Roundabouts would like a word. Properly designed ones don't need to dramatically lower speeds and are more efficient. And can easily be made pedestrian friendly. It doesn't have to be either or.
this post was submitted on 27 Oct 2023
133 points (92.9% liked)
Fuck Cars
9642 readers
344 users here now
A place to discuss problems of car centric infrastructure or how it hurts us all. Let's explore the bad world of Cars!
Rules
1. Be Civil
You may not agree on ideas, but please do not be needlessly rude or insulting to other people in this community.
2. No hate speech
Don't discriminate or disparage people on the basis of sex, gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, or sexuality.
3. Don't harass people
Don't follow people you disagree with into multiple threads or into PMs to insult, disparage, or otherwise attack them. And certainly don't doxx any non-public figures.
4. Stay on topic
This community is about cars, their externalities in society, car-dependency, and solutions to these.
5. No reposts
Do not repost content that has already been posted in this community.
Moderator discretion will be used to judge reports with regard to the above rules.
Posting Guidelines
In the absence of a flair system on lemmy yet, let’s try to make it easier to scan through posts by type in here by using tags:
- [meta] for discussions/suggestions about this community itself
- [article] for news articles
- [blog] for any blog-style content
- [video] for video resources
- [academic] for academic studies and sources
- [discussion] for text post questions, rants, and/or discussions
- [meme] for memes
- [image] for any non-meme images
- [misc] for anything that doesn’t fall cleanly into any of the other categories
Recommended communities:
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
Can they though? What does a pedestrian friendly roundabout look like? The ones I’ve seen seem outright hostile.
I tried to find data but it doesn’t seem well studied. Since standard road design is so horrifically unsafe, unless it is substantially better it does not seem worth redesigning the intersection. I’d rather see that money go into something that has a proven benefit.
Further reading: https://streets.mn/2017/11/17/are-roundabouts-safer-for-pedestrians/
Crosswalk bridges. Something used in not just roundabouts.
Crosswalk bridges are pretty hostile to pedestrians. They need to be at least 4 meters/12 ft high, to accommodate standard lorries. Nobody likes climbing high stairs on every crossing. Even worse for wheelchair users.
If only we'd invented some sort of sloped surface. Maybe call it a "ramp"?
Scaling a 4 meter high ramps on every intersection sounds like a fucking nightmare
Yes, because no one anywhere has ever built a ramp that made sense.
You're intentionally being obtuse.
It doesn't matter how much sense your ramp makes, it still needs enough height to allow trucks to pass under it. That's a lot of height to gain. Any sensible ramp would be very long and take up a lot of space, and be very impractical to have to scale at every intersection.
I live I nthe Netherlands. The Dutch road system has a very good reputation. And I agree, I love our infrastructure. I hope it is an example for the rest of the world.
When I started driving myself, I loved to drive fast on the highway. I arrived supper annoyed at my destination as I had to evade near exidents ndue to people texting or just not paying attention. When I started to drive slow, making sure I wasn't blocking others, I arrived calm and only 10min later then when I was speeding all the time. Also, most traffic jams happen because eof speeding people. They break more, which causes jams. In a traffic jam, try to maintain a constant speed, while barely breaking, keeping a lot of room in front of you. This helps solve traffic jams, of everyone would do this.
Same experience as you, when you drive slow and calm you find you arrive more calm and relaxed. Less traffic as well and most times there is the added benefit of not being stuck at the next red as it turns green before you get there.
I mean it’s pretty obvious from the headline, but the goal is to compromise if you’re to have any meaningful volume of transportation.
We’ve already compromised too much by allowing cars in cities at all. If you are going to drive around innocent bystanders it needs to be done in a safe manner. Saving a minute on your commute is insignificant compared to a life.
I do like the Las Vegas approach where pedestrians have a completely separate infrastructure. Its very easy to get around and i find vehicle traffic is fairly efficient for that sized city.
I mean most cities have this, don’t they? Sidewalks vs car lanes. Or what do you mean by this?
There are sections of permanent elevated walkways and a network of bridges completely separating pedestrian and vehicle traffic. Just walk over the streets, no waiting for lights. Its pretty cool.
Oh wow interesting. If I ever go I’ll have to take a look. Sounds expensive but if it works it works I guess.
What’s your definition notion of speed? This one major street in my town was restricted from two lanes down to one through lane with turn lanes. They also reduced the speed limit and adjusted traffic lights.
Result: much safer AND you reliably get through in less time. No stop and go, no weaving or merging, just slow and steady winning the race