Nope. Traffic lights create high traffic areas, by unnecessarily delaying cross traffic.
Near my parents house, there is a 6-way intersection. When I was growing up, it was served by traffic lights, with straight and left-turn lanes in all directions. Traffic was backed up all day long in 3 of the 6 directions, to the point that pretty much everyone waited through at least two turns.
A few years after I left home, they converted it to a two-lane roundabout. Traffic immediately died down. Now, you typically see one to two other vehicles when you pass through the intersection, and you never wait more than a few seconds to get through.
Roundabouts are used in area of moderate to high traffic where multiple roads meet and places where continuous flow is needed. Like motorway junctions. The junction near me is very high traffic, and we use a roundabout with traffic lights too. They can be less effective if the flow of traffic is heavy in one direction but not the other.
Traffic lights are used in busy urban areas where there are a lot of pedestrians or places with uneven traffic distribution. These can cause issues of slowing traffic in quieter times due to lights not really being smart and knowing when people are there.
I know this is memes but as a Brit, I’ll never understand how people are scared of, don’t understand, or don’t see that roundabouts are superior.
It takes a few goes in them during driving lessons and they get easier.
They’re good in low traffic areas. They’re way better than a 4 way stop, but in high traffic areas traffic lights are better.
Edit: Apparently I was wrong about this.
Nope. Traffic lights create high traffic areas, by unnecessarily delaying cross traffic.
Near my parents house, there is a 6-way intersection. When I was growing up, it was served by traffic lights, with straight and left-turn lanes in all directions. Traffic was backed up all day long in 3 of the 6 directions, to the point that pretty much everyone waited through at least two turns.
A few years after I left home, they converted it to a two-lane roundabout. Traffic immediately died down. Now, you typically see one to two other vehicles when you pass through the intersection, and you never wait more than a few seconds to get through.
Absolutely not. And roundabouts have traffic lights too, these are not mutually exclusive.
Not necessarily.
Roundabouts are used in area of moderate to high traffic where multiple roads meet and places where continuous flow is needed. Like motorway junctions. The junction near me is very high traffic, and we use a roundabout with traffic lights too. They can be less effective if the flow of traffic is heavy in one direction but not the other.
Traffic lights are used in busy urban areas where there are a lot of pedestrians or places with uneven traffic distribution. These can cause issues of slowing traffic in quieter times due to lights not really being smart and knowing when people are there.