Traffic Circles are Less Conflicted

Americans will put up with anything provided it doesn't block traffic.
~Dan Rather

Love or hate them, it turns out that there IS a good reason for putting traffic circles where traffic lights and intersections were. It is safer! Far less collision points - 32 in a standard intersection v 8 in a circle.

Not to mention pedestrians. Obviously, it would be far safer to walk through a traffic circle than to cross the street traditional style!

These circles are popping up all over the place. Here is a nearby double/triple circle (dubbed the "circles of death" by my nephew).

My son likes the traffic circles. He finds them less challenging or dangerous than a merge onto the highway from the left. He also learned traffic circle rules and how to navigate them in Driver Training. Most of us did not, because there were no bloody traffic circles when we learned how to drive!

If you remember nothing else, remember this one important thing: YOU ONLY YIELD TO ENTER THE CIRCLE. Once you are in, everyone (in a perfect universe) yields to you.

Don't be embarrassed if you don't yet know traffic circle etiquette, but please do enlighten yourself about How to Drive in a Traffic Circle.

Today's note is a quiz: At which collision point do you think that stupid person who lacks basic driving skills hit my car?

Something else I learned while learning about the collision points in traffic circles: The 5 smaller roundabouts (a.k.a. traffic circles) leading to a large central roundabout in Swindon  (England) is referred to as the "Magic Roundabout".