Musings on Traffic

[c9]

A letter to the editor in the Herald today, not written by gueny, reminded me that the Armdale Rotary (a.k.a. weirdest traffic circle on Earth) is changing its rules. It will be acting like most other rotaries, rather than the surreal, prisoners'-dilemma-esque yield-and-proceed arrangement.

First, soma haikus about the Armdale Rotary.

Next, here's someone who claims that he's never, in thirty years, seen a single accident on the Rotary. I only used it once every couple months over four years and I've seen a couple!

Apparently, rotaries merge-on-entry, whereas roundabouts yield-on-entry. The things you learn when you're supposed to be working.

Finally, here's a fun page that the Regional Government of Waterloo put together. We're getting roundabouts here, and while it's not obvious, I'm sure everyone's in total shock over it. At least, that would be the traditional Maritimer approach. :) There are even ads on the buses telling people about them. Anyway, on this page there are Flash demos of how you're supposed to act in a roundabout! What fun.

Comments

[disasternat.livejournal.com]

the only problem with the change in design is that the Armdale Rotary has five entrances, whereas a traditional round-about has four... also the Roundabout idea is doomed to fail based soley on the fact that its not the Rotary itself that is the problem, but rather the arterial roads.. Quinpool Rod, Chebucto Rd, St. Margaret's Bay Rd. Herring Cove Rd and Joseph Howe Drive.

The Herring Cove and St. Margaret's Bay Rds are two roads which cannot handle the amount of traffic coming in and out of them on a daily basis... which means in order to ideally fix the problem with traffic problems thats all teh change is really for - not stopping accidents cause they will happen in the new configuration - is to develop a development plan for the area directly affected by the Herring Cove and St. Margaret's Bay Rds. However the City being in total wisdom has neglected and is allowing more and more condos and high rise apartment buildings to be built on arterial roads that can't handle it.. and hence the bottle neck that is the Armdale Rotary.

[disasternat.livejournal.com]

I think that I should add that part of the Armdale Rotary was part of my Municipal district, so I had to deal with it a lot in the area surrounding it and I read quite a bit on it.

The new configuration will not cut down on traffic jams which currently occur in and around the rotary. Also, the Province of Nova Scotia as part of its driver training course ensures that everyone who is able to obtain a license in Nova Scotia knows how to drive through a rotary - its part of the test, you must know how to inorder to gain the ability to drive in Nova Scotia.. so there really isn't any excuse why the rotary is such a problem.. 99% of the problem is myth, the rest is caused by ignorance and stupity!

I am against spending millions of dollars changing it, creating another 'educational program' and paying consultants... Its a waste of money which will not solve the problem... a problem in HRM that is greater than a mere rotary at the head of the arm. The problem is the urban sprawl currently taking place in Clayton Park West, Spryfield and other areas behind penninsular Halifax... SPRAWL being a word one councillor said, "let's agree to never use that word again because it is bad, and It makes me uncomfortable." if you have people running a city that are afraid to use a word because it scares them, then obviously you have a city council that is in denial of the fact that URBAN SPRAWL exists.


Alright, I'm leaving

[x-23.livejournal.com]

That man must be driving at night all by himself or doesn't read the paper or listen to the news. There is normally a fender bender or some sort of traffic incident on that damn thing.

Why don't they just get rid of the rotary all together and make it one huge intersection. Make it similar to the Windsor Street Exchange.

[cap-hill-latte.livejournal.com]

I hate rotaries/roundabouts. When I was in the UK last fall we drove around a ton of them and I had a small panic attack from the passenger seat nearly every time. I don't think that I've ever actually driven around one myself (are there any anywhere else in Ontario?) except for those little traffic control ones that replace stop signs on small streets. There is one on the corner by my apartment which around which I usually make an illegal left turn because making a legal left turn puts you at a weird angle to the street you're trying to turn on to - I have a feeling that this is going to result in my first traffic ticket.

[c9.livejournal.com]

In Ottawa, at the Experimental Farm, for one.

[cap-hill-latte.livejournal.com]

Any traffic construct that requires this much instruction (http://www.region.waterloo.on.ca/web/Region.nsf/HowToUse?OpenPage#) can not be a good thing. Do the bus ads have that much text? I'd worry that people reading the sides of busses would cause more accidents/traffic than the roundabouts will fix.

[jdhorner.livejournal.com]

LOL.

i grew up with traffic circles in Jersey, as they're called. i think they're great AND efficient... as long as people know how to use them. also, it really should be yield-on-entry vs. merge. at least, that's how we did it.

[c9.livejournal.com]

It's OK, nobody in KW thinks the buses even exist except for the poor, the freaks, Cam, Vinny, and halfwitted. It's sad.

[simplisticton.livejournal.com]

Just reading that gave me a minor panic attack. Yeesh.

[nihilicious.livejournal.com]

I can't believe you still read the letter to the Herald! You've escaped, don't look back.