This Town Has Over 150 Roundabouts

[@TransitTangents]

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[@superbrownsheep3777]

I am a resident in Carmel and while I am grateful for the roundabout, our city is facing an issue regarding the future of transportation. There’s been discussion back and forth on transit in Carmel for years. The city used to have an Indy Express bus which got discontinued in 2014. Then in 2016 there were initial plans for the red line to extend into Carmel but that didn’t go through. Carmel plans on operating its own bus system soon but now it’s also being killed off by the recently elected Mayor Sue Finkham. The population of Carmel is over 100K which is large. There’s also much more mixed use development within its city center than before and that is why Carmel needs a Bus system. I want to advocate for transit in carmel, however I do not know anyone in my city which supports transit

[@TransitTangents]

Thanks for sharing your experience! We'll have to look more into the transit side. Maybe a topic for a future episode. Thanks for watching!

[@grahamturner2640]

Roundabouts don’t necessarily mean no traffic signals, though they only need them under special circumstances. The main use case for traffic signals in American roundabouts is for median transit lines. If there’s a tram line running through the middle, there’s often either a standard traffic light (for streetcars) or railroad gates (if it’s meant to be rapid transit). There are quite a few of those in the Phoenix area.

[@PickleJard]

I live VERY close to Carmel (Keystone Parkway is part of my daily drive lmao) and it used to be HELL. Keystone and 31 used to just be pure stoplights and it took me a half hour to get through Carmel (or more). Now? 10 minutes tops. The parkways and roundabouts have dispersed traffic and just made it so nice to drive through. Loved the video!

[@Lone_Star_LiamLounge]

I prefer the use of roundabouts not only for the safety but also for the aesthetics of the area. As a former Paramedic-EMT, the majority of vehicular accidents I encountered resulted from some sort of left turn aspect. I do have some concerns with pedestrian crossings but most can be mitigated with proper design.

[@TransitTangents]

Thanks for sharing your experience as a paramedic! I agree on crossings, especially on poorly designed roundabouts, but it is something that can be worked on for sure. Thanks for watching! -Louis

[@ianchissy]

I think that you can really supercharge a roundabout by adding cheap flashing pedestrian lights- they don’t require a power grid tie-in, as there’s many solar options available now, and it makes a very formal visual “I’m crossing now” statement to oncoming drivers. Roundabouts have a yield to pedestrians that drivers often fail to follow, so making that more explicit is a good idea to enforce legal driving behaviour.

[@bahnspotterEU]

5:04 Fun fact about Gdansk: The city is incredibly divided in terms of development patterns. While the older parts are nice and walkable (or even pedestrianised), newer suburban developments are very American in nature, with fast and wide roads, housing subdivisions, totally oversized intersections with lots of empty wasted space, madly long walking routes and sparse, centralised businesses most convenient for car drivers. I was on vacation there most recently in 2023 and really made an effort to see as much of the city as I could, and it was quite startling to see these huge contrasts.

[@scpatl4now]

I don't know why people have trouble with roundabouts. It's pretty easy. All traffic yields to traffic in the roundabout. I think people confuse roundabouts with traffic circles (think DuPont Circle in DC) which can be very intimidating when you are unfamiliar.

[@TransitTangents]

Agreed! But people love to complain about change 😅 Once they use them they start to like the changes though! Thanks for watching!

[@ianchissy]

I think that you can really supercharge a roundabout by adding cheap flashing pedestrian lights- they don’t require a power grid tie-in, as there’s many solar options available now, and it makes a very formal visual “I’m crossing now” statement to oncoming drivers. Roundabouts have a yield to pedestrians that drivers often fail to follow, so making that more explicit is a good idea to enforce legal driving behaviour.

[@physh]

Thumbnail typo :D

[@triaxe-mmb]

Everytime i drive or ride around my city and the adjacent ones (Tri-Valley Region in the SF Bay Area), i complain to myself abotu how they have too many 4way stops and signalized intersections when a roundabout woudl work better. Someone should start lobbying the cities around here, lol

[@hobog]

Too many new roundabouts in the USA have roads join tangentially and are too big, encouraging unsafe fast traversal. There are also too many with slip lanes. Slip lanes undermine roundabouts for the same reason and for adding conflict points. See Jersey City and Hoboken for great minimal roundabouts Edit: the tangential joins are fine for highways but I've seen them too much in residential/suburb areas with many bikes and pedestrians

[@hobog]

Carmel is great but a car is needed to get anywhere outside Carmel