Mr. Dearing stated that roundabouts were a form of a circular intersection, |
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which had been around since the dawn of time. They came in all shapes |
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and sizes; they formed pre-eminent focal points for some communities, |
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such as Paris, or they could be tiny and fit into neighborhoods. There |
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were some problems with larger circular intersections because vehicles |
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weaved in like they did on freeways, and in reality that did not work. By |
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the mid-1950’s, circular intersections fell out of favor all over the world, |
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and companies made a lot of money tearing them out. A lot were |
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converted to traditional signalized intersections. In the old way, people |
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using roundabouts would yield to the vehicle on the right, meaning that |
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anyone already in the roundabout had to yield to entering traffic. If people |
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were always letting traffic in and not accommodating the people that were |
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already in and letting them out, traffic got locked up. Folks in England |
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wondered why they did not work, so they put a lot of money into it and |
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figured it out. They had to change the rules of the road - they could not |
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always let traffic in and not accommodate the traffic already circulating. |
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Instead, entering vehicles had to yield to those circulating, and that |
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unlocked a lot of the problems with the old traffic circles. He showed a |
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picture of a traditional roundabout, which had a central island and splitter |
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islands on all approaches to help channelize the traffic. Vehicles were |
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told where they had to yield, and the pedestrians were accommodated. |
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Pedestrians were away from the entry point, and they would typically be |
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one or two cars back from the yield line. He indicated that the modern |
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roundabout worked very well. |
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