About a Roundabout

**Meddle** · July-14-09, 03:25 AM

W. Bloomfield is still in the Metro area, right?

http://www.wxyz.com/news/local/story...qiNYUf_VQ.cspx

Is this the only one, or are there more now?

Silly idea if you ask me. But nobody ever does.

**Roq** · July-14-09, 04:06 AM

Originally Posted by Meddle

W. Bloomfield is still in the Metro area, right?

http://www.wxyz.com/news/local/story...qiNYUf_VQ.cspx

Is this the only one, or are there more now?

Silly idea if you ask me. But nobody ever does.

ugh...I hate roundabouts. Worst idea ever.

**wolverine** · July-14-09, 04:27 AM

There's two in the Ann Arbor area that function well, especially the one in Superior township which resolved a dangerous intersection. The one in Brighton though is a disaster. You also get Bonus roundabouts at that new Green Oak Mall. It's almost as if they were saying "ooo roundabouts, trendy! Build 10 of em."

**Roq** · July-14-09, 04:56 AM

Originally Posted by wolverine

There's two in the Ann Arbor area that function well, especially the one in Superior township which resolved a dangerous intersection. The one in Brighton though is a disaster. You also get Bonus roundabouts at that new Green Oak Mall. It's almost as if they were saying "ooo roundabouts, trendy! Build 10 of em."

I was thinking of Ann Arbor when the roundabout topic came up

**Blueidone** · July-14-09, 06:12 AM

There are two in Sterling Heights...one by City Hall on Utica Road and Dodge Park, and one at 18 Mile and Van Dyke. I don't travel either area very often. I don't like them, personally, but they seem to work pretty well once everyone gets used to them.

**dnvn522** · July-14-09, 06:33 AM

The ones at Lee Rd in Brighton were definitely a mistake. Could they make those any more complicated?

The rest of them don't seem too bad. I really like the 18 1/2 mile / Van Dyke roundabout, compared to the clusterf#&k that was out there.

**Pam** · July-14-09, 06:46 AM

Is this the only one, or are there more now?

I think there is another one in West Bloomfield, about a mile from the one mentioned in the link.

**Maof** · July-14-09, 07:00 AM

Went out east [[Mass.) with a girlfriend about 20 years ago and we were warned about them. They have been out there for years and they know how to drive 'em. We video taped us going thru them and you can hear the horn's beeping at us.....scary

There's two on Cass Ave. near 18 mile rd. Not bad at all. No comparison to out east.

**East Detroit** · July-14-09, 07:11 AM

Roundabouts are best when there is a series of them and you can go from one city to the next without ever seeing a red light or stop sign. That is the way it is in England and even with the driving on the left you quickly get used to it [[after going completely around a few, though illegal) and then you learn to love them.

**ndavies** · July-14-09, 07:29 AM

Roundabouts are great. They have a much higher throughput than traffic lights and have far fewer accidents. The accidents that do occur are far safer glancing blows than the head on or right angle hits that happen at traffic lights.

And at least we don't have to deal with anything as complex as the magic roundabout, yet......
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Roundabout_[[Swindon)

**French777** · July-14-09, 07:35 AM

There are two in Rochester that are one after the other. I like them apposed to 2 traffic lights

**jcole** · July-14-09, 08:48 AM

They are putting in a roundabout on each end of the 26 Mile and Van Dyke overpass. Just can't wait for that to open to watch the fun and games for the first few weeks.

**Gsgeorge** · July-14-09, 09:08 AM

Roundabouts are awesome, you don't have to wait at a light and can keep your car moving, saving gas & making your commute quicker. Just cause the Brits have them doesn't mean we Americans can get a lot of mileage out of having a few roundabouts around. The problem comes when people encounter roundabouts for the first time and have no idea how to drive them.

**9936Sussex** · July-14-09, 09:26 AM

There's a roundabout in Novi, on Taft Road between 8 and 9 Mile. Not sure if it was needed there.

**Bobl** · July-14-09, 09:31 AM

Let me get this straight:
The roundabout is interfering and causing danger to pedestrians, so the answer is to install......traffic signals!?

**Sandhouse** · July-14-09, 10:34 AM

At least one of the 2 roundabouts on Maple Road in West Bloomfield [[at Drake Road) is being retrofitted with pedestrian signals. This is in response to a lawsuit on behalf of two wheelchair users [[who lived nowhere near West Bloomfield). To inject the appropriate level of suspicion and conspiracy theory, whenever I see a lawsuit like this, I wonder if the injured parties aren't shills for an outfit that sells hardware that just happens to redress their injuries when a court forces the public to buy it.

**izzyindetroit** · July-14-09, 10:40 AM

Don't forget about downtown Detroit, the roundabout surrounding Campus Martius may be oblong in shape but its still a roundabout.

**Quonset Hut** · July-14-09, 10:53 AM

Originally Posted by Sandhouse

At least one of the 2 roundabouts on Maple Road in West Bloomfield [[at Drake Road) is being retrofitted with pedestrian signals. This is in response to a lawsuit on behalf of two wheelchair users [[who lived nowhere near West Bloomfield). To inject the appropriate level of suspicion and conspiracy theory, whenever I see a lawsuit like this, I wonder if the injured parties aren't shills for an outfit that sells hardware that just happens to redress their injuries when a court forces the public to buy it.

Almost the only people I've seen walking there is a group that teaches sighted people what the blind go through while walking. Their eyes are covered and they have white canes. The roundabouts on 14 and on Maple were built with money from the state awarded to try [[hah) to compensate for the failure to extend Northwestern Highway to Fenton in the 50's/60's. There was money that was supposed to go to that extension, but it ran into route and NIMBY problems. So Northern FH and Southern WB have traffic problems from Orchard Lake Rd west as there is only the semi-improved donkey-cart paths they call mile roads. The roundabouts are better. To contrast, while they were being built, traffic was routed down Drake to 13 Mile, where there is no left turn arrow. When you sit through six or more lights while 0-2 [[yes, I said zero) cars make it through per cycle, the roundabouts sure look better...

**Det_ard** · July-14-09, 11:28 AM

Even at rush hour the WB roundabouts only have a couple cars ahead of you waiting to enter the circle. They're much quicker than the old lights.

**gazhekwe** · July-14-09, 12:07 PM

It's too bad they can't put the kind of signals that you have to activate. Pedestrians could activate the signal if the traffic was too bad or they were unable to get across in a reasonable amount of time.

**iheartthed** · July-14-09, 12:14 PM

Originally Posted by izzyindetroit

Don't forget about downtown Detroit, the roundabout surrounding Campus Martius may be oblong in shape but its still a roundabout.

I don't think that is considered a roundabout because it has traffic lights. It's just a circle drive.

**Joseph C. Krause** · July-14-09, 12:31 PM

I think a roundabout is overdue for the intersection of Trumbull, MLK and Grand River.

**Gsgeorge** · July-14-09, 12:33 PM

My opinion is Detroit could use a hell of a lot more roundabouts where our diagonal streets meet two or more roads. Think about not having to wait through that pain-in-the-a** light at MLK/Trumbull/Grand River. I think its four to seven minutes per cycle as opposed to the normal one to three--and to top it all off, left turns are NOT allowed. A big roundabout here would do a lot of good -- you could turn on whatever street you wanted, and wait times would be a minute or less.

**ndavies** · July-14-09, 12:35 PM

Originally Posted by iheartthed

I don't think that is considered a roundabout because it has traffic lights. It's just a circle drive.

Roundabouts can have traffic lights. There are a number of roundabouts in Britain that do. These are usually found at freeway entrance and exit ramps to/from very busy highways. The lights only operate during times the traffic volume overwhelms the roundabout.

Roundabouts can be overwelmed by bumper to bumper, stop and go traffic.

The lights at CM are only really needed for pedestrains. CM would function fine as a regular roundabout.

Retroit · July-14-09, 12:37 PM

Roundabouts are becoming much overused as of late. Some college must be advocating it in their Civil Engineering course.

They are appropriate in limited applications, namely when you have several roads converging at one point, like you will find in Paris or Washington, DC. For a four way intersection, they are a waste. For a five way, they can usually offset the fifth road.

wolverine is right. We all must be trendy now, and justify our need for a portion of "stimulus" dollars.