13 April 2005

Roundabout woes - replace the defective drivers, not the roundabouts

| johnboy
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The Canberra Times is weighing into the great roundabout stoush of 2005. It seems a very great number of accidents in the ACT are at our roundabouts.

Personally I think they’re great. They allow very smooth traffic flow at very low cost.

My problem is the sub-optimal drivers who, despite a requirement to be capable of managing it, are too stupid to think the two moves ahead which make the things work. I nearly got cleaned up by a moron on Parkes Way not 20 minutes ago myself.

I propose that rather than bugger up our roads at great expense in removing our roundabouts we instead take another route.

Police the traffic around the roundabouts and take people who can’t use them off the roads. I suspect they’re the same people who make crap TV commercially viable and would like to see them removed from the gene pool, but that’s too much to ask.

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Mike, all roundabouts are not equal. No-one is questioning that more accidents occur on the large high speed roundabouts.

My point is that they are safe if everyone understands how to use them, and is capable of doing so. They become unsafe when people ignorant of the road rules mingle with the rest of the population.

I would argue that these dangerous folk are time-bombs waiting to go off and we’d be well served removing them from the rest of our road system too.

If it’s bad drivers then accidents should be evenly distributed across all roundabouts in Canberra. Driving in circle on a two lane road watching for the brain dead who are not in the correct lane will produce accidents.

i utterly despise people who do not indicate on roundabouts (This is a road rule I actually adhere to…) – especially if it means I may have to stop to work out what the fuck they are doing.

Kings Ave roundabout was great until they started the road work. I’ve never seen such a lineup of cars trying to turn right from the left hand lane! What I never understand is that a great portion of those in the right hand left go straight anyway, so why not make it a right hand only lane and force them into the left lane? mind you, the amount of people who get to an empty roundabout and stop to then check the traffic condidtions is beginning to shit me.

i thought that all cars in canberra had their indicators removed by the dickson motor vehicle inspectors. you rarely see them in use.

i love roundabouts, especially overtaking 82 lasers.

i dislike those who TRY and overtake, but they havent got enough cc’s under the hood and then try and merge with me.

and i still think recumbent bicyclists should be rounded up and thrashed.

i saw one outside lurkergals building the other day.

Yep, well, if they’d built Will Slim & Gundaroo Drv as dual carriageways in the first place then you wouldn’t have the problem of getting stuck behind those 82 lasers doing 60 in an 80 zone. Thus, you wouldn’t NEED to use the roundabouts as overtaking zones (and they ARE the only opportunities to get past).

Spiny, indicating when leaving roundabouts is already law. It was introduced a couple of years ago. Problem is most people here don’t know about it (except for NSW where they had an education campaign before the new rules were introduced).

I’ve nearly been t-boned twice on the King’s Ave roundabout – not my fault either. I’ve seen people trying to turn right from the left lane on that roundabout many times.

William Slim/Gundaroo Drives are like a fucking obstacle course – and every roundabout presents an overtaking opportunity.

i’M in favour of roundabouts too – especially the smaller ones. Why stop at lights when you dont’ have to.
that said, something needs doing about the one at Defence/KingsAve. With three quarters of the traffic coming into it from a major road, and one quarter driving in cold cars, with their minds on work, straight out of their car park, there is bound to be trouble.

I’m the roundabout planning master. My plan is so advanced, I go straight through both lanes in as straight a line as possible to minimise the slow down.

I bet you hate people like me dontcha? If it’s any consolation, I haven’t watched TV since Little Britian stopped and they shifted Galactica back to ten fucking thrity.

Spiny-Parrot8:34 pm 13 Apr 05

Roundabouts EASY change the rules so that drivers only indicate when leaving. No more confusion.
How hard are they any way go in in the correct lane and by magic you come out in the correct lane.
Not rocket science.

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