Sunday, December 20, 2009

Riverside Roundabouts II

Here, on the other hand, are two views (looking north, top, and south, bottom) of a horribly unsafe roundabout, from outside Sydney, Australia. Just think how you would navigate this if on foot or bike. If Riverside Development installs anything like this, it could create a pedestrian and bike-hostile barrier even worse than the current Grove Street bridge over I-95.

(On the lower view, that white car is about to enter an on-ramp to the Great Western Highway toward Sydney, an interstate similar to I-95. Southbound cars like that, in a hurry to get to the city, hardly need to slow down at all because the central island is so small and hardly represents an obstacle. The big trucks barrel northbound or southbound with little slowing.)

1 comment:

probiscus said...

Hey I think you just need to make sure that properly designed Modern Roundabouts are installed. Check out this link for examples. Modern roundabouts are much smaller and slower moving than the rotaries and traffic circles common in Massachusetts.

Despite the slower speeds, both one and two lane modern roundabouts can handle just as high a volume of traffic with less stop and go pollution than lights.

Not only that, but single lane roundabouts are inherently bike friendly and two lane roundabouts can be easily made bike friendly with a bypass, as you mentioned.