Let's FIX the HIGH SCHOOL... with 152 ROUNDABOUTS!
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- Äas pĆidĂĄn 15. 06. 2024
- When the bell rings at Carmel High School, parents race in from all directions to create a zoo of cars, students, and tired teachers all try to use the road at the same time. How a city's failed attempt to build two roundabouts to fix the problem led to an addition.
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ITE's podcast:
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"How Carmel, Indiana Became the 'Roundabout Capital of the United States," Institute of Transportation Engineers, May 2022. Wagenblast, B.
Link to audio: spreaker.com/episode/how-carm...
Link to transcript: ite.org/technical-resources/i...
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Sources cited:
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In-Person interview with James Brainard, 6 Sep 2023
"Guide for Roundabouts," NCHRP Research Report 1043, National Academies of Sciences, 2003. nap.nationalacademies.org/dow...
"Engaging the Public Through Print and Web Outreach: How Carmel, Indiana Uses Innovated Media to Shape Public Perception of Roundabouts," USDOT Federal Highway Administration. Jul 2020. highways.dot.gov/sites/fhwa.d...
"Statius of Roundabouts in North America, 2022 Edition," Kittleson and Associates. roundabouts.kittelson.com/pdf...
"Roundabouts," USDOT Federal Highway Administration. highways.dot.gov/safety/inter...
"Roundabout Safety Comes To America," Public Roads, UDOT Federal Highway Administration. Autumn 1995. highways.dot.gov/public-roads...
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Periodicals:
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"Changes in traffic flow up for vote," The Indianapolis News, pp. B1-2. 8 Jan 1996
"Changes in traffic patter proposed," The Indianapolis Star, pp. B1-2. 8 Jan 1996
"Brainard asks for $480,000 for roundabouts," The Noblesville Ledger. 29 Apr 1996
"Council to consider roundabouts plan," The Indianapolis Star, p. D3. 18 May 1996
"Carmel council rejects traffic circles," The Indianapolis News, p. B4. 4 Jun 1996
"School boulevard plan reaches a dead end," The Indianapolis Star, pp. C1-2. 4 Jun 1996
"Traffic circles rejected," The Indianapolis News, p. B1. 4 Jun 1996
"Our view: Carmel officials worked with citizens to determine the proposal for roundabouts was no square deal," The Noblesville Ledger. 6 Jun 1996
"Sundown Gardens to landscape Hazel Dell area," The Indianapolis News, p. N2. 10 Jan 1998
"Budget still getting skeptical reception: Notice by news article?" The Indianapolis News, p. N4. 20 Aug 1998
"New Carmel roundabouts confuse drivers," The Noblesville Ledger. 7 Dec 1998
"Design crash course: New roundabouts could take different shape," The Noblesville Ledger, p. A3. 15 Oct 1999
"Getting used to going in circles," The Indianapolis Star, p. 2, 5 of Metro. 6 Jul 2000.
"County Council votes to reconfigure 4 busy intersections," The Indianapolis Star, p. N1. 11 Jan 2002.
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Time sections:
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Indiana's First Stoplight (0:00)
High School Traffic ia a "Zoo" (1:42)
U-Turn Trick (3:19)
They Told Him "No!" (4:37)
"Two Circular Intersections" (5:37)
Something Wrong (9:08)
Becoming the "Roundabout Capitol" (11:00)
Next Time: Fix a Highway? (12:40) - Auta a dopravnĂ prostĆedky
Road Guy Rob comes to my city! Roundabouts are not magic and can fill up during peak hours. They work best when traffic is low or is balanced. Traffic still clogs up at Carmel High during peak hours with Lexington and RIchland being one lane roundabouts and Main St congestion with only one lane each direction. How ironic that on 136th St, they put a traffic light in the middle of the roundabout only active during peak times going to the school. Even though they can clog during rush hour (Spring Mill and Main in the mornings), it is definitely an improvement over 4 way stops.
Sedona, AZ tried roundabouts as a replacement for most of the traffic lights in their downtown area. I will say it's a major improvement over the old traffic lights, but 12pm on a Saturday in July still means it takes over 30 minutes to drive 2 miles (down from 45 minutes) because of all the congestion.
Roundabouts are wonderful for many uses but throwing in too many cars along with confused tourists stopping in the middle of the road negates a lot of what makes them great.
@@blazertundra I think where roundabouts shine the most are entry and exit ramps for highways. In Carmel on Keystone Parkway, we have âdogboneâ roundabouts on overpasses. It allows cars to enter and exit to and from the highway without any lights.
DDI exchanges are great as they eliminate left turn lights for entering a highway, but the dogbone roundabout overpass could be superior to DDIs.
The problem with Sedona is no public transit. You have private transit for the tourists but public bus lines going down US-89A or SR-260 would be a major improvement.
What really sucks are the employees who have to travel from Cottonwood to work there since no one can afford to live close by to where they work.
@@garcjr Carmel doesnât have public transit neither. And we have an affordability issue too (not as bad as Sedona).
@@garcjr They need low cost park and ride lots in Cottonwood and Oak Creek, with shuttle busses regularly going to and from Sedona. Also have tour busses that run predictable routes and times, like Grand Canyon. The best fix would be to get cars off the street by making busses more convenient without making life miserable for the people trying to pass through to reach Oak Creek Canyon.
All the homies love Road Guy Rob videos
And all the homies love Carmel
@@mathiastwp KEHruhmel is excellent my dude
Road Guy Rob knows what's up.
I used to commute to work along a route that included multiple roundabouts. They all had stop signs on each entrance. Facepalm.
Around here there are several roundabouts that have trafic lights on them some peaktime only some permanent.( West Yorkshire)
My own city has a roundabout with 4 sets of traffic lights!
@@jamesphillips2285 There is one particular roundabout that has EIGHT of them one set on each entrance and one set every 90^ as you progress round.
There's a "roundabout" in Northeast Portland called Coe Circle that has stop signs at each entrance.
In Sacramento, a lot of roundabouts _still_ have stop signs on only _two_ entrances. I wish the 'roundabouts are the same in California' comment was actually true. Massachusetts and Pennsylvania have particularly weird and dangerous ones everywhere.
I swear that Road Guy Rob should be required viewing for all transportation graduate students. He brings the great real world examples out of the textbook in the most refreshing and compelling way!
These videos are very encouraging, too!
I love the fact that we got to see some of the politics behind the scenes and the responses.
I don't appreciate not being able to left turn, but not being able to left turn means having to left turn, which is liberating.
Thatâs what politicians are for
You're like the Bill Nye of roads! The way you present information is fantastic and I look forward to each new video. Thanks Rob!
Tbf Rob has never pushed a political side so I'd say he's better than Bill đđ
Rob Nye The Road Guy
I totally agree! He's the Bill Nye and Alton Brown of roads. Just think of Good Eats
@@anareel4562 Neither has Bill. He pushes science, not politics
Your comment made me want to subscribe, and I did.
4:52 âlack of safety concernâ The car gods demand a blood sacrifice!
Everyone is worried about schoolchildren getting hit by cars, but who will think of the poor left-turners?
"Selfish, unemployed children impose on YOUR freedom to tear through the neighborhood at 70mph!"
Thou shalt not get minorly inconvenienced
No, you don't understand, your expensive landscaping proposal is going to block my ability to make a turn across traffic into the church! You are stepping on my freedom!
I love roundabouts. Great to hear how well they've done in Carmel.
We have a double roundabout in our neighborhood. When thereâs low traffic I like to go around the two circles and then around the whole thing at least once. Yeah, it doesnât take much to entertain međ
â@@kingsford3657at least you're keeping yourself busy
I'll be the roundabout
The words will make you out and out
I spend the day your way
Call it morning driving through the sound
And in and out the valley
@@MonkeyJedi99in and around the lake
Indiana is the only place I've seen a roundabout with nothing in the center to denote it was higher.
During a rain storm that's a fun time.
That mayor singlehandedly created the roundabout fad in an entire developed first world country that was devoid of it prior. Props to him.
Bicycle Dutch covered a lot of the new cycling infrastructure the city recently built.
When I heard he was in office since *1996* (before ANY roundabouts), I got excited to interview him. And even more excited when he said YES.
Fad is definitely the right word for it.
James Brainard is an under-the-radar key to the future of suburbia if it's going to have a future in this country. I've long figured his success was that he talked like a Republican but walked like an urbanist. The rest of that town is pretty cool as well, compared to most other places in its category.
â@@jishani1 But at least it's beneficial unlike most fads in the US
My city put a roundabout at the intersection where one of my best friends was killed in a car accident.He was pulling out from a street next to the business he just left and got t-boned by a 15 yr old doing 20+ over the speed limit.(you could get a license at 15 back then)
Yea they put one in. About 22 years later. In 2022
rip to your friend
people like you make it look easy to teach people in a fun and great manner.
Thanks!
I nearly got caught out by one of the rotaries in the US. Coming from the UK you basically assume any doughnut shaped junction is a roundabout. Turns out it was really just a 4 way junction with an island in the middle, with stop signs on two of the roads.
I grew up in Fishers, IN (the town right next to Carmel) and its absolutely insane what Carmel has done in terms of vehicle infastructure! Fishers now as well. Both cities are great examples of tax dollars actually going to good use.
It's so strange seeing "shark teeth" on the road in the USA. I'm so used to seeing them here in The Netherlands.
funny swamp
The first roundabouts I've driven on used to be the rotaries in Gardner, MA.
They are at the on/off ramps for a smaller state highway.
When I was a kid in the 1970's, all vehicles had to stop before entering the rotary.
When they transitioned it to a roundabout, all they did was narrow the lane by adding sidewalks and some grass between the sidewalk and the pavement, then tore out the stop signs, replacing them with yield signs.
They recently redid/repainted at least the western one too, implementing in a sliplane into the westbound offramp into downtown (if I'm getting the directions correct...) but then right up the road is a GIANT "rotary" around the Hannafords, which got a signage flip at one point of the "traffic triangle" about 5 years ago so that the *triangle* has to yield rather than those entering the triangle.
Now if only they removed the traffic lights about 50 miles east of there along that same highway...
@@Roccondil Of course then you get bad execution like in northern Princeton on Rt 140 where the rotary is so tight that tractor-trailers end up rolling the trailer over the low decorative median.
â@@MonkeyJedi99 That low median/hub I am pretty sure is MEANT to accommodate the tractor-trailers because they knew that curve was going to be too tight, while still keeping regular traffic at the correct radius.
Over in Fitchburg near Crocker Field there's an even SMALLER rotary that's got a similar low median as its hub, not even any bush to decorate the center, as it too is meant to allow large trucks to navigate it over that hub.
Seen a few videos on this Mayor and I absolutely love what this guy has done. I spend every day yelling at my city's traffic light system (all of which are out of sync) often asking "Why is there even a light here" as I'm stopped for 2 or 3 full minutes waiting for an unnecessary light turn green again. America needs MORE ROUNDABOUTS and FAR LESS LIGHTS!
We need more.local officials that have spent time abroad like that mayor did in college.
Being exposed to different ways of doing things sparks curiosity and inventiveness.
The guys was a lawyer but ended up with the traffic engineering bug.
Well... his lawyering did saved his arse on his crusade to put roundabout in the manual...
â@@PrograErrorYep. His law background is probably more useful being mayor, but his curiosity and looking for how to improve things... That's the key mindset and very 'engineer'.
We need more PEOPLE who have traveled abroad and realized not every place that isn't middle America is a 3rd world country. Too many in general seem to think any idea that isn't their own or person/place that isn't exactly like them is somehow evil.
Travelling to Melbourne, Australia completely changed my mind on trams. I used to think they had no place in modern cities but now I'd force every politician to visit their downtown. Was literally bummed when I got home and had to drive myself everywhere.
Yes, to different (better) ways of doing things! I went to Europe in 1973 with people from my high school. The adults in particular were commenting on how both men and women shared the same restrooms. But all the stall doors had little red/green markers on the latches indicating whether they were occupied or not. Here it is, 2024, and I consider my self lucky if I find a stall with such a latch. Except on portable toilets--all of those have them. And these days, it seems like half the people don't even know to knock before trying to open the door.
The Carmel roundabout disease has metastasized its way northeast - we now have a large number of them in Fort Wayne, and TBH, I do like them way better than signalized or 4-way stop intersections. We also have the bizarre diverging diamond interchange at a few of the interstate junctions here as well. This area of the country in 2024 is a great place and time to be a road geek.
Not to spoil your next video, but having grown up in Carmel just before all these roundabouts were put in, and living right next to the highway you are going to talk about
I know exactly which highway you are talking about. It was not crossable by foot at all. When I show my relatives what they did to that particular intersection I think you are going to talk about in you next video, they are blown away (as am I) by the way roundabouts changed that intersection.
Also, growing up in Carmel is why I continue to pronounce Caramel as Carmel and I refuse to change.
One roundabout is okay. 160 is way better!! The little roundabouts next to the freeway on-ramps which you will get to next video, are so convenient. All these roundabouts in town encourage you to stay and and not leave to towns with lights. Stop lights are so ridiculously wasteful.
That's true. Neighboring Noblesville and Fishers have quite a few roundabouts, too. They've seen how well it's worked in Carmel, and are taking a page from their book. It also makes traveling into Noblesville and Fishers a bit more comfortable, since it's not a stark change coming from Carmel.
I've read that Noblesville and Fishers are definitely not zealots in the way that Jim Brainard is, so they're not aiming to be stop light/sign-free. But they are strategically adding roundabouts where their research shows it will help with traffic the most.
I don't hate traffic signals (stoplights). But I do see that when *ALL* the intersections are roundabouts, something pretty magical happens. Which I'll go into deeper detail over the next 2 videos.
Myth busters did a thing about roundabouts which proved that they are better than lights. I live in the UK so got used to roundabouts and agree, they are safer and move more traffic than lights
They're better until you hit a certain level of traffic density in which case they turn into bottlenecks and get lights installed anyway, I also live in the UK and that's the case for the roundabout built at the northern end of where I live.
And cheaper since they have zero operating cost. And maintenance is just standard road maintenance.
My town put in roundabouts 15-20 years ago and people are still complaining... Those same people just stop and wait for traffic to clear before going.
Because old people and folks towing large trailers have basically zero hope of navigating a roundabout built on the dimensions of a former intersection. Roundabouts are great for roads handling low to mid volume traffic, but atrocious at high traffic roads in the US. Partly due also to the brilliance of the EPA and it's CAFE requirements essentially encouraging the production of larger automobiles in the states.
It's nearly impossible to enter a busy roundabout with a semi-truck without stopping and waiting for traffic to clear.
@@Mcfunface old people have no business to transact outside of retirement homes
@@Mcfunfaceoh yeah and roudabouts have aprons for larger vehicles. School busses navigate the round abouts here.
I grew up in a small town that had no traffic and no stoplights and one ornamental traffic circle. So I grew up knowing how to use them, but thinking they only worked when there wasn't any traffic. Then I moved to a large city with a big traffic circle at a major intersection except that it had 4 lanes going through the middle of it and stoplights all over the place. Really gave traffic circles a bad name, and it was removed in favor of an eight-lane-wide intersection with poorly timed lights. So when the idea of "roundabouts" was brought up years later, everyone who remembered that đ©-show of a traffic circle came out in droves against anything that resembled it (I admit being skeptical myself). Instead we got a bunch of flyovers and grade-separated intersections. Then I visited the UK and saw how they're *supposed* to work and now I vote for them whenever I can.
As a Traffic Engineer I absoletly love your channel Rob!! I really enjoyed this video, the story of James Brainard bringing roundabouts to Carmel is one of my favorites!
Glad to hear it! (And that you aren't seeing major errors I need to correct!)
Drunk AF & still up. Glad I caught this!
Lol same
I wonder why this was uploaded at 5 in the morning
4am for me. He probably uploaded it at 6 or 7am in his local time zone
Pure gold
â@@Michael-ex9uoI dunno if Rob is on travel, but his native time zone is California / pacific. So if anything he probably worked on it all night and uploaded it before bed.
I'm glad you finally got to do a video of this town Carmel
I love roundabouts as much as the next Carmel resident, but Rob has got to be the 5,283rd CZcamsr to do a video on Carmel roundabouts.
Nice! I look forward to seeing roundabouts from the perspective of pedestrians and cyclists in future videos! The one thing Carmel probably needs is a bus service; it does not really have public transport at all. Buses probably won't get in as bad of traffic with roundabouts but a dedicated bus way would keep ridership up even during rush hour.
I definitely want see how a pedestrian crosses at a roundabout. I see them in South Bend, so I know doing it right at the roundabout can't be the right way.
pause the video at 1:35. you can see the pedestrian crossing
@@gavrielbaron1597 Yeah but this video still takes a driver POV of roundabouts. Seeing how pedestrians feel is going to be great as well.
I live in west Suburban Indianapolis. The other suburbs in the Indy area have also been adding roundabouts. Even the city of Indianapolis is adding them. They really work much better than a signal or 4-way stop.
Indy did? I thought they were staunchly against roundabouts?
@@evancombs5159 They're coming around to it. lol slowly but surely.
@@cortburris9526 at least they know to drive in circles in Indianapolis ;)
and they are cheaper to maintain and don't need expensive maintenance or any electricity lines built to them
12:38: If you've ever driven around inside Stanford university, the entire campus is full of stop signs. If you drive a manual car, that's going to be a huge pain in the ass to traverse.
When I moved to the US from the UK a long time ago I scoffed at the idea of driving a car with an auto box and bought a car with a stick shift. After driving that around US roads, I was like "never again!" and all my cars since have been autos. Roundabouts are much more efficient over stop lights.
In the last 10 years, Stanford has added 4 roundabouts (which each replaced 4-way stops with 2 lanes per direction - what a mess that was) which have really improved things. Hopefully they'll add even more.
I have. Stanford is a beautiful, frustrating campus -- who yells at you when you try to walk inside the library, apparently. (At my less prestigious university, visitors to campus could walk freely inside the library)
@@RoadGuyRob I can maybe excuse it by saying if it's a college campus and the roads should be pedestrian-first (since roundabouts are notably worse for pedestrians, as you've said in your previous videos), but from my few times visiting there, the campus is huge and is full of cyclists so stops signs seem very inappropriate.
Sounds a lot like Arizona State Universityâs Tempe campus. The main roads going through campus have a lot of signalized intersections, while the side streets tend to have a lot of all-way stops.
Every time Iâm stuck waiting for a long time at a stoplight and too often having to stop and wait at every single one I think about how bad it sucks and they could all be roundabouts!
High Schools were designed like that but my high school wasn't, that is legit nice & fascinating ime.
With each passing video Road Guy Rob takes another step towards full Orange pilled urbanist ;)
While roundabouts are great under the right conditions, there are a LOT of intersections where the conditions are right. We should have a lot more of them in our town. The problem is that in our town, people want to funnel all the traffic onto the street-level state highway that runs through town, but then that highway gets congested and people race down all of our side streets as an alternative. It would be better if we had many trafficways parallel to the state highway with roundabout intersections. Keep traffic moving. Keep traffic calm and safe. Everyone would win.
The solution for your town probably is a commuter lane, but only rich communities get that
Good stuff about roundabouts! And good on the Mayor of Carmel!
As someone in Australia, I'm curious as to how the roundabouts here were "not up to snuff". I do know of some dodgy ones, come to think of it.
The old roundabouts didnât have enough deflection on approaches.
@@petergreenson Thanks.
I live in Colorado, and I can attest to the efficiency of roundabouts firsthand. In more rural areas, it's nice to have an intersection where you almost never have to stop. However, traffic lights still have their place, though, as Colfax Avenue in Denver proves, as a roundabout would have to have an absurd number of lanes (and thus be confusing) to handle Colfax's specific traffic patterns.
All in all, I'm very happy at how Colorado engineers have balanced the use of the two, for the most part.
I've seen the evidence first hand. I live near a somewhat busy intersection, especially in the summer*.
At one point, it was a simple stop sign. But about 20 years ago, they upgraded to a traffic light. And, a few years ago, they started converting it into a roundabout and have since completed it.
One of the roads parallels an interstate, and the section where the new roundabout is is where the interstate climbs a mountain (by Appalachian standards) so weather can be a bit dicy, fog has caused major pileups before, trucks go slow, vehicles catch on fire, etc. So, wrecks and other road hazards that cause the interstate to slow to a crawl or completely shutdown are a common occurrence. When that happens, drivers detour onto the road that goes through this new roundabout.
When it was a traffic light, traffic would always back up for miles as the intersection just couldn't handle the volume of cars of a modern interstate.
But now, with the roundabout, the backup is much smaller. Extending maybe half a mile. The intersection is still overwhelmed and can't handle the volume of a modern interstate, but the length of the backup is night and day.
So, yes, roundabouts are that much better at handling traffic flow compared to a traffic light.
*(There's a US highway with interstate exits in either direction, 2 National Park sites just 5 minutes away, and there's a state primary route with dozens of breweries, wineries, cideries, distilleries, and even meaderies. Not to mention the people who live in the area and commute through the intersection.)
I'm rural, about 35 minutes northwest of Carmel and my god do I absolutely love the roundabouts. I do most of my business in Carmel and anytime I have to drive somewhere else that doesn't have them it's enraging. Of course I hated them when I first moved up here, but that changes pretty quickly. Honestly, having fellow citizens that understand them is a major contributing factor; little bit of mutual trust makes them all the more seamless.
The nuances discussed regarding center diameter, angles, etc. are very important. There are some that have popped up in other places in the state and I don't think had the thoughtful engineering put into them that comes from having built hundreds, so are a touch sketchy. Glad they are spreading (even have a couple coming to my teeny town) and happy to see Carmel getting recognition; it's a lovely place.
Thank you Mayor Brainard to have the vision for these.
Last summer we just had a modern roundabout built at Glendale Ave and York Rd in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario Canada.
They have 2 slip lanes built in and once it opened up, the wait times are so little, even at a Friday afternoon rush hour, compared to the old traffic light.
Carmel Indiana doing the most. They are showing that we can in fact have safe roads in the US. It just takes effort to undo the damage they have caused.
If we truly wanted safer roads in the US we would make our drivers license examinations much harder similar to Finland's. It's just there are too many lobbyists and voters opposed to such restrictions
@@Mcfunface I totally agree. Getting a license should be way harder. It should also be a lot easier to revoke a license. If someone drinks and drives twice ever it should be permanent revocation imo.
When I was learning to driver, NJ had several "circles" that just worked. However with congestive and traffic growth, most were removed for Jug Handles and signals. Then those became congestive, so they tried bridges...talk about costly...then...circles or roundabouts have come back.
Great, great video! You are the best at what you do, and that is saying something.
I am currently in Egypt. The govt. is spending huge amounts on road building, and roundabouts are a big part of the plan. The difficulty is lack of driver training (like in the U.S.) The People are confused and don't know what to do about right of way. You are 1000% correct that it lowers the stakes. If someone is wrong, at worst it is a bump. Nobody gets killed.
there are basically only two rules to understand: Everything turns counter-clockwise (which is very intuitive, because you never _cross_ other directions) and traffic within the ring has priority (else it would clog up). Usually people get this relatively quick.
@@kailahmann1823 I'd like to add a third step which I never understood: double lanes. You MUST be in the correct lane before entering the roundabout. The right lane can only turn left and go straight. The left lane can only go straight, left, or u turn. There are no other options. Knowing those rules is key to not getting 'stuck' inside the circle and also not crashing into the driver to your right.
I love every roundabout I've ever had to navigate, except 1. That 1 is in my neighborhood. The roundabout is only 4 car lengths from a traffic light so cars waiting for that light get backed up into the roundabout.
I love your stories, Rob. Speaking of roundabouts, we have a set of intersecting streets here in Colorado Springs, Colorado that has a statue in the middle of the road and itâs a big accident always happening. They finally are starting to talk about putting a roundabout in to solve a lot of the problem.
Very interesting video, looking forward to part two! Living in California, they were a bit late to the whole roundabout thing, but recently it's been getting more and more popular which helps with traffic flow and safety.
Great video! As someone whoâs very familiar with Carmel's roundabouts (Moved here in 2021), I really appreciate the detailed history and educational background you provided. Itâs fantastic to see how these roundabouts have positively impacted traffic safety in our city.
While I do have some critiques regarding Carmel's roundabouts being a bit too focused on speed and the throughput of cars, I want to highlight that roundabouts demand compliance from motorists, whereas traditional intersections technically only request it. Properly designed roundabouts are safer for everyone, not just motorists, by slowing down traffic and providing clearer, safer crossings for pedestrians and people on bikes.
Your video does a wonderful job showcasing the progress Carmel has made.
I knew I'd find you in the comments!
damn that outro got me all pumped up haha
Mission accomplished đ
(I worked in radio forever, so a punchy promo to get a listener to stay tuned is right up my alley!)
And in other parts of the country, cities have been adding roundabouts on roads with median transit lines, especially light rail. In Salt Lake City, thereâs one at the University of Utah campus. In the Phoenix area, thereâs one in Mesa along Main Street, between the Mesa Dr and Stapley Dr stations, and the city of Phoenix is building a few more along south Central Ave. Thereâs even a roundabout built for a streetcar in downtown Tempe (Rio Salado Pkwy/Ash Ave). The advantage of roundabouts for those transit lines is that you can guarantee priority for transit vehicles, as with light rail, you can add railroad gates.
Its a wild feeling where one of my favorite youtubers and the place i live collide...Im currently sitting less than half a mile from where this video was filmed!
I am overjoyed you're finally taking a look at dumbbell roundabouts! I commented about that years ago. Excited for part two.
Last 10 years my community has been following suit as well, people still gripe about them but they do help .. just getting people to actually learn how to use them correctly is the trick.. I swear some people are stuck in their ways
I could watch endless videos on Carmel Indiana
Safer for drivers, but did I see un-signalled pedestrian crossings on dual-carriageways?!
Yes, but they're typically protected crossings with places to stop mid intersection. Though, some aren't wide enough for a bicycle.
American DOTs hate putting traffic lights at pedestrian crossings for some reason. It's weird because Canada has them everywhere without issues.
I used to live in Carmel,and now I live in Fishers next door. The roundabouts are spreading, but for low-capacity intersections, they are absolutely wonderful 95% of the time. Any time there is a large number of cars going through, my 20-min commute to Carmel for work turns to 40 minutes. Timing versus traffic is the true key to using them around here.
And Brainard, while no longer in office, loved to talk about these roundabouts with anyone he can. He slao helped to revitalize downtown Carmel to a place better than downtownm Indy.
Rob your channel is brilliant. I love how you combine video footage with descriptive graphics to get your point across.
The most advantage of using roundabout: save lots of money for traffic light for traffic flow control and lots of time of waiting for drivers.
Excited your doing this series, in indiana! My state. So fascinating! Thank yiu!
3am seems like an odd time to release the video, but I'm here anyway.......
Released at 7am for me
It's not odd, it is simply a different time in each time zone. Someone always sees a fresh release in the 3 am hour. It is, what it is, but perhaps, next time, it will be high noon for you.
It's when the video got done. (Also, 6 AM on the east coast for the early birds there).
@@RoadGuyRob Well I appreciate what you do and the knowledge you provide! Keep up the fantastic work!
Itâs always 5 oâclock somewhere.
They replaced a traffic light with a 5 point, 2 lane roundabout here in Cheyenne WY in the last 10 years. I like it, though, it is a bit scary with it being a 2 lane and people not following the signs. Multiple occasions seeing people cut across a lane they are not allowed to in order to exit. For what it's worth I don't hear of many accidents regardless. That alone says something about the increased safety at roundabouts.
My favorite channel. Thank you Mr. Rob.
From the uk here (having over 10000 roundabouts), it nice to see the US start to take the roundabout in its pride! (Maybe even the âmagicâ roundabouts lol)
The Australian Roundabout Specs are fine for Australian roads, the reason they were inadequate for the USA is because your roads are wider than ours are.
Even just half a foot per lane adds up with multi-lane highways.
Look forward to your video on the Keystone Parkway
This just shows you that no matter how much evidence there is for something, people will always beat it down for no reason
True. And cost savings always wins anyway in the long run.
Persuading people is more than data. We think we're rational creatures --- but we're also very emotional. And once people can try a roundabout and realize it isn't scary, they don't feel the need to fight.
Americans (and Canadians where I am) seem to think our way is better since we are the new world....but alas, the roundabout is one idea from the old world that is better and we are now figuring it out. Now this said, Rob, you need to go to Swindon England and take a look at that Pentagon 5 ring roundabout. The Brits call to a mix master. I think that is a level of crazy we can say no to
Living in the Indianapolis area since 1991, with Carmel being the area where I drive nearly 50% of the time, the roundabouts work very well.
One of the nice things about them is that you can easily pass slowpokes on two lane roundabouts.
Easily, until you hit one. And some people consider doing 30 in a 30 as a "slowpoke."
@@mikebronicki8264 occasionally itâs the people going 5 to 10 under the limit. Most often itâs the clueless people who come to a full stop before entering the roundabout, even when there is no one around.
I drive those rotaries in Cambridge all the time. They are a hot mess, and yet far superior to the lights up the road in each direction.
*Rob:* "Nobody's gonna just nail on the gas coming out of the first roundabout here when they see a block down the street there's a second roundabout, right?"
*Me:* _[Laughs in Motorcycle]_
i mean if thatâs the way you wanna go out lmaoâŠ.. iâve seen high speed motorcycle accidents up close⊠wouldnât be fun
raised crosswalk btw two roundabouts: [smiles and licks lips]
@@wyw876 Dood basically just designed a short track with moguls.
It's like he's never met a high school student driver? :P
Kudos to the mayor! What a fantastic job
Love your videos man, keep up the energy
I grew up in Carmel. The hundreds of roundabouts have only helped with traffic. I remember when it used to take 20-30 minutes to cross the city. Now it takes half the time and feels safer by a large margin
Great video Rob! I wish we had more roundabouts where I live (suburban Virginia Beach), I'm in the Air Force and have made several trip to the UK and I love their road network. Like you said you just keep moving rather than spending so much time sitting at traffic lights.
My NIMBY parents: I wish the city would fix this intersection.
Me: they could make it a roundabout.
I'm here for this roundabout love
Awesome video Rob! As an American driver living in Europe now, I *love* roundabouts. They are so much more efficient and better than 4-way stops (especially) and traffic light intersections! That's why I made a video about them on my channel a couple years ago...they're just great!
I love round abouts. Its basically a chicane so i can apex the corner late and launch myself out with maximum cornering speed đ€Ł
Scary that it takes a guy like Rob to do serious journalism with nothing back him but Patreon donors.
If it wasn't for 600 awesome people, I'd have had to devolve into clickbait or quit. It's wonderful to have people believe in me and vote with their wallets, one dollar at a time!
New Jersey use to be the Roundabout capital. When I was a kid, there were roundabouts everywhere. Then in the 70/80's they started to tear them out. There are still a few left but I remember the roundabout days.
Those are technically traffic circles, not roundabouts. They range from pretty efficient (like the one in Lakehurst) to pure chaos (the nightmare at 202 & 206 in Somerville)
Not the same. Those are traffic circles, not roundabouts. Roundabouts are like what you see here in the video.
Traffic circles are much smaller in diameter, and not at all the same as a roundabout. Here in my Orange County (CA) neighborhood, there are several traffic circles, but if you hit the right angle, you don't even need to slow down while going through them. It's basically just a yield sign.
Welcome to Indy, man. Glad to see you here.
Traffic lights turn cars into "pods" and round-a-bouts keep them nicely spaced
they sure do - the technical term is a Platoon by the way - for your next pub quiz :)
I never quite understood the general opposition present in the US against roundabouts. Although there are cases where traffic lights are a better fit (ex. a medium traffic load road perpendicularly crossing an extremely high traffic load road*) in most cases roundabouts are clearly superior by pretty much any metric.
* In that case, because people on the roundabout have right of way, the high traffic road would keep occupying the roundabout giving no space for the side road to drain, clogging that one up. And in such a case there's no easy way to build a (cheap) slip road either.
At the low end the same effect on traffic flow rate could be achieved with yield signs in place of stop signs, without any of the pedestrian benefits but in that use case they realistically aren't much different. Medium flow or high flow you have very specific use cases where they improve traffic flow but they can very easily get locked if a new development happens and traffic patterns change. My observation and experience has been in most cases they are a band aid for previous poor planning, or a vanity project and they have a short term placebo effect.
If you grew up in NJ and then moved to another state, that pretty much explains it. NJ would intersect highways with traffic circles, and it was literally a free for all. There was one particular circle intersecting Rt 70 and Rr 73 on Marlton that was both a circle and a regular intersection. It took NJ 4 or 5 decades, but they finally put an overpass in.
And NJ has this other oddity called jug handles. They are a way to turn left and come in two varieties. First, go past the intersection and loop back right onto the intersecting road. Second, turn right like an offramp before the intersection and turn left onto the intersecting road away from the main intersection. The first one kind of works. The second is just a disaster because you're still turning left but without the benefit of a light in many cases. So it becomes a dangerous free for all.
If you want to understand how to cause crashes with roundabouts, go to Oshkosh, WI, not having the experience with one. They use multilane configurations. You have to carefully watch the road signs and surface markings in order to be in the correct lane. Otherwise you'll end up side swiping other cars trying to exit the roundabout, especially during rush hour.
The only opposition I've personally encountered was from my grandparents. They had never seen a roundabout until their 70s when our city started building them. Stop signs and stop lights were familiar, but roundabouts were too new and chaotic.
If you have an extremely high traffic load road it should be grade separated and made into a highway rather than having traffic lights slowing down that high load of traffic.
@@major__kong Are those multilane configurations not standardized?
Love Road Guy Rob seriously one of the most underrated CZcamsrs out there!!đđđđđđđđđđđđ
Very cool graphics now, good work with this one!
I freaking love this video!! And roundabouts!
if only we could apply this to bike lanes around a signalized intersection, yknow like the dutch. otherwise, these roundabouts are great
I love this show. Keep up the good work Rob and crew!
The crew is just me. And thank you! đ
Lubbock, Texas had a roundabout called, 'the traffic circle" from early 70's to mid 80's when they took it out and made a bigger mess...
awesome production quality here. I knew Carmel was the hub of American riundabouts but I didnât know that came as a result of the Mayors persistence and determination of his opinion
Begging to differ on the first roundabout thing: Just consulting Google Maps, I would get it if the road system on the D.C. side of the Arlington Memorial Bridge isn't maybe technically a roundabout, but it certainly functions as one, I think. Unless it's change in the several decades since I came upon it. I was a tourist from Canada doing touristy things, and had never used a roundabout before. I had a lot of trepidation when I saw the traffic flow signs on the bridge, but after getting through it I was "WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL MY LIFE!" It's been a long wait, but roundabouts are making a welcomed appearance where I live now.
As someone who grew up in Carmel Indiana, I definitely agree that I love round abouts
Awesome video. I love roundabouts too! Next best thing If I can't have proper public transport!
Just good content man. I know I see a road guy rob video I know itâll be a good time!
I love how sneaky the mayor is. :) Thank you and have good week.
I like roundabouts where the outside lane is only for cars taking the first exit. That way the inside cars never need to worry about a car on their right continuing around while the inside car is trying to exit.
We desperately need these everywhere.
Rob, I grew up in Cherry Hill, NJ, where we had a number of traffic circles, all built in the 50âs and 60âs, I believe. Elisburg Circle, Racetrack Circle, Airport circle⊠and countless others, all along the length of our state highways through the greater Cherry Hill region. (70, 73, 38, 30, 130) All of them were intact when I started driving in 1987 and I loved them. But over the years most of them were destroyed by traffic engineers attempting to address capacity concerns. Some received signals, others were cut in half. Every attempt failed and now all or most of them are gone.
OF NOTE: I am told that Route 30, which crosses the USA from the Jersey shore to the other coast out left somewhere (Cali, Oregon, Washington? Who can say) used to have a traffic circle at both ends.
We moved to southern West Virginia 16 years ago, and every time we go back to visit family, it makes me sad to see the monstrosities that replaced my beloved circles over the years. They were ahead of their time.
I drove hours out of my way on a multiple day trip last week just to try out the roundabouts in Carmel, IN. It was awesome and there is a stark and disappointing change as you pass into the stop signs and traffic lights of neighbouring towns.
I've also noticed more roundabouts popping up in my home state of Florida and when I was in Las Vegas in 2022, I noticed many roundabouts so it's good to know the inception of the concept for the US kind of originated there!
Round about done right. Amazing. I have a story about it down absolutely wrong
That drone collision. Been there. Glad I'm not the only one -- ironically, I was thinking "What a beautiful drone shot" as we went around the flower, "I wonder if that's stock footage..." and then got my answer. lol. Great video.
Our high school in Shakopee, MN needs like FOUR roundabouts. The intersection I use every day leaving my neighborhood has people across from me departing the high school 24-7-365. SO frustrating.
Since this channel is about roads, stroads & highways, I donât fault Rob for overlooking that what works in suburbia & rural areas should not automatically be executed in urban areas, but a roundabout with only one lane in each direction can work better than a signaled 3-4 lane intersection. This is a rare time Iâll say NIMBY!
Roundabouts are great!!!
oh hey, I live here! The roundabouts are absolutely wonderful