Roundabout

Monday, 3 June 2002
Roundabouts are tricky.
In a country such as the Netherlands, which drives on the right side of the road:
You have to give way to traffic coming from the left
Entering a roundabout you must give way to traffic from the left. That is weird. Normally, traffic coming from right has priority.
Crossing traffic
Traffic leaving the roundabout crosses the traffic on its way in. That is troublesome.
Back and Forth
Should you wish to take ¾ of the roundabout you first have to go outside-in and later inside-out.
As a whole a roundabout is far too complex.

Alternative Roundabout

alternative Roundabout

Proposal: create an alternative roundabout where the traffic goes inside-out only.

Yield to traffic coming from right
When arriving at the roundabout, going up after a tunnel, you'll have to slow down. Yield way to traffic coming from the right, just as you do at other crossings.
Easy entering
The new cars at the roundabout will find it easy to enter. It is just the just arrived traffic that still occupies the centre and with a low speed too. There are no complex crossing flows of traffic.
Inside out
A driver heads for one direction only: inside out, shifting to right all the time. That resembles normal lane changing for an exit.

Going to the outer ring there is more and more space. The driver can speed up until going straight to take the exit at full velocity.

Till next week,
Nut

Born 31 May 2002: Jelle Spinhoven. Congratulations Spin!