When I was driving in the UK several years ago I came to love the roundabouts. Once you get used to them they make a certain amount of sense. My first encounter with them was in Washington DC when I was a teenager with a pretty new driver’s license.

We have a one primary roundabout here in Houston. It’s circles the Mecom fountain down where Main and Montrose come together. It’s pretty standard as far as roundabouts go.

There’s a relatively new one on Washington & Westcott. It’s sort of ridiculous but I rarely have to drive that way.

Then there’s this travesty located in a residential area over near Gessner and I-10.

Benignus and Kingsride.

The sign is amusing.

The roundabout itself is an absolute joke. They’ve taken a very normal 4 way intersection and plopped an obstacle smack dab in the middle.

I think there is at least one more just down the road.

This is what happens when your homeowners association has one puff too many of the wacky tobacky and calls a super secret meeting to come up with new ways to irritate motorists.

Call it morning driving thru the sound and in and out the valley
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6 thoughts on “Call it morning driving thru the sound and in and out the valley

  • August 20, 2006 at 6:57 pm
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    Roundabouts are great when done properly. That’s not right, though… you shouldn’t have a stop sign. If there’s any sign at all, it should be a yield sign.

  • August 20, 2006 at 7:10 pm
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    the sign’s not amusing – it’s TERRIFYING!!

  • August 20, 2006 at 9:44 pm
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    The intent of the roundabout is to do away with the stop signs. You always yield to anyone on the left. Travesty indeed.

    They need to make the Studewood, Main, 20th, Cavalcade into a Roundabout, dozing all those corner properties while they can (they’re almost all vacant). The current 5-way light is ridiculous.

  • August 21, 2006 at 2:48 pm
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    There are ones like that all over Seattle. But they don’t have stop signs! It’s usually just a little cul-de-sac in the middle of a four way intersection. They make the traffic flow much better and safer. You are less likely to have a head on collision or a side impact from someone blowing the stop sign. Unless people are stupid and go flying into the round-about. That happened to a friend of mine after an evening of drinking.

  • August 21, 2006 at 6:33 pm
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    The mountains come out of the sky, and they stand there.

  • August 29, 2006 at 3:32 pm
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    I saw that very roundabout about 10 years ago and made pretty much the same comments as you. It’s a pig to get around.

    I saw a pickup ignore tthe warning signs and just make an immediate left.

    In the UK, an intersection of that size would have a mini roundabout.

    Now, you really need to see the Magic Roundabout.

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