I'm not sold, yet, on roundabouts improving safety over four-way stops. Pedestrians at regular intersections are pretty easy to spot. But when you come up to a typical roundabout, the road is twisting a little, you're looking to see what traffic is approaching the roundabout, and the crosswalk is usually right in the area where the road is twisting to line up for roundabout entry.
I don't know that I have any suggestion, though, to make it better other than try to keep pedestrians far enough from the roundabout that drivers can easily focus on them and not be distracted by more moving parts.
The argument that you are only crossing half the road at a time is fairly compelling, though. I guess there's a trade-off there.
Roundabouts where pedestrian traffic is expected should have the zebra crossing set back some meters before the actual roundabout, which makes the pedestrians move perpendicularly to traffic in all cases, where their visibility is higher.
Hahaha. Are you joking? It's somewhat rare in Europe not to have a roundabout like this. They are clearly way better for pedestrians. You only have to cross half the road before you get to a safer place.
Compare this intersection which seems to have been somewhat recently upgraded:
Notice that there is also now a bend in the road so a car physically has to slow down to navigate it, unlike miles of straight traffic light intersections.
rootusrootus|4 years ago
I don't know that I have any suggestion, though, to make it better other than try to keep pedestrians far enough from the roundabout that drivers can easily focus on them and not be distracted by more moving parts.
The argument that you are only crossing half the road at a time is fairly compelling, though. I guess there's a trade-off there.
estebank|4 years ago
https://www.craftontull.com/insights/insight_posts/view/63/p...
michael1999|4 years ago
watwut|4 years ago
timidiceball|4 years ago
martinald|4 years ago
Compare this intersection which seems to have been somewhat recently upgraded:
From https://www.google.com/maps/@39.9679819,-86.1403832,3a,75y,2...
To
https://www.google.com/maps/@39.9679454,-86.1403837,3a,75y,2...
Notice that there is also now a bend in the road so a car physically has to slow down to navigate it, unlike miles of straight traffic light intersections.