Show us your Roundabouts & Intersections

[danielcote 9]

Tell me wether you like roundabouts better than intersections or intersections better than roundabouts and WHY.

you can also put down 10/10 or 5/10.

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[Mod Note - In future please do not start a new thread without posting a picture or giving an example yourself. 

 

Thread renamed "Show us your Roundabouts & Intersections" - abcvs]

[Patricius Maximus 236]

It depends entirely on the situation. I'll first list some pros and cons.

Roundabouts:

All traffic keeps moving, thus saving gas.

If all volumes are equal, it is efficient for traffic flow.

Good for rural areas and suburbs.

Cannot handle high volumes

May be confusing

Intersections:

Very compact.

Can handle moderate traffic volumes

Can handle unequal volumes with ease

Have to sit at light even if no one's coming

Long waits

I use intersections for urban and rural areas, and roundabouts mainly for the suburbs. However, my true strong point is freeways.

Check out the Patrician Showcase or Franklin County (links in my sig) for reference.

- Patricius Maximus

[jutrock 4]

personally, i build my cities similar to my home town (philadelphia area) and we dont have many roundabouts (although new jersey does). however, we do have them in certain areas, like university campuses, large shopping areas, and high wealth residential areas, among others. so i tend to use them in those types of places. i think its good to have a few roundabouts to ease traffic flow in high volume areas, although it drives me mad when i see pictures of some peoples cities with roundabouts at every intersection, which almost totally defeats the purpose and would be wildly confusing in any real life setting. i'd say, overall, that intersections are easier, and much more common, but roundabouts have times and places where they should, and do, work better than standard intersections.

[Godzillaman 21]

I have a personal hatred for roundabouts now because of Italy...

[ElBarto92 7]

In Miami, where I live, roundabouts are becoming more and more common. It's almost ridiculous in some of the suburban areas how common they are - it's pretty much come to the point where they're at every corner in some places. What's worse, is that in Miami, with the drivers as bad as we have, nobody understands how to drive through them, and most end up treating them like a stop sign - totally defeating the purpose! It really angers me when I see somebody come to a complete stop at a circle, with no other cars anywhere near them. But anyway...

In the game, I do tend to use them as center pieces in urban areas and in some suburban settings to ease traffic flow, but try to keep away from the roundabout invasion that's occurring in real life in my hometown.

[Muck308 55]

If it's a 4 way intersection i am making, then no need for a roundabout. Except for a few throughout the city, usually in nicer areas. If I have more than 4 ways... a roundabout is acceptable.

[Tia-may 0]

It depends on the density of the area. Let's look at a real-life situation, whereas in rural areas such as the A13 and A24 you'd expect a few roundabouts, and in urban areas such as Southwark cross-roads, but recently roundabouts have made inroads to London as a way to stimulate traffic flow, although not always successfully. Many new roads in the UK make use of roundabouts, such as the new Thamesmead roads. For more important roads use grade-separated junctions.

[toxicpiano 125]

roundabouts are smooooooooooooooooooooth

[awake_78 0]

I have a personal hatred for roundabouts now because of Italy....quote>

Why that???

I was in Italy recently and I thought that roundabouts is the best way for main rod connection. 

Not for motorways of course.

In Greece you could find in single highways (1-1 lane not in Motorways) traffic lights. In the middle of nowhere. Imagine a high congested road connecting cities where you want to reach your destination some time to find a traffic light and wait 3 minutes. It pisses you off. I think roundabouts could be a better idea in that case just yield for one or two cars maximum.

Yes of course the intersections is the best option but think about the cost. You cannot build an intersection anywhere just in High congested areas. Otherwise for cheaper solutions roundabouts is the best option I believe.

[GMT 389]

I think it depends on the size and situation.

when I take a look at an intersection nearby, every morning traffic gets stuck cuz there's no traffic lights but a ped overpass and both streets are main streets leading out of town. now, with a correct traffic lighting or, best, a roundabout, everything'll be fine. (but that ain't possible due to german bullspit authority-paperwork-crap cuz one street is a national street and the other one a community street)

but if I take a look at things like place de la porte maillot (northwest of ->) or place de l'etoile / place charles de gaulle (where the triumph arc is) in paris (france that is, not hilton) I guess they'd be better off with an intersection.

as patricius already said, it depends strongly on the situation, the amount of traffic to be handled and, what many forget, the location, cuz not every location offers the space needed for a roundabout right away.

[Joe 90 358]

From a purely traffic engineering (delay minimisation) standpoint:

Low volumes = priority (give way/stop)

Medium volumes = roundabout

High volumes = traffic lights

If your traffic lights are getting congested, you need to get bigger roads, or get cars off them some other way.

[Patricius Maximus 236]

Joe, you explained it well. That is for at-grade only, right? If so, that was a good, concise explanation.

[Godzillaman 21]

Originally posted by: awake_78

I have a personal hatred for roundabouts now because of Italy....quote>

Why that???quote>

Not the mainland...Sicily mainly. They added a few hours to a short trip...

[awake_78 0]

Originally posted by: awake_78

I have a personal hatred for roundabouts now because of Italy....

Why that???

Not the mainland...Sicily mainly. They added a few hours to a short trip...quote>

Really??? I was in Sicily too... I ve noticed a lot of roundabouts in the road between Syracusa - Modica - Ragusa. But as I know there will be an Autostrada there soon, so the "roundabouted" road will serve a less amount of traffic.

In my birthtown Komotini there are traffic lights in the vertical connection between the old highway and the new Motorway . You want to enter in the motorway and you re waiting for 3-5 minutes thr green light. From the other side if there was a round about there you always wait 30 sec maximum. i don 't know maybe because for the state always works idiots...

[doorknob60 11]

Where I live, the whole west side of the city has no stoplights, only roundabouts. It works well, because there's not a lot of traffic on the west side. Bend is actually famous for it's roundabouts, at least in the northwest US

[danielcote 9]

I only have 3 roundabouts in my city (Edmonton). But they're all in the 1960's arias. They all have trolley buses going around them but they might be getting rid of the wires because of numerouse accidents of the wires getting brittle and breaking. The wires almost killed a man on a bike! All considering they are sort of neat in a way.

[doc_foualier 0]

Well, where I live (North of France), roundabouts tend to become the rule for an intersection.

In rural areas, they are mainly used to slow down the traffic on a main axis which cross a smaller road, and enable vehicles from the small roads to get on the main road without waiting too much time.

But I must admit, while I tend to prefer roundabouts rather than no-sign or spotlights intersections as a driver, that sometimes it becomes ridiculous to see ridiculously small roundabouts in center town, so small that a bus or truck must over-drive them!

[Darth Apple 54]

I don't like roundabouts in udriveit because the cars don't pay any attention , they just drive in on the avenue roundabouts and will stop in the middle , and you end up with a big traffic jam at the roundabout (and this happens at the road roundabouts too)but you can put anything 2x2 tiles in and avenue roundabout(just demolish the middle , and if you put a playground in it , the Sims who stop in the middle of a roundabout will just walk through cars like they didn't exist) but I put them in some places just to be creative.

[rainyday 2]

well i like roundabouts but they havent got a huge capacity. e.g the m50 in dublin.. whoever designed the junctions wasnt very smart because he just stuck in a grade seperated roundabout junction at every junction making huge traffic delays and now they al have to be upgraded to freeflow

[danielcote 9]

The only reason I like round abouts is you don't get stopped at row after row of lights. Also there can be fountains or trees in the center. but when theres to much traffic it becomes congested and a whole bunch of people start idling! The closest I'd come to putting roundabouts downtown is in midtown.

[sc4portugal 10]

I use Roundabouts because in Sim City you cant get a ROADxROAD intersection without traffic lights and traffic lights are rare around here.

[PhilsCafe 8]

I think roundabouts are safer than intersections because you have to pay more attention thus slowing down traffic... I also like that the traffic flow is better. Negative side effect is that there are people who don't know how to use a roundabout. Yet in SimCity I hardly ever use roundabouts, because they are rare in those areas I create.

[Gn_leugim 853]

Originally posted by: sc4portugal I use Roundabouts because in Sim City you cant get a ROADxROAD intersection without traffic lights and traffic lights are rare around here.quote>

I agree ^^ and is more common to find roundabout where they are not needed at all and where they are really needed there are no roundabouts at all ^^

[sc4portugal 10]

Originally posted by: Gn_leugim

Originally posted by: sc4portugal I use Roundabouts because in Sim City you cant get a ROADxROAD intersection without traffic lights and traffic lights are rare around here.quote>

I agree ^^ and is more common to find roundabout where they are not needed at all and where they are really needed there are no roundabouts at all ^^quote>

 

Very true.

[City2TheMax 3]

Where I lived and live we had and have no roundabouts. I have only seen them in Great Britain, France, and Italy. Therefore I don't know how well they actually work, but they seem better for some dense areas, because when intersections get lots of traffic they always have to be built bigger.

[shaylan221 0]

Well, I like roundbouts, but I live in Phoenix Arizona which is now the 4th Largest City in the US and we have NO roundabouts. Arizona does have roundabouts, but way off into the desert where you think that there isn't any civilization. And we have major traffic issues!!!

[Craig-Abcvs 1,595]

Well if you want to know what happens when you go overboard with round-a-bouts... 

Take a peek at this...  (the CJ is not active so please don't bump it.) 

The Grinchy City Planner 

A sneak preview...

So what happens when you have a fire and the fire trucks can't get to the fire...?

Oopsy!

[sammerhammer747 0]

interesting concept but what about ploping a firestation near by, put out the fire and then destroy the fire station?

[wishfulanthony 3]

Craig: nice concept of all roundabouts as intersections... that way, you can reduce (or even eliminate) all traffic lights! But, guess what, it will force all people to go through several roundabouts, thus taking a long time to commute!

[masochist 111]

I don't think was meant specifically as a "Show Us" thread. I think it was simply a discussion of Roundabouts vs. Intersections in SC4. We already have a "Show Us Your Intersections" thread on ST...don't we? Wait...that's Interchanges, nevermind.  Still, first point stands.