Work, life and other detours [II]

As with most traffic issues, people are simply driving too fast. At least that is my observation in a country where roundabouts are uncommon. Just because proper stop signs or traffic lights are absent does not mean that one must not slow down and yield. Easier said than done; we cannot control other’s actions.

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Yes. As I always tell my wife, “Everyone is trying to go faster than everyone else.”

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Also, I do not know about you but curved or perfectly straight roads tend to be where drivers speed up the most due to the thrill.

Reminds me of an Air Force trip I took to Boston. Had never been there, asked one of my office-mates about what to expect driving around. He said, ‘all you have to do is look straight ahead, even when lane-changing. If others believe you don’t know where they are, they’ll avoid you; if you give up that pretense by looking where you’re going, they’ll rush to fill that space just to show you.’ What the hell… ??

Actually, it worked rather well.

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In my part of the US, roundabouts are fairly rare although small circles are seeing a slight resurgence in quasi-residential areas. I think in some cases it’s for mostly aesthetic, not functional, reasons. But in other places they definitely are an improvement.

The sister city to where I live (across a major river) has a large “circle” that’s actually mostly square:

There’s no scale on the image, but you can visually compare it to highway width and typical commercial building sizes. On this one, I personally never venture from the outside lane, regardless of where I’m exiting. There’s just no sense in getting on the inside lane, since the outside lane goes both ways. Unfortunately, the overhead signage does little to help, for example:

Truth is, all three options (including that on the small I-49 sign at lower left) are safely available from the right hand lane. Staying there – as long as traffic volume allows, which is 99.9999% of the time – is a much safer option than unnecessarily crossing lanes of traffic.

But for many local drivers this is all completely mystifying…

Oh yeah… there’s been a significant desire locally – for decades – to totally get rid of this “traffic circle” and replace it with an actual over / under interchange. But unfortunately the land in the middle was officially declared a “wetland”, so now it can’t be touched. *sigh*

<soapbox_mode=OFF>

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They are likely trying to preserve that green space. Otherwise, they would have changed the drainage patterns or eliminated it altogether. None of my business, but I wished there was a bridge and wetland platforms for people to explore and enjoy. Maybe there is one that I cannot see it from the image.

Oohhh, je-da vu… :crazy_face:

The first traffic circle I ever encountered. Dad drove a travel trailer through it, on the way to some weekend campout, probably Chicot SP or Lake Cotile. US 167 to Opelousas was on the way to Lafayette, and home.

Well done and my congratulations :sunglasses: wishing you much joy with your increased DOF :muscle::grin::+1:

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Congrats! Also, good to see someone of my age on the forum :laughing:
Quite a few people here could be my grandfathers even…

I have actually never thought of what’s the proper way of doing it in Slovakia. Here, multi-lane roundabouts are a little uncommon and sometimes the lane choice naturally leads you to a specific exit.

If the roundabout has multiple lanes, here it’s usually about staying in the right lane to be able to exit when you need to, since people don’t tend to use the inside lane too much anyway. And also, I know roundabouts where using the inside lane carries a risk of struggling to get back and exit :sweat_smile:

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I need to remember this if I ever visit Slovakia :smiley: Doing it portuguese style would be an instant crash, and vice versa if you ever came to Portugal

Here if roundabouts have multiple lanes, the roads after the exit have multiple lanes as well. I guess it depends per roundabout. It’s often the case that a lane choice gives you 1 or 2 exit choices.

The roundabout that you’ve shown with 2 lanes, but only 1 lane (per direction) road is probably really rare here

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Famously at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris - legend has it that once you get into an inside lane (there are 4 or so lanes) you never get out.

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Back on the first word of the thread title - today was my first day back at work (only a half-day) after my stroke on 5 March. I got through the time, but it was taxing - I am keeping a fatigue journal at the recommendation of my Occupational Therapist. Another 4-hour day tomorrow, then I have until Monday to recover.

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Same here, 6 lanes, although this one does behave a bit like an intersection and has traffic lights. I hope I never have the need to use it :smiley:

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That reminds me of that one roundabout in Swindon :laughing:

It’s basically a roundabout made of 5 smaller roundabouts going in the opposite direction. It seems okay, as in the worst case you might just go along the outer edge :sweat_smile:

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I’m browsing some less knobbly 20"x4.0" tyres for my ebike. Some are coming in at £50 to £70 a tyre! That’s not far off actual car tyre prices.

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I think 29" top spec tires for competitive MTB riding cost that much, but I would not expect 20" for an e-bike to be that price

Overall, mountain bikes can easily be as expensive as a motorcycle with a decent engine (around 400cc), so this is not a big surprise after all.

There is less of a market in 20" fat tyres, so fewer manufacturers making them?

Yeah, 20"x4.0" is quite rare, so could be. On one of Slovakia’s biggest biking e-shops I could not find one such tire.

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I see the CST Big Fat Tyre C1752 20"x4" for around 22EUR in a local webshop, and that’s about the only thing in this size. And it is quite knobbly — I think all fatbike tires are made like that.

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