2030 fossil fuel ban costs in the UK

Funny how so many people just ignore mini roundabouts. You really have to pay attention more to the drivers than the roundabout. I can see the minis within the big roundabout and can just imagine drivers short circuiting...brake screech, load noise, irate drivers....

Onder said:

Funny how so many people just ignore mini roundabouts. You really have to pay attention more to the drivers than the roundabout. I can see the minis within the big roundabout and can just imagine drivers short circuiting...brake screech, load noise, irate drivers....

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The trouble with that magic roundabout is it makes you feel you are heading into oncoming traffic
Nobody knows who has the right of way ,the volume of traffic makes the road markings unclear

The one in Swindon is the worst ever IMO. Cars flying at you from all angles. With combination of stunned visitors not knowing what to do and hesitating, and familiar locals blasting through the short cuts, it’s amazing there’s not more accidents !

Fast Eddie said:

The one in Swindon is the worst ever IMO. Cars flying at you from all angles. With combination of stunned visitors not knowing what to do and hesitating, and familiar locals blasting through the short cuts, it’s amazing there’s not more accidents !

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Looks awful!

baz said:

Looks awful!

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It is !

Fast Eddie said:

It is !

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Designed by Frank & not American friendly

I think I understand the concept of 'magic roundabouts', it avoids traffic having to drive e.g. 270 degrees clockwise around the roundabout if an array of mini roundabouts means traffic can go 90 degrees anti clockwise. Which is good where several large roads meet, as in Hemel Hempstead or Swindon. The difficulty, as mentioned, is drivers new to the area knowing how to navigate around it.

Cant help thinking of Jasper Carrot's take on Magic Roundabouts though.

The Stack



Malfunction Junction

When I moved to Germany, the driving class and testing focused a lot of time and questions on two things: circles (roundabouts) and priority roads. Good thing - Americans generally don't understand how to behave at circles, and who ever heard of priority roads (a great concept). I have to admit through, when I first drove in Scotland, the circles that were just uncontrolled crossing streets with a small circle painted in the middle of the intersection were confusing! I just yielded to everyone and tried to stay on the correct side of the road.

marshg246 said:

When I moved to Germany, the driving class and testing focused a lot of time and questions on two things: circles (roundabouts) and priority roads. Good thing - Americans generally don't understand how to behave at circles, and who ever heard of priority roads (a great concept). I have to admit through, when I first drove in Scotland, the circles that were just uncontrolled crossing streets with a small circle painted in the middle of the intersection were confusing! I just yielded to everyone and tried to stay on the correct side of the road.

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When driving in foreign countries (which I do frequently) I always drive by the mantra ‘if in doubt, give way’.

It doesn’t add any meaningful time to a journey, and it’s kept me out of trouble (so far).

TomU said:

California are wackos (north and south). Have they banned 2 stroke engines. That's what needs banning

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Pretty sure it's the "ANTIS" that should be banned.

If I remember correctly (pretty iffy) back in the day Kawasaki race bikes were bright green, thereby being Ahead of Its Time. One would think you could , at least at a distance, appear to be on The Bandwagon and not riding a Antisocial Triggering Device.
Of course we all understand that you have purchased Social Credit Indulgences to allow Parade Use Only of that filthy thing.

Fairfax Circle, VA

This used to be a plain circle but now is convoluted. Notice the crosswalks, stop lines, pass thru, bypass, business entrances, etc. I definitely would not ride a bike through it!

marshg246 said:

Fairfax Circle, VA

This used to be a plain circle but now is convoluted. Notice the crosswalks, stop lines, pass thru, bypass, business entrances, etc. I definitely would not ride a bike through it!

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Looks like the trees were strategically placed so the people in the unnecessary drive through can't see the traffic in the circle approaching from their right. That took some planing.

rweb said:

Looks like the trees were strategically placed so the people in the unnecessary drive through can't see the traffic in the circle approaching from their right. That took some planing.

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It did. That’s to make sure you stop at the stop sign. If you could see, you’d be less likely to stop.

Thats part of the problem with the one I mentioned above, you can see too much. And if you’re not used to it, your brain struggles to differentiate between what it can see and what it needs to see. Kinda feels like you‘re in a WW2 dog fight !

Fast Eddie said:

It did. That’s to make sure you stop at the stop sign. If you could see, you’d be less likely to stop.

Thats part of the problem with the one I mentioned above, you can see too much. And if you’re not used to it, your brain struggles to differentiate between what it can see and what it needs to see. Kinda feels like you‘re in a WW2 dog fight !

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I can remember being told about an open barrier railway crossing where trees lined the road right up to the crossing
This made people approach the crossing carefully and stop
Health and safety decided it was dangerous so the trees were cut down
Now people could see way up the track each way and see if a train was approaching with some deciding they can make it before the train
With the inevitable misjudgment and the crossing became an accident black spot

There was an experiment done on this in Canada.

People would drive ‘almost’ too fast up to barrier-less crossings, so they JUST had time to stop if they saw a train as they left the tree line.

The experiment was to cut down the tress several yards further from the line.

Now, in theory, people had much more time to see, so could brake much more gently and safely, so it should be much safer.

But actually people just went faster, negating all the theoretical safety advantages.

It’s all down to what psychologists call our “risk compensation factor”.

Basically, we all have an internal, sub conscious way of balancing the risks vs benefits. Some much more risk averse than others.

This has an effect whereby safety features stop being safety features.

Example: pedestrians and cyclists become far more reckless when inner city speed limits are set at 20mph, this is because they just don’t feel in danger when stepping into a road. Divers also concentrate far less at 20mph cos the brain just doesn’t deem it necessary.

Perhaps the most famous example is "Tullock's spike" which is well worth Googling. This is more true than ever now, I firmly believe there is a direct correlation between the excellent safety features in modern cars and the deteriorating driving standards. People simply feel too safe to feel the need to concentrate as much as they used to.

Another similar example was a road in south London I believe
It had an extremely high accident rate
When it was looked into they found there was just too much signage on the road
When this was removed the accident rate fell

I looked at that big Virginian roundabout and the first this I noticed was the gigantic width of each lane. In fact, the whole roundabout is huge. With such an investment would it not be safer to put in underpasses for the peds?