No, obviously this is not a photo of a roundabout. It's just a planter in the middle of a local intersection. It is pretty, though, isn't it? See, I like to use my own photos, but I can't afford to just drive to Gaylord or Clare to photograph a roundabout for today's blog post. Actually, this intersection makes for an interesting story, but we'll leave that for another time. So, we all know that real roundabouts are really safe intersections and that they make for great jokes in towns that haven't used them yet. But, besides being about the safest intersections, they're also environmentally friendly and less expensive to run.
Did I say that two of the primary benefits of a roundabout are their environmental friendliness and frugality? Yup, they use no electricity to run signals that they don't need, and they require no maintenance of the nonexistent signals. Here's the other big environmental saver, though: Imagine 24, 000 cars a day traveling though a roundabout that doesn't require those 24,000 cars to stop and go and stop and go and stop and go and,,,, well, you get the picture. Can't say that about an intersection controlled by a stop sign or traffic light can you?
But then, I guess we all know that not everyone chooses to actually stop at the stop signs and stop lights all of the time. I guess they'll lose that bit of freedom in roundabouts and be forced to act a bit more like everyone else in there (predictably). Darn, there go those safety people limiting our personal freedoms to endanger ourselves again.
Be safe.
Are roundabouts safer, statistically? I've been through some in a Detroit suburb, and I always have the feeling that someone (and maybe I will be the one) is going to miscalculate and run into someone else.
ReplyDeleteBut I guess it would be a slower and less damaging hit if it did happen, as opposed to someone broadsiding you at 40 mph as they go through a red light.