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“LONG LIVE THE ROUNDABOUT!”
I heard your rant on the Rush Limbaugh program this afternoon regarding roundabouts. Heeding your call for highway engineers to comment, here I am. (I will add the caveat that my disagreement from you may be a bit of intellectual immaturity, seeing as I am only a 25 year old highway engineer, but bear with me.)
I think roundabouts are a great idea where appropriate and not the sign of the end of America. Here is why:
1. Roundabouts provide better service to low volume intersections than signalization, and provide more safety. This is because a roundabout is always moving. With a signal, there is always a delay (you have to stop in one direction or another). If there is no traffic at a roundabout, you can mosey on through. Us traffic engineers measure a lot of our success by the amount of delay a driver experiences at an intersection, and this is why roundabouts on low volume scenarios are becoming more favorable.
2. There is little to no recurring cost at a roundabout, whereas at a signal you have to pay for electricity and the maintenance of electrical components (controllers aren't cheap).
3. From a philosophical perspective, roundabouts provide more liberty than a signalized intersection. There is more freedom in a roundabout. On a side note, countries that have more oppressive governments tend to have more relaxed traffic laws than their less-oppressive counterparts. (See China vs. USA.)
Also, make sure you aren't confusing roundabouts with traffic circles. Traffic circles, which were really started in the United States, are outdated and don't work well. We built a lot of them, then England started building a lot of them; we phased them out for signalized intersections, and England adapted them into roundabouts. Now we are moving more towards roundabouts for reasons of safety, maintenance and efficiency, but they do have their limitations (they don't work well with high volume roadways). But for a lot of instances, especially in rural areas or suburbs, they work better than signals or four-way stops.
Long live the roundabout!
Alan Davis
MARK SAYS: I think that's what Obama would call a false choice. I'm not especially in favor of traffic lights, either. Intersection-wise, I'm a disciple of the Dutch highway engineer Hans Monderman, not only for traffic reasons but also for citizen-building and national security. See pages 186 and 187 of America Alone.
THE ROUNDABOUT TO SERFDOM
Thank you for your little rant about roundabouts on Rush today. Our family has been puzzled why they suddenly have sprung up all over the country; we assumed it was the Road Engineers Convention and then the government threatened to withhold road funds if each state didn't produce the required number. We all hate them and some members of my family will actually drive several miles out of their way to avoid them! So thanks so much for being the first person who I have heard complain about them at a national level because they have appeared like an alien invasion.
Of course, roundabouts are a relatively insignificant problem in the grand scheme of things, but they do have a whiff of federal intrusion and ineptitude.
Karen Troupis
THE SPAWN OF STIMULUS?
Thank you for the New London, NH roundabout comment on Rush. Before they built the fiasco, I called the local radio station to tell them what a waste it was, and a town official then came on the station several days later to defend the project. He commented that if we did not take the money, someone else would’ve. (I told them this was typical of wasteful government.)
A friend of mine who is a civil engineer laughed at the project. He commented that roundabouts are rare because of the congestion, confusion and accidents they cause. He also said that this type of project gets recycled through the civil engineer community to capture project dollars.
Apparently they wanted the roundabout to slow traffic. New London has many older folks who drive slow anyway, but I bet there have been more accidents with this ox-cart design. The job cost $750,000.00. What a waste.
Mike Juneau
Newport, New Hampshire
NOT IN KANSAS ANYMORE
Thank you, thank you, thank you, for your comments on roundabouts. Our family has been disgusted for some time as we have noticed them cropping up all over the country. Recently, when in Kansas, we entered the highway via roundabout. Of course, there was no one in sight-- it was Kansas after all-- so my husband drove round and round the roundabout while my five sons yelled, "Yahoo!" That is, of course, what it is appropriate to yell on your EuroKansas roundabouts.
Lori
ONE WAY TO AVOID ROUNDABOUTS
Heard your rant about roundabouts on Rush's show and wanted to tell you a funny roundabout story.
I live on the People's Republic of San Juan Island-- the bluest part of blue Washington state-- and I am a member of our EMS Unit. Back in August I was permitted to ride along with the Seattle Fire Department. They had just purchased a $1.5 million aerial ladder truck with a tiller, or steering unit with its own driver on the rear. The thing was huge; '105 long. We were out for a drill and it was pretty hot, so the lieutenant took us to 7-11 for a Slurpee break.
I don't know how familiar you are with Seattle, but it seems all the residential streets have roundabouts. (Really dumb and a lot more expensive than stop signs, but that's what they do in leftist Seattle.) So as we left 7-11, we had to drive this '105 ladder truck through a residential street with the inevitable roundabout. Too make matters worse, parked all along this particular roundabout were Bimmers, Mazda Miatas, etc. There was just no way this truck was going to make it on the paved portion. Furthermore, this roundabout had a veritable farm planted in the middle, complete with cornstalks "as high as an elephant's eye.”
As we approached the roundabout, the driver hesitated while gauging the width and breadth of his behemoth-- as compared to the gap between the Bimmers and the organic veggies. The lieutenant mumbled, “F--- it.” The driver downshifted and over the curb we went. As we cleared the other curb, the driver murmured something about "running over a corn tree” (the biggest, baddest stalk in the bunch). When we got back to the firehouse, everyone was hysterical recounting the tale and wondering what the local farmer was thinking as he tried to figure out what the heck had left the gigantic ruts across his cornfield… except the tiller driver, who said that the “corn tree” went down just as he reached out for an ear.
Steve
San Juan Island, Washington
RAH-RAH-OOH-LA-LA-GAGA FOR STEYN
I have enjoyed your sessions on the Rush show very much over the past months, and have thought there was no possible way to improve upon your scything repartee.
But....
Today during lunch I had you on the radio, and by accident had Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" video came on the TV. It was an experience like no other. There were Lady Gaga's white neoprene-suited dancers cavorting on-screen while you were rolling with the New London New Hampshire Route 11 riff. I suddenly began to feel like I was in some Kerouac scene from a loft on dark drear Delancey Street circa 1949 with William Burroughs just walking in through the door and assorted hangers-on digging the scene. I'm still recovering.
I think a tour is something that might be worth pursuing: New, fresh art at the service of individual freedom and liberty, low taxes, small government, private property, and the unashamed glories of capitalism.
George Dadisman
Morgantown, West Virginia
MARK SAYS: Forget Jay and Conan. You've just invented the first genuinely new format of the 21st century. I'll have my people call Her Ladyship's people and we'll be pitching it to NBC before the day is through.
Thank you for your kind (and unkind) letters from America, Canada, Britain, Australia and around the world. Mark reads all mail, but especially enjoys the vicious ones. Each day Monday to Friday we pick six of the best for our Daily Delivery. So drop a line to Mark's Mailbox, and on Friday if you're chosen to be the one and only Letter of the Week you'll join our roll of winners from four Continents and receive a copy of Mark Steyn From Head To Toe. It would help if you could indicate your city or town, or, at any rate, your state, province or country. If not, at least let us know what planet you're on.
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