Traffic Circles, Roundabouts, and Fuel Economey
Sunday, April 16, 2006
In the last year a roundabout was built at the intersection of Stafford and Rosemont, sort of between Lake Oswego and West Linn. (Map not updated.)
Prior to this construction, Rosemont traffic was forced to stop while Stafford trafic had right-of-way, though would often stop while waiting for the left-hand turn onto Rosemont. (Atherton, the on the other side of Stafford from Rosemont, didn't see a significant amount of traffic.) Now, all traffic entering the circle must yield to those in the circle, which is designed for traffic moving at about 25 mph.
This is brilliant!
Cars use the most fuel getting up to speed. Every intersection where, in anything but heavy traffic, cars aren't required to stop at all is an intersection that raises fuel economy, thereby making life better for all sorts of reasons. We (as a society) ought to really dump some money and time into studying ways to make people have to stop less in our day-to-day driving; there would be benefit to all of us.
(I'd also like to plug the usage of small roundabouts to slow down traffic rather than speed bumps. Speed bumps were created by Satan himself to ruin suspensions; roundabouts can actually be fun!!!)
Prior to this construction, Rosemont traffic was forced to stop while Stafford trafic had right-of-way, though would often stop while waiting for the left-hand turn onto Rosemont. (Atherton, the on the other side of Stafford from Rosemont, didn't see a significant amount of traffic.) Now, all traffic entering the circle must yield to those in the circle, which is designed for traffic moving at about 25 mph.
This is brilliant!
Cars use the most fuel getting up to speed. Every intersection where, in anything but heavy traffic, cars aren't required to stop at all is an intersection that raises fuel economy, thereby making life better for all sorts of reasons. We (as a society) ought to really dump some money and time into studying ways to make people have to stop less in our day-to-day driving; there would be benefit to all of us.
(I'd also like to plug the usage of small roundabouts to slow down traffic rather than speed bumps. Speed bumps were created by Satan himself to ruin suspensions; roundabouts can actually be fun!!!)
posted by Burton at 3:11 PM
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