So does anyone else here think these round a bouts on hiways and ramps are a complete waste of time and money?? all the concert they use in these is crazy too–and semi driver must just love em too!! I drive dump truck and have hard enough time–I can only wonder of much truckers like em—not to even mention snow plowing em must be fun too!! just my 2 cents worth!!
Got that right!!! What a waste of time and money, and a compromise of safety.
I personally don’t care for them either but the Wisconsin D.O.T. did a survey on these and they said to keep the flow of heavy traffic moving a stoplight was rated at a 2 and a roundabout was a 7.That’s why we spend our tax dollars here building them 
But they are all over Europe, and everything Europe does and makes is great ya know. Hate em’ too, 3 or so in Waconia. I thought MN standoff were bad enough at 4 ways where noone will go. I see them causing more accidents in the future. 
the @*&%#$ that thought we needed them. -Mark
I work in the traffic industry. I hate these as well. Stastically they are safer, only fender benders, not serious injury or fatalitys
Take a bit of getting used to. I see alot of accidents people not knowing how to use them. Never had that in drivers ed.
They suck. They may be safer, but it is because no one knows what #$%* to do when they enter one. I’ve seen too many people blow right thru them when they are to yield and others that lurch to a stop staring at the yield sign.
I’ll be the first here to say I like them. Why? No specific reason other than I get to keep moving and it is hard to get T Boned at one. Personally I do not see where the complication or confusion comes from. And when it is a slow traffic day I get a kick out of making two or three rounds on it before going on my way, lol. 
My first experience on a roundy was in Chicago in the early 90’s. The thing had 5 streets coming to it and was 4 lanes wide. It was not uncommon to have to make 2-3 revolutions to get into the lane you needed to be in. At the time I was driving a custom 4 door F350 with a 25′ tandem axle trailer. Not the easiest thing to move around in with heavy traffic. The roundy didn’t help nor hurt in that vehicle but, again, I got to keep moving.
Once I got used to them, I like them. They are also suppose to save on gas by not having to stop, idle and start. I could see how drivers with long vehicles could have a problem. I did pull my boat through one with no problem.
They don’t bother me, my first exposure with them was in 1977. They were called traffic circles at the time. Actually there were a couple of them on Ward Parkway when I was a kid I forgot about but I was not driving at the time but my mother did not complain about them. I lived in New Jersey and Philly in 1990 and they have them all over the place. Like what was said two things that are nice about them (1) You don’t have to stop normally (2) The chances of a serious T-bone accident are greatly reduced.
Another traffic configuration that I liked when I lived in New Jersey was what they called a round about. You see they did not have left turns at major intersections, if you needed to go to the left (example if you are headed south and you need to go east at the next intersection) you would drive through the intersection in the right lane and there would be a “round about” or a loop that you would turn right on and it would loop you around so you would be headed east.
For the amount of traffic they have back east you really are able to go from point A to point B at a fairly good pace. I think I’ll go on record and say that I do like them… 
My first exposure to them was a two lane roundabout in DePere. I went around that thing three times before I knew what to do. Confusing as heck.
At first I did not like the idea at all but they installed a couple in cottage grove coming off hwy 61 & Jamaica which I thought was a totally stupid idea. I was wrong, they work great, never a back up. With the old stop signs the traffic would back up on the ramp and you could not see this coming off the highway until it was almost too late, saw some really close calls of people almost rear ending the stopped cars at high speed. Round abouts solved this problem-put me down as a convert
Many people are 
Some are & 
Others are 
or 
Yet some are 
Anyways since I work for a Consulting Engineering Firm as a Design Technician with 30+ yrs exp. and have worked with guys designing them and did a few myself I have to say I generally like them when they are designed with plenty of room and done right.
However, there are a few that really should be changed either by enlarging or modifing the entrance and exit area that would guide people without giving them a choice, then the vast majority would not question where they are going or what they are supposed to do.
I will say my least favorite is located on State Highway 13 at County Road 2 between Prior Lake and New Prague. A 20mile Design posted on a 55mph Highway in the middle of Corn Fields. Very small and tightly fit into this location where when I have driven this road people are cruizing 65+.
I have driven the one in Richfield on Portland that is a 2-lane roundabout and it works just fine, they did a great job.
They Save money in a few ways:
1) You rarely have to come to a complete stop thereby saving you fuel dollars.
2) No Traffic Signals to pay for and maintain.
3) No Electric Bill for the Traffic Lights although that may be a wash with the fact there is usually extra street lights.
4) Few Serious Injuries requiring expensive Hospital and Medical treatment or a funeral.
I will say I believe they are here to Stay and more and more will be popping up all over the State of MN and surrounding States. See the Mn/DOT link: http://www.dot.state.mn.us/roundabouts/index.html
The biggest problem I see is too many people are preoccupied with other things while drivng: Eating, Drinking, Texting, cell phone calls, feeding the baby a bottle in the back seat while driving 65 up 35W from Mpls to Roseville (Yes, I watched a guy doing this), arguing with others in the car or just plain using your hands to describe the battle with that unseen personal best fish you missed today, being in a hurry, thinking we all own the road (which, Yes, we do) but we need to take it a little more seriously.
Roundabouts or traffic circles, whatever you want to call them take just a wince bit more concentration, but enjoy the fact you are not stuck at a traffic light for 2-3 minutes.
Sorry for the soapbox 
, so now let’s go fishing.
Oh, wait, I’m going hunting at a game farm saturday, ahha, though, I will be in the boat Sunday (Lake tbd).
Hate em and like em,
I live near the Richfield one on 17th, oh sorry ‘Richfield Parkway” as it is now known. I get to go thru this one at least twice a day, the Portland one is also one I go thru regularly. By living near the round about I mean I can hear the horns and squealing brakes and yes, the occasional crunch while in my house.
It is not the round about itself, the design is fine and they should work fine. The problem is the other drivers. In 20 years of driving I have never had so many near misses as I have in the year or two the new roundabouts have been operating near my home. Biggest issue is people do not know what “yield” means. My FIRST trip through the thing and a woman pulling out of the Target shopping center drives straight past the yield sign with no look to the left and crosses right in front of me causing me to have to stand on the brakes, I hit the horn and she flips me off like I did something wrong! I was so far into the thing I was almost exiting and she entered right in front of me!
Similar occurances happen almost weekly, what I like least about them is worrying that the person coming to the entrance will enter the circle and t-bone me or trying to zip in and I have no time to avoid hitting them. I never paid much thought to being broadsided in regular intersections. I hear all about the severity of the accidents is reduced, less injuries, yadda yadda yadda. That will be of little consolation to me as my insurance rates go up because some yahoo failed to yield and creamed my truck and I have to file a claim.
I do love that traffic does keep moving, I spend little to no time waiting to entera and get thru fast, I do like that, along with teaching pass on the left, slower traffic keep right better in drivers ed. they should spend alot more time explaining what yield means and how to properly navigate a roundabout.
Want some laughs? Stop over at my place during a nice summer day, we will grab a couple lawn chairs, crack open something cold and watch the mayhem unfold across the street in that roundabout.
They are dumb, especially when they replace lights that already exist. The last time I went through the one on Portland I was going east and was going to exit onto Portland going north to Crosstown. I was on the inside lane of the circle and got cutoff half way around by someone on the inside lane coming from the east side and then as I exited the lady on his other side about side swiped me. Now that I think about it, are you supposed to exit from the inside lane or what? Because if someone was on the outside of me I certainly could not have exited if he was going all the way around. And how many times have you seen people driving on the inside curb like it was a lane?
Thank you Minnesota for saving me $20 in gas every year because I don’t have to idle. Half the time I do have to come to a stop anyway. Sometimes when there is only one other car in there and if it were a light, most likely I would have had a green one anyway, thus I would not have had to even decelerate. And when it is busy, 9/10 times I have to stop and idle anyway. Not to mention they have to take up twice the room a normal intersection does.
Makes me wonder if engineers do these things because they are bored and/or need to look busy.
The ones on 95(?) by the Croix were a nice surprise when I went to Afton to meet up for sturgeon fishing. What a joke.
In Australia they are everywhere and work great but they take some getting use to. All it takes is one person not familar with them and they slow down everyone. If you get in an area where everyone is comfortable with them I promise you the traffic will flow much smoother and faster than a four way stop. The trick to them is never stop, tap the brakes and slide in behind the car coming around. I like them now but there was definitley a learning curve.
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The ones on 95(?) by the Croix were a nice surprise when I went to Afton to meet up for sturgeon fishing. What a joke.
Tell me about it! Twice a day I grumble going around them.
What I find even more frustrating is that there was over whelming opposition to these during the planning phase.
They were shoved down our throats.
I dont mind them at busy intersections. Way faster going through than a 4-way stop if there are vehicles ahead of you AND you dont get intersection fatalities from people blowing stop signs.
I can see where these challenge most Minnesotans. 
I see very few people in this state that know how read “YIELD” signs, merge into flowing traffic or that slower traffic should move to the right lane. 
I drive through the two in Richfield on 66th Street every week day. I think they are a riot!! Driving requires a bit of gamesmanship….roundabouts add a little extra something to the trip. There’s a certain percentage of drivers that just aren’t ‘with it’. That can lead to serious consequences. I prefer to encounter those drivers in a roundabout versus a standard intersection. Just my 2 cents worth!
Here in Princeton they found BOTH bridges needed replacing. These bridges are less then 100 yards apart. One is running East to West and is on Hwy 95. The other runs North to South and is on Rum River Drive, the main drag through Princeton. Next spring they both come down at the same time. I cross both bridges getting to my office each day. It should add about 20 minutes drive time each way to my day. My guess is it will take all summer and into fall before they have them both done.
Now,during this time at the intersection of Hwy 95 and Rum River Drive they are putting in a round-about.
My guess knowing the state, the round-about will be to small to handle the large number of semi trucks that pass on Hwy. 95 each day. 
But, oh well, by the time the bridges get done I’ll be happy with anything that will get me into downtown faster.
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The ones on 95(?) by the Croix were a nice surprise when I went to Afton to meet up for sturgeon fishing. What a joke.
I should add that there weren’t any stop lights or four ways on this stretch prior.
Mark me down as one that doesn’t care for them. I think it is another one of the government sponsored programs to stimulate the economy.
Lets hire all these engineering firms to design them and then spend lots of $$$ to replace an intersection that didn’t appear to have any issues (already had the stop lights etc). And we really wonder why the DOT’s like them? More hours, more work, more people, yeee hahhh..
WE have two of them back to back going into New Prague, they are plopping them in alot of places out there now. I like them now that I have gotten use to them, way better than a stop sing and ya dont have to pay to keep those lights going or replacement, guaranteed by the time maintenance is necessary electricity would have already ate that chunk of change. I will agree if they are not spread out enough they are a pain in the [censored] for truckers.
The idea seems to work, unfortnately only a small portion of the drivers out there know how to use them….er….come to think of it, only a small portion of the drivers out there know how to drive too…
But ya, I think it was some idiots brain fart to make us all more european…or some such nonsense.
Al
“I will say my least favorite is located on State Highway 13 at County Road 2 between Prior Lake and New Prague. A 20mile Design posted on a 55mph Highway in the middle of Corn Fields. Very small and tightly fit into this location where when I have driven this road people are cruizing 65+.”
Experienced that one and it’s bad. Got a worse one though. CTY 120 on the North end of St Cloud. Three circles in less than a mile, all to accomadate a new super Wal-Mart/Sams mess. I cannot wait to navigate those skinny circles with a 20′ boat beind a Ext cab long box when there is a good sale going on….
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“Experienced that one and it’s bad. Got a worse one though. CTY 120 on the North end of St Cloud. Three circles in less than a mile, all to accomadate a new super Wal-Mart/Sams mess. I cannot wait to navigate those skinny circles with a 20′ boat beind a Ext cab long box when there is a good sale going on….
Yup, know the area and it stinks. I worked up there a few years ago and know some of the Engineers and City staff. Seems like they always try to put 10# of #@%#$#^$@ in a 5# can on the City and County Projects.
As I recall not a lot of good alternate routes either?
Good Luck
Love them!
Saves lives at high speed intersections, specifically the two on Highway 7 at 10 and 25. Removes that high speed collison, the T-bone.
If people could drive better they would not be required, but many have nailed it here, specifically Kooty and his comment about disregard for yield signs. Folks, I’m an outsider and have met many transplants to MN and the concensus is that MN drivers struggle, some would say SUCK. Specifically with ramps (merging on highways) and yield signs (the lack of yielding).
It is amazing to hear folks that live in the small towns in the west metro gripe about roundabouts. It is the case of something different or foreign and their close mindedness to change.
The alternative is sitting at a light and I am not interested in that solution. Bridges and over passes are costly.
The big truck argument always comes up. On several occasions I have observed large trucks maneuvering the roundabouts and most times they never touch a curb. Simply not an issue on the Highway 7 roundabouts.
I ask please signal when you are leaving the roundabout, that helps others waiting to enter.
Sitting at a light isn’t a problem if you look ahead while driving, judging lights can save that stop, its the stop signs that would benefit imho
Each year at work we go though a driving course called the Smith System, had this course or others like it be required for each person when they renew their License I think things like T-bones could be cut down drastically.
The majority of Minn drivers indeed do not know how to drive, driving around all day in a service vehicle teaches one that pretty quickly.
Al
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Got that right!!! What a waste of time and money, and a compromise of safety.
Actually they’re much safer statistically and everything I’ve read on them points to the round about speeding up the flow of traffic too. They take some getting used to but other than the problems caused by people that don’t know how to navigate them the first couple times through… what’s not to like?
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