this post was submitted on 20 Oct 2025
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As a pedestrian i HATE roundabouts. No lights, no stop signs, i just have to hope that maybe a car will see me and stop
Obligatory
I know this hasn't been studied but I'd love to know if it's effective.
I think people in cars would tend to accelerate away from a brick-waving pedestrian, rather than stop. Would be an interesting study, though!
There is a cool roundabout near me with stop lights that all turn red at the same time, stopping all vehicle traffic and letting pedestrians go.
I've heard that traffic circles (i.e. the circular intersections with traffic lights) are extremely dangerous, and that that's part of why roundabouts have faced so many difficulties entering the US (because the US had traffic circles in the early 20th century and the cultural perception is that circle = dangerous).
This is a different thing. It's still a roundabout with roundabout rules. It's just sometimes illegal for anyone to enter
Oh, yeah, that's good, then. I'd still prefer either pedestrian bridges or car tunnels, so that people could walk across any time and not have to worry about distracted drivers, but that existing solution seems cheaper and still decent.
I think they mean it's normal roundabout rules until a signal is given that means "no entry." It's not a controlled entry typically until a pedestrian hits a button and it's only "stop" at all entrances.
Yes, they clarified that that is indeed what they meant. It isn't as good a solution as bridges or tunnels IMO, but I imagine it's far cheaper and it's certainly better than traffic circles.
I would like to add, that a roundabout where people who are trying to exit have to stop for pedestrians, make a very unsafe roundabout.
Sure, people entering should stop, but if cars exiting have to stop, it makes too many points of failure. Cars exiting already have to watch for bikes over their shoulder, while also looking ahead to make sure the car in front of them isn't stoppinh for some other reason. If they also have to look for pedestrians crossing, their attention will simply be too divided in too many different directions.
Instead a pedestrian crossing needs to let cars exit, and cars entering need to give plenty room for pedestrians to cross.
This is very possible to make intuitive and easy through design, that puts to crosswalk about a cars length away from the entrence to the roundabout. That way, cars about to enter can focus on other bad driver incapable of signaling, and cars waiting in line can focus on pedestrians.
Unfortunately I have only seen about a handful roundabouts designed that way in my life here in Europe, but they make everything much better for pedestrians and cyclists.
It sounds like you have only found badly designed roundabouts to be honest. Not Just Bikes probably has a video dedicated on how a good one should look like, including priority signaling when appropriate
I actually love them. Roundabouts have zebra paths on the lanes just before the roundabout themselves.
Painted lines?
What do you mean? They are zebra pathes, yes.
I think they had written something to the effect of where they live, zebra stripes ensure that drivers give way to pedestrians. But that might have been a rhetorical mistake on their part because I see they've edited the comment since then to say that pedestrians can only cross at zebra stripes.
As a pedestrian I hate them because they prevent crossing the road anywhere but those zebra paths at the roundabout. In my city there are multiple roundabouts on a road with about a ten minute walk between them. Crossing that road is essentially impossible except at the roundabouts because the traffic flow never stops. It’s like trying to cross a freeway!
Same. They're wonderful for auto throughput and auto safety, that's about it. They don't save much if any space over traditional intersections (Really their space and shape requirements make them fairly prohibitive in any place that isn't already dominated exclusively by motor infrastructure), they create a lot more travel distance for pedestrians and cyclists who have to go around the outside, and they generally don't have any signals for cars to stop for pedestrians and cyclists crossing as they make their way around that long orbit. They're about as effective a solution to our car-centric society as the electric car.
And when there are lights it takes so long to pass through them because you have to take a huge detour around the cars and wait at multiple lights.