Why are more roundabouts being put in across California's roadways? 

I lived in Carmel, Indiana, and the city is in an ongoing program to install roundabouts on all of its major intersections. They currently have completed construction on over 150 of them. They slow down traffic through the intersection, making them safer than the other intersections they save time and gasoline because they don't cause a bunch of cars to be sitting idle, waiting for the light to change colors. I loved driving in Carmel with all the roundabouts. My trips across town were cut in half. My route from my house to the church I attend took me on two busy roads with about 8 traffic signals. It took me about a half hour to drive it. As Carmel put more and more of those roundabouts in, I started driving an alternative route to church. It was not as direct a route and may be longer in mileage, but it cut my travel time in half. I am a very big supporter of using roundabouts at all intersections. Even at interchanges where diverging diamonds are replacing diamond interchanges, Carmel uses bowtie roundabouts or two roundabouts, eliminating the traffic signals still required by the diverging diamond interchange. It still seems to be a better way to move the traffic through the interchange.

Driving in Europe I love them. No stop and go. Saves time and gas.

I strongly disliked the idea of roundabouts, until I got t-boned at a regular traffic-light controlled intersection. I will admit now that they do reduce traffic fatalities, and if the intersection I got t-boned at had had a roundabout, I would not have wound up in the hospital after the other driver ran the redlight.

Carmel Indiana has about 200 roundabouts with more coming.

00:45 "invented about 1970 or so" - no, they've been around much longer than that although their design wasn't standardised in the UK until 1966. Even in Australia I recall one at Toongabbie in western Sydney that existed by 1970.

Traffic calming circles in neighborhood streets are not Modern Roundabouts

I live in small town Tracy and we are full of roundabouts. For the size of the town vs the amount of people it seems to make a difference.

Because traffic circles (roundabouts) are safer.

The first intersection she compared with the collision data is not a roundabout. It is simply a 'traffic calming' device installed in the center of an existing intersection. In the same category as speed bumps and channeling devices.

Seeing US citizens discovering roundabouts today and loving them more and more is like seeing postcommunist East Europeans discovering democracy and the new freedom :D

I’d prefer these over traffic lights. Turning across traffic is downright scary in major intersections, let alone sitting for long periods of time on red lights.

Roundabouts should be preached throughout USA and Canada lots of stubborn drivers who are idiots at the same time

I don’t mind roundabouts especially the ones in my neighborhood that have recently been installed due to high speed drivers. It slows the driver down and also makes the driver visibly aware of their surroundings. Think about kids playing in a residential area and you have regular cross intersections people tend to fly right through them. Roundabouts they’re forced to slow down.

been in europe for decades and little stopping except idiots here cant figure out the 2 lane roundabouts where no stopping

This roundabout you compared it to is often called a neighborhood traffic circle, and in this case (as seen in the video) it also has stop signs.

Roundabouts are a bit more expensive to install, but less expensive to operate than an intersection with an illuminated semaphore control.

0:37 the roundabout was initially the traffic circle which was invented in the USA and came about before the traffic light

Leave it to California to make a roundabout 14 times more expensive than a traffic light intersection.

While I appreciate the macro stats, and have no large scale data with which to counter, from my experience with a small neighborhood round-about installed near to where I live, some drivers do barrel through (over the small curb of the circle) and in rare cases other drivers cut the corner and GO LEFT (Clockwise) against the flow! To be fair, and to my amazement, no driver has hit the boulders in the center of the round-about and no car collisions have occurred. On the other hand, there have been many altercations including horn honks and "flippin' the birds" that disturb the otherwise peaceful surrounds. Clearly it is the drivers causing the problems, but these smaller round-abouts seem to bring out the worst in some drivers.

Roundabouts are great for driving. Less great for cyclists and pedestrians unless the intersection is also designed with them in mind which Caltrans doesn't do. Because Caltrans only cares about motor vehicle drivers and other Californians don't matter.

3;20 i can bet it was orginally Szajkowski as "Szaj" is prenounced exacly like "shy"

The G and 25th intersection is not a roundabout. It is a two way stop with a circular island in the middle. Roundabouts don't have stop signs, and Roundabouts require ALL directions to YIELD. Also, rotaries are not Roundabouts either.

The small slow single lan roundabout intersection shown at the beginning of this video is a sensible solution to replace all way stop controlled intersection. It's still bike able. There are no implicit pedestrian crossing at roundabouts as there are at stop sign controlled or traffic light controlled intersections. Pedestrian crossing have to be explicitly marked. It is highway design doctrine that a roundabout is detrimental to traffic flow of the primary road over a well implemented traffic light controlled intersection. Where a roundabout might process traffic better than a traffic light is when both roads are at about the same traffic volume and there is a lot of interchange traffic. That is atypical. It being implemented it should be done with a rotary which are safer and faster. Multi-lane roundabouts are dangerous with increased speed more typical of a rotary with that traffic condition actually calling for rotary. Once a roundabout is above a designed operating speed of 15 mph it is no longer behaving like a roundabout. Such so called roundabouts are likely not included in roundabout statistics. Most new so called roundabout in the US have designed operating speeds above 15 mph and are not roundabouts and don't have the large diameter road circles of a rotary that enable proper merging behavior. All way stop controlled intersection in neighborhoods are frequently mis used to do so called traffic calming which is where there are traffic lane disruption intentionally to slow traffic down. What takes place where traffic calming appears to have worked is not that traffic has been slowed down, but that traffic has been reduced by going somewhere else. For a neighborhood discouraging through traffic that has been a design objective as far back as the 1960s. In the USA non highway designers don't look at the fine details and are likely choosing fast multi-lane roundabouts psychologically for traffic calming. They slow traffic on the primary road that would in a neighborhood cause passing through traffic to choose a different route. On arterial roads multi-lane roundabouts used instead of a traffic light controlled intersection reduce traffic through put, make drivers hyper focus which means they may not notice pedestrians or cyclists, don't allow traffic metering such as synchronized traffic lights and make drivers fight to get through them along with disorientation that takes place after more than couple roundabouts near each other. Multi-lane roundabouts are not safer than traffic light controlled intersections. A major arterial road Mt. Comfort Road with 300 N. Mt Comfort Indiana had its traffic light controlled intersection replaced with a multi-lane roundabout where it shortly experienced its first fatal crash in living memory. www.google.com/maps/@39.8272393,-85.9148965,1636m/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en&entry=ttu. That roundabout acts as a traffic calming device causing traffic to switch over to using 700 W. If it has been an improvement for through traffic which is the objective that would not have happened. Mt. Comfort road has a full lane shoulder typically for cycling. I feel very exposed and not noticed when riding my bicycle through that roundabout! People are hyper focusing on just a few points unable to be attentive to traffic. It looks unsafe, it feels unsafe, its slower for through traffic, it deters through traffic and its caused death over the traffic light that was there before. If implementing a traffic circle for such a situation it should be a rotary that is much larger in diameter. This is a main trucking area with a medium sized truck stop with the area being a huge warehouse area served by trucks. The roundabout provides a nice convenient turn around for Semi's.

I love roundabouts! Wish there was more. Much better than standard intersections.

at 2:50 at such grid area it seems stupid to put a roundabout, you'd be better off just making the road thinner and make an unmarked priority zone, or make some roads priority roads and rest yield not stop signs but why should this amaze me that the US always has to go in some extreme never settle for what's reasonable, let's now have only and only roundabouts I guess lol

How much does a severe car crash with injured or dead cost? And all those minutes waiting for green? And streetlight maintenance? Do your numbers.

This isn't a new concept in California. A very large one was created in 1932 in Long Beach. Known as the Los Alamitos Traffic Circle ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-d2KCIYPPr0Y.html

Traffic calming circles though could be put in most intersections(well, certainly smaller scale ones).

forget roundabouts, the next best thing for freeway interchanges: diverging diamond interchange

You don't need to waste fuel either.

2:10 Talks about safety. Grabs inside of the steering wheel (which makes it very hard to immediately steer back if needed).

What? no, roundabouts were not invented around 1970. Closer to 1670.

This is extremely sesual! good job!

2:50 that isn’t really a proper “roundabout” lol Center circle is too small and it still asks people to stop rather than yield. 3:31 there is your roundabout

I believe it was the French who first invented road roundabouts. The UK strongly embraced them as did most of Europe. Having a more gridded road system is probably why the US didn’t first accept them.

Cheap .

Why do they bother to put the interior lane in on some of them (two lane roads). Who uses it?

Roundabouts are fine. The turbo roundabout in Hollister requires instructions to use they post above the road 5 seconds before you get to it for the first time. That's stupid.

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I thought roundabouts were created in the US and just adopted in England?

Intersections over roundabouts.

Roundabouts are overused. I live in a neighborhood where there is little traffic and in several intersections they are a nuisance. A stop sign on the intersecting side street would have been much better. But then if Europeans have it, so then must we have it.

The roundabout is a blight on our roadways . THEY ARE AN ABOMINATION!!! Confused drivers get honked at and near accidents are common. As for pedestrians??? FEAR FOR YOUR LIFE… AND RUN

Roundabouts work in Europe because they yield to the left… in the US we yield to the right which is why they cause 50 - 75 % more traffic and in turn that reduces traffic fatalities

Roundabouts are a great way to control access to 15 minute cities Think about what you can put in the middle to deter people from wanting to leave their prison

I love average sized modern roundabouts. Mini roundabouts and large traffic circles can be eliminated. I don't consider that a roundabout on G & 25th.

Try negotiating one towing a travel trailer. It isn't fun.