So, Uh, How Did They Do It, Dagwood?

After you think on it a bit the oh-yeah moment comes.  That's only if you compulsively-analyze things rather than just dig the coolness of it, tho.

The extra coolness is the setting of the traffic circle (i.e. roundabout).  From the names on the street sign, it looks like this may be Netherlands but that's just a guess.  One thing I know is these traffic circles are everywhere in Europe and they make intersections between roads so much safer.

(Ed:  why?)

One car doesn't cross the path of another in any traffic circle.  For motorcycles, this is enormous because it's one of the biggest killers; you are absolutely vulnerable when your motorcycle is stopped at a light.  The worst that can happen in a traffic circle is getting side-swiped but that usually doesn't result in dead people unless at least one of the parties was driving ridiculously fast.

A subtle benefit to the human psyche is drivers usually don't have to stop for a traffic circle.  You may have to slow down and thanks for that because I don't want the side of the car crashed in because someone came out of a side-street.  Yes, that has happened in my life.

Humans really, really don't like it when we have to stop at a red light.  We start getting fidgety even before the car stops moving.  Traffic circles prevent almost all of that.


Yah, sure I sound like a missionary but think what an immense amount of money which would be saved even if only through prevention of cars sitting about idling while they wait for lights to change.  That may seem like a tiny thing but multiply it by one hundred million cars.  That's a wild number but there are three hundred million or so people and many of them drive.

We aren't even going to try to do the math but a determined soul could use average fuel consumption for cars, average wait times for lights, etc, etc and probably come up with a completely ridiculous number in estimation of how much fuel is used this way.  We're content to theorize it is a lot.

Plus you get cool modern art 'sculptures' in the middle of them where they're not likely ever get to get smashed by someone crashing into them.


Hmm ... quick Google to try to discover relative safety of traffic circles ...

Roundabout - WIKI

Roundabout or traffic circle ... they are called many things ... and they are also definitely safety.  WIKI quotes a Washington state highway report and multiple documents are available online.  They really are safer just as I had suggested above.

It's not only the safety, tho.  That disruption of the human spirit by stopping, I submit, is a subtle influence on everyone who has to do it.  Many things are interrupted, most of all your driving.  Roundabouts require your attention to your driving whereas traffic lights do not and that stop/start type of thinking is probably just as dangerous as those inherent in the traffic crossing the intersection.