Roundabouts and Bicycles???

[Happy Turtle]

How have any of you folks seen vehicular roundbouts done well for bicycle usage and how have you seen them done badly?

[RandomV]

The only one in my town is pretty easy to just ride up/across. Even if you couldn't, it's wide open and easy to see all the way around, so I think you'd be safe. I think the biggest issue would be if the drivers couldn't see you working your way around and then pull out in front of you.

[robcycle]

In Richmond there are five roundabouts that I can think of. Four are for monuments to the civil war, and one is for traffic flow. None work well. It seems like when we left England, we lost that little peice of DNA that makes roundabouts make sense. People have an erratic and unsafe way of navigating them in cars, and on a bike, well ... I just go ninja comando and assume no one sees me and act accordingly. Not something I would recomend for anyone else, but ... :rolleyes:

-Rob.

[squirrl_poker]

Colombus Circle in NYC is the busiest roundabout I've seen that sees regular bicycle traffic. It's definitiley an example of bikes as traffic, no special treatment there.

The only roundabout in my riding area is too small to be an issue. Though a friend of mine told me a driver gave me a mean look when I rode through it. I, however, was too busy grazing the inside curb.

[monkeyboy]

All of the roundabouts in Australia that I've seen are basically dangerous for bikes. On the way to work last week a cab driver started drifting out in front of me while he was reading a map and talking to his passenger. The fact he needed to give way to me didn't seem to phase him. I gave him an ear full but little good that'll do. Too many near scrapes have taught me that people in motor vehicles are enemy number 1 and that you can never assume they have seen you even when a bright led is shining in their face. Most of my commute to work is on bike tracks and I hate riding on the road because I have no faith in other road users. Do you guys have bike lanes on your roundabouts? This is my face when approaching a roundabout:eek:

[real_ss_budgie]

of course we do mate...adelaide aint much different to melbun.

we have the linear bike path that takes you from the burbs to the city along side the river torrens..no cars.

[Scott G.]

My experience with Roundabouts is that they generally do slow automobile traffic down and are better for bicyclists in general. That being said, please note some important points (may or may not be San Francisco specific):

-I agree with another posters point about some Americans losing the DNA to adequately function within a roundabout. This especially becomes evident on Friday and Saturday nights, under the influence of alcohol, when cars mysteriously end up in the fountains, running over the concrete planters, and into the gardens at the center.:eek:

-There are also always those cyclists who feel a roundabout does not apply to them and take the straight line through them; interestingly enought they also seem to be riding fixed gear/no brake bikes, no helmets, and Dickies...is there some correlation here I am missing:confused:

[bdee]

-There are also always those cyclists who feel a roundabout does not apply to them and take the straight line through them; interestingly enought they also seem to be riding fixed gear/no brake bikes, no helmets, and Dickies...is there some correlation here I am missing:confused:

Haha, looking for trouble are we?? Not that I don't agree with that statement to some extent....

[Kamikaze]

Yes I have seen vehicular roundabouts done well for bicycle usage, in Brussels. They were also well made for bus traffic -essentially, the bus lane goes straight through the roundabout, allowing you to use a smaller radius roundabout and still be able to have a bus route. Of course, that requires actually incorporating bus routing and mass transport into traffic design and planning. Freaking commies.

The ones we have in town are fairly ok on a bike. You can either go on the bike trail/sidewalk and go through without entering the roundabout or enter it on a traffic lane, which I've done occasionally without feeling I was about to die.

[Happy Turtle]

Yes I have seen vehicular roundabouts done well for bicycle usage, in Brussels. They were also well made for bus traffic -ehe ones we ave in town are fairly ok on a bike. You can either go on the bike trail/sidewalk and go through without entering the roundabout or enter it on a traffic lane, which I've done occasionally without feeling I was about to die.

Kamikaze, can you recall locations so I can look them on Google Earth?

Thanks.

[tryandgetme]

we've got one here in winnipeg, part of the new riverwalk fancy thinggy. it's single lane, so there's no strangeness about merging left to right to get out. I always act as if no one can see me anyway.

[WunSpeedWunder]

I always act as if no one can see me anyway.

This is the best thing to do when riding on the road,my experience( which includes 5000 odd Km. of foreign touring) indicates that a bike is far too small for the average motorist/BUS driver etc. to see so to assume they dont see you is best,I have found after every ALMOST near death experience the first words out of the mouth of the motorist will always be ..."I DIDN'T SEE YOU!!!!" this is because they generally aren't looking for a bicycle and we will always come off second best,so this is why you will see me riding in the middle of the kerbside lane when on the road ,to make it as easy as I can for the blind mofo's to see me!!!:eek:

[robcycle]

-There are also always those cyclists who feel a roundabout does not apply to them and take the straight line through them; interestingly enought they also seem to be riding fixed gear/no brake bikes, no helmets, and Dickies...is there some correlation here I am missing:confused:
Point 1: That's called "apexing" a turn, bub :p

Point 2: Wow, a correlation betoween people who blatantly ignore general safety items (i.e.- helmet and brakes) that also ignore "safe" traffic laws ... I bet you could even extrapolate it further to people who think that they are "cool" :rolleyes: :p

-Rob.

[Scott G.]

Point 2: Wow, a correlation betoween people who blatantly ignore general safety items (i.e.- helmet and brakes) that also ignore "safe" traffic laws ... I bet you could even extrapolate it further to people who think that they are "cool" :rolleyes: :p

-Rob.

Actually I think the proper term may be Hip (although hip may have passed this group on for the Iphone and hybrid car genre:

[monkeyboy]

No brakes no b:D

[monkeyboy]

No brakes no brains:D
sorry bout that touchy little trigger finger

[FishMan]

How have any of you folks seen vehicular roundbouts done well for bicycle usage and how have you seen them done badly?

My first experiences with round-a-bouts was during a trip over the pond. These things were totally terrifying to my wife and I as we toured around northern England and Scotland. First of all, we (and all the other traffic) were on the wrong (left) side of the road, so it got very confusing as to which lane we were supposed to exit onto, we really had to think about it every time, which makes the experience difficult. Second, often we would be on a nice country road and it would enter a round-a-bout with a fairly busy highway, so suddenly we are going around a turn with all sorts of streets entering the turn along with all the fast moving traffic from the busy highway! The third thing that sucks about them is that you constantly have to be scanning over your shoulder and forward to the right (or left in GB!) for traffic over taking you and entering the round-a-bout. There are just too many directions for cars to come at you. Basically the whole experience was just sensory overload. To this day I get nervous entering those things, even in a car.

To answer your question, there are a few round-a-bouts here in Madison that I sometimes go through. I think the best ones are the ones with the small diameter. This creates a fairly tight turning radius and cars can only go so fast in a turn, which means the auto traffic is slowed down to about the same speed as a bike. When you have the ability to not only slow down, but also out-accelerate a car in order to avoid a potential incident, it feels a lot safer.

[davkatreb]

No brakes no brains
Speak for yourself. When I ride fixed my legs are my brakes.

[tryandgetme]

leg brakes are a brake. (see the word brakes in the term leg brakes)

[monkeyboy]

I shoulda said no brakes no brains in my humble opinion. :D

[sjsielen]

in Milwaukee, they have recently added some new roundabouts that definately slow traffic down coming off a long bridge and makes it quite bike friendly. take a look at this video for an example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRiXU3Wbi5A

roundabout comes in at about 6:38

[Ripp]

The wise folks in charge of my local gov't are currently building a roundabout in downtown, wait, they passed a resolution, uptown Normal, right at the point where the local rail trail intersects a semi-major road. Sounds like a trainwreck to me but I'll wait to pass judgement till I ride the finished product. BTW this is less than a mile from my house and is my primary route for Cycle commuting so I hope it turns out well!