Does your city have traffic circles? Roundabouts?

I think there are more with five exits but don't know for sure.

They are increasingly using circles at (some) intersections in California to slow down traffic.

Nope. I've seen them but never driven one.

We've had them in Massachusetts for ever. They are less frequent in the SE and SW, in my experience. I think they most often have 4 exits, but I can think of at least one nearby with 5 exits. We have double rotaries (circles) too, like a figure-8. But those aren't to common.

It drives me crazy when people don't use them properly. They work so beautifully when everyone knows the rules and follows them, but they can be a nightmare when people are clueless.

Clueless!! ha ha
I love them, who likes sitting at lights. I had no idea most cities didn't have them, it surprised me to learn this. I had never really never paid attention to the circles before.

I had the same feeling when I found out that they were a little unusual.

The only one I've run across in the States is in Des Plaines, Illinois (NW suburb of Chicago).

We spent a week in Cyprus four years ago. The roundabouts there were bad enough, but our rental car had the steering wheel on the right side, and you drive on the left side. It was a little confusing for awhile.

Ceili-Traffic circles are pretty rare in the PNW. I don't know of any in Seattle or Portland. We have three in my little town because we have a daring city manager. These are right next to each other and have been the reason for many letters to the editor, most totally disgruntled. "What do I do?" "Why did you build these?" being the gist of most letters. I was pleased since I'd learned to love them in Spain.

Who knew there could be so many ways to screw up driving them? I actually saw one person go the wrong way! <snicker> One of ours is a five-way, which makes it even more complicated for the dimwits. After two years of use most people around here have got it figured out, but there are still some odd driving moments on that street.

Uh-oh, I just checked and the one I thought was a five-way is a six-way, sort of. Six roads connect, but one is an entry-only coming off the highway, and one is an exit-only ramp onto the highway. Can we count them as one? We don't have any double rotaries. Those do sound confusing. (How do those work?)

As lil' k said - they are all over the place here is Mass. I know of at least 3 that have 5 entry/exit points on them. Blah. I hate 'em.

The double rotary is hard to explain.

I saw some in england, just a painted dot in the middle of the road way. We have five or six of them, I wish they install more. I hate the grid system...

my city has hitchin' rails for the horses, roundabouts are at the end of town used for turning the stagecoaches around in the event of indian raids and holdups.

Yeah, I wish there were more, too. According to the traffic studies, it saves wear and tear on cars, and there's less pollution because there is less stop & go traffic, less idling. It is also supposed to make people slow down, as Ossobuco said.

Anyway, I hate sitting & waiting for a traffic light. Mr.P keeps telling me that it can be enjoyable if I make it so... "just look at all the weirdos going by, it's a great time for people-watching." That does make it a little bit better, but not much.

There has to be some sort of "break point" where this doesn't hold any more though. Around here most of then traffic circles are nightmares and actually hold up traffic flow more than lights would. I drive a backroad to work to avoid one circle because I've sat there for 10 minutes or more trying to get on in the mornings.

2 of MA's traffic circles made the "10 Most dangerous Traffic Intersections in the US" a year or two back. The one in Dedham MA averaged 6 accidents a day.

which was thwe other one? The one on rte 2 in Concord?

I'm with fishin' I don't like them, for two reasons. First in heavy traffic they slow things down, secondly many people either do not know or do not care how to drive in them. People often try to cut you off when you are attempting to enter one and on several occasions this has resulted in serious accidents (not me). There used to be one on Rt 1 in New Hampshire on the way to Maine years ago that was a nightmare.

Six accidents a day sounds like a lot of wear and tear on a vehicle.

The rotary on rte 2 (2-lane highway) in Concord is often a nightmare. The highway drivers feel they have the right of way because they are on the highway and don't yield to the rotary traffic. Also, the highway traffic, once on the rotary, makes it very difficult for the side-street traffic to get onto the rotary. Then again, the stop-lights on rte 2 are also a bit of a nightmare.

Dedham and the Sagamore bridge rotary (I think that's the name of it..) on the way down to the Cape.

Rte. 2 is a nightmare. That's the one I go out of my way to avoid on my morning commute. (it's also one that has 5 entry/exit ramps )

The thinking that went into the design of Rt 2 has always been a bit of a puzzle to me, if thinking is what it can be called.