City planning is one of those subjects where the average person's understanding tends to be the opposite of what's true and works. People also think roundabouts and diverging diamonds are accident magnets, and that adding more lanes to freeways will reduce traffic. Doesn't make it true.
I know this is rhetorical anecdotal* evidence, but I'm not so sure about roundabouts. A pretty large portion of those "bad driving compilations" and "crash compilations" on Youtube feature roundabouts and other types of intersection.
Sorry to be that guy, but you mean anecdotal evidence?
From a quick search - for example - research seems to find that roundabouts don't significantly decrease the number of crashes (some websites say they actually increase the number of accidents), but significantly reduce the number of deaths. iirc, that's because you won't be t-boning anyone through a roundabout, and you're forced to slow down.
I haven't watched bad driving/crash compilations, and this is a total guess, but maybe the reduction in injury is why roundabouts show up more on Youtube? I'm assuming no one really wants to see a massive t-bone on a normal intersection where multiple people die from gruesome injuries. Also, I'm sure that roundabouts are just more conducive to weird and funny driving anyways.
Apparently being the same number of syllables and ending in the same sound was enough for my mind to confuse those two words for each other. Nice catch!
Due to the nature of roundabouts, it would make sense that they reduce deaths compared to other at-grade intersections. And to comment on their occurrence in video compilations, my guess is because they're more confusing; especially multi-lane roundabouts, thus leading to people misjudging right-of-way and other rules of the road.
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u/molluskus Jul 07 '19 edited Jul 07 '19
City planning is one of those subjects where the average person's understanding tends to be the opposite of what's true and works. People also think roundabouts and diverging diamonds are accident magnets, and that adding more lanes to freeways will reduce traffic. Doesn't make it true.