rid of all 4-way stop signs and replace them with roundabouts in the residential areas. That plus a notion of primary/secondary/tertiary roads so that we don't have the non-sense of all-way stops on through streets like Davisville/Chaplin where traffic is created due to all-way stops almost every block.

 

[reteequa]

We need more of them in the GTA and Ontario. Rural areas where we have country roads and traffic lights are just non-sensical when a simple round-about would have done the job. In the city, I'd get rid of all 4-way stop signs and replace them with roundabouts in the residential areas. That plus a notion of primary/secondary/tertiary roads so that we don't have the non-sense of all-way stops on through streets like Davisville/Chaplin where traffic is created due to all-way stops almost every block.

They have a bunch where rural Milton meets suburban Milton and I think they work great. The only issue will be when Milton expands to the other side of the road they will be a mess.

 

[Admiral Beez]

In the city, I'd get rid of all 4-way stop signs and replace them with roundabouts in the residential areas. That plus a notion of primary/secondary/tertiary roads so that we don't have the non-sense of all-way stops on through streets like Davisville/Chaplin where traffic is created due to all-way stops almost every block.

Driving home from Lakeshore to my place at Parliament and Carlton is a dog's breakfast of uncoordinated traffic lights. Roundabouts at Parliament and Lakeshore, Adelaide and Richmond, plus Gerrard and Parliament would help. You can still have signaled pedestrian crossings.

Over the 3 km from Lakeshore to Castlefrank Stn. up Parliament you must pass thirteen traffic lights:

Mill St.
Front St.
King St.
Adelaide St.
Richmond St.
Queen St.
Shuter St.
Dundas St.
Gerrard St.
Carlton St.
Winchester St.
Wellesley St.
Bloor St.

In my decades plus experience driving this route I have to believe that the traffic lights, especially those from Lakeshore to Richmond are intentionally timed to catch you on the red.

 

[robmausser]

Wow. Can you imagine one of these in the GTA? I'd buy a spectator seat.

Especially if the roundabouts required you to suddenly switch to left-sided driving

 

[crs1026]

My favourite is near the airport in Victoria BC. I always look forward to figuring this out.

- Paul

 

[robmausser]

 

[lenaitch]

We need more of them in the GTA and Ontario. Rural areas where we have country roads and traffic lights are just non-sensical when a simple round-about would have done the job. In the city, I'd get rid of all 4-way stop signs and replace them with roundabouts in the residential areas. That plus a notion of primary/secondary/tertiary roads so that we don't have the non-sense of all-way stops on through streets like Davisville/Chaplin where traffic is created due to all-way stops almost every block.

I'm not familiar with the engineering and design but I would imagine traffic circles require more real estate than traditional intersections. Perhaps just some open land expropriation in rural areas (perhaps not depending on property lines), but probably a bit more problematic in urban areas.

Davisville Ave & Chaplin Crescent · Toronto, ON M4S 1Z5, Canada

Intersection

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[savevp]

I'm not familiar with the engineering and design but I would imagine traffic circles require more real estate than traditional intersections. Perhaps just some open land expropriation in rural areas (perhaps not depending on property lines), but probably a bit more problematic in urban areas.

In many cases in the UK, you see a roundabout with simply a small white dot painted in the centre, as opposed to a physical middle. Functionally, a cone or a little flasher in the middle of most intersections, with the appropriate arrows, would work fine for small intersections.

 

[innsertnamehere]

Roundabouts do indeed take more land.

Toronto does have a small handful of roundabouts in a few neighbourhoods.

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Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

www.google.ca