Have you ever seen or driven through one of these?
This is a brand new roundabout in our area.......at the intersection of V49 and Hwy. 281, between Dewar and Raymond, Iowa. I have never seen one before; I don't know if there are any other ones in Iowa, actually. I drove through it on Sunday, on my way to Waterloo. The roads have been closed since early summer for the construction.
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There are no stop signs. You yield and turn right and go around the circle to find your exit. This always was a rather dangerous intersection, so hopefully it will be safer now.
*In the center of the roundabout circle is a plant-filled, raised median.
I wonder who it was who first suggested, "Hey, let's build a roundabout here." I admire whoever it was for thinking a bit outside of the box!
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(Can anyone tell me why this published already........I set it to publish tomorrow morning at 5 a.m. What did I do wrong?)
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17 comments:
We have one of these by some soccer and baseball fields. Everyone seems to enjoy seeing how fast they can make the circle. It seems like a good idea for that area and saves a stop if no one's around. I enjoyed your post about your trip to Waverly, I like to go "along for the ride" to different places too. It's fun to not have to drive. I think poor #28 needs a cute name to go with those black eyes. "Black Eyed Betty" or something like that.
we have a new one in AUGUSTA its a trip thats for sure! in the middle of NO WHERE! as for scheduling a post I have to be careful to make sure I set the day and time correctly or it will post as it sees fit!
I am getting better at double checking.
I just stumbled upon your site because you like the movie Crimes & Misdemeanors, as do I.
You probably know that, in England, roundabouts are more common than traffic lights, even in towns. They work well. You can drive from one end of England to the other and rarely, if ever, get stopped at a traffic light.
You've got a great blog!
Neat! I didn't even know we had roundabouts in the good'ol USA.....We don't have anything like that around my neck of the desert. ( I just get to travel my 18 miles of gravel road out to the Hwy. then hit the two-lane road for another 12 miles to town. We do have three stop lights in town.) I had only heard about roundabouts over in Europe......thank you for the info and photos.
Looks nuts!
Do you live by Machester? That is where Courtney was born;)
Hi, Nancy,
That's interesting, about the roundabout in your area. Yeah, I hope kids don't decide to race around this one. I'm wondering how the semi drivers will like it....quite a few semis take this road from 3 to I-380.
Poor 28....here's the reason she has a number and not a name: she was born a twin to a bull calf, and for whatever reason, heifers like that usually will not "settle", that is conceive, later on. Thus, Husband denotes their "specialness" with a number tag. They usually end up being fattened with the steers.
I could tell her she's an agent like "99" on the old "Get Smart" show! But, your name suggestion of "Black-eyed Betty" is cute! Better than "Ugly Betty"!
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Hi, Laura,
Interesting....you have a roundabout in your area, too.
See....when I actually WANT to post something right now with the next day's date---like for SkyWatch---I don't know how to do that. So, I'm mystified as to how it did it today. Usually, it says its "scheduled" to post. Oh, well....no harm done.
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Hi, anonymous,
You're from England, perhaps! Thanks for stopping in! That would be great to not have stop signs to contend with. I knew there were roundabouts in England, but I didn't know they were that prevalent. Thanks for the info!
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Hi, deserthen,
Oh, my goodness.....18 mile of gravel roads before you hit a pavement!! Hard on tires, and the whole vehicle in general, isn't it! I drive one mile of gravel and then get on the paved road. That must sound like luxury to you! Our vehicles still get so dust-covered, though!
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adventure girl,
Hmm....you must not have any roundabouts in your area! Manchester is about an hour east of us. Thanks for stopping in!
Hello again! :) Roundabouts are great, even here in the countryside of Finland! :D
For some reason my URL never shows up in Blogger comments even if I choose Name + URL, so I add it here:
www.loneranger.vuodatus.net
We have three roundabouts here now and I have to say the smaller of the three is fine.But the other two have been a real problem because of heavy traffic congestion. The trucks practically tip over while trying to go around those things. It is insane. Plus one is in the direct path toward our new hospital...picture the ambulance problem here. It can be crazy at times.
They also started building these also in Finland. For long time we only had about to of them. But thet seem to work quite well, no need for traffic lights and cars can move more fluently.
Happy week and great job to see all the sky watchers:D
There is a round about in Whitesburg, GA. I get tickled at people who cannot understand what to do. You just yield to the car in the circle but so many wants to treat it like a four way stop.
There is one of those in the little town of Whitesburg Ga. I have to go through there when I visit my daughter. It really blew my husband's mind at first but I think he's used to it now. In fact, I think there is a picture of it on my blog somewhere.
I like this series of photos. The last one especially.
One of my favorite places in OC has a round-about. I will make a trip there to take a picture and post.
It's nice to see what's going on in Iowa. Our local coverage ended after the caucuses. You have some good photos there of your world. When Pierre L'Enfant laid out the design for Washington, DC in 1791, he included circles at several points. In fact the US Capitol is inside a circle. The design also included avenues running diagonally to the streets so some of the circles have traffic entering from 8 directions. Over the years traffic lights and "shortcuts" straight across the circles were added. Confusing? YES, very. Several years ago some areas started building roundabouts in residental neighborhoods as "traffic calming" improvements. Thanks for your comments on my Sky Watch.
Hi, Speedy,
Thank you, too, for visiting here from far away in Finland!! And, for your link!
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egghead,
Oh, dear.....sounds like roundabouts might not always be the best idea in certain places! I will be curious to hear how semi drivers like this one in our area.
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Hi, system operator,
Thank you, also, for dropping by from Finland! That is just so great to hear from folks far away!
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Hi, andrea,
Interesting! People will probably be confused around here, too, for awhile.
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Hi, dot,
You must be referring to the same roundabout that andrea mentioned! You two must live in the same area of GA!
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Hi, Suz,
So you have roundabouts in California, too! Yes, that would be interesting to see a picture of one from your area.
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Hi, lew,
Very interesting info about the layout of Washington, D.C. I wonder what L'Enfant and everyone else from his era would think of our modern modes of transportation! He'd probably say, "Why, oh, why did I design the D.C. streets that way??!!" Sounds like roundabouts have been a good solution in some cases there.
Hi, Mike!
Thanks for your comment.....I had to laugh, though, when I read that roundabouts are "pooping" up in NY and So. CA!!
"traffic calming" has a nice ring to it......like something that needs to happen in my mind now and then, too!
Whoops... well I guess it depends on your point of view. I like roundabouts, so for me it should have been popping.
Whoops... well I guess it depends on your point of view. I like roundabouts, so for me it should have been popping.
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