00804653

Component

https://doi.org/10.3141/1737-12

http://scholar.google.com...ezol&publication_year=2000

First appearing in the French highway code in 1983, roundabouts have multiplied greatly throughout France, to the currently estimated 17,000. The success of roundabouts is explained, first, by the ideal safety conditions that this type of intersection presents and, second, by the advantages roundabouts provide in speed reduction, suitability to traffic, and break effect. The growth of roundabouts in recent years has allowed better understanding of this type of layout and has enabled all uses to be tested. The rules for designing and sizing have developed to favor the construction of roundabouts that are smaller and thus easier to fit into the urban environment. Vulnerable users (pedestrians and cyclists) are catered to better. New configurations are appearing that combine traffic lights and roundabouts, and these should be investigated in depth. Furthermore, it appears that the roundabout is subject to fashion and that many changes are planned to the roundabout--forgetting that it is not always the best solution. Also, it is important to remind designers and architects of the conditions under which the roundabout actually is an adequate solution for the site in question.

This paper appears in Transportation Research Record No. 1737, Geometric Design and Effects on Traffic Operations 2000.

English

p. 92-97

2000

Transportation Research Record

0309067405

Figures (4) ; Photos (5) ; References (4) ; Tables (1)

Cyclists; Highway design; Highway safety; History; Layout; Pedestrians; Roundabouts; State of the art; Traffic signals; Urban areas

France

Design; Highways; History; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Planning and Forecasting; I21: Planning of Transport Infrastructure

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Jan 11 2001 12:00AM

• ACCELERATION CHARACTERISTICS OF STARTING VEHICLES
• ANALYZING INFLUENCE OF GEOMETRIC DESIGN ON OPERATING SPEEDS ALONG LOW-SPEED URBAN STREETS: MIXED-MODEL APPROACH
• BENEFITS OF SPLIT INTERSECTIONS
• EFFECTS OF HORIZONTAL CURVATURE ON DRIVER VISUAL DEMAND
• EFFECTS OF RIGHT-TURN LANES ON DRIVEWAY SIGHT DISTANCE
• EVALUATING HORIZONTAL ALIGNMENT DESIGN CONSISTENCY OF TWO-LANE RURAL HIGHWAYS: DEVELOPMENT OF NEW PROCEDURE
• KINEMATIC APPROACH TO HORIZONTAL CURVE TRANSITION DESIGN
• PREDICTING OPERATING SPEEDS ON TANGENT SECTIONS OF TWO-LANE RURAL HIGHWAYS
• SPEED-PROFILE MODEL FOR TWO-LANE RURAL HIGHWAYS
• TURN LANE STORAGE LENGTH DESIGN: THEORY FOR THE PRACTITIONER
• UTILIZATION OF AUXILIARY THROUGH LANES AT INTERSECTIONS OF FOUR-LANE, TWO-WAY ROADWAYS